01. General

Is BitLord Free? Can I get the source?

Yes, BitLord is free, we are however not releasing the source for the entire software at the moment. As BitLord is based on a lot of open source projects we are very open to input and contribution from users. So contact us if you want to help in any way.

We depend on the LibTorrent open source library which can be found here: LibTorrent.org. And our built-in browser is based on Chromium the open source project that is the foundation for browsers like Chrome and Opera

Where does BitLord store its settings?

In Windows just go to Start – Run and type in:

%APPDATA%\bitlord\

In OSX go to Finder – Go – Go to folder, and type in

~/.config/BitLord/

How do I restore all settings to default?

If you don’t care about losing your current torrents then delete everything in BitLord’s settings folder (see above for location). If you do want to keep your current torrents then delete everything except for the state folder.

Where does BitLord store the .torrent files?

In a directory named state located within the BitLord config directory outlined above.

02. BitTorrent Basics

The files tab shows a different percentage-completed than the torrent

The files tab will only show percentages based on completed pieces while the main view will show total completed including incomplete pieces.

What do all those numbers in parentheses mean?

Field	#	(#)
Seeders	Number of connected seeders	Total number of seeders
Peers	Number of connected peers	Total number of peers
Downloaded	Total amount downloaded	Total amount downloaded this session
Uploaded	Total amount uploaded	Total amount uploaded this session

Seeding torrents have no queue position! Why?

Seeds use something called “seed rank” to determine which should be active and which should be queued. The seed rank is determined by the number of seed cycles a torrent has completed. Torrents with fewer completed seed cycles are prioritized for seeding. A seed cycle is completed when a torrent meets either the share ratio limit (uploaded bytes / downloaded bytes), the share time ratio (time seeding / time downloading) or seed time limit (time seeded).

What bandwidth settings should I use?

Start with the following:

Maximum Connections	200
Maximum Download Speed (Kib/s)	-1
Maximum Upload Speed (Kib/s)	80% of upload speed
Maximum Upload Slots	4
Maximum Half-Open Connections	20
Maximum Connection Attempts per Second	20

If you’re using Windows XP*:

Maximum Half-Open Connections

8

If you’re using pre-SP2 Windows Vista*:

Maximum Half-Open Connections

4

You can then tweak those settings to suit your connection. See Bandwidth Tweaking. Note: if you do not know your upload speed, go to http://speedtest.net and run a test. You can view the results in KB/s by choosing “kilobytes” for “Speed Measurement” which can be accessed under “Settings” in the top left corner of the page.

BitLord sometimes creates files that I didn’t ask it to download?

BitLord handles files as pieces, not as individual files. This gets tricky, as sometimes the same piece is shared between multiple files. So if you tell BitLord to download a file, it’ll download all of the pieces within that file, and if one of those pieces is shared with another file, that file will also be created, although not necessarily entirely downloaded.

I lost data on force recheck?

Force recheck discards all incomplete pieces.

Does BitLord support multi-tracker torrents?

Yes it does. You can edit the trackers associated with a torrent by right-clicking on a torrent within BitLord, and clicking on “Edit Trackers”.

What is the difference between full allocation and compact allocation?

Compact allocation only allocates as much storage as it needs to keep the pieces downloaded so far. This means that pieces will be moved around to be placed at their final position in the files while downloading (to make sure the completed download has all its pieces in the correct place). In full allocation, the entire space that a file needs is allocated as soon as one piece of that file is downloaded, thus decreasing fragmentation. We suggest that our users use full allocation. BitLord uses sparse-files (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparse_file) for full allocation, the compact allocation option is only useful on windows-file systems.

Selective downloading isn’t working. How come?

Selective downloading requires full allocation, check you are not using compact allocation. See above for details between the two.

Which ports should I use?

The official ports for Bittorrent are 6881-6889, but most ISPs block or at least throttle those ports, so users are encouraged to use a port range of something between 49152 and 65535.

BitLord uses random ports instead of selected one, why?

Click Apply after changing the port, people often miss this small part 😉 BitLord will pick a random port if the chosen port is not available. Run “netstat” to check if the port is free. Read more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netstat

What does “Auto Managed” do?

An “auto managed” torrent, is a torrent managed by BitLord. This means that it obeys BitLord’s queue settings. By disabling “auto managed”, a torrent will become active (i.e. start downloading/uploading). It will still be be bound by the stop ratio though. Note: All active torrents (including those not “auto managed”) are counted in the total active queue settings. This means that if the total number of active torrents (“auto managed” and not) exceed the limit for total active torrents in the queue settings, BitLord will automatically queue any “auto managed” torrents until the limit is no longer exceeded.

Does BitLord have an equivalent to “Force Start”?

BitLord has “auto managed” torrents which are similar, see above for details. To make a torrent no longer “auto managed”: 1. Select the torrent in question. 2. Select the options tab. 3. Unselect “Auto Managed”.