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Cancel Cable: How Internet Pirates Get Free Stuff |
Chapter 9 – Customizing Your Client
This chapter shows you how to set up the uTorrent interface in the way that I use it in this book’s examples. After you download a few torrents, experiment and pick the settings that suit you.
User Interface
uTorrent for Windows offers more options than does the OS X version.
To customize the uTorrent user interface (Windows):
- In uTorrent, choose Options > Preferences (Ctrl+P) > General (in the left pane).
- Turn on “Append .!ut to incomplete files”.
This setting makes uTorrent append the filename extension .!ut to every content file that hasn’t finished downloading. The file Avatar.avi is named Avatar.avi.!ut until the file is whole and .!ut is removed. Incomplete files appear as blank icons because .!ut isn’t registered with a default program (see Chapter 3). A quick look in a folder window shows how many files are incomplete. - Turn on “Pre-allocate all files”.
This setting makes uTorrent show the space reserved on your hard drive for all the content files that you select to download. This space equals the final size of the complete download, so files will appear to be huge even if you’ve downloaded only a small bit. As the download progresses, uTorrent “fills in” the allocated space with file pieces as they randomly arrive. - Click UI Settings (in the left pane).
- Turn on “Don’t start the download automatically”.
This setting prevents newly added torrents from starting automatically. After selecting which of the torrent’s content files to download, you can start the torrent manually. - Turn on “Activate the program window”.
This setting activates (makes frontmost) the uTorrent window when you add a new torrent. - Turn off “Show a window that displays the files inside the torrent”.
This setting suppresses the Add New Torrent window when you add torrents. (Experienced pirates often turn on this setting to make custom changes to each new torrent.) - Choose Open Folder from the “For seeding torrents” and “For downloading torrents” drop-down lists.
Double-clicking an item in the torrent list opens the folder containing that torrent’s content files. - Click Directories (in the left pane).
- Turn on “Put new downloads in” and type or browse to the folder where you want content files to be downloaded.
BitTorrent shortens hard-drive life with continual read–write operations. If possible, don’t download to the same drive or partition where Windows is located. Instead, use a dedicated internal or external drive or a high-capacity USB flash drive. - Turn on “Store .torrents in” and use the same location to store .torrent files that you specified in the preceding step.
- For help with other settings, click the help icon
in the upper-right corner of the Preferences window. - When you’re done, click OK.
To customize the uTorrent user interface (OS X):
- In uTorrent, choose uTorrent > Preferences (Command+,) > Downloads.
- Turn off “Start transfer after opening each torrent file”.
This setting prevents newly added torrents from starting automatically. After selecting which of the torrent’s content files to download, you can start the torrent manually. - Click the “Default download location” drop-down list, choose Other, and then browse to the folder where you want content files to be downloaded.
BitTorrent shortens hard-drive life with continual read–write operations. If possible, don’t download to the same drive or partition where OS X is located. Instead, use a dedicated internal or external drive or a high-capacity USB flash drive. - Close the Preferences window.
Main Window
uTorrent’s main window has three panes:
Category List. This narrow pane (called the Sidebar in OS X) runs along the left edge of the main window and shows high-level torrent statistics, among other things. The information in this pane, which you can hide, generally isn’t useful unless you manage scores of torrents or subscribe to RSS feeds.
Torrent Jobs List. This pane runs along the top of the window and lists your current torrents with real-time statistics and status icons. It’s the main part of the uTorrent interface and you can choose which information appears here.
Detailed Info Pane. This pane, below the torrent jobs list, has tabs (General, Trackers, Files, Speed, and so on) that show detailed information about the torrent you select in the torrent jobs list.
To show or hide parts of the uTorrent window (Windows or OS X):
In uTorrent, choose the Show/Hide commands in the View menu to toggle visibility.
The View menu also shows the keyboard shortcuts for each command.
Torrent Jobs List
The torrent jobs list, where you’ll spend most of your pirate time, shows at a glance the status of all your torrents. This pane contains a columnar list of torrents and their attributes indicated by column headings, which you can sort and customize in the same way that you would a file list in a folder window. The uTorrent help file describes all the available columns in detail (see “Getting Help” in Chapter 6). The most-useful ones are:
Name shows the name of the file or folder being downloaded. A color-coded status icon near the name indicates whether the torrent is downloading (↓), seeding (↑), queued, stalled, stopped, or complete. (If you prefer words to icons, show the Status column.)
# shows torrent’s place in the download queue (1, 2, 3,...). When a torrent stops or finishes, the next queued torrent starts automatically. You can add any number of torrents to the list, but only a limited number of them will be actively downloading or seeding. uTorrent defaults to low limits to prevent bandwidth from being spread thinly over many torrents. To reorder torrents in the queue, see “Queueing a Torrent” in Chapter 10. To view or change queueing limits in Windows, choose Options > Preferences (Ctrl+P) > Queueing (in the left pane). In OS X, choose uTorrent > Preferences (Command+,) > BitTorrent.
Preferences also lets you set seeding/upload goals (limits) for after torrents finish downloading. A torrent that’s reached its goal has a blank in the # column; prior to that, it has an asterisk (*).
Selected Size shows the total size of the content files that you selected to download. (The less-useful Size column shows the total size of all the torrent’s content files, regardless of whether you selected them.)
Remaining shows how much of the selected files is left to download. The related Downloaded column shows how much of the selected files has been downloaded so far. Selected Size = Remaining + Downloaded.
Seeds shows the number of seeders that you’re connected to and, in parentheses, the estimated number of seeders in the swarm.
Peers shows the number of leechers that you’re connected to and, in parentheses, the estimated number of leechers in the swarm. (Note that uTorrent uses peer to refer to what I and many BitTorrent websites call a leecher; for details, see Chapter 2).
Down Speed shows the current speed at which the selected files are downloading. If the torrent is very slow or seeding, its down speed is blank.
Done shows a graphical progress bar displaying the completed part of the download (0%–100%). Done = Downloaded ÷ Selected Size.
ETA shows the estimated time left (days, hours, minutes, and seconds) until the selected files finish downloading. If the torrent is seeding, its ETA is the time left until it reaches its seeding goal. If the torrent is stopped or has reached its seeding goal, its ETA is blank. A very slow torrent has an infinite (∞) ETA.
If you’re using a private BitTorrent site that tracks your share ratio (see “Private Sites” in Chapter 7), you may want to show:
Up Speed shows the current speed at which the selected files are uploading. If the torrent is very slow, its up speed is blank.
Ratio shows the share ratio of uploaded data to downloaded data. (For initial seeders, this column shows the ratio of the uploaded data to the torrent’s content size, starting from zero.)
To customize the torrent jobs list (Windows and OS X):
In the torrent jobs list, do any of the following:
- To choose which columns appear, right-click any column heading and choose a heading name to show or hide that column.
- To reorder columns, drag the column headings left or right.
- To resize a column, drag the right edge of its column heading left or right. To resize a column to fit its widest entry, double-click its heading’s right edge.
- To sort the list, click the heading of the column to sort by. To reverse the sort order, click it again. Shading indicates the sort column. A small arrowhead near the column name points up (▲) for an ascending sort or down (▼) for a descending sort. To sort by multiple columns, sort by one column, hold down the Shift key, and then click the secondary column heading(s).
- To resize the pane, drag the horizontal separator up or down. (When you’re over a separator, your pointer changes to a double-headed arrow.)
