Make the most of public torrents (speed/performance & security)

This serves as a guide for setting up a dedicated torrent client for public torrents configured so that you will make the most out of them. You will need a dedicated client for public torrents since there are a lot of private and public tracker specific settings.

The client we will be using is Vuze/Azureus. Vuze because it is currently really the only option for public torrents, it is the only client that supports both the AzDHT and Mainline DHT networks and of course the more peers the better, it also has very advanced options unlike other clients out there that will be of use when setting it up for public use.


When you have done this set-up, you should see increased speeds and performance on public torrents. When testing this myself I have also noticed that when using this configuration I have been able to download seemingly dead torrents, which would have been otherwise impossible to get.
You may be surprised how much more you can get out of obscure and hard-to-get public torrents.

Since this tutorial and the client we will use are advanced there will be quite a few things to do, so hold on and hop into it.


First, lets start with downloading and installing the client:

Go to https://www.vuze.com/ and press the "download" button to download Vuze.

Then run the downloaded installer, when the installer asks you whether to use 32bit or 64bit, choose the correct option depending on whether you use a 32bit (x86) or a 64bit (x64) operating system.

When the installer opens check the box saying something like "custom/advanced install" and press I accept the terms and conditions.



In this window you can choose all other options as you wish but select the "Tabbed (Classic UI)". Press next.

In the next window deselect the browser toolbar it "recommends" for you.

When the install is finished it may offer you yet another "recommendation" (ad) for software, decline the offer.

Now it should fire up Vuze, there should be some updates for plugins which you should install.

In the configuration wizard, choose the language you want (I recommend English) and press next.



In this window choose "Advanced" user proficiency. Press next.

In the next window choose your connection speed. Press next.

In this window choose a listening port for incoming connections. I recommend you choose a port from the 49160–65534 range. You should open the ports you choose in your firewall and forward them if you are using NAT, you will find tutorials on this elsewhere on this site so I will not cover it. Press next.

Now you can choose where you want Vuze to download torrent contents and where it will save the torrent files in use. I personally use a different location for public torrents and private torrents but you may do as you wish. Press Finish.


Great! Now were through the first section, lets get into installing plugins then:


In the Vuze top menu, choose "Plugins" and "Installation wizard".

In the window that appears choose "From list on sourceforge" and press next.

Now we should choose what plugins we want to install, to view the full list of plugins you can go tohttps://plugins.vuze.com/plugin_list.php where you can see for yourself what you want if you like.

Now I will go through a few plugins that you will need:

What you will need:
Mainline DHT (mlDHT)

What I recommend:
Multi-Port Trackers
Tracker URL Adder
uTP Support
Country Locator
Peer Injector

Something interesting but completely optional (to be honest I wouldnt even recommend unless you really want):
Subtitle Downloader
LAN Peer Scanner
Cubit Search
Ono
SwarmScreen
Team Seeder
Yale Instrumentation Plugin
Anti-Throttle


When you have installed the plugins, lets move to the next section, which is configuring the settings:


From the top menu choose "Tools" and "Options", now the options tab should open up, make sure you have set user proficiency to advanced and lets move on.

First choose the "Connection" menu and make sure you have the highlighted settings as they are shown in this picture:



You may want to enable IPv6 support under the "Advanced Network Settings" menu.

Under "Connection -> Transport Encryption" choose the following settings:



Under "Files -> Performance options" set the following options as accordingly:



Under "Plugins -> Distributed Tracker" set the following options as accordingly:



Under "Plugins -> Mainline DHT" set the following options:



Under "Tracker -> Client" you can enable "Enable key passing to tracker for enhanced security" and "Use different peer identities for tracker and data communication" if you like.

Under "Queue -> Seeding" enable Super Seeding by ticking the box "Use Super Seeding"


And were ready! Thats it, now your client is configured for maximum performance with public torrents. But what about the security?

Next we'll look into how you can enable IP filtering. I wouldnt recommend using IP filters unless you are really paranoid as they WILL have false positives and block access to legit peers as well.

So its really up to you if you want to use them. If you choose to use them, we'll now look into how you can do that.

In the options menu go to "IP Filters". Here is the list I would recommend you to use, put the following URL into the "IP filter file to autoload" field and press "Load Now":

http://list.iblocklist.com/?list=bt_level1

If you want even more security with the downside of blocking even more legit peers you can uncheck the checkbox "Clear filters when reloading".


And thats it, now just press "Save" in the Options menu to save your settings and select "File -> Restart Vuze" and you're good to go!

Now the next time you try to download a public torrent you should see increased availability, being able to download seemingly dead torrents, increased speeds and performance and if you decided to use IP filters, increased security as well, with the downside of making torrents less available by blocking legit peers as well.

Hope this will be of use to someone