How to configure your router to allow fast BitTorrent downloads

Update: I'm bringing this post back to the top of the weblog because since I wrote it one year ago lots of readers added great info related to many different settings of routers. BitTorrent is way more popular now than it used to be then, which explains why this entry keeps always bringing new readers here. I hope it helps.

There sure is a lot of people that have adopted BitTorrent as the tool of choice to download movies and TV shows. However if you are using a network router you might be facing painstainkingly slow downloads (of around 10Kbps) because of a network configuration not properly set. Some think it's a client thing and switch from one to another with no results.

The problem's cause is that some ports on your router are blocked by default and the solution is to open them up. We had to find it the hard way because lots of FAQ lists out there don't give enough detail on how to solve this issue. This simple but useful tip will increase download throughput from 10 to ~240 Kbps.

NOTE: The specific example below considers a Linksys router, but that should work for any other manufacturers (e.g. D-Link, Netgear, etc.). Our Linksys router is the Wireless-G WRT54G. Other models might have a slight different user interface but should be very similar.

1) Open a web browser window and type your Default Gateway IP number in the address bar. It should be 192.168.1.1 in most cases.
192.168.1.1
2) To login leave username blank and type admin for the password (unless you have changed it before which is always advisable)
3) Find the section that says Port Range Forwarding or similar
4) Add in the port range 6881-6889 for Torrent files
5) Make sure you check both protocol boxes TCP and UDP as well as the Enable setting.
Linksys config
6) Have the forward address set as your internal IP address 192.168.1.72 in our case. To find yours Go to Start -> Run and type in cmd.
CMD
This will open a DOS window. Type the command IPCONFIG and look for your �IP Address�.
IPCONFIG

7) Confirm and submit all the changes and that will probably work.

If you�ve been through this share your experience here. If you have different routers or versions of Linksys and there�s something different let us know how to configure it.

*
* Permalink
* Email this
* Linking Blogs
* Comments [561]

Reader Comments
(Page 1)

1. Excellent guide, this is something that more people need to be aware of. However I do have one suggestion.

This only works if you only have one computer behind your router downloading BitTorrents. A better way would be to turn on Port Triggering (in Advanced?) telling it to forward the ports you list above with the trigger port set to 6881 and the protocol to TCP.

When this is set up you don't need to know the internal IP of your computer, because the router will forward BitTorrent traffic to whatever system is running BitTorrent at the time. It knows which computer to use because BitTorrent will send traffic out on port 6881, the router sees this and starts forwarding traffic to your computer.

Posted at 4:29AM on Dec 19th 2005 by George Hotelling

2. Supposing I have 3 PC's running BitTorrent all at the same time, how do I go about setting the port forwarding since the ports 6881-6889 and only be forwarded to one PC at a time?

Posted at 4:29AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Sher Win

3. I only know how to do it with the torrentstorm client, ok this is what you do,open up torrent storm click on view then settings, then click the downloader version tab, for minimume port put 6881 and maximume put 6890,This is for the first computer only do the same with the next computer,make sure the ports are not the same,for example the second computer you set mimimume port to 6891 and max you put 6900, keep on doing that for the rest of your computers.Make sure the maximume port doesnt exceed 6999 cause torentstorm only uses those ports to send data(6881-6999).

For port forwarding make sure you open the ports that you assigned for each computer.Its kind of hard ill post some more if you like,jsut ask.


Ok i have a question myself,how do i make bt download faster when you have 2 computers using bt with a router?.
I did all the port forwarding already so its all good, but if you have some tips please help me out and post for info.

Thanks in advance
Cause only 1 computer goes fast and the other is very slow.

Posted at 4:29AM on Dec 19th 2005 by btuser

4. I did all the port forwarding business, and bittorrent works. However, after about five minutes with bittorrent running, the router will kick everyone offline. I have to turn the router off and on again to get back online.

I use time warner cable. This does not occur when I remove the router, obviously.

Posted at 4:29AM on Dec 19th 2005 by bluremi

5. Its the max connections setting in the bt program thats doing that to you ,to many connections to your pc when running bt can make bt crash.

Try setting it to a lower value.

I think its 50 connections for one router(linksys).
Try setting each computers bt max connections to 10,try 40 first then 30,20, then 10.

Posted at 4:29AM on Dec 19th 2005 by btuser

6. Well i have the same problem, if bittorent is open with to many torrents open it locks up my computer, I have to restart the router or the pc thats online at the time. I have tried what you suggested, I allow 10 torents to dl at 1once so i set the max connections per torrent to 5, (5x10 = 50) as you suggested 50 max. So i am testing this now. I use (Azeurus) And My PC Specs are the following:
Epox Ep8rda+ Motherboard.
Nvidia Geforce TI 4200
1 Gig Of DDr 2700 Ram
AMD Athalon 2200 XP (1800 MHZ)
Onboard 10/100 Nic

I tried everything from router upgrades to nic card switches, I really hope this works. I will repost when I know if it solves my issue.

Posted at 4:29AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Cadmuslabslex

7. Well I tried what i said i was gonna do, and i had no luck. My cpu usage was at 100% at all time when ever azeurus was open, so I made a Dual Boot System, I am now running Two Operating systems, Windows XP Pro Corp and Windows 2000 Server, after installing azeurus and moving my file from this folder (C:Documents and SettingsAdministratorApplication DataAzureus) to the same folder in my new os drive, all my torrents where there when i opened azeurus, and began to dl, My cpu has not hit over 7%, and I am getting craxy Insane speeds I never got. I dont know if its a bug with the java in xp or what But since installing 2000, my pc has not froze, my network has not failed and I have yet to restart neither my modem, router or pc. I dont know how much this will help you all, but to me IMO the problem is xp, for all of those who posted ^ please reply with what os you are running so I can say for sure if it is a e(X)tra (P)roblems problem.

Posted at 4:29AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Cadmuslabs

8. none of this works for the people that use speadsream so what can i do to make my bit-torrent faster

Posted at 4:29AM on Dec 19th 2005 by ForgottenOne

9. Okay, we have a very odd setup of routers at my house. On one side, we have an iMac hooked up to an Asante router which is in turn connected through a Linksys router. On the other we have a Dell hooked straight into the Linksys. On top of that, we're run through a local hospital's internet connection due to work. I'm only downloading through Bittorrent on the iMac.

I tried to open up the Linksys through the 192.186.1.1 approach. That didn't work on either computer. Time out. I then went through 192.168.123.254, the Asante equivalent, and I got very different settings than on the Linksys settings described in this section. I'm not sure what to try.

I did try to set a trigger to TCP and the corresponding incoming port to 6881 and enabling it. So far, that's done nothing.

If anybody knows how Asante routers work, any help at all or even friendly advice would be greatly appreciated.

Posted at 4:29AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Glockshmere

10. This really helped before i would get 1-4 download speed on torrent now i'm getting my regular 30 k thanks for the help

Posted at 4:29AM on Dec 19th 2005 by King Snake

11. Now, I know this may sound very 'newbie' ish, but I would be grateful if anyone could help. I am new to BitTorrents and am currently using the ABC client.
I have been reading how to configure my router but the problem is, I dont know what 'router' I have or how to find out, or how to configure it! Please dont laugh....afterall, if I dont ask, I wont learn ;)

Posted at 4:29AM on Dec 19th 2005 by kaytee

12. I've tried everything to get BT to work on my new computer, but it just won't budge.
I have an Abit NF7-S with onboard 10/100 and no BT client will work. SoulSeek and WinMX are fine, as well as all the other internet proggies...
Why doesn't it work?

Thanks for any help.

Posted at 4:29AM on Dec 19th 2005 by JC

13. I did what the instructions tell me to do but I still can't open the ports... any other help?

Posted at 4:29AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Yaoming

14. my setup:
cable inet>dlink dl-514 router
>pc #1 - win2k
>pc #2 - win2k

here's my dilema, pc#1 works fine in all aspects, bittorrent downloads and uploads well through the router with the current settings. pc#2 however, can't connect at all to the bittorrent trackers, yet, everything else internet related works fine on #2. i tried using ABC on #2 by itself and it didn't change anything, still can't connect. ipconfig /all reveals the exact same settings on each machine (minus different ips and hostnames). both computers are wired to the router and both communicate fine with eachother. in addition, although it wasn't keeping me from using ABC on #1 i added a port trigger for 6881-6999 with a public port of 6969,6881. no difference. something must be different between the configurations of the machines because #1 can download bittorrents just fine.

ideas?

Posted at 4:29AM on Dec 19th 2005 by d3p0

15. i did the things that were described above and it only bumbed my speed up maybe 3-6kb/s and it said it will make it go 250kb/s? mine only goes an average 20-24kb/s. I have a linksys router and i did exactly what it told me above. We shouldnt name it the name of our client that uses bittorrent(ie. bittorrent or other app) in custom apps instead of Torrent should we? PLEASE HELP ME GET IT UP TO 250KB/S.

Posted at 4:29AM on Dec 19th 2005 by John

16. I am dling from supernova and was getting 0-3 k then I adjusted my router and opend the appropriate ports and it doubled wooo hoo 3-6k wtf am I doing worng?

I only have 2 comps on the router and only 1 of them is useing any p2p software period.

Posted at 4:29AM on Dec 19th 2005 by help me

17. Yea same here... I was downloading from 0-3kb/sec and when I opened it it was going from 3-4kb/sec now... but still its suppose to go a lot faster with 135seeders rite?

Posted at 4:29AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Yaoming

18. Thank you so much Alberto. It worked instantly. Before, I was getting a 3kB/s download, and now I'm getting steady 110+kB/s download! Steady! The light is beautiful green in Azureus. I should mention that I am a newbie, and it was a little difficult to understand where to type everything in. To the confused: make sure that you don't confuse "UPnP Port Forwarding" with "Port Range Forwarding". I had to click a tab on the Advanced Setup screen that said "View Port Range Forwarding" before I could get to the right place. It looks just like the image under step 5.

Thanks again!

Posted at 4:29AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Joseph Kent

19. I have seen many explanations and details on port forwarding to get better speeds. I myself am behind an SMC Barricade. Nowhere in the setup does it let you know where to port fowrard or have anything similar to the picture above showing me what i need to enter. I am on a SMC Barricade 700AWBR. If anyone has any info on how i can port forward with this router, pls help.

Posted at 4:29AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Luis

20. I have a 7404BRB, use the Special Application link under NAT. Set the trigger port to 6881 (or whaterver starting port you want) and set the range 6881-6999 (or again whatever range u want to use)