BitComet Preferences - Connection and Proxy

The BitTorrent Preferences Panel - Connection

Global Max Download Rate and Global Max Upload Rate represent the maximum download and upload speed that you allow BitComet to achieve. You should always remember that the speed of your downloads depends directly on your upload speed. If your client uploads a chunk of data to another user's computer, that other user will reward you and will try to give you more speed. If you limit the speed, so will the other user's computer, it will not be so happy to send you data. However, as mentioned in the dialog box , you should limit your upload speed in some cases, if you have a DSL or Cable connection, to just a bit under your maximum connection speed.

The Max Simultaneous Download Tasks option specifies how many torrent files BitComet should start processing at a time. This means that if the number of torrent files open in BitComet is more than the number listed there, the additional torrents will be placed on hold, until the previous torrent number decreases below the number you mention.

If you have a poor connection, for example Cable, it is wise to allow at most 4-5 torrents at a time. Each torrent may have even hundreds of connections to other user, if you have small bandwidth, this would be split among all those connections and everything would be very slow.

The Listen Port is used by BitComet to allow other users to connect directly to you and transfer files faster. If this works, it means you are connectable. The port number can be any value between 1 and 65535 but it is highly recommended to be higher than 1024.

By default, the BitTorrent protocol suggests you use a port between 6881 and 6889 but this is highly not recommended because your ISP may block or slow down the traffic on those ports. It may even have a policy against the BitTorrent protocol so you should really change it to some random number.

You should always read the Frequently Asked Questions of any site that stores torrent files, they may mention even other port ranges that you should not use. Ports that usually belong to other P2P networks, for example Direct Connect (411-413), Kazaa (1214), eDonkey (4662) or Gnutella (6346-6347) are usually not allowed.

The BitTorrent Preferences Panel - Proxy

In this panel you can configure the Proxy Type, entry the proxy server ip and proxy port, if you have one. Optionally, you can also enter the username and password for the proxy, if needed.

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