This guide is meant to explain how to increase your speeds when using p2p applications and still be allowed to browse the the Internet, with just a small slowdown. First off, I'd like to recommend to everyone:

µTorrent for large new files - http://www.utorrent.com/
eMule for rare files - http://www.emule-project.net/
cabos for media files - http://cabos.sourceforge.jp/
They all use very little resources and are spyware/adware free.

µTorrent Quick Tips - Official FAQ

Speed Guide (basic)
This should popup when you first run µTorrent, otherwise head over to Options>Speed Guide (CTRL+G). Follow the instructions on the screen. You will want to test your upload speed on a few sites to make sure you input the speed you are getting and NOT the speed your ISP claims to be giving you. Make sure to do a few tests and take a rough average of them. Choose the closest option in the drop down menu (better to choose a lower speed than a higher one, but only one setting below). For more about the 80% rule see below for details. For step 2, choose your port. Make sure to test if it is port forwarded, see below if you have a router.

Manual Settings (advanced)
Options>Preferences

>Connection
Port used for incoming connections: xxxxx
You can use any port that isn't in use already, 45682 is the one I use. If you have a router, make sure to have this port, port forwarded. See below for more details.

Randomize port each time µtorrent starts: UNCHECKED
I have a router and therefore I leave this unchecked. If you do not have a router or a firewall, and want extra "security"; check this option.

Enable UPnP port mapping (Windows XP or later only): UNCHECKED
I leave this unchecked because it shouldn't slow down speeds, but for some reason it can cause problems sometimes. It is not needed if you port forward manually and I would actually recommend disabling it if you port forward manually.

Add µTorrent to Windows Firewall exceptions (Windows XP SP2 or later only): CHECKED
If you don't have the firewall on, you can uncheck this option. Otherwise, check this option or add µTorrent to the exceptions list manually. See below for details.

Proxy Server: I don't have a proxy set up, if you do make sure to set this part up correctly.

Global Maximum upload rate (kb/s): [0: unlimited]: Do not put this to 0. See below or the speed guide above for more details.

Alternate upload rate... & Global maximum download...: User Preference
Use the first option if you plan to seed a torrent. Capping download speeds for testing or to maximize browsing speeds is sometimes useful.

>BitTorrent
Global Maximum Number of Connections: 1000
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 overall slowdowns. Play around with this number and see how many connections are being used in Help>Show Statistics

Maximum Number of connected peers per torrent: 250
This number should be lower than the number above. If you see that the peers connected to a specific torrent are exactly this number, or very close, increase this number to improve speeds.

Number of upload slots & Use additional upload: User Preference
This depends on how much you want to upload to other users. Do not set too low or it may affect download speeds. I have it set to 4.

Enable DHT, Enable DHT for new torrents: CHECKED
This is recommended to be checked to improve speeds. More people will be available for sharing if this is checked. (private trackers don't like this, turn DHT off for them)

Ask tracker for scraper information, Enable Peer Exchange: CHECKED
This is recommended to be checked to improve speeds.

Protocol Encryption: ENABLED
I would recommend everyone to enable this. This can help increase speeds with many ISPs. If you suspect your ISP is throttling ports (i.e. you are getting 0-10kb/s) set this to FORCED.

Allow incoming Legacy Connections: CHECKED

>Queuing
Maximum number of active & Maximum number of active: User Preference
I have mine set to 4 and 3.
*The rest in this section is user preference also.

>Advanced Options
Most of these can be left on default, except:

net.max_halfopen>50
DO NOT CHANGE THIS OPTION unless you have windows xp sp2 and you have patched tcpip.sys. I have mine patched to 50 and hence the above setting. See below for further details.

peer.lazy_bitfield>User Preference
If you are getting ridiculous speeds (1-5kb/s) your ISP may be to blame. Set this option to true if you believe this is the case.

eMule quick tips - Official FAQ
Options

>Connection
Note: There is a wizard at the bottom for this section.

Download Capacities and Limits: User Preference, you may want to cap your download speed if you are downloading something else and want it to get more bandwidth.
Upload Capacities and Limits: Enter your max upload speed and cap (limit) it to about 80%, see below for details.

Client Ports: Choose two ports, the default ones will do. Make sure to port forward them (see below for details) if you have a router, make sure one is TCP and one is UDP and test if they are open.

Max Sources/file: 1000
Connection limits: 5000
Play around with these two numbers, setting them to low will cause eMule to struggle and setting them too high will use up too much of your bandwidth and effectively kill your connection.

Reconnect on Loss, Autoconnect on startup: CHECKED (User Preference)
Network, Kad and eD2K: CHECKED
You'll want to have more networks to connect to more peers. As well, eMule will track how much you share, so make sure to have a decent library of shared files.

Cabos Quick Tips
>Download
Save downloaded files in: User Preference (just make sure you can find the files after)
Maximum Downloads: User Preference

Downstream Bandwidth: 100%
Leave this on the default 100% unless you need to divide up your internet bandwidth across other programs.

>Sharing
Share partially downloaded files: CHECKED
Share completely downloaded files: CHECKED
Not sharing files can usually hurt your download speeds.

Maximum uploads: User Preference
Maximum uploads per person: User Preference
Do NOT set either of these options to 0. It will hurt your download speeds.

Upstream bandwidth limit (%) : 80 (see below for details)

>Network
Listen for incoming connections on port: User Preference
The default number is fine, just make sure to port forward if you have a router, see below for details.

Allow this computer to become an Ultrapeer: CHECKED
Allow freeloaders to connect to this computer: UNCHECKED

>Advanced
Only play around here if you are behind a proxy, otherwise leave everything unchecked.


Now to the good stuff. No matter what p2p application you use, here are some basic tips to increase transfer speeds:

Do you have a firewall?
If you do,
>Open up the options/preferences/settings for the firewall - Usually your firewall will have an icon to click in the taskbar (bottom right)
>Look for the key words "allow list" or "programs"
>Add the application you want to give access to the internet
>Make sure to save your settings when you're done


Do you have a router?
(check out http://www.portforward.com - thanks to CrisCr0ss)

If you do,
Go to start>run>type cmd, press enter>type ipconfig, press enter
>Remember both your IP address and your Default Gateway
>Type in your default gateway into your default browser (Internet Explorer will work fine), a password prompt may come up; I don't know your password
>Look for the keywords "applications" or "port forwarding" and fill out one line for each p2p client (2 sometimes are needed, see below)
>You need to use your IP address, the correct port range (usually just one port, so both min and max would be the same port) and set either TCP or UDP
>You can find and change the ports in the actual p2p client's settings, just make sure they are the same in the router
>Most p2p apps need both TCP and UDP checked, if you aren't sure; check your p2p clients' FAQ
>Make sure to save your settings when you're done!

In eMule you will get a "High ID" (server tab on the bottom right under my info) if your ports are properly forwarded and the firewall allows it through. Otherwise, you get a Low ID. In µTorrent, you will get a green icon in the bottom right of the program if everything is working fine (It may remain yellow if you do not have a torrent added or if the torrent is very unpopular). Red means you don't have it port forwarded or added in your firewall.

Other p2p apps may not tell you if you did everything correctly but your speeds should improve if you did
If you want to make sure you forwarded the ports correctly and the p2p program doesn't offer a built-in function, certain applications will do this for you. Active ports and SIW can do this.


Cap your upload speed to 80%.
Most internet connections will limit your download speed if your upload speed is maxed out. To "fix" this, the general rule is to limit your upload speed to about 80%. Limiting it lower than 80% is a) unfair to everyone transferring the file b) ignorant as many clients will then automatically slow down your download speed.

First, you need to find out your upload speed from your internet provider. You can call them or visit their website.
A good idea is to find out your actual upload rate as different factors can affect what you are actually getting from your ISP (distance, sharing between computers etc.)
You can test your bandwidth speeds on sites like

• http://www.speedtest.net/ (requires flash)
• http://www.bandwidthplace.com/speedtest/
• http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/ (requires flash)
• Bandwidth Speed Test Google Search

Once you have the number it will probably be in kilobits. Most clients use speeds in kilobytes. 8 bits makes a byte. Therefore, take your number and divide it by 8. Now find 80% of the new number.
Here is how I calculate 80% of my upload bandwidth:
800kb / 8 = 100kB (b=bits, B=bytes)
100 x 0.8 = 80kB

Within my p2p client, I cap my upload speed to 70kB-80kB. Keep in mind, if you have many clients open, and every single one is allowed to use 80% then you can easily max out your upload speed and have problems with download speeds.

Do you have Windows XP SP2?
If you don't, you should. Service Pack 2, however, limits the number of half-open connections (the tcpip.sys file). This does not affect browsing speeds but can have a pretty negative effect on all p2p clients. A good number to patch the maximum number of half-open connections allowed is 50. If you don’t see any change in speed, run the patch again and choose 10 (the default number). I would not recommend going over 50-100. This limitation was added for security reasons, so keep this in mind if you want to patch your tcp.sys file. You will receive an Event ID: 4226 warning in the Event Viewer because the patch is changing the tcpip.sys system file.
The following links are possible ways to patch this system file. I am not responsible for anything that may go wrong when patching the file.
lvllord's patch
xp antispy (in the special menu)

Still can't get great speeds? Post here or pm me to change some settings within the client. I welcome fellow Neowinians to add on to this thread and give other suggestions for increasing speeds. Do not simply come here to yell out that a certain p2p app is better or worse than the others. Rating this thread is appreciated and helps users check out the good guides. Finally, please respect Neowin's rules and keep this thread free of piracy discussions.

Since you have overhead and not every packet comes thru isn't it better to divide by 10 on you internet connection?

its alright although probably better to show with a graphics
utorrent - downloading @ 110kB/s \

also check out forwardfirewall.com and portforward.com

i was thinking of getting screenshots but they take up a lot of space, if you don't believe me you can always check out the utorrent forums.

i had a feeling it was from there, cuz i just came back from reading it

nice guide btw..

Also, whether you think so or not, patching tcpip.sys to allow more than 10 half-open connections helps a lot (only applies to XP SP2). If you disagree, then disagree in silence or go find the proper thread, there's a huge one about this topic. You can download it here or here.

Also check out TCP Optimizer, a neat little internet connection tuning utility.

I can't see this website http://www.forwardfirewall.com/

Azureus downloads slow as hell for me same with limewire. I have a 6mb connection and i have forwarded all the ports yadda yadda applied the lvllord patch and i still get download speeds at the most 20kbs. I called my isp they say that the torrents depend on the uploader yadda yadda i know that already theyre not throttleing ports. I emailed my router maker and they just told me what i already know. I did all the port forwarding crap everything is done properly but i still get slow download speeds and i have no idea. I have one more computer connected on my network but its not used for downloading or anything just a shared connection. I'm at the end of my rope with it. I download extremely fast on ftp sites and http sites. But bittorrent and other applications are slow as hell, if anyone can help that would be amazing.

srry url is www.firewallforward.com

how many connections have you set the patch on? verify that the same ports are set in the router as well as the actual program? did you open both tcp and udp? you can also try the clients I mentioned and see if it makes a difference.


fixed.

i have 10000 connections open with the patch all the ports are opened and set the same and tcp and udp is open i'll give utorrent a try and let u guys know thx for the help

if u have SP2, it limits ur outbound connections from 50(or infinite, idk) to like.. 2
i have a patch that helps it increase the number of outbounds..

EVID or something like that

goes hella fast on Azureus 200kbs sometimes, average at 80-120
emule, well it depends on the people =/ most i've gotten is .. 60+kbs
limewire... each file is like what 3~ mbs? doesnt matter about speed for me..

You folks are not understanding the purpose of the patch at all, maybe I should have explained to begin with. XP SP2 limited the number of incomplete or half-open connections (not total connections) per second to 10 to decrease the chance of worms spreading. Increasing it beyond 50 is pointless, and only makes your system that much more unsecure. Microsoft limited the connections for a reason, though it can affect P2P connections. If in your event log you see a lot of Event ID 4226 occurances, the patch will help. .If you don't, you don't need it. Please read more about it here.

Nice Guide Slimy



yes, SP2 limits your outbound connections from infinity in SP1 to 10.

nice guide- thanks a lot! one question though- why is the www.firewallforward.com site about airplane stuff? at least that's what it comes up as for me!

Nice guide, however I think you should add Xp-Antispy in there on how to uncap the limit of outbound connections in XP and how many connections should be good

If you want to include pictures, upload pix to http://www.imageshack.us/

you could also scrap all three of those apps and start to use DC++... best p2p ive ever seen there is rarely a time when i cant find something in the many hubs in DC

Wow thx for the help stimy im now downloading at 50kbs and above. Alright stimy's planning on adding to the guide to show u how u can gain better download speeds if ur isp is throttling ur ports

hello, i am new to these forums, id like to say it seems like a pretty cool place. my question however is i am on 56k dialup and i need to increase download speeds. i usually dont connect on 56k though, somewhere between 26kb-31kb. anywho, ive downloaded xp antispy and changed the amount of connections to 50 and restarted, and also used TCP Optimizer and put it on optimal settings. still at best i download a torrent at 3kb. usually 2kb, and if im loading a webpage it goes down to 1kb or lower. i really need to figure this out. i was using µTorrent, but it just seemed to stop working, so i switched to Azureus and am having no problem besides the download speeds. thank you in advance!

dude, with dial up, you are going to have to accept the maximum bandwidth/connection speed as the modem will give you! I know it hurts to hear, but phone lines have a limited capabilty, ESPECIALLY when it comes to dial up. My advice: Upgrade if possible, and if you can't, I know how painful dialup can be...man, you'll just have to settle! I was lost in it about 2-3 yrs ago, and all of that "accellerated" crap is probably as good as my ability to predict the future. You cannot accelerate dial-up without installing a complex series of multiplexers amongst a great distance. The dial-tone that dial-up uses is not much different from a regular phone, but forget that....think of those little bitty wires coming into a phone, say, like from the wall.....there are only like 2 wires really used in the states.........all I'm saying, is, I too, have suffered the dial-up "plague".....it's hard to keep any downloads going, and by the time you do, you become as old as yoda....

Dj CircularMotive

those technologies are designed for adsl

where you have seperate upload and download streams

you have a MAX of 5KBs - that has to be shared between uploading and downloading.

you just dont have teh bandwidth for it to work effeciently

yes, to sum it all up, that's it! sorry, man! I know it sucks!

while dc++ is reliable with files it is harder to find them and takes way longer to download than say bittorrent.

not to say i don't use it on occassion though

I've set my upload speed on e-mule to 20kb/sec and download speed to 250kb/sec. And what i have: download speed approximately 200 kb/sec

Did that but there isn't a single thing there that has anything to do with 'applications' or 'port forwarding'.

What router have you got?

Ericsson HN294dp

This page should help you out: http://portforward.com/english/routers/por...n290dpindex.htm

It doesn't have your model, but the HN290DP should be similar enough to figure it out.

Thanks but I can't find out how to configure a static IP address. Supposedly that website has a guide for finding it out but I found no use of it.

I know it's a little off-topic, but how about discussing how to use proxies with p2p programs? I have 3 friends that have gotten in legal trouble for downloading music or movies, and I don't want to join that list.

Configuring LimeWire (the only p2p program I currently use) to use a proxy is pretty easy, but how about BitTorrent / etc...? Any experiance?

Peace,
Pete Zaria.

i like it cheers very much

Do you have a static IP from your ISP? It's dynamic unless you paid extra for static. You can get a free dynamic domain name from DynDNS or NoIP.

Ok, I figured out how to configure a static IP and I actually got the port I wanted forwarded as well but now, my internet connection stopped working so I put the settings back to what they were in the beginning.

Off topic

I have a dial up connection using the GPRS facility on my cell phone. It has a speed of 115.2 Kbps. While just browsing the web and downloading through browsers it works fine.

However when I download torrents 9 times out of 10 it will just freeze after a while. The other 1 time I may be able to download a huge amount of data. Shareaza seems to be the best client for me.

What could be the problem?

I thought eMule was shut down?

This could be of some relevance to this guide i though:


Source: SpeedGuide

ok i need a little help with this bit



so yea i can get into my router settings now i dont know weather to go into firewall rules or services. well i kinda exploered each and found that when i went into the services page and then clicked on "add custom serivce" i came to a screen which was remotley relevant to what slimy was talking about
well this is a screen shot of it:
[attachmentid=148511]

well i wanna configure the programs utorrent and limewire, my router is the neatgear DG834G and i am a complete and utter noob so can you make everything as simple as possible
also if it matters i get this thing on utorrent that says "NAT error" if that is of any use

ok thanks alot

name: type in the name of the program you want to add
type: check if there is an option for both udp and tcp, then choose it
start and finish ports: they are within the actual program (and you can change them, just look around utorrent's and limewire's preferences)

I thought everyone liked BitComet more...

But just since Slimy is using µTorrent I might just try it

I use bit tornado on an 8mb connection, so I have to say it isn't much of an issue with me

8 mbit connection? Wow, whos your ISP?

ok so for the name just "utorrent"
yea it does have an option for both so i guess i just use that
and for the final one im not really sure what to do
this is a screen shot of u torrent
[attachmentid=148591]

the port that is used for incoming connections is 32459
is that what i should put for the start port or finish port, and which ever it is
what should i put for the other

thanks alot

32459 for both. Then save/apply. If it works, there will be no more nat error in utorrent

oh it works, that was easy lol

thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have a vonage VOIP phone adapter plugged into my cable modem which then connects to my computer. Do I follow the same procedures for port forwarding? When I type in my IP address it takes me to a configuration page for the phone adapter, not the cable modem.

Make sure you have a password set, you don't want someone else accessing your adapter. Check your Vonage adapter manual to see if it has NAT, some do. Otherwise your port forwarding needs to be done in your software firewall config.

...this appears to be a link to an avionics engine overhauling site.

Could you check the link again, I'm interested in checking it out. Thanks.


PS. I just switched from Azureus to uTorrent...great program, thanks!

I'd personally recommend e.g. BitComet over µTorrent, as that's an example of a BT client that supports peer exchange => often more peers => often higher download speeds, assuming all other circumstances are the same (same file downloaded, same hardware & setup, etc).

µTorrent is a bit young still, and the only thing I can see it has going for it is low memory usage, but that's not really related to if you get good speeds or not.

well, fastest speed I've ever gotten downloading a torrent is 40 kbs. What on earth am I doing wrong here?!

Background Info:

3MB DSL connection.
Allowing Unlimited Upload Kb/s

I'd think utorrent would be better for private trackers though.

PS: If your at a college and they're using a packet shaper your ****ed till you find a way around it. And if you can do that your most likely a CS major or you have computer experience.

fyi, my brother's in college and they have a upload/download limit there (weekly limit).

however, when he uses DC++, it isn't detected for some reason. torrents, on the other hand, KILL his bandwidth and get him banned from the internet for like a week