Port Forwarding (Optional)

    Before we start i must point out that this procedure needs to be done only when your router's port is not opened for utorrent. Also, you need to know some basic stuff about your router like it's brand name (e.g. Siemens), model (e.g. SL2-141), it's Default Gateway (e.g. 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.2.1 or 192.168.1.254, but if it isn't one of those, to find it out, press the Start Button and where the search box is, type cmd and a black window will pop up. Then type ipconfig in it and hit ENTER. What you need to remember from here is the Default Gateway) and finally the Username and Password of the Default Gateway page where in most cases is like Username---> admin    Password---> admin   or    Username---> Administrator    Password---> (Empty). To enter the Default Gateway page and find what's yours, type the Default Gateway url in your web browser (e.g. 192.168.1.1 without the http://www.    in the beginning) and the page should look a little like this : 

 and in the middle there will be a window asking you for Username and Password like this one :

     Now if you haven't found the Username and Password go and search in your router's manuals or type in google your router's model name Default Gateway. Now that you've found them go to http://portforward.com and select your router's brand and model from here :

     On the next screen, scroll all the way down to the letter U and select the program Utorrent like this :

Then, another screen will appear and you need to follow step by step it's instructions:

    Don't forget to enter this page http://portforward.com/networking/staticip.htm to setup a static IP address which is necessary and then follow all the other instructions on the page. In the end, you will have to enter your router's site to open(forward) the port and then use it in Utorrent. If you have any questions or problems please leave a comment so i can help you out.






Any questions, comments or suggestions are all welcome :-)

Setting up Utorrent (Part III)

    The last thing we want to see, is if there's a port opened in our router for incoming data, where in this case is the files we are downloading. If the port that utorrent is using is closed, we will still download the files we want from the torrents, but there will be a significant decrease in downloading speed. I got 90 kb/s when my port was closed and around 875 kb/s when it was opened so it makes a huge difference. Utorrent has some features (named UPnP and another named NAT-PMP port mappings)that can open the port by itself and also configure your firewall so it does not slow you down(we checked all these options previously in Setting up Utorrent Part II). To check if a port is opened for utorrent, open utorrent, then press the tab Options and choose the 4th option which is Setup Guide Ctrl + G. Then this window will pop up :

     From here we need the first option, Bandwidth, to be unchecked (and never use it cause it will ruin many of the settings we did before, giving them the default values). The second though, Network, needs to be checked, as well as Automatic Port Mapping to see if the port in Current Port box (here 40921) is opened. Then hit Run tests and wait approximately 10 seconds and if a green tick sign appears, then everything's working correctly and you're ready to start downloading files form torrents :-).

(Optional)If however the tick sign is red or yellow like shown below :

 

you need to open that port of your router through a process called Port Forwarding
and this needs to be done in relatively older models of routers. We will cover Port Forwarding in the next post.













Any questions, comments or suggestions are all welcome :-)

Setting up Utorrent (Part II)

    Now that we have utorrent installed on our computer, it is time for some configurations to it before we start downloading torrents. In recent utorrent versions, most of the job is done by the program itself but we need to do some more configurations ourselves to ensure that we are secure when downloading torrents and to increase our download speed. So, we have utorrent interface opened like this :

• Then we press the tab options, then Preferences Ctr+P and this window comes up

•     (Optional) Then we choose from the left side the word Directories if we want to change the location of where the downloaded content from torrents goes. The default location is C:\Users\YourName\Downloads. If you want to change where the your downloaded stuff or the little .torrent or .magnet files go just check the appropriate box and then press the button on the right with the 3 dots.

•     Then press on the Connections word from the left side and make sure it looks like this, with the box of Randomize port each start to be unchecked :

•     After that go to BitTorrent and make sure every box is checked except the one that says Limit local peer bandwidth. Also in the Protocol encryption section where Outgoing is disabled, change it to forced so you keep your IP hidden from the others and stay safe. This looks like this:

•     The last thing we will change, is from the tab Advanced. Press Advanced(not the cross to the left of it) and to the right you will see dozens of options. Then, click on the option and to the bottom you will see the box named value. So,

 in bt._allow_same_ip  option change it to true,
 in dht.rate option change it to 2    and 
 in rss.update_interval option change it to 20. 
The window in each step will look like this:

Any questions, comments or suggestions are all welcome :-)

Setting up Utorrent (Part I)

    First we need to download a BitTorrent client program. I personally use Utorrent which you can download at:  http://www.utorrent.com/downloads/complete/os/win/tb/0 .
Here are some step by step instructions :

• First choose save file(1st option)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Then double click uTorrent.exe to open it and start installation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Press Run

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Press Next, Next, I agree

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Then, at this screen, untick the boxes 2 and 3 from top as shown and press Next

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Here untick the second box as shown and press Next and finally Install with the box  unchecked

  

 





This is what utorrent interface is like and what you will see if you follow all the instructions :

  



Any questions, comments or suggestions are all welcome :-)
 

Where can i download a torrent file from ?

    There are many peer to peer (torrent) sites on the web where you can download a torrent or a magnet file which in order will download what you really want to download to your PC, for example a movie. Some of the most safe out there are :  the pirate bay, kick ass torrents, 1337x, rarbg, h33t, isohunt and monova. The most popular though is the pirate bay because of it's large and continuously expanding amount of content and active members. The pirate bay also deletes torrents containing viruses so your computer stays safe. Also, because of the big amount of active members most torrents have useful and
instructive comments, so that you know what you' re downloading and further informations like how to install it (if it's a program or a game) and if there is any problem with it.
    Sometimes, searching to download something can take long or to be frustrating and you have to search through all the related torrent files in many torrent sites to find what you are looking for. That is why i use a "meta-search engine" torrent site. What that actually means, is that this site looks for the file you want to download in many torrent sites and sorts the results based on downloading popularity so you find quickly what you're looking for. There are many "meta-search engine" torrent sites out there but my personal favourite is torrentz as it applies a virus filter like the pirate bay so that you stay completely safe :-).

        Torrent Sites links :

• http://1337x.org
• http://kat.ph
• http://thepiratebay.se 
• http://h33t.com 
• http://www.monova.org  
• http://rarbg.com/torrents.php
• http://isohunt.com

        Meta-search torrent sites link :

• http://torrentz.eu/i
• http://tscan.mg/#!/home

Any questions, comments or suggestions are all welcome :-)

Which BitTorrent Client should i choose ?

    There are dozens of BitTorrent Clients out there freeware or paid, but for the average user any free will do the trick. Clients like :   BitTorrent6, utorrent, BitLord, BitTornado, Transmission and Vuze are the most used out there with a bunch of features each. There's even a web browser, Opera, with an integrated BitTorrent client. I personally use utorrent because of it's clean interface, small RAM footprint (doesn't slow any pc down), easy settings configuration and cause it get's updated all the time, but go ahead and choose the one you think that suits you best. The client with the most features and best looking interface (in my opinion) though is Vuze but it's a bit sluggish on older PCs or laptops so choose accordingly.

Download links for some BitTorrent Clients :
Utorrent -----> http://www.utorrent.com/downloads/complete/os/win/tb/0
Vuze----------> http://www.vuze.com/
BitTorrent----> http://www.bittorrent.com/downloads/complete/os/win/tb/0
BitLord------->http://www.bitlord.com/?page_id=48


Any questions, comments or suggestions are all welcome :-)

What exactly "is" a torrent ?

    Well, I would like first to adress the different between torrent and Bittorrent, which is often used synonymously on the Internet. Bittorrent is a peer to peer (p2p) file sharing protocol that uses a swarm-like approach to file sharing. A .torrent (file) stores metadata (information) that programs like uTorrent use to download data to the PC it is running on.
A .torrent or .magnet format file does not contain any data of the target file (e.g. a movie) you want to download and it's size is relatively small (e.g. 15 kilobytes). So, by downloading a .torrent or .magnet file alone, doesn't get the job done. What you need is a program called BitTorrent Client that will read all that information inside this file and start downloading what you are really looking for.

Any questions, comments or suggestions are all welcome :-)