Check out here ( http://iviz.livejournal.com/13857.html ) for part 2 of this guide!

Well, since I'm pretty sure I'm going to be bored almost all morning, I am going to work on this as I putter about. This task is as much for me as it is for those that read it. Not only am I doing to share my setup, but I am going to read through the official guides and FAQ's and hope to explain the purpose behind all the options. My goal is to this all in a manner that will allow the average person to read and understand what they are doing and make a guide that can easily and quickly read/searched.

**Please note before starting that the settings I'm using are for my connection speed and pc. They may be different for you. They are only there as guides**

**All my current settings will be in brackets () after each option's explanation**

**Also note that I am using uTorrent. If you don't have the newest uTorrent please visit ( http://utorrent.com/download.php ) and download the latest version**

First thing is first. If you haven't installed the latest version, do so. It is 1.6 right now (July/14/06). After you have it installed and ready to go we will get cracking!

Almost everything we will be doing will be in the Options->Preferences window, so go there right now. If you can't find this, it on the top tool bar. If you still can't find this, you may need more than my help just to use your PC.
When you open the preferences screen, you will several sub screens down the left hand side (General, Connection, Advanced, etc etc).

General

Where better to start, eh? Well when you open the general screen you have several options to choose from, all of these pretty general but I will explain.If you can understand basic program principals, you can skip this section. I am just doing this to say that I covered all bases.

Check for updates automatically - Checking this option will give uTorrent permission to check the website for a newer version.
(Checked)

Confirm when deleting torrents - This will prompt you to confirm that you actually want to delete the torrent. I recommend this. It can save you a lot of hassle, if you say were to delete the wrong torrent.
(Checked)

Show confirmation dialog on exit - Just prompts you asking if you really want to exit.
(Checked)

Close to tray - Checking this means that when you try to close it (pushing the 'X' button) the program will minimize itself to the system tray.
(Checked)

Minimize to tray - When you click the minimize button ( '-' in the top right corner) that it will minimize to the system tray.
(Unchecked)

Always show tray icon - Will display the uTorrent icon always when in system tray if this is checked.
(Checked)

Single Click on tray icon to open - Opens uTorrent from the system tray with a single click.
(Unchecked)

Show balloon notifications in tray - When there's an error or a torrent is completed, a balloon notifying you to this will appear.
(Checked)

Always activate when clicked - Will activate program in the system tray so that it will be soon.
(Checked)

Alternate list background color - Will change the background color.
(Unchecked)

Show speed limits in the status bar - This will display upload (U) and download (D) speeds in the status bar. This means your max D/U before your current D/U speeds (the status bar is the bottom bar).
(Checked)

Show current speed in the title bar - Displays D/U in the title bar
(Checked)

Show graphical progress bar - Displays a blue par showing the current progress of the torrent.
(Checked)

Check association on startup - Checks to open torrent files when started.
(Checked)

Start uTorrent on system startup - When your system has been reset or turned on, uTorrent will start with the rest of the machine.
(Checked)

Downloads

Parts of this section will be based on who you have your file structure, if you have any structure at all you how your files are stored.

 

Put new downloads in: - This is where the whole personal file structure comes into play. Here you will need to decide where to save your incomplete files. I don’t recall where it saves to by default (possibly desktop) but I’m sure you won’t want to save there. What I did was create a folder called “Incomplete” and saved all my incomplete torrents there.
(Torrents/Incomplete)

Always show dialog on manual add – When you add a torrent a prompt will appear asking you to confirm adding the torrent. In this prompt you can select which files from the torrent you wish you download, file location (will default to previous setting) and several other small options.
(Checked)

Move completed downloads to: - This is another part in the section which depends on your file structure. You can set it though, that when a torrent is finished, it will automatically move the finish file/directory to a new folder of your choice.
(Torrents/Complete)

Only move from default directory – If you choose to have the download elsewhere when you start it, it won’t be moved to the completed downloads folder when completed. Only files that are saved to the default folder will be moved.
(Checked)

Append the torrent’s label to its directory – This will add the torrents label to its directory name.
(Checked)

Don’t start the download automatically – This will (if the queue allows) will have the torrent automatically start.
(Unchecked)

Activate the program window – When you add a torrent, this will activate (open) uTorrent and prompt you. Unchecked it will not open the program window, just the prompt.
(Unchecked)

Show a window that displays the files inside the torrent – This gives you the option of seeing the files with a torrent when you add it
(Checked)

Append .!ut to incomplete files – This will just add a .!ut to the end of incomplete files.  Designed to allow you to know the file isn’t completed. You won’t have this problem if you set up your directories properly.
(Unchecked)

Pre-allocate all files – This option is highly recommend to be checked! When you start a torrent, it will reserve the space for the complete download on your hard drive before it starts.
(Checked)

Prevent stand-by if there are active torrents – This will prevent your PC from entering stand-by mode (turning off hard disks) when you have an active torrent.
(Checked)

Connection

This part is one of the most important. I will use external links for this since someone has already done a really good job of explaining how to configure your router/set up a static IP.

Port used for incoming connection – For the port just hit randomize a few times until you find a number you like then leave it. You will use this number to set up a static IP with an open port to allow for faster downloads. 

http://www.portforward.com/networking/static-xp.htm
Follow the directions to set up your static IP address.

After that follow http://www.portforward.com/english/routers/port_forwarding/routerindex.htm
Select your router then select uTorrent on the next page. I will explain how to port forward your connection.

Randomize port each time uTorrent starts – Do not have this clicked if you are port forwarding! This will change the port uTorrent is listening to for the change. It will still let you download, but you will no longer have the advantage of a port forwarded connection.
(Unchecked)

Enable UPnP port mapping – This is only useful when you don’t have your port forwarded. What it will do is automatically map your port but it doesn’t always your well with some routers. If you are unable to port forward, you should have this and ‘randomize port’ checked.
(Unchecked)

Add uTorrent to windows firewall exceptions – This will add uTorrent to Windows Firewall exceptions, allowing it access to the net.
(Unchecked – I don’t have Windows Firewall)

 Proxy Server – I don’t play with that. It’s not required you play with this to get good speeds. If you wish to know more about the proxy server go to (http://utorrent.com/faq.php ) for more info.

 Global maximum upload rate - This requires you to do some math. You do not want this at unlimited but you don’t want to share too little since the bit torrent protocol is designed so that the more you share the more you download.

 For this you are going to want to go into Options->Speedguide and run the speed test. I want you to write down your max upload speed, which is in kbits/s.

Next go ahead and get 80% of that number by multiplying it by 0.8. This way your whole connection won’t be eaten by your upload.

After this, divide your number by 8 so you get the final number in kBytes/s (there are 8 bits to a byte).

 Now you can enter this number into the max upload.

 You can do something similar to your download rate if you want to control your connection but you don’t need to.

 Bit Torrent

 The best way I have found to fill out the Number of connection fields is to allow the Speed Guide to do so and tweak them as you see appropriate. What you do is find the speed that is closest to your speed and copy the global max, max peers and upload slots. If you select a speed , it will undo previous settings.

 Global max number of connections  - This is a total of how many incoming/outgoing connections you can have.
(750)

 Max number of connected peers per torrent – Like stated before, I let the speed guide pick this number for me. But it is how many people you can connect with per torrent. Too many and it will flood and slow your torrent down, too little and it won’t download at its full speed. So just let the program set it.
(120)

Number of upload slots per torrent – This is how many people can upload from you at once.
(16)

 Use additional upload slots if upload speed is <90% - If your upload speeds are less than 90% it will allow more people to upload from you
(Checked)

 **NOTE**
Before I start this I want to explain DHT and Peer Exchange:
DHT is basically a way for peers to communicate without the BT tracker. Each person have a few other keys (addresses to other pc’s) and peer exchange will allow you to connect to other uTorrent users and get their peer list for a torrent

Enable DHT network – This allows you to do what I stated above
(Checked)

Ask tracker for scrape information – I don’t really know about this one :S It from what I can gather asks the tracker about old information that may lead to connections.
(Checked)

Enable DHT for new torrents – Allows you to use the DHT network when you add new torrents.
(Checked)

Enable Peer Exchange – Allows Peer exchange (see note for the section)
(Checked)

Protocol Encryption Outgoing – This could save you the trouble of an ISP that watches for BT traffic.
(Enabled)

Allow legacy connections – Allows for non-encrypted connections to connect
(Checked)

 The rest will follow in part 2 later.