Geeks have no problem with this of course, but it’s not something everyone wants to spend time setting up. Happily it is no longer necessary with µTorrent 3, which offers an extremely simple way to manage your torrents remotely. Whether you want to simply add a torrent to your download queue, manage which files are downloaded within a particular torrent or even change your client settings, µTorrent Remote gives you full access to µTorrent from anywhere.

Getting Set Up

The first thing you need to do, if you haven’t done it yet, is install µTorrent 3 - find the download here. Downloads are available for Windows and Mac. Once you’ve got your new version of µTorrent up and running you’ll notice a new button on the menu bar. Click it:

Doing so will quickly take you to the “Remote” section in µTorrent’s preferences. Now you need only add a username and password:

You should see “Status:Accessible” under these boxes shortly after you fill them in. If not, try another username/password combination. When you do see “Status:Accessible” you’re done.

Yep, that was it.

Web Interface

Ready to check out the web interface? Simply head to remote.µTorrent.com. You’ll need to move your mouse around to help encrypt the communications, then you can enter your username and password. Should all go well you’ll then be looking at the web interface of µTorrent:

Everything you can do in µTorrent itself you can do here, it seems, from managing your torrents to changing your download settings.

This isn’t a dumbed-down version of µTorrent for the web; everything is here, and it’s all very easy to find if you’re familiar with µTorrent’s interface already. I was able to add an RSS feed, set certain files not to download within a torrent and cap the total amount of bandwidth used by all downloads.

Privacy

So what are the privacy implications of logging into your torrent client over the web? Many are concerned with this, but it seems to me that the µTorrent team spent a lot of time making this secure. Read their privacy FAQ here for more information.

Conclusion

I’m not sure how often I’ll be logging into µTorrent to manage my downloads; I’ve been using Dropbox to start torrent downloads for a long time and don’t usually need more than that. Still, it’s nice to have the option to log in without the need to configure my network settings.

Do you see yourself using µTorrent’s remote function often? Let us know in the comments below, along with any other tips for achieving the same thing.

Open Those Ports!

Your first step how to speed up torrent downloads is to ensure you can actually be connected to from other peers. The latest version of uTorrent is able to test this for you, so launch the Setup Guide from the Options menu. If you have an older uTorrent, you can test specific ports using this tool.

By default, uTorrent will attempt to auto-configure your router using uPnP, which solves so many problems. If your router isn’t compatible, this will fail – but you can perform the following steps to forward the ports correctly.

Open up a command prompt from Windows, and type ipconfig. Find the IPv4 address of the form 192.168.x.x and note it down.

Open up uTorrent Options-> Preferences -> Connection , and choose your own port or note down the one it has chosen for you. Make sure “randomise port each start” is not checked.

Open up your router config page and look for PORT FORWARDING. Yours may be different, but they are all basically similar. Name the forwarding rule, add the first and last port you want forwarded (just enter the same value in this case), and the IP address or the machine you want forwarded to.

Note that if your network is running an automatic addressing scheme, you may need to reconfigure this if you shut down and are given a new address. You can read my previous tutorial here on how to reserve a permanent IP address from your router.

Be sure to re-test when you’re done, though you may need to restart your router.

ISP Throttling & Traffic Shaping

Assuming you’ve gone through all the other steps in this guide and your torrents are still slow, then it’s quite possible that your ISP is shaping your traffic somehow.

This tool from Glasnost can help you tell if your ISP is throttling your speed and specifically tests torrent protocol.

If you find you’re being restricted, you have two possible courses of action. The first is to switch your ISP to one less draconic. In the UK at least, I know Virgin Media are very open about their traffic policies, and do perform some outright speed restrictions (not just on your torrent traffic) if your download/upload goes beyond a certain point during peak times. In general though, they have the least restrictive of any UK ISP.

Your second option is to use a VPN to encrypt your traffic, making it impossible for your ISP to inspect what you are actually doing. Bear in mind this only works if they are “shaping” your traffic for specific protocols, rather than placing general restrictions on the total amount of traffic you can use. We covered some free solutions before, and you can read a complete explanation of what a VPN is here – but when choosing a service for you it’s important to note that most VPN services explicitly DON’T allow torrent traffic, and certainly not any that are free. The best two paid services I know of that do allow unlimited torrent traffic are vpntunnel.se and torrentsecurity.com

Enable DHT Or Join A Private Tracker

I extolled the virtues of private trackers with their ridiculously fast download speeds and high quality torrents last week in my 9 Easy Ways To Never Get A Virus article, but be aware that private trackers generally don’t allow peer exchange and DHT to be enabled because it prevents the system from counting your ratio correctly, effectively letting certain users “cheat”. So personally, I would recommend you DISABLE DHT and join a good private tracker or two, but if you can’t find your way into one…

Make sure DHT and peer exchange is enabled from the connections screen. This will have the fortunate side effect of meaning you can still find peers even when the tracker is down.

Windows Firewall

Make sure the firewall exception is on, or turn off the Windows firewall entirely. Again, do this from the connections screen of uTorrent options if you wish to add an exception.

In my opinion it’s another of those unnecessary security precautions like anti-virus that ends up causing far more problems that it’s worth. To turn off the firewall completely, click Start and type “firewall“. Open the first option in the Control Panel results, and you’ll see a link on the sidebar to completely disable it.

Don’t Be A Leech

If you set your torrent client to severely restrict the amount of uploading it can do, and basically just leech the files, most private trackers will restrict the amount you can download too. Make sure you are fully able and willing to give back to the community.

Conclusion

What kind of speeds do you get for torrents, and is that your ISPs fault? Do you have a restrictive ISP and would like to shame them in the comments? Do you still use public trackers? Go ahead and tell the world in the comments! Alternatively, ask for ISP specific advice in the ever growing tech questions community we have here at MakeUseOf.

It turns out that you can. The developer of uTorrent is trying to improve the user experience by opening up the app to uTorrent extensions. If you’ve upgraded your uTorrent to the latest version (Windows version only), you will see the new menu called “Apps” which contains the ingredients to make your favorite BitTorrent client much more powerful.

Let’s Start With The Skins

uTorrent apps are HTML and Javascript compilations which are specifically built to run from within uTorrent. The concept of uTorrent apps is similar to browser extensions: to add more functionalities to the main software while still giving users full control on what functionalities they want to add.

To start using uTorrent apps, click on the “Apps” menu on the left pane of the uTorrent window. You will see a list of available apps. At the time of writing there are already seventeen apps in the repository, and the developer has promised that more are on the way. To add one of the apps functionality to uTorrent, click the “Install” button. You can also download the apps from the uTorrent Apps website in the form of “.btapp” files.

The first app that I chose to install was skins. This app will give users the ability to change the look of uTorrent’s interface. I clicked on “Skins” on the Apps’ page and arrived on the information page. Then I clicked the “Install” button to download and install the app.

The “Skins” menu appeared under the “Apps“. This menu will allow you to choose and install new skins under the “Browse Skins” tab and switch among the installed skins under the “Recent Skins” tab. Apply the skin that you want by clicking on the “Install” button inside the image box.

You can go back to the “Default Skin” easily by clicking the respective button, or you can also try to create your own skin using the “Create a Skin” button.

This is how uTorrent will look with one of the customized skins.

And this one is how it will look under the default skin.

The Other Apps

There are many other available apps inside the repository. Let’s take a look at some of them.

The second app from the list that caught my attention is VLC. Everybody knows VLC as a stand alone all-you-can-play media player. This VLC uTorrent app will display all the media that you downloaded using uTorrent, and you can easily select and play one of them using VLC in just one click.

If you want to skip the information screen, you can just press the “Install” button on the repository page and uTorrent will download and install the app.

This is how the VLC app menu will look : a list of downloaded videos and music and a play button. To play a media file, just select one from the list and click “Play“.

If you love movies, you might want to also try VODO. Each month, this app will feature one movie that can be legally downloaded for free. The movies are provided by “creators who believe in the power of peer-to-peer distribution “. However, you are encouraged to donate straight to the creators to support them.

After installing, VODO will display the “movie of the month” download page, and a list of other freely available movies.

Other apps that you might want to try are:

There are also games that you can play from within uTorrent, like Raptr, Outspark, and Tetronimoes. You can use these games to waste your time while waiting for your download to finish. You can browse the repository page for other available apps.

Uninstalling Apps

If – after trying out an app – you decide that you don’t want to use it, you can uninstall the app easily by right-clicking on the item under the Apps menu and choosing “Uninstall App” from the pop-up menu.

You will get a confirmation window, asking you whether you really want to uninstall the app and reassuring you that none of your downloads will be interrupted nor removed. Click “Yes” to continue with the uninstallation.

As these apps are still in the very early stages, we will still have to wait and see whether additional functionalities from uTorrent apps will be as successful as browser extensions. Personally, I found that they are useful. All the apps that I tried worked as promised, except for Raptr – which is supposed to be a game repository but still doesn’t have any games inside its list.

If you’ve used the apps before, or if you are a uTorrent user but never heard of the apps, try them and share your thoughts and opinions using the comments below.

Put simply a torrent box allows you to queue, manage and share all your torrent data via a network connection. You can leave this old PC in the corner, silently chipping away at your downloads and seeding like a trooper whilst you take your laptop out and about for more practical reasons. You won’t need a monitor once you’ve set up the box, which means you can put it anywhere it will fit.

Setting Up

It’s always best to start with a fresh operating system, so format and re-install your chosen OS on the PC’s hard drive. As we’ll be using uTorrent to administer everything remotely, you’ll need a copy of Windows 2000 or above. If you’ve never installed your particular copy of Windows on this machine before, you may need to call Microsoft to validate your key with use on your new (old) machine.

Don’t forget that system requirements for Microsoft Windows XP are very low by today’s standards ““ a Pentium 233 MHz with 64 MB of RAM may sound a little choppy, but will function fine. As you’re going to be using the machine to store data, you’ll need a fairly large hard drive depending on your plans.

If you’d like to use the box as a share for all members of your household, the more storage you’ve got the better. However if you’re using the box as a go-between, before transferring your downloads to shares or backup locations, then space is not so much of an issue. External hard drives can make for easy space upgrades, and provides a very mobile solution when transferring data, though be sure to update any older copies of Windows for USB 2.0 compatibility.

It’s important to remember to format the drive on which you will be downloading your torrent data to NTFS, and not the older FAT32 file system. NTFS will allow you to download files greater than 4GB, a constraint when using FAT32 devices.

Make sure you have at least one shared and accessible location from which to access the data. Simply create a folder on your main download drive, right click and choose Share. This is where all your downloaded data will go. It’s best to test this on another machine within your network first, just in case. If you make this share writeable, you’ll be able to add your own data to the drive and share it straight from the box itself.

Installing uTorrent & The Web UI

The latest version of uTorrent comes with everything you need to configure remote access. Simply download and install it from the official download page, and boot it up. You may want to adjust a few settings, including your connection settings for optimal download and upload performance. Check out this guide to speeding up your torrents for a few tricks you might not have thought of.

Hit Ctrl+P to bring up the Preferences dialog, and within the General tab check Start uTorrent on System Startup. This means if you ever need to restart or move your box you can resume your torrents by simply turning it on. Under Web UI, check Enable Web UI and create a username and password.

You can also specify an Alternative listening port for connecting to your remote interface. If you have trouble remembering your connection port under the Connection tab, stick in some numbers you’re bound to remember.

That’s it, you’re good to go. Now for the easy bit!

Remote Access

Make sure your torrent box is turned on, connected to the network and running uTorrent. Using any machine on your network visit http://192.168.0.x:port/gui/ from a web browser, where x is the computer’s location on the network and port is either your uTorrent client’s connection port or alternative listening port.

To find out your computer’s location on the network, log into your router and check the attached devices, or you can just use a process of elimination!  If all goes well you will be prompted for the username and password you created under uTorrent’s Web UI preferences.

Log in and you will be presented with uTorrent’s web user interface. From here you can add, remove and manage your torrents, as well as update your preferences. It’s quite literally uTorrent, within your web browser.

Accessing your Web UI is all well and good on your network, but what about when you’re not at home?

Well if you have a static IP ““ no problem, simply visit http://yourip:port/gui/. You can get your IP from What Is My IP on your home network. If your internet service provider rotates your IP then you can use a service such as DynDNS which provides you with a domain name for your home network. There is an excellent guide about doing this here.

Conclusion

I’m always searching for new ways to use old technology, and a torrent box fits my needs and costs nothing to set up. If you’ve already got an existing media centre or file server, adding torrent functionality is another simple step you can take to streamline your home setup. Remote access gives you the freedom to peruse from afar and have your downloads ready for you and the rest of your network the second you get home.

If you are looking for more information on torrents, check out Saikat’s The FREE Torrent Guide. Also check out some of the numerous torrents articles that we have done in the past -

How To Use RSS Feeds To Download Torrents Automatically – by Varun
Top 6 Torrent Alternatives To The Pirate Bay – by Will
5 Ways To Bypass Torrent Connection Blocking – by Jeffry
Find Torrents Of Your Favorite TV Shows With TED – by Sharninder
Top Torrent Search Engines for All Torrent Downloaders – by Varun

Do you have a dedicated torrent box sitting in the corner? Have you combined it with a media centre or file server, or do you simply use your main PC with Web UI? Let us know in the comments below.

The industry is slowly coming to terms with the fact that one size doesn’t fit all, and allowing the consumer to pimp their individual user experiences.

Why shouldn’t it? With decent implementation, the base applications in question remain as fast, functional and easy to use as ever before. There’s no must in the equation. Only opportunity.

uTorrent :: Project Griffin (Alpha)

With its latest alpha release, uTorrent has added support for so called third-party ‘apps’, comparable to Firefox’s add-ons, or Chrome’s extensions.

First of all, the Alpha release of Project Griffin is only available for Windows. Secondly, it’s in Alpha, which means it’s considerably more unstable than even a Beta. This means that you can still expect some rough edges and application crashes before it rolls as smooth as a release version. The Alpha can already be downloaded for those bleeding-edge feature-junkies amongst you.

The uTorrent extensions use a web-based framework, which consists only of HTML and Javascript. Essentially, aside from the technical details, this means that uTorrent won’t be paying for the upcoming extensions in size or speed. It will remain the feather-light and lightning-fast BitTorrent client we have all come to enjoy.

The developer API is still to be released, so right now, there are four uTorrent extensions available – discussed below. It goes without saying that these are for demonstration and testing purposes, albeit adding interesting features to the application.

Virus Guard

This might seem like an odd choice, since most people have a virus scanner on their computer already. Sadly, though, the need to surveil an entire computer clogs up a considerable amount of memory. Whether you only want to put a guard at the weakest gate, or add an extra layer of security, Virus Guard comes to the rescue.

The extension is powered by BitDefender, a considerable player in the anti-virus community, and can be used one of two ways. Scan All, depicted above, will take a thorough look through your entire torrent libraries, and attempt to spot any irregularities. Additionally, you can right-click any individual torrent and let the Virus Guard inspect it.

Raptr Free Games

The Raptr uTorrent extension takes another route – that of free games. No, the extension won’t integrate MiniClip or Kongregate in your Torrenting application, luckily, but offers you a repository of the top freeware games, much like those we sometimes discuss at MakeUseOf.

Simply select one of the games from the list, review the description, file size and rating, and start downloading it with the click of a button. Each and every one of those game downloads will fire up a torrent in the main uTorrent panel. Simple as that.

VODO

VODO can be compared to Raptr, but for indie short films instead of games. Again, you can browse the titles as if you were simply using a web-browser, viewing individual film descriptions and comments.

Those film downloads will be launched as torrents as well, and are sometimes available in both a standard definition, and high definition flavor.

µGadget

µGadget is the only uTorrent extension that specifically focuses on uTorrent, and quite frankly, the only extension I advise against installing. Here’s why.

Although it’s advertised as bringing browser support to uTorrent, it does so much more. And not in a good way. In essence, µGadget is an Ask.com toolbar with a little bit of uTorrent control. As you can see below, the majority of the toolbar is cluttered with the usual unnecessary superfluidity.

Only when you press the uTorrent icon, limited controls come into sight. If you don’t mind the Ask.com toolbar, µGadget does its job perfectly. However, it’s probably still easier to just open the uTorrent client if you suddenly change your mind about a download.

What do you think? Will uTorrent be needlessly cluttered by these apps, or do you see the windows of opportunity opening wide? Let us know your opinion in the comments section below!