Advanced Bittorrent efficiency using DD-WRT, QoS and uTorrent

[sven007]

I just wrote this like, 10 minutes ago. It's not completely finished, so if anyone has something to add, tell me and I can add it. also, this assumes you know a bit about networking, because QoS does some major major traffic shaping, and if not set up properly, you have to know how to go back to troubleshoot or return to your original configuration. I also assumed you knew how to do port forwards, and if not, i left a link to a page about it. Tell me what you guys think

GUIDE:

This guide uses advanced features of the DD-WRT router firmware, and the simplistic features of uTorrent to seed at the max upload speed without causing slowdowns in other connections. This guide assumes that you know a bit about setting up routers (ie forwarding ports) as it doesn't go into much depth on steps other guides cover..

We will need to have DD-WRT compatible router, and uTorrent (or a similar client). You will have to flash your router to the latest firmware, depending on your model. I won't be explaining this here, because there are enough guides online.

http://192.168.1.1, and click on applications and gaming. First, if you didn't forward the uTorrent port, click on Port Forwarding and fill in the information for that computer/port combination, and push apply (wiki page here: http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Port_Forwarding). Next click on QoS. Enable QoS, then enter 85% of you upload speed into uplink, and 85% of your download speed into downlink. That is the initial setup. Your router will now try to balance your bittorent traffic with other services, the problem is they all have the same priority. We know that we don't want our internet browsing to wait in line with Bittorrent traffic. We want all Bittorrent traffic to be lowest. A simple way to do this is to select "bittorrent" from the service box and then add. This will not work as good as the following instructions, as encrypted traffic passes as normal traffic, and has the same priority as browsing.

Click on "edit/add service". In the window that poped up, enter a service name (I used utorser, for utorrent server). Under protocol select "TCP & UDP". Under port range, insert the port number we wrote down earlier. [ Push add and then apply. This will add our new rule to the QoS filters. You should be back at the QoS settings page, if not, go there. Choose your new service from the box, and click add. Choose bulk as a priority, and then click save settings. Wait a little bit while your router sets itself up. Once it's done, you have QoS set up. If you use real time applications (such as instant messaging and VOIP), I would also add them to the list of services, but raise the priority. Standard reserves 10%, Express 15%, Premium 75%, and exempt gives 100%. Any Service not in the list will be listed as standard. This does not mean that your program will be limited to only 10%; it means that if it has to share, it will make sure that it has 10%. Bulk means that there is no reserved bandwidth. This means that if you're making a VOIP call (set to exclusive), while you surf the net and chatting, that means that 95% of your bandwidth is reserved, and Bittorrent will use the last 5%. When your done your call, it will go up to 80%, because 10% is reserved for chatting and another 10% for your surfing.

If your QoS is set up properly (and using the right values for upload and download), you will be able to seed at full speed, and when you need to surf the net or receive a VOIP call, the bittorrent traffic will move out of the way. The advantage to this is seeding is faster, allowing you to get a 1.00 ratio faster. You no longer have to hold back your client to make sure you can surf the net or take a call. You are now a better faster Bittorrent user without having to sacrifice your internet connection.

Note: Since we are using a port instead of a protocol, you can encrypt your Bittorrent traffic and it will still be managed properly. If we used the bittorrent rule, any encrypted traffic would act as normal traffic and take up bandwidth.

Important WebUI note: If you're using the WebUI, change the port! If you don't, the WebUI pages will be slowed down as bulk traffic and you might not be able to use them. once you change the port, it's a different service and is not slowed down.

Further details on DD-WRT QoS: http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Quality_of_Service

Advantages:

Always using the whole connection.

Efficient bandwidth sharing.

Bandwidth is there when you need it.

Seeding tasks finish faster.

By putting priority on online gaming, you can torrent without lagging.

Disadvantages:

Needs to be set up properly, or else you will suffer major lags.

Takes a little time to set up "properly", need to know surfing habits.

Personal example: Before I started using the QoS, I would have the uTorrent scheduler lower the upload rate between 8 am and 11 pm in order to be able to surf the net. At night, it would run full speed. The problem with this setting is that free bandwidth is wasted when I'm not surfing the net or playing a game, so it takes longer to get to 1.5 ratio. Once I set up the QoS, I seed at full speed, and I don't worry about any network slowdown when I need it. This helps a lot when I'm seeding a 4.7 gig dvd.

[Lord Alderaan]

Nice guide.

QoS is a good way to maximize your utorrent speeds without it messing with you other traffic. If QoS is setup correctly you could leave utorrent at max speed and play online games, Voice Chat, Browse, FTP server, HTTP server without problems.

I'm looking into QoS myself

[Ersan]

Erm, wouldn't that only cover outgoing traffic as incoming traffic will be on many different ports?

[sven007]

It covers both incoming and outgoing traffic, but since incoming traffic is limited by your ISP, it in fact just limits your upload speed. The download limit comes more in handy when you do QoS over the Lan and Wan, instead of just the Wan.

[Switeck]

Even when using QoS routers/software in conjunction with µTorrent, it is still a good idea to give µTorrent a max upload speed no greater than normally possible.

This includes using µTorrent's Scheduler to lower upload speed during hours where your max is definitely reduced due to ISP throttling.

Otherwise, more peers get upload slots to you than µTorrent can fill at any given moment...and those peers will be getting download speeds from you that may be less than 1 KB/sec. µTorrent is still expecting that it CAN upload at its set max, so those on the torrent can "suffer" even if your web surfing doesn't. This can be doubly bad if you have the "use additional upload slots if upload speed is <90%"!

[sven007]

exactly, thats what i have it set as. the issue on my side is not bandwidth throtling, it's that i want to upload as fast as i can, but also make it possible to have some upload bandwidth for when i surf the net. by consequence, setting both the router and uTorrent to 90%, i can get that upload speed for surfing when i need it (which isn't constant, reducing the efficiency of the scheduler). in the end, i haven't seen any negative results in my case, and upload at 40KB/s all day.