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How To: Get Better BitTorrent Speeds

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Have you been seeing decreasing BitTorrent transfer speeds?

Have you received an annoying notice from your ISP accusing you of illegally downloading a Hollywood blockbuster?

Would you like to live in a better internet?

Well, I have the answer for you: encryption. You see, every BitTorrent packet your computer sends or receives contains header data stating that it’s BitTorrent traffic as well as the filename and other identifying information. By default, this data is send in plain-text, your ISP is able to intercept any traffic you send an inspect the contents (see: deep packet inspection). Your ISP may use this data to actively throttle your BitTorrent traffic (or even your connection in general if they so choose); they may also match the filename against a list of known filenames for movies or other blacklisted content and then send you (fake) legal demands.

By enabling encryption in your BitTorrent client, you make it much more difficult (individual results may vary) for your ISP to determine that a packet is a BitTorrent packet; it may also prevent you from receiving those nag letters in the mail.

Any BitTorrent client worth it’s salt will have an option buried somewhere in the preferences to enable encryption.

I’ve attached a screenshot for the client I use, Transmission:

TorrentFreak has an older with instructions for Azuerus (now Vuze), BitComet and µTorrent. The instructions may be somewhat out of date, but I’d imagine the settings would be in similar locations. When all else fails, Google it.

Update: Doug McArthur notes in the comments, enabling encryption may end up filtering out peers on less popular torrents.

Comments

8 responses to “How To: Get Better BitTorrent Speeds”

  1. Avatar
    Anonymous

    I can see this working for popular torrents but for the rarer material you might be filtering out peers that would have otherwise provided you a download.

    1. Avatar
      Anonymous

      This is a good point. Thanks.

  2. Avatar
    Anonymous

    You can also check if your ISP is throttling or shaping your traffic with this online tool:
    http://broadband.mpi-sws.org/transparency/glasnost.php#tests

    Takes about 10-15 minutes to complete, but should provide a fairly accurate test.

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  4. seanwalberg Avatar
    seanwalberg

    I’m not sure it’ll prevent the letters… My understanding is that the rights-holders

    1. Avatar
      Anonymous

      Yeah, I wasn’t sure whether to note this or not. You happen to have any more info on this practice?

      1. seanwalberg Avatar
        seanwalberg

        I’m blanking on the name of the company that does this. At one point they got hacked, and their internal email and even VoIP calls were posted to torrent sites. Google is no help to me.

        http://torrentfreak.com/how-to-find-fake-torrents-uploaded-by-the-mpaa-and-riaa/ has some information on the practice in general.

        While we’re on the topic of Shaw, as required by the CRTC, they’ve spelled out their traffic management policies in http://www.shaw.ca/en-ca/AboutShaw/TermsofUse/AcceptableUsePolicyInternet.htm. tl;dr: if upstream congestion occurs, we throttle P2P.

  5. Alex Avatar
    Alex

    The BitTorrent and so is created to download with a great speed files. Here speed more likely already depends on that, how much fast Internet and how many seeds is at present. I usually if slow it is downloaded film, come on http://www.torrentoff.com and I search for a torrent where quantity seeds there is more. It is helps!

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