# Port Forwarding for UTorrent Will It Slow Down Internet Browsing



## Peachesbackwards (Jul 18, 2007)

I currently download torrents through UTorrent & have a Cable Broadband connection on an XP System with 2 GB Ram & Dual 2 Core OS but do so without having set up port forwarding. MY average download speed is between 15 -35 kbs, though sometimes I get speeds of 150 & 250, but that is the exception more then the rule. I've been told that if I set up port forwarding my downloads will be much faster but there is a chance that this will slow my internet browsing speed down even if I have Utorrent and/or the Port Forwarded closed. Can you give me your opinion & advice on this? Am I best off leaving well enough alone? Thanks


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## refresher (Jul 18, 2007)

If you have gotten up to 150-200 then you don't need to port forward. People who need to port forward usually see between 0-15 kbps.


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## Peachesbackwards (Jul 18, 2007)

Thanks for your advice


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## bit4bit (Jul 18, 2007)

yeh I'm trying to do it with utorrent too cause I get some really bad speeds. it can slow down your internet browsing too?? why does it do that? I thought the browser uses a diffrent port to utorrent so it shouldn't make a difference?


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## Peachesbackwards (Jul 18, 2007)

What are the bad speeds your getting on the average & what kind of connection do you have (broadband, dial-up)? In some cases, your low speeds might be because there aren't that many seeds or the person uploading is on a slow server. I originally asked this because some dude said he averages 150 & that's way above my usual 15-35, with the occasional 150 or so. 

Someone told me that if you port forward, even if you close the Port and/or Utorrent, you still will get residual overflow that could still slow your browsing down.

In regards to Utorrent, the less uploads you allow, the faster your downloading will be.


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## tlarkin (Jul 18, 2007)

I've gotten over 1mbit/second with torrents.  Forwarding your ports allows for a better connection but remember your bandwidth is shared, so if you have one computer maxed out via bit torrent your internet browsing will run slow.

I disable my torrent client from running when playing games online or doing anything that would require more bandwidth.


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## zaroba (Jul 19, 2007)

port forwarding wont slow down your internet speed unless utorrent is set to use all of your download bandwidth, and if it actually does use all of it.  the max download speed it can use can be set in Preferences -> connection at the bottem where it says 'max download bandwidth rate'.  you can also set up the scheduler to allow utorrent to use ALL your bandwidth at times when nobody will be using the internet.  I have mine set up so the scheduler limits utorrent to 20kb less then my max download at times when i will be home so that i can browse the internet and play internet games without trouble.  at times when i wont be home, the scheduler lets utorrent use all my bandwidth.


and although yes, you can get occasional high speeds without the port forwarded, you wont get constant high speeds since every piece of info that utorrent downloads will have to go threw the tracker first, instead of directly going from peer to peer.  with the port forwarded, utorrent will be able to directly connect to other peers sharing the file(s) you need so it will be able to download the files faster, get seed info on the file(s) faster to start the downloads faster, and then you can also use DHT to continue to download/seed the files even if the tracker goes down.

as an example, every week i download the newly released episode of an anime series.
it usually has 5k+ seeders and 10k+ leechers when i start to download it.  without the port forwarded, it'll usually only download at 15-30kbps, however, with the port forwarded and the speed unlimited it'll download at my max of 180kbps, and in only 15-20 mins compaired to 2 hours.


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## Cheese (Jul 19, 2007)

whats torrent?


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