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(or How my Mother became Clever!)

This is the 2nd part of my BT how-to. The following assumes you have read Bittorrent for my Mother.

I know everybody (well all two of you) are so very anxious to learn how to make your own torrents, but we are taking baby steps here, and becoming a 'clever' seeder should be accomplished first.

What's a 'clever' seeder?
Clever means that you can connect to people that are also clever *and* people that are not. If you are not clever you can only connect to people that are clever. This applies to both downloading and uploading. Obviously, by being able to connect to more people, the faster your file will download (or upload). For example, lets say you are not clever, and I am. Lets also say there are 2 clever and 8 unclever people also leeching the same file we are trying to download. I can connect to all 10 people so my speeds are supa-dupa, but you can only connect to the 2 clever people. Your download will go much slower. So try your damnest to get clever.

How do I become clever?
You need to do something called port forwarding on your router. Port forwarding will push all data that comes in and out of the specified ports (i'll tell you which ones later) specifically to your computer. This is where it gets a bit tricky because everybody uses a different router. I will try to go slowly.

A few numbers you will need first...
1) Start -> Run -> Type cmd and press enter
2) Type ipconfig and press enter
3) Write down your IP Address
4) Write down your Default Gateway
5) Close window

Port Fowarding on Linksys, D-Link, Netgear:
Read the informative p2p.weblogsinc.com entry

Port Forwarding on Apple's Airport Express:
1) Go to the Airport Admin Utility
2) Go to the Port Mapping tab
3) Click Add..
4) In the Private IP box put in the last number from your IP Address
5) Put 6881 in *both* the Public and Private Port boxes and click OK
6) Repeat 8 more times with 6882-6889
7) Click Update and close the admin utility

I forwarded my ports on my router, now what?
Now you need to forward those ports in your Bittorrent client to match. I will explain how to do it in Bittornado (the client I recommend) but it will be fairly similar in others.

Adjusting your Bittornado settings to match:
1) Open a bittorrent file so that Bittornado starts
2) Click Prefs (in the upper right)
3) Set the Port Range (in the upper right corner): From 6881 To 6889
4) Down about an inch from Port Range is UPnP Port Forwarding. Disable it.
5) Click Save
6) Close the window, and restart your torrent.
7) Rejoice, because you are now CLEVER.

Yes, making your own torrents is next on the list...