Browsing effectively with Torrents running

I have seen many people asking this question. Downloading large files via torrents will take time to complete. But we do need to browse occasionally as well, don’t we? I get irritated when the speeds gets too low now that I am used to my 256k line.

Here are some tips which might help you browse effectively while your torrents runs. Not that you’ll get very good speeds, but you’ll notice the difference.

1. Limit Maximum Peers connections per torrent

Your torrent client will try to establish many contacts with other peers connected to the tracker within a very short period of time. When the half-open connection limit is reached, new connections will be queued until some of the current connections are established. So we have to limit the number of peers that we are connecting irrespective of the number of peers that the torrent file may connect to.

I use BitTornado and here’s how to do the same in it:

In the case of Azureus : Tools -> Configuration -> Connection -> set the “Maximum number of connections per torrent” to 60.

At the moment, I have this limited to 40 only. This works like a charm for my 256k connection. In case you have a high speed connection experiment with this value till you get an optimum performance.

2. Limit maximum connections per torrent

Your client tries to establish a whole lot of connections at once then they just get queued up one at a time until they are fully established. Only 10 get serviced at any one time. This is the same with any requests you make with a web browser - they just get queued. This results in lesser speeds for browsing.

Let the maximum connections be twice the number of peer connected but you should experiment with this and find what works best for you.

Check the “Maximum simultaneous outbound connection attempts” in your client and make sure the number is not 10 or higher. I think the default is 8. If you have a slow connection, then let this value be low else vice versa.

3. Limit maximum upload slots

This is value that describes the amount of uploading you want to do. Limit this value according to your line specifications. Incase you have a high speed connection set this to a higher value as it might effect your download speeds. I have set it to 3.

4. Maximum numbers of active torrents

Maximum numbers of active torrents is the number of torrents that run at a time. In case you get full possible BW with a single torrent, then avoid running more than one torrent at a time. 2 torrents running at the same speed , say 30KBps each and a single torrent running at 60KBps might result in same amount of data being downloaded in a particular time, but as your client need to connect to peers and more connections used up (eventually queuing later on) your browsing speed get affected. So run as less amount of torrent at a time.

So for my BitTornado with a 256k/64k line, I use the following settings:
Max connections - 80
Peers per torrent - 40
upload slots - 3
Maximum numbers of active torrents - one only (but incase it’s an “unlucky torrent” then 2 torrents will run at a time)

Read more abt the first 4 points here : Of TCP connections, SP2 and Faster Torrents Download Speeds

5. Check your Router

Too many concurrent connections for the nat table to handle also make sure router logs are turned off as these can cause trouble.
If you think the router is the cause for the problem, then do a soft/hard reboot of the modem.

6. Limit the maximum download rate

Instead of pausing the torrent, you can limit the max download rate. I guess 10KBps would be sufficient for a decent browsing speed for casual browsing or checking mails and also your torrent runs fine. After browsing change the max download rate to zero (or your previous value).

7. Aviod using BitComet torrent client

BitComet client usage is not recommended. It’s bad for both the peers and the trackers. You might get the maximum possible speed with BitComet, but to judge a client’s performance you need to check the time taken to complete a file. In other words, you need to see how data was downloaded in a particular time. BitComet is know to download more retundant data (crap data). Although BitComet’s latest version does not has this problem , it got a bad reputation and you’ll never know. Moreover all the Private Torrent Tracker site recoomend either Azureus or BitTornado or torrent.

8. Download from public trackers

If you have a low speed connection (say less than 512kbps), then you won’t need a private tracker as others do as your download rate is bound to be low. In the public trackers, the peers are not in a pressure to seed (or upload more) or forced to do the same. So your connection won’t be hit with packets from the other peers. Moreover if you have a low speed connection, then if the peers send you more and more data than your connection can handle, it’ll just queue it exhausting all our outbound connections including your browser’s thus resulting in slow browsing speeds. So if speed is not a issue and you get good BW with public trackers, go for it, you’ll experience better browsing speeds.

9. Disable Firewall

It’s the same story here again. The Firewall you have installed checks the data that is being transferred and if you have a low speed connection, the packets (of both Firewall and the file you download) gets queued results in lesser/queued connection for your browser to get BW. So uninstall the firewall or allow the firewall to give your client’s full access.

10. Use a non-IE browser

Try to avoid using Internet Explorer (IE). I don’t want to “support” any particular browser, but using a non-IE browser like Firefox, Opera or Maxthon (an IE based browser) helps a lot. Not only do you get better speeds but features that aren’t available with IE. You are secure and safe from threats and you browse faster as well.

No one can give you the best settings. It’s up to you to experiment with the value and see which one give you the optimum performance. Point out ant mistakes (if any) in this article or any other tips you follow, I’ll be glad to update this article.

Be advised that whatever do you do, you won’t get more BW than what is alloted for you by your ISP. All these instructions only enhance your browsing experience while the torrents run in the background. Follow these 10 basic and simple guidelines and you’ll experience better browsing (with your torrents running in the background) for sure.

Happy Leeching and Browsing!

Related Articles:

• List of the Best Torrent Tracker and Subtitles Sites
• Private Torrent Trackers
• How to download stuffs using torrents
• Playing media files without any issues (no more codec problems)
• Of TCP connections, SP2 and Faster Torrents Download Speeds