This tutorial will walk you through each of the steps in setting up and using uTorrent to download files using bittorrent. uTorrent is a free (and very feature-rich) bittorrent client for Windows 98/ME, NT/2000, XP, 2003, and Vista.
note: this tutorial was created using uTorrent version 1.7.5 Stable.
- First up, download uTorrent. Save the file to your downloads folder (or wherever you store temporary files) and run it when the download has completed.
Decide where you want to create shortcuts to uTorrent, and click Yes.
- When uTorrent is done installing, you’ll be prompted to set it as your default .torrent program. Click Yes.
- Now you’ll need to set up uTorrent so that it performs as well as possible for your specific Internet connection. This will help ensure your bittorrent transfers go as quickly as possible, so it’s important to be accurate. If you know what your Internet connections upstream bandwidth is, select it from the Connection Type: drop down list. If you’re unsure, click the Run speed test at: www.dslreports.com button.
- Your browser will open to a page that lists a bunch of speed tests. Assuming you have Flash 8 (or higher) installed (and you probably do), click the Flash 8 plugin based speed test link.
- Make sure you’re not uploading or downloading any large files (so that your Internet connection remains mostly “unused”), and run the speed test from one of the locations that’s physically close to you. Once the test has completed, look for the Upload Speed number.
- Back in uTorrent, select the Connection Type: that’s closest to your Upload Speed result from the previous step. In my case, my upstream speed is about 582Kb/s, so I selected the xxx/512k entry. If your upload speed is in the 300-400 range, select the xxx/384k option.
- You’ll be directed to a web page that will say either Error (see screenshot below) or OK!. If you get the OK!, skip down to step 9.
You got the error. That means one of a few things. You may have a software firewall installed (eg. McAfee Personal Firewall, Norton Internet Security, Windows Firewall etc). You may have a router (wireless or otherwise). But something is blocking port 44940 - the port that uTorrent uses. If a pop-up window appeared on your screen asking if you want to allow activity from uTorrent on port 44940 - click Yes, Yes and allow forever, or whatever similar option may be offered. If you have a router, you’re going to want to manually add port 44940 as ‘allowed’ for the PC that you’re running uTorrent on. As suggested on the error page, portforward.com has a great list of routers with clear step-by-step instructions on how to forward ports on each one. Your router is probably listed on that page, and all of this port forwarding talk is not as difficult as you may be thinking.
- Once you’ve enabled port forwarding for port 44940, run the test again. This time you should get a green OK!. Once you get the good news, click the Use Selected Settings button on the uTorrent Speed Guide window.
- So now find yourself a torrent to download. I frequent http://bt.etree.org - it’s a site filled with live concerts from bands that allow audience members to tape and trade. Either open the .torrent directly (as seen in Firefox below) or save it to your hard drive and then double-click it to launch uTorrent.
- You’ll be prompted to save the files contained in the torrent to somewhere on your hard drive. The default location in XP is in the Downloads folder of your My Documents. If you want to change the location, click the … (three dots) button. Click OK when you’re done.
- Your torrent files will begin to download. Feel free to ‘click around’ and get to know the uTorrent interface.
- You may have noticed that uTorrent also has a system tray icon. You can right-click it to bring up some of the options and preferences.
- You can also click on the series of tabs in the main uTorrent interface and change settings that way.
- Select Options -> Preferences… to bring up the uTorrent prefs - of which there are many. You may want to stick with the defaults, but by all means feel free to poke around and change the settings to your liking.
- Once your torrent has finished downloading, the Status will change to Seeding. This means you’re sharing the complete set of files with other people.
- It’s generally considered good netiquette to seed the files until you hit a ratio of at least 1.0. That means for every byte you downloaded, you uploaded the same amount. Aiming for a ratio of at least 2.0 and you’ll be highly regarded
- When you do want to stop seeding a torrent, select it from the list and click the Remove button.
- When prompted, click OK to confirm.
Now click the Test if port is forwarded properly button.
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{ 24 comments… read them below or add one }
Nice post! I’ve been using Azureus! However, I’m having problems with torrent files. I think Rogers is blocking the port I left open for this. Do you have anything in mind to show us in the future on how to leave a port open for my torrents?
I do have a mac
Thanks for your help
em using vista and i cant get to another step when it starts downloading ,,,
9 . So now find yourself a torrent to download. I frequent http://bt.etree.org - it’s a site filled with live concerts from bands that allow audience members to tape and trade. Either open the .torrent directly (as seen in Firefox below) or save it to your hard drive and then double-click it to launch uTorrent.
the url u have given does not exist and where to download files ,,, when ever i download .. it does not start on u torent file … please make this software work for me .
I have been using uTorrent for two weeks and have lost 52GB of usable space. However, I have only downloaded 9GB of information. Can anyone help me find 41GB of memory? I did stop downloading many items as they didn’t come in or were way to slow. I deleted those items from the file I save my downloads in but is there some temporary file location I need to delete the files from as well?
Thanks,
Yar
What is the DEFAULT LOCATION WHERE uTorrent puts TEMPORARY FILES and how can i change it?
i need to know where i can find torrents
i want to change my file location but when i do utorrent stos seeding it how can i change this?
Hi, i need help in putting the torrent file on my computer for use after i have downloaded it using uTorrent. Can you please help me?
i have downloaded a file of 486 MB using utorrent
the extension of saved file is .daa
how to open it?
it contains almost 100 ebooks
i need some help…plz
is anyone there?
Ho un piccolo problema.
io scarico un pò di canzoni con elephant. Quando però ho scoperto torrent dopo la sua corretta installazione ho verificato questo piccolo problema. Facendo il download di un file torrent mi va nel programma elephant e non nella schermata di download di torrent.
Come mai accade questo.
Grzie a chi mi darà una risposta.
Giovanni
i got how to download the file, how do i open and install it after it is downloaaded and how do i find “cracks”
I have utorrent downloaded and two large programs downloaded I don’t know how to open them when I hit open it says that their is not enough memory avaiable but their is. can you please help me thank you
hi casey
understood ur problem…
if you have completed your download of torrent file then do following things…
right click on torrent file in the list of utorrent software.
select ‘Remove and’-delete .torrent
click yes
go to location where you have downloaded the file on hard disk
you will find ur file is ready…
enjoy !!
I have problem to play the movie.I have already downloaded the movie I liked but I can’t turn on.why? what am I doing wrong?
you might have already solved your problem, if not seeat the following url
http://www.techzilo.com/extract-open-daa-files-free/
best
hey guys, how can i save nod32 3.0.642 which i downloaded from utorrent to my computer. please help. thanks guys
Im downloading la rush and it always stops at 69%. Where it says avalability, it is all blue and red. The file is approx 1.2gig, thanks for ur time!
Im downloading la rush and it always stops at 69%. Where it says avalability, it is all blue and red. The file is approx 1.2gig, thanks for ur time! (and this is my right e-mail)
hi, i downloaded my movies but it only opens through limewire though i hv u torrent, and once download is complete cant watch the movie, only can hear, some1 plz help
i am useding utorrent every thing i download after a few seconds the blue download icon become a red x and a mesage pop up this happen every time and my port is fine i need help
Running Windows Vista.
Can not save torrent files to H.D.
Checked I do have ownership and full control of folders where I try to save and where Bit Torrent is installed
hi i recently downloaded a movie…but dont knwo how to play the video…when i open it it plays in windows media player but no picturs com up…..could you plase tell me where im going wrong….
The problem is with new versions of uTorrent do not work well with Vista.
I Run version 1.6, no problem to save files to disk, change back to latest release and can NOT save the torrent file to disk.
Note to a1987: search google for “VLC PLAYER” It’s free and will play all video files.
This is my first time to use utorrent 1.7.7 . Honestly, i just a video from u tube on how can I download a movie, Hancock in particular. The download status has been completed, but I donw know whats next to be done. On how can I view what I have downloaded, and how can I burn it to a cd. Please help. Thanks
haydee -
Not that I condone piracy, but you probably need to “unrar” (decompress) the files. This tutorial explains how to extract the movie from the rar files.
If the .torrent just contained the actual .avi (movie), VLC Player will play it.
If you’re having trouble actually finding the folder that contains the files you’ve downloaded, I think the default download folder of uTorrent is “download” or “downloads” inside of your My Documents folder.
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