How To Increase Torrent Download Speed in 2022

How To Increase Torrent Download Speed
Image: FossBytes

Is your torrent download speed slow? Don’t worry cause we have got you covered. Here, we have written a comprehensive guide on how to increase your torrent downloading speed.

Using torrent clients is one of the most popular ways to share files over the web. There are many popular torrent sites to do the job. While there are just minimal basic settings needed to run these clients, there are some tweaks for more advanced users.

Before you proceed with our guide on increasing torrent download speed. Learn more about how torrents work and are these illegal here!

How to increase BitTorrent download speed using simple steps?

To increase the torrent download speed, you can always find plenty of good ways online. In this article, we are trying to provide you with all those methods and tips in a single place. Take a look:

1. Install a Lightweight Torrent Client

To increase the torrent downloading speed, the very first step you need to follow is to install a lightweight torrent client. Although BitTorrent is one of the most popular torrent clients around, it comes with lots of bloated apps and other features. So, I prefer uTorrent most for hassle-free and faster torrent downloading. You can also install qBittorrent since it’s another lightweight torrent client.

The reason for using a lightweight torrent client is that it only focuses on downloading torrents and speeds up the transfer rate. utorrent and qBittorrent are available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

You can also refer our list of best torrent clients for MacWindows, and Android. And if you are interested in checking out alternatives to uTorrent in details here!

2. Choose a Healthy Torrent to Increase Torrent Download Speed

For choosing a healthy torrent, first, you need to understand the concept of seeder and leecher. These two terms always confuse the new torrent enthusiast, so, here I will try to clear your doubts in simple language.

A seeder is one who has the complete copy of the file shared across the network which you intend to download. However, a leecher is one who does not have the complete copy of file and has joined the network to download the file. Once a leecher downloads the file completely, he/she will become a seeder.

For a high torrent download speed, the number of seeders should be higher than the number of leechers. The more is the number of seeders, the healthier your torrent will be. So, while choosing a torrent, make sure that the seeder-leecher ratio is high.

3. Add an Exception to Windows Firewall

Windows Firewall can block your torrent client or you can say your incoming BitTorrent connections. So, adding an exception to the Windows firewall will be a good option to boost torrent downloading speed. First, navigate to Options> Preferences> Connections, now check the Add Windows Firewall exception box and then click Apply.

(Check Enable UPnP port mapping in case it’s unchecked).

Warning: Do not shut down Windows Firewall permanently as it leaves your PC open to attack.

4. Change General Settings to Optimize uTorrent

To increase the speed of your torrent, make sure you have the best uTorrent settings configured on your machine. All the three options that are shown in the figure below should be checked.

To find these options, navigate to Options> Preferences> General then check Append .!ud to incomplete files and Pre-allocate all files. Usually, the third option is already checked but if it’s not, check that too.

5. Limit Your Global Upload and Download Rate

You can also speed up your torrent downloading on clients like qBitTorrent, BitTorrent, uTorrent, etc., by limiting the upload and download rate. But first, you should understand the fact that torrents breathe the uploading done by users.

So, turning it completely off, or setting it as 1kB/s, would not be a wise option. But, at the same time, you don’t want your upload rate to set it as the maximum (‘0’ stands for unlimited) as it can choke down your own connection.

Setting upload rate to about 70-80% of your maximum upload speed would be a great option to speed up torrenting. Whereas, you can keep the download rate 0, as it is considered as maximum. To configure these options navigate to Proprties> Bandwidth, then set the Global Upload Rate Limit as 80% your max upload.

6. Change the Number of Connections

Once you’ve set the upload/download rate, you can now change the number of connections to avoid any overload. Although, if you do hit and trial with the settings you might get a better result. But, for those who aren’t very much sure, I can suggest you some rough numbers which might increase torrent downloading speed.

Navigate to properties> Bandwidth, then set Global maximum number of connections to 150 and the maximum number of connected peer per torrent to 100. Leave the upload slot as it is.

7. Add More Trackers to Increase Torrent Download Speed

Trackers are a good way to optimize the torrent download speed. Adding new and faster trackers to your existing torrents can increase the download speed by adding new seeds and peers to your connection.

The method of adding trackers to your torrent is not so complicated as you only have to add these links to your existing trackers. While pasting the new tracker, make sure that you are not erasing the existing ones (and do not worry about duplication).

To add new trackers, first right click on the torrent you are downloading and then select Properties. Under the General tab, you will find the trackers list. Scroll to the bottom and paste trackers from the list given below.

Here is the complete torrent tracker list.

8. Pick the Best Port to Increase Torrent Download Speed

As you might know, the BitTorrent protocol depends on the TCP protocol for transferring data over the internet. The recommended and possibly the best TCP port for torrenting is between 6881-6889. So, if you’re still wondering how to make torrent downloads faster, you can try configuring the same on your computer.

Did you find the article on how to increase torrent download speed useful? Or, do you know any other methods to speed up torrent downloading? Let us know in the comments below.

Conclusion

There are many ways to increase download speed on this list. However, the torrent you are downloading also affects the speed. Make sure that you are choosing the best torrent from trustable sources. This reduces your chances of getting malware and viruses.

One easy way is to check the Seed/Peer ratio. The higher the ratio the better the speed. A good torrent source will result in your downloads taking significantly less time.

FAQs

Does uTorrent limit download speed?

No, uTorrent does not limit download speed unless you choose to cap it. The max download speed a torrent can have depends on your internet plan and seeds/peer ratio.

How do I set the maximum download speed on uTorrent?

You can set max download speed on uTorrent by right-clicking on the download and going to Bandwidth Allocation > Set download limit. From here you can choose to set it to your preferred amount. We suggest leaving it on ‘Unlimited.’

Source: FossBytes

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