When we download a file from the Internet, there are many factors that can affect the speed to the point that we either download it at 100% of our bandwidth, or the speed can be so low that it becomes unfeasible. Some factors depend on us, such as having a good connection, while others are beyond our control, such as the state of the servers from which we download the files. Be that as it may, there are some tricks that allow us to speed up file downloads, especially when we use Torrent or P2P networks.
The speed of P2P downloads, such as those on the BitTorrent network, depends on many factors. As there is no centralized server from which the file is transmitted, but dozens, or hundreds, of points (users) distributed throughout the network, the speed of these downloads is highly variable, and we can go from using 100 in an instant. % of our bandwidth to download at less than one megabyte per second.
Many of these factors (if not almost all) are beyond our control, and there is little we can do to control them. But what we can do is resort to some simple tricks that will help us to make the downloads go better, faster and more stable. Let’s go see them.
Tricks to download better from the Torrent network
The first thing we need to improve our downloads is to use a good client. There are many programs to download files from this P2P network, but not all of them are equally fast or efficient. One of the best known and used is uTorrent, but for some time it has become more of a threat than a program, so we don’t recommend its use. On the contrary, there are two Torrent programs that stand out especially in this regard, and they are both Transmission as qBittorrent. These two programs are excellent for downloading all kinds of files from P2P networks, they are light, fast and completely free and without ads.
Another of the configurations that users forget is to open the port of the program in the router. We almost always go through something because, after all, the program works. But if we have the port closed, the router will be constantly blocking incoming connections and we will not be able to download at maximum speed. If the router has UPnP we can activate it so that the port opens and closes automatically. But the ideal is to enter the router configuration and open it manually.
In addition to the port, it is important to configure rules in the computer’s firewall so that it is not the one that blocks file downloads and we can download files much faster.
Finally, it is very important to make sure that the file we are trying to download has a good amount of seeds. The seeds are the users who have previously downloaded the file and are sharing it from their computer. The higher the number, the more connections we will have and the faster we can download. In addition, we can take advantage of some protocols, such as uPT, PEX and DHT, to find more pairs in other different trackers. We can activate these protocols from the configuration options of our download program.
