Tips to get Maximum Performance from your P2P Softwares

We all love torrents because they are free. In the last few weeks I have been downloading a lot of movies/softwares from torrents. While messing with the torrents I found a few things which turned out to be very fruitful. Today I will show you how to use those tricks to get maximum performance from your P2P Softwares.

Note: I use uTorrent so all the following Hacks have been tested on the latest version of uTorrent only. You may test it on other P2P softwares and let us know about your experience

1. Increase Download Speed

Do the following changes in the preference of uTorrent.

Go to Options>Preferences>Network

1. Under ‘Port used for incomming connections’, enter any port number. It is best to use a port number above 10000. I use 33333.
2. Randomize port each time utorrent starts: UNCHECKED. I leave this unchecked because I have a router. If you do not have a router or a firewall, and want extra security,check this option.
3. Enable UPnP port mapping (Windows Xp or later only): UNCHECKED. I leave this unchecked because I have experienced it slowing down speeds. It is not needed if you manually port forward.
4. Add utorrent to Windows Firewall exceptions (Windows XP SP2 or later only): UNCHECKED (do this only if you have windows firewall disabled)
5. Global Maximum upload rate (kb/s): [0: unlimited]: 22 (for 256k connection)
6. Protocol Encryption: ENABLED. I would recommend everyone to enable this. This can help increase speeds with many ISPs.
7. Allow incoming Legacy Connections: CHECKED

Go to Options>Preferences>Torrents

1. Global Maximum Number of Connections: 130 (for 256k connection)This number should not be set too low or the number of connections made to your torrents will be limited. Setting it too high may cause too much bandwidth to be used and can cause slowdowns.
2. Maximum Number of connected peers per torrent: 70 (for 256k connection)If you see that the peers connected to a specific torrent are exactly this number, or very close, increase this number to improve speeds.
3. Number of upload slots per torrent: 3 (for 256k connection)This depends on how much you want to upload to other users. Do not set too low or it may affect download speeds.
4. Use additional upload slots if upload speed <90%: CHECKED
5. Maximum number of active torrents: 2 (for 256k connection)
6. Maximum number of active downloads: 1 (for 256k connection)
7. Enable DHT Network: CHECKEDThis is recommended to be checked to improve speeds. More people will be available for sharing if this is checked.
8. Enable DHT for new torrents: CHECKED
9. Enable Peer Exchange: CHECKED
10. Enable scrapping: CHECKED
11. Pre-allocate all files: CHECKED
12. Append .!ut to incomplete files: UNCHECKED

If you have a firewall

1. Open up the options/preferences/settings for the firewall – usually your firewall will have an icon to click in the taskbar
2. Look for the keywords “allow list” or “programs”
3. Add the application you want to give access to the internet
4. Make sure to save your settings when you are done

If you have a router

1. Go to start>run>type cmd, press enter>type ipconfig, press enter
2. Remember both your ip address and your default gateway
3. Type in your default gateway into your default browser, a password prompt may come up. The default username and password are admin for my router
4. Under ‘Applications’ fill out one line for each p2p client you use
5. You need to use your ip address, the correct port range and set either tcp or udp
6. You can find and change the ports in the actual p2p client’s settings, just make sure they are the same in the router
7. Most p2p apps need both tcp and udp checked, if you are not sure check your p2p client’s FAQ
8. Save your settings

2. Block Fake Peers

Anti-P2P organizations are actively polluting P2P networks with fake peers, which send out fake or corrupt data in order to waste bandwidth and slow down file transfers. At its worst, when downloading major copyrighted torrents, as much as a fourth of the peers you are connected to can be attributed to various Anti-P2P agencies. There is also a much more serious side to this. Once you’ve established a connection to one of these fake “peers”, your IP has been logged and will most likely be sent to the RIAA/MPAA.

But there is a way to fight back! If you are using the latest uTorrent, you can employ a little known feature called IP filtering. The author of uTorrent has gone out of his way to hide it, but it’s there nonetheless. But before we can activate this filter, we need to retrieve a list of currently known Anti-P2P organization IPs.

This is most easily done by downloading the latest blacklist from Bluetack (the same people who wrote SafePeer for the Azureus BT client).

This list is updated daily, and contains all known Anti-P2P organizations, trackers and peers, aswell as all known Goverment/Military IP addresses as collected by the Bluetack team. Once downloaded, extract and rename the file to “ipfilter.dat” in preparation for the final step.

To make the list available to uTorrent, you need to put it in %AppData%\uTorrent\. So type this into the Address Bar, or click Start -> Run and type it there. After placing the ipfilter.dat in this folder, start uTorrent and go into preferences (Ctrl+P), then click on “Advanced”. In the right hand pane, make sure that “ipfilter.enable” is set to true, and then close the dialog. That’s it for the configuration.

You can verify that the list has been loaded by looking under the “Logging” tab of uTorrent, where you should see the line “Loaded ipfilter.dat (X entries)”.

3. Hide your IP

Your IP address is your online identity and could be used by hackers to break into your computer, steal personal information, or commit other crimes against you. Hide My IP allows you to surf anonymously, change your IP address, prevent identity theft, and guard against hacker intrusions. This software can not only be used in case of hiding your IP from other peers but also useful if you want to browse internet anonymously.