Ultimate BitComet Guide to the Universe

I have written this quick but extensive guide to help all fellow members who are having troubles downloading torrents or using Bit Comet in general.

1) First read the very basic guide aD has here on BitComet on how to install and run Bitcomet for the first time and to learn about torrents in general.
http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/guide_to_bitcomet.cfm

2) Next visit http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/ pick the city closest to yours and get your max upload speed. Now with that same number, (for eg. 300 kb/s) divide first by 8 (eg. 300/8 = 37.5) then take that number you just got and multiply it by .8 (eg. 37.5*.8 = [bold]30[/bold]) The final number you get is your Global Max Upload, which can be set in the Preferences section of Bitcomet.

Note: If you do not live in the US, visit here and pick the city closest to you, http://www.dslreports.com/speedtest?more=1

3) Download BitComet 0.61 here http://www.afterdawn.com/software/p2p_software/p2p_applications/bitcomet.cfm

4)Install and then run BitComet 0.61. NOTE: DO NOT DOWNLOAD BITCOMET 1.01 BECAUSE IT IS A FAKE AND IS FULL OF SPYWARE.

5) Under Preferences, select a random listening port or just use 12242.

6) Run this test and follow all the steps it tells you to GREATLY improve your cable/dsl connection.
http://www.broadbandreports.com/tweaks
Under advertised speed, use the max speed you got after taking the speed test.

7)If you are behind a firewall such as McAfee, please allow full access to the internet for BitComet. If Using Windows Firewall, then you must do the following: Open Windows Firewall through the Control Panel. Go to the Exceptions tab and press Add Port. Then add the port # you selected in step 5.

8) If you are behind a router, please visit http://www.portforward.com and then select your router, and then BitComet. Follow every step to forward your ports and allow greater access to better speeds for your torrents.

9) If possible, register with private trackers such as http://torrentleech.org or http://bitsoup.org . If these are full, keep trying as they ban people on the regular leaving open spots.
If not, use decent public trackers such as http://mininova.org , http://thepiratebay.org , http://isohunt.com or ONE of my favorite, http://torrentspy.com
If you are using IsoHunt they give you a list of trackers, copy these trackers and put them in your tracker list on BitComet.

10) Download the torrent of your choice that has the most Seeds but least amount of leechers. Keep in mind, torrents with for eg. 8 seeds will download slower than a torrent with 100+ seeds.

11) When downloading large files (500+ MB) it takes up to 30 minutes to get up to full speed, so dont worry if you start off slow. Also do NOT download more than one torrent at a time.

12) Under preferences in BC, go to connections and set max connection per task to 285.

Well ive tried to keep this small guide short and sweet, and I hope it helps the many out there who still have problems with torrent downloading

PS. In case anyone is not sure that this works, i have a 10000kb (1.4 MB) connection, forwarded through a Netgear Router, registered with a private tracker and i get normally 500-1300 KB/s download speed.

Enjoy!

For any other problems with other clients visit J-Kwon's excellent guide here, http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/229385

Copyright Andre Yoskowitz (DVDBack23) 2005

 

Thanks Alien, i got somewhat tired of answering the same questions over an over, now if only they would sticky mine and J-Kwons guides....

 

Thanks for the add in your guide, have placed your link here as well for the people who dont like BC and want in-depth analysis into torrents

 

Alien,
thanks man, good luck with your site!

 

1 gb downloaded for a 700 mb file? Ive had experiences with like 890 for a 780 mb file, perhaps it is just the byte conversion?

 

Alien and Leogeo, read this

"What are these "a piece has failed an hash check" messages?

Bittorrent clients check the data they receive for integrity. When a piece fails this check it is automatically re-downloaded. Occasional hash fails are a common occurrence, and you shouldn't worry.

Some clients have an (advanced) option/preference to 'kick/ban clients that send you bad data' or similar. It should be turned on, since it makes sure that if a peer repeatedly sends you pieces that fail the hash check it will be ignored in the future.


[bold]The torrent is supposed to be 100MB. How come I downloaded 120MB?

See the hash fails topic. If your client receives bad data it will have to redownload it, therefore the total downloaded may be larger than the torrent size. Make sure the "kick/ban" option is turned on to minimize the extra downloads."[/bold]

 

Alien,

to be honest, i use BC and it doesnt have that option as far as i know. Perhaps azarues or BTornado do?