UTorrent on Windows Home Server

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Well, now that you have a computer that will be always on, we might as well utilize that power and connection. Before we start, I recommend added a spare hard drive to the server but not adding it to the storage pool. A 80GB hard drive is good enough for this, even a 40GB would be fine. I personally use a 120GB hard drive, but I also have WSUS installed on that drive.

What you will need

What to Do

Before doing anything else, download all the files/installers that we will need to do this. Save them to the network, so we can easily access them once we start installing things. Now that that is done, log into the server using Remote Desktop, the WHS console (if you have Advanced Admin Console installed), or by local access.

Shared folders

First thing to be done is to create a new shared folder using the Console. "Downloads" is what I use, but anything you want to use is fine. At the risk of repeating myself later, there is a better description of folder usage when setting up the directories in uTorrent. The main thing to do right now is set up your main Downloads folder from within the Console.

uTorrent

Install uTorrent but don't install shortcuts to the desktop, start menu, and quick launch bar as they will not be necessary. Leave ‘Add an exception to the Windows firewall’ checked and uncheck ‘Start uTorrent when Windows startup’. Also, you don’t need to install the Ask.com toolbar so simply uncheck ‘Agree to the Terms and Conditions’. The reason why we don’t want uTorrent to load on Windows startup is because this requires a user to be logged in before it will load. At the end of this tutorial, we will set up uTorrent to run as a service which will start when the WHS is started thereby running without a user needing to be logged in.

uTorrent should launch automatically after installing. You can set your bandwidth and port settings now or just cancel out of the wizard and set it as you progress through this tutorial. For now, click Options and then Preferences.

General

I would suggest checking “Append .!ut to incomplete files” and “Pre-allocate space”. Depending on your server configuration, you may want to consider unchecking “Prevent standby if there are active torrents”. If your server runs 24-7 this shouldn’t be an issue but if your server is set up to turn itself off then you may need to experiment with this setting.

UI Settings

Uncheck “Activate the program window”, "Show a window that displays the files inside the torrent”, and “Show confirmation dialog on exit”

Directories

This is how I set up my directory structure. I used the Console to make a folder called Downloads. Inside the Downloads folder is a folder called _Incomplete and _Torrents (the underscore at the beginning of the folder name is what I use to ensure that the folder it shown first alphabetically). Inside the _Torrents folder is another folder called complete.

Here’s why I choose this layout. Anything is in the process of being downloaded will reside in the _Incomplete folder. When it is done, uTorrent will move it to the Downloads folder. The same will happen with the .torrent files with _Torrents\complete and the _Torrents folders, respectively.

Put new downloads in “\\SERVERNAME\Downloads\_Incomplete” and uncheck Always show dialog on manual add Move completed downloads to “\\SERVERNAME\Downloads” Store .torrents in “\\SERVERNAME \Downloads\_Torrents” Move .torrents for finished jobs to “\\SERVERNAME \Downloads\_Torrents\complete” Automatically load .torrents from "d:\shares\Downloads\_Torrents”

You’ll note that the paths use a UNC path on the server. The previous update to this WIKI said that there were problems when using D:\Shares\ and D:\Folders\ path but \\SERVERNAME\ works well or you can use D:\anyfolder but stay away from using the D:\Shares or D:\Folders. Only the "Automatically load .torrents" needs an absolute path to work. It also allows the Console to keep the disk usage more up to date.

Connection

Input the port number that you have configured your router to forward to your server. If you do not forward a port to your WHS, you will be limited on how many people you will be able to connect to. If you use UPnP on your network, you can check that box too but I would recommend leaving it off. For more information on how to set up your router for port forwarding, check out Port Forward.

Bandwidth

It is very important that you do not have the max upload set to 0 (Unlimited). If you do, you will experience a much slower download speed on your connection and not just for the torrents; it will apply to web browsing, streaming video, and online gaming across all systems on your network. I would suggest not running more than 85% of your capable upstream. Depending on your connection, you should be able to run at 50kB/s without any problems. You can run a speed check at Speed Test.net to get an idea of what your connection is capable of. Just bear in mind that the results shown on Speed Test are in MB/s and uTorrent kB/s as its scale.

BitTorrent

It is recommended that you enable Protocol Encryption. Some ISPs block torrent connections and enabling encryption will detour them from being able to kill the connection (search Comcast's practices for details).

Transfer Cap

This can be enabled if your ISP has a cap on your bandwidth usage. Configure as needed.

Queuing

Default settings should be good enough. You can adjust them depending on what your connection is capable of.

Scheduler

If you want to regulate upload/download speed depending on the time of the day, and which days, feel free play around with this. When using the Full Speed setting, uTorrent does not utilize 100% of your connection. Instead it uses the maximum that you set in the Bandwidth options. If you watch streaming TV such as on Hulu in the evenings, you may consider running Limited settings during the time that you’re watching TV to ensure good playback and have Full Speed set for all other times. If bandwidth is a concern, you can set times during the day that uTorrent will not upload or download at all.

Web UI

Check “Enable Web UI”. Set username and password. You can also set an alternative listening port to you instead of the default connection port. For example, your connection port maybe 32867 but your Web UI listening port can be something easier to remember like 8080. For security concerns, I would suggest using an alternate listening port. You can set up port forwarding through your router to allow access to the Web UI from outside your network (from work or friend’s house).

Install as Service

AnyService Installer

First, install the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit and just use the defaults for it. Next, run the AnyService Installer. Set the toolkit path to be "C:\Program Files\Windows Resource Kit\Tools", the application to run as a service to "C:\Program Files\uTorrent\uTorrent.exe" and the service name to "uTorrent". Click "Create" and this will install the service. The bottom of the AnyService Installer window will say “The installation was successful, the service can be started from the Services Management Console.”

Next, you need to copy the uTorrent settings from the Administrator profile to the Default User profile. Go to "C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data\". Copy the "uTorrent" directory to "C:\Documents and Settings\Default User\Application Data\". Now when the service starts, it will have all the settings ready and waiting to download.

Now to test it, start the uTorrent service (in Command Prompt type NET START uTorrent) or restart the computer, and navigate to "http://SERVERNAME:portnumber/gui/".

Done

Now you are done. Time to start downloading! To add a torrent to download, click the first icon in the toolbar (the folder icon). You have the option of opening a .torrent file already saved or you can copy and paste the torrent link from your favorite torrent site. The Web UI will start downloading the files. Changes to the settings can be made from within the Web UI by clicking the last icon on the tool bar (it looks like a Monopoly property card). Basically, the Web UI gives pretty much all the same features as the normal uTorrent.

Credits

This page was original written by Drashna for We Got Served. And thanks to uTorrent for writing a very good torrent client, one that has a very low performance profile.

This page was updated on 2/26/2010 by d_sellers1 and edited by Etoa for We Got Served.

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