So you've just learned how BitTorrent works but then after all your hard research you download stuff, wait to upload, and what? Nothing is uploading? Chances are, if you are behind a router, you need to do some port forwarding. This is what happens when on the torrent pages, you are listed as "Not Connectable"
1. How Routers Work
2. Internal vs. External IP Addresses
3. Static vs. Dynamic IP Addresses
4. How Ports Work
5. Putting it All together
6. Now What?
How Routers Work
Before we can get into all that good junk, I think it's best to explain just how routers work.
Let's say you have multiple PCs under one roof...rather than have a modem for every single PC to connect to the Internet, you have one modem, and one router. With the router every PC in the house can connect to the Internet, using a wireless connection.
Internal vs. External IP Addresses
The router has what's called an external IP address that "marks" who you are. You, me, and everyone that's connected to the Internet has an external IP — when you go to Google and do the "What's my IP?" thing — that's your external.
However, only one IP address is assigned for one household (unless you pay for it assuming your ISP offers...unlikely), so what happens when 3 different PCs are under one router? Well, they all have the same external address, but each individual PC has an internal IP address.
The internal IP address identifies each computer on the network. It's normally something like 192.xxx.x.xxx. For example, my internal IP address last time I checked was 192.168.1.160. Don't worry, nobody can see your internal address unless they're on the same network as you.
Static vs. Dynamic IP Addresses
Don't worry, we're getting to the good stuff soon. But you need to know this info in order to understand how port forwarding works. This is pretty easy though.
A dynamic IP address will change, most of the time randomly. This could apply to external or internal IPs, but for port forwarding you have to pay attention to the internal IP address. When does it change? It depends. Sometimes it'll change every time you reconnect, sometimes if you get rebooted...it just depends on the router.
A static IP address never changes; you set it to a specific IP and it stays there until the router is either set back to factory defaults or you change it.
How Ports Work
When a packet is sent to a computer — when information is sent to a computer that is — it travels through an open port. Your PC does this all the time without you even knowing! Common ports are used daily, for things like the Internet, instant messaging, etc.
For example, it might be that your instant message client uses port 5555, and your IP is 98.154.221.30. When you are sending a message, the data is sent from 98.154.221.30:5555. The ":" designates the port number to be used.
But the rest of the ports on your connection are closed, unless you open them. This is all leading up to our next section...
But what IS port forwarding? Why do I care? What does this have to do with my slow uploads!?
When you don't have a port open for your BitTorrent client, it makes connecting to people extremely difficult. When your ports are not forwarded, you can send a request to connect to a peer, but you can't receive any.
What?
Ok, let's say Bob, Sally, and Joe are all on a torrent. Bob is the only one that is connectable (ports forwarded). Sally sends a request to connect to Bob, which he can accept and they're fine. Joe does the same. However, Joe then sends a request to connect to Sally, but guess what? They aren't going to connect. Why? Because Sally can't receive any incoming connections.
Now imagine if all three weren't connectable. Nobody would connect! People would be sending requests left and right, but nothing.
So if you've noticed lately that you aren't connecting to any leechers (or seeders), and there are a LOT OF BOTH, then you need to do some port forwarding. Opening your ports will also greatly help your upload/download speed itself.
So how do I do that?
Well first you need to set up a static internal IP, what we were talking about earlier. Why is this? Because in order to forward your ports you have to assign a "rule" in your router settings to keep that port open. You assign the rule based on the internal IP — that way the router knows which PC it's talking about.
Have you seen the problem yet? If you have a dynamic static IP, every time your dynamic IP changes you have to go into your router settings and change it. Again. Sounds annoying, doesn't it? But if you make your IP static, all will be resolved
A link to making your IP static can be found here (yes, for Macs too and even Xbox 360):http://www.portforward.com/networking/staticip.htm
Those directions are real easy, just follow them and you'll be good.
I've had a lot of people PM me about this, so I thought I'd go ahead and add: When you first set up your static IP, you WILL lose connection briefly. It's your router resetting itself. You SHOULD reconnect just fine in a bit...you only have problems if you won't reconnect at all.
Once you've set up your static IP address you need to pick a port to open up for your BT client. Assign this in your client settings, and then assign a rule in your router.
Don't panic! I know that was no help. Portforward.com has literally a guide for almost any router you can think of. Just go to http://www.portforward.com/english/routers/port_forwarding/routerindex.htm , find your router, and then find your client in the list that pops up. 99% of the time those guides are very straight forward and simple.
Once that's done...
You're done! Restart your client and you should be good! If you're not sure if it's working, go look at the peer list on one of the torrents you might be seeding/leeching — it will have "Yes" or "No" under connectable.
The Most Common Reasons for the Port Forwarding Not Working:
1. No static IP address
2. Typo in the router settings
3. Typo in the client settings
4. Firewall not given permission
That's right, I almost forgot to mention! Your firewall software, if you use one, is very similar to what a router does. In fact I don't even use a firewall because my router does just fine. But if you do use one, you have to go to your firewall settings and give your torrent client permission to receive and send data/connections.
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