Speeding Up Your DNS Server
Visit an internet speed testing website and take note of your download and upload speed. You're going to want a benchmark, so that you can compare the before speed (slower) to the after speed (faster).
- To get to an internet speed testing website, simply type in "internet speed test" into a search engine and find one that will perform a test for free. There should be plenty of options to choose from.
- Once at an internet speed testing website, input your geographic location (if necessary) and perform the test. The test should spit out a download speed as well as an upload speed. Take note of these numbers.
Go to where your computer stores its DNS information.[1] The location of this information will be different depending on what operating system you're using. Here's how to get there:
- Windows 7/Vista: Start → Control Panel → View network status and tasks → View status (click on your local or wireless connection) → Properties → Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) → Properties. Once you are here, click on "Use the following DNS server addresses."
- Mac OSX: System Preferences → Network → View status (click on your local or wireless connection) → Advanced → DNS
Remove the old DNS number and type in two or three open DNS server addresses. Open DNS server addresses include "208.67.222.222" and "208.67.220.220" for example. Apply the changes once finished.
- If you want to search for custom DNS server addresses, use an application like Gibson Research Corporation's Domain Name Speed Benchmark or Namebench. These will test your system and suggest benchmark addresses that you can use.
Close out your browser, open it again, and test out the speed of your new DNS address. Go back to the same speed test website you used earlier and see for yourself how changing your DNS can boost your internet speed.
Boosting Your Torrent Download Speed
- 1Increase the maximum number of connected peers. More peers equal faster downloads. Do this by going to your client (BitTorrent, Vuze, uTorrent, etc.), and clicking Options → Preferences → Bandwidth. Then, set the maximum number of connected peers per torrent at 500.
- 2Force your protocol encryption, if it isn't already. This action disguises what you're downloading so that your ISP doesn't selectively throttle it. (ISPs will throttle if they know a BitTorrent client is doing a lot of downloading.) To do this:
- Go to Preferences → BitTorrent, and then, where it says "Protocol Enforcement," change it to "Forced." Click "Apply," if necessary, and then exit out of the screen.
- Go to Preferences → BitTorrent, and then, where it says "Protocol Enforcement," change it to "Forced." Click "Apply," if necessary, and then exit out of the screen.
- 3Keep your upload rate in check. In the spirit of peer-to-peer, it's nice that you're giving back to the community by uploading as much as you download. But if you're uploading too much, that definitely will affect your downloading speed. A good rule of thumb is to limit your uploading to about 80% of your max upload speed.[2]
- 4Change your port to bypass throttling by your ISP. Default ports for BitTorrent are anywhere between 6881 and 6999. If you set a different port by disabling the Randomize Port setting, then type in a port higher than 10000, you should see your download speed go skyward.
Source: Wikihow,com