Torrent confusion

Ok, a long time ago I asked how the torrent stuff works in the general sense but now I need help with specifics.

First, I am using BitTorrent and I seem to be having issues with uploading files sometimes. I'm not sure if it is a lack of peers or just some other issue. I don't have much access to my router (ATT Uverse) and while I'm not currently savvy on messing with it, I can probably follow instructions on how to do it.

Secondly, should I switch from BitTorrent to uTorrent or another torrent program? If yes, any recommendations (and preferably explanations, just out of curiosity).

PS: I seem to be having issues with thumbnails loading: either they don't load and I just see a text link, or they are badly sized. As nobody has commented on that, I am left wondering if it is an issue on my end. Any advice?

Tixati | uTorrent

I recommend using uTorrent for your level of expertise. There is a check-mark icon at the bottom of the client that will be coloured red, yellow or green. If it's yellow chances are you have not forwarded the port you are trying to upload from.

BitTorrent is an ancient and pretty much outdated client. Switching to something modern is recommended.

Since uTorrent is free, popular and well maintained and it has all necessary modern features (distributed tracking, peer discovery and exchange, encrypted transfer) it's a good choice.

I've used to use Vuze (earlier known as Azureus) before, but lately it has suffered from severe feature creep, so I switched to uTorrent.

Thanks on uTorrent, it's pretty similar to BitTorrent so I don't need to relearn anything like making seeds end at the 200% ratio.

Any advice if I need to do any port forwarding?

As for uploading or seeding, in terms of portforwarding, you don't need to go to complicated lengths. The thing to make sure is your firewall. If you're using uTorrent, you have to make sure that your firewall isn't blocking uTorrent's connection to BOTH home/work(private)/local networks and public networks. The public network connection is what connects you to other peers (hence called p2p or peer to peer).

And for uTorrent it has a guide to help you for any questions. Also like Navikt said, the little icon at the bottom right hand corner of the screen with the 3 types of symbols, RED cross, Yellow exclamation mark and green tick tells you your connection status.

Happy seeding :D

Thanks, that really helped. Well, I went the long way and had to deal with my antivirus/firewall but I got it done. I think...

EDIT: Still looks like I'm not uploading.


If it helps, I'm using McAffe for my firewall.

Not true at all, BitTorrent is still updated regularly, also if I'm not mistaken, it's made by the same peeps as uTorrent. uTorrent actually started out as a small version of BitTorrent, now they're as popular as each other. I've tried both and the only significant difference I have noticed is that uTorrent is just a light weight version, while BitTorrent is more robust.

So no, there's nothing wrong with BitTorrent, keep using it if you want (I still use it and get good speeds)



As far as I remember, UPnP isn't the firewall, but the router. Have you tried changing the settings on that yet?

Nope, AT&T is kinda touchy about us messing with the router on our own and I don't know how to mess with 2Wire routers. I'll try tonight, but if anyone has some pointers I'd be very thankful.

Well then, AT&T need to get over themselves.
First thing you need to do is find the page to go to change the settings, Google your router model number and something along the lines of "settings page". Hopefully you should find an ip address (something along the lines of 10.0.0.X [x usually being 0 or a large number in the hundreds]) if you enter that in your browser's address bar and press enter, the settings page should pop up, have a look around and see if you can find something about "Port Forwarding"

If you do, come back on here and tell us what it says on the page and we should be able to direct you from there.

Well, since my last trip into the router systems it has become much more welcoming and user friendly.

Here's a cap of how I forwarded the ports:


Here are the settings page thumbnails:


I'm not sure if it is set up properly or not as uTorrtent still seems to have some issues.

I would also like to thank everyone for all of their help. I only have a slight idea of what I'm doing and it helps to have some extra help and opinions.

Yeah, it looks like something is still amiss. I have some stuff downloaded, but it won't seed. On one of the torrents I know that there are no leechers, but on the others there are at least two. Two have a number of other seeders, but on the other I am one of the three seeders and it says that there are 27 peers. Any suggestions?

Hmm... so it's not uploading but it's downloading? Sounds like something is blocking it but I can't think what would block UPloading but not DOWNloading, doesn't make much sense if it's on the trusted list of your firewall, have you gone through your firewall and told it that BitTorrent, or uTorrent (whichever you use now) is to be trusted?

And if the ports are forwarded wouldn't that include the outgoing ports of those programs...

We must be missing something. What is your operating system? (Windows, Linux, or mac?)

Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit, most recent updates
Antivirus/firewall: McAfee
Windows firewall: Off
Computer is an HP g62 series laptop

This time I switched it so that my computer would be the one hosting StarCraft and uTorrent so hopefully it will work better. Unfortunately, the odds are that I need to go ahead and set up a static IP address and I can never figure out how to navigate through the Port Forward website. My router appears to set up semi-static addresses for the stuff on the network, but I'm not sure if that is god enough.