How to Maximize uTorrent

Settings in uTorrent can be changed to help optimize performance.

A torrent (or BitTorrent) is a popular file type that is downloaded via the use of a peer-to-peer network. uTorrent is one of the most well-known BitTorrent clients, popular for its small file size and low use of system resources. If it seems that your downloads are running a bit slower than usual or if you would like to optimize the speed of your downloads, there are a few tweaks that you can make to the uTorrent client.

Things You'll Need

• uTorrent

Instructions

1. Open the uTorrent client.

2. Click the "Options" menu and select "Preferences."

3. Click the "Bandwidth" section of the "Preferences" window. Make sure that your maximum download rate is unlimited and reduce your maximum upload speed. A maximum upload speed of 1 kB/s is a good place to start.

4. Enable "Protocol Encryption" in the "BitTorrent" section by selecting "Enabled" from the drop-down menu.

5. Click on the "Advanced" section and scroll down until you find the "net.max_halfopen" attribute. Click it once and change the value to 50.

6. Right-click on a file that you are downloading and in the "Bandwidth Allocation" sub-menu and select "high."

7. Repeat step 6 but select the "Set Upload Limit" sub-menu and select 1kB/s.

Tips & Warnings

• Keeping your maximum upload speed low may increase your speed, but it also cuts down on the functionality of sharing torrents.

References

• Bootstrike: Maximizing BitTorrent Speeds with uTorrent