Configuring Bittorent

If you are trying to configure bittorent, you may have had a lot of difficulties. When I was searching, I found that many of the others that were having the same problems were Australian - not sure why. Anyway, it took me a loooooong time to find the answer, so thought I would share it.

(i) turn off Norton or other web security, as well as windows XP firewall
(ii) configure port-forwarding on your router - go to www.portforward.com for how to do this.
(iii) (And this is the part that took ages to find) you need to configure windows to make the port visible. In general, you need one open port for each instance of bittorent you run. You can use any port number - 6881-6889 are traditional for bittorent, but some ISPs bock these. I use 10000 and up.

So.. Control Panel->Network Connections->Internet Connections->Properties->Settings->Services.->Click "Add.." and add a service entitled "Bittorrent" or whatever, with your port numbers. Set this to "TCP".
(iv) go to "Shields Up" (just google it) and do a custom port scan on this port to check it says "Open" and not "Stealth".

Then watch your bittorent download speed rise from a measly 10 to 150!