Although peer-to-peer file sharing has a somewhat checkered reputation, it’s likely that even if you keep to the straight and narrow in your downloading habits, you’ll find yourself in need of grabbing something from a site requiring a BitTorrent downloader. Finding that client can be a minefield, though. Given that the protocol is open source, there have been a good number of clients issued that are packaged with all manner of spyware and things generally not healthy to have on your PC.
That’s actually how I came to use µTorrent as my BitTorrent client. µTorrent is what I’d consider to be the most powerful and efficient of all the BitTorrent clients I auditioned in my search. Previously, I’d been using TorrentStorm as my client of choice, another super-lightweight torrent client, but it was recently discontinued, and the developer wound up no longer supporting it. One new computer, many P2P client installs and several AdAware scans later, I came across µTorrent, which is nothing if not a solid and stable client designed to handle your BitTorrent downloads transparently and efficiently in terms of your system resource usage.
The Basic Featureset
Unlike other BitTorrent clients I tested, it does not tend suck down system resources. The program generally keeps its footprint under 6MB of memory and is only 268kB in filesize. Somehow, despite it’s size and unimposing appearance, it boasts one of the most well-rounded set of basic features. Chances are, once you install and start your downloads, you’ll often forget they’re even running in the background. I generally had to start about five or six downloads simultaneous to a couple of video streams before my machine starts to hiccup while browsing.
µTorrent has a reputation for compatibility with all version of Windows. I, myself, have it running on an old Windows XP machine with 512 megs of ram and a sub 1 GHz processor, and it runs as smoothly there as it does on my top of the line Vaio laptop. I’ve read reports of it even running on “everything from 486 PCs running Windows 95 and the Winsock2 update up through Windows Vista beta,” though I wouldn’t necessarily recommend that user experience in this day and age – with or without BitTorrent!
µTorrent is second only to Vuze in richness of features. Right-clicking on a torrent file in the main window brings up most of the main features you’ll use in the program, including accessing the file after download (“Open Containing Folder”), getting rid of the files and the torrent when you’re done (“Remove” and “Remove And…”), and for the stats junkies, the properties window. For those that simply aren’t happy with default and ‘good enough,’ there’s also the ability to alter the bandwidth you have allocated for that particular download from the right-click menu.
By default, these are set to “unlimited” download and upload bandwidth allocations, but the main instance where playing with bandwidth allocation comes in handy are when you may have more than a few downloads going at once. In the same right-click sub-menu, there is a way to assign priority to different downloads, so if you want to speed up the last bit of a file, you simply assign it a higher priority.
On certain lower end machines I’ve tested uTorrent out on, like my old Windows XP system, the default settings for “unlimited bandwidth” downloads, the drag on the machine was noticeable, but not debilitating, and seemed limited to other programs that also interacted with the Internet, like web browsers. Most of the time, the easiest and most effective fix was to simply limit the bandwidth to a particular download while the machine was in use.
Many of these features I’ve detailed, though, are basic features when it comes to a torrent client. Almost every client out there may have them, but uTorrent is unique in making the features relatively easy to find.
A Little About the Interface
The interface is Spartan, and can be daunting to first time users, particularly if you’re trying to delve into the advanced settings. Unlike other clients, there isn’t a themed or skinned UI, as the program will adopt your system’s default visual styles. To that end, Spartan is a characteristic I’ve come to enjoy in a BitTorrent client, though, because without a heavy graphical overhead, usage of the computer while a download is in progress is still an option.
Fortunately, the default settings are more than sufficient for almost all practical applications, and the development on the program is mature enough to allow for drag-and-drop functionality, where applicable.
Within the program is built-in search capabilities that index many popular torrent sites, although it’s effectiveness in actually finding a torrent is pretty hit or miss. It seems to alternate between pointing to popular torrent search engines and pointing to a branded version of Google search. As Google regularly seems to change it’s mind on showing search results with .torrent files in them, I find it’s better to search on my other site’s I’m familiar with and trust.
At any rate, though search is an available feature within uTorrent, discovery is definitely not the focus of the product. It’s more or less assumed that if you’re using uTorrent, you have a decent handle on what BitTorrent is and where to find a torrent file, since very few hints on that are given from either help files or context in the program itself.
Some of the advanced features
The main Settings folder offers global bandwidth control and the ability to randomize the port used by µTorrent on every start. (If you have a UPnP-compatible router, you can use the UPnP port mapping option to forward ports automatically.) The built-in scheduler can control bandwidth across different times of day.
There’s also a web interface that’s built into this program, which if configured with your router properly will allow you to control the program while you’re away from the computer from anywhere on the web.
It’s theoretically a great feature to have; if you are a heavy downloader, for instance, when you’re away from the machine for extended periods of time, queuing new downloads using the interface might be a necessity (or at least a convenience). I’ve generally not needed to have my downloads managed so intensely, though, so I’ve never gotten around to configuring it myself. Friends of mine who use have cause to use the feature swear by it.
Some of the more advanced features that show up in µTorrent are that it has a scheduler so that you can schedule when it should start and stop downloading, and it can automatically load torrents from a directory (which could be combined with an RSS reader, for podcasts like Slashdot Review and GeekBrief.TV that us torrents on their feeds).
All in all, it’s a solid program, with no extra frills. It’s my torrent client of choice, and one I reccomend to torrenting user who are familiar with the download landscape or are looking to equip a secondary machine for workhorse torrenting activity. Those who don’t knwo where to start in the land of BitTorrent should probably begin with a client like Vuze, which comes with a great deal more discovery options built in.
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