qBittorrent official forums

Hello there.

I'm a fresh user, as you can see, and during the years I have been trying out various BitTorrent-clients until now. Currently I'm pretty much stuck with qBittorrent, and I'm happy with it.

To come to my point:
As I have seen it many many times, the default port that qBittorrent uses is 6881.
Seen from one side, this has no real matter. From the other side, it is more of a obstacle for some users, as their ISPs throttle a special range of ports (AFAIK 6881-6889).
Advanced users can change this, as I did. But the normal-day user, who more or less accidentially came to qBittorrent might have some problems and would switch to the better known BT-clients, as they probably don't have such problems, just because they set a random port by default.
Now, my question is: Is there the possibility to set a random port by default excluding the port ranges 6881-6889?
My thoughts would go the way, that directly after starting qBittorrent the very first time the default port is anything but the previously mentioned port range.

Apparently you didn't look in the settings (or you're using a really old version)
Tools->Options...->Connection->Listening Port->Use different port on each startup

PS: Of course this doesn't exclude 6881-6889, but it is unlikely that you'll randomly select that most of the time.

[quote="sledgehammer_999"]
Apparently you didn't look in the settings (or you're using a really old version)
Tools->Options...->Connection->Listening Port->Use different port on each startup

PS: Of course this doesn't exclude 6881-6889, but it is unlikely that you'll randomly select that most of the time.
[/quote]

[quote="brot0"]
Advanced users can change this, as I did. But the normal-day user, who more or less accidentially came to qBittorrent might have some problems and would switch to the better known BT-clients, as they probably don't have such problems, just because they set a random port by default.
[/quote]

Nah nah nah. That's not what I meant.
I meant, that the default port, when you freshly installed qBittorrent, is ALWAYS 6881. Most normal users don't get into the advanced settings, thus they remain with the port and probably get throttled.
As for µTorrent (worst example, but still), it sets some random port after being freshly installed. Same applies to BitTorrent (obviously), Deluge and pretty much every BitTorrent-client that is regulary updated nowadays.

I just read my text and well, asked myself of what I was writing. Hope you understood it now

Yes, I understand now.

Keep in mind that most tutorials* for port forwarding tells users to forward the port 6881.

For example:
http://portforward.com/english/applicat ... tindex.htm
http://compnetworking.about.com/od/bitt ... tports.htm

But as a workaround, I will post a tutorial here on the forums that people can find with Google.

[quote="Peter"]
Keep in mind that most tutorials* for port forwarding tells users to forward the port 6881.

For example:
http://portforward.com/english/applicat ... tindex.htm
http://compnetworking.about.com/od/bitt ... tports.htm
[/quote]


Didn't know that someone would reply to this thread, thus my reply also comes a bit late.

Actually, I don't get the idea why some people keep telling users that they should port-forward the port 6881.
Looking on the Glasnost-study by Max Planck Institute definitely shows that up- and downloads on the BitTorrent-port (which, in my thoughts, is the port 6881) are slowed down up to 85%, which is just a pure disadvantage for people who download files with qBittorrent, and never really looked into the settings to change i.e. the port.

And because of these concerns I created this thread...

Apart from that, I could download torrents withough even thinking about to change my port, as my ISP isn't shaping any traffic, yet not everyone has my ISP as theirs.

Not every ISP blocks or throttles port 6881 traffic, and sometimes it HAS to be the end user that takes responsibility for what they may have to do.

[quote="ciaobaby"]
Not every ISP blocks or throttles port 6881 traffic, and sometimes it HAS to be the end user that takes responsibility for what they may have to do.
[/quote]

You are definitely not telling me something new.
Additionally, I didn't state that every ISP throttles the port 6881, but many do.

I remember the words of my informatics teacher: "Always think as a DTU, the Dumbest Thinkable User, while you are programming. Even the dumbest person should be able to use the program without any problems."

Now, let's suppose a DTU, who came to qBittorrent because other clients suck (ads, CPU-hog...), tries to download a (well-seeded) torrent with port 6881, but his ISP throttles this port. DTU has no real experience on how to modify the settings, as he never did it with other clients, where the downloads filled his line's actual download speed. He has no idea of his ISP throttling this port.

What does DTU do? Right, he switches to the client he previously used and tells everybody not to use qBittorrent, because it is a slow BT-client, and everything worked better with other client. The other client automatically set a randomized port when starting the first time, unlike qBittorrent with the port 6881.

Sidenote: DTU is lazy as hell and doesn't want to go deeper in things, as his actual life is already hard enough.


(somewhat) off topic:
I made this thread just to say that there are many users out there who never changed the port, and are victims of traffic shaping without even knowing.
Saying this, it is the knowledge combined with daily dose of peers who are seeding with qBittorrent while I leech the torrent, and the seeders consist out of 90% with a set port of 6881, because they (probably) only need the client for downloading/seeding torrents, although they may get throttled by their ISP. This is why I linked the study, to give you an overview for the situation of throttling the port 6881 (or even the range from 6881 to 6889).

It was just the idea of implementing the feature of having a randomized port when starting qBittorrent the very first time, as this is easier for every user, especially the DTU.

I think that something similiar as this was at Github also and might be marked already. There is am option to randomize the port after starting up qBittorrent but qBittorrent should do this automaticly instead using 6881. I agree on this also.

Even the dumbest person should be able to use the program without any problems."

Unfortunately, based on experience on two or three "torrenting" forums BT client protocol users tend to be even dumber in 'computer stuff'  than average, but are not willing to consider  that they might be.

No offence to anyone in particular but you know who you are!


Hands up those who know the difference between 'bandwidth'  and 'transfer rate'.

ciaobaby wrote:

Even the dumbest person should be able to use the program without any problems."

Unfortunately, based on experience on two or three "torrenting" forums BT client protocol users tend to be even dumber in 'computer stuff'  than average, but are not willing to consider  that they might be.

[...]

There will always be persons who are dumber than the users you somewhat mentioned. I guess the users can be happy to be able to successfully install the client, while others already get problems with that.
Anyway, I was talking about the usability about programs, not the knowledge about configuring those programs correctly.

I'll be honest and say that I don't know the difference between 'bandwidth' and 'transfer rate'. Surely some searching would help, but I am (as the new day has begun in my area) too tired for that. Just writing, and that's it. Telling you about my lack of knowledge, I surely know more about other things. Yet knowledge has to be shared, and that's why there is the internet, and specifically forums like these. I guess reading things in forums made me learn half of the things I use nowadays.
As addition: Thanks for clearing up things about Chrome OS! You somewhat enlightened me in that direction.

Nemo wrote: I think that something similiar as this was at Github also and might be marked already. There is am option to randomize the port after starting up qBittorrent but qBittorrent should do this automaticly instead using 6881. I agree on this also.

Ah alrighty. Haven't seen it while scrolling then. If it appeared earlier on GitHub than this thread, I guess I'm sorry then. If not, then this thread fulfilled its purpose.

Ah alrighty. Haven't seen it while scrolling then. If it appeared earlier on GitHub than this thread, I guess I'm sorry then. If not, then this thread fulfilled its purpose.

You're welcome, no need to say sorry.

I couldn't find it at Github so fast but ill take a look tomorrow and might open an issue for you.

Edit:
There you go: https://github.com/qbittorrent/qBittorrent/issues/3089

You miss my point slightly, I'm not casting aspersions on the intelligence of Bittorrent users, the real problem is that developers cannot 'think' at that level of ignorance (ignorance as in "having little or no knowledge of") so aim at a "lowest common denominator" that is higher than the actual level.

The "Surely everybody knows that" factor is assumed to be higher than it actually is. and to head back to the topic there are 'good reasons' for starting at port 6881 as it is the 'well known' port that DHT listens on, so if the client is

Telling you about my lack of knowledge, I surely know more about other things. Yet knowledge has to be shared,

Exactly, no one absolutely no one should be offended or 'threatened' by their knowledge of any one subject being challenged or corrected, being absolutely correct at all times should be left for religious fundamentalists to insist upon.

Nemo wrote:

Ah alrighty. Haven't seen it while scrolling then. If it appeared earlier on GitHub than this thread, I guess I'm sorry then. If not, then this thread fulfilled its purpose.

You're welcome, no need to say sorry.

I couldn't find it at Github so fast but ill take a look tomorrow and might open an issue for you.

Edit:
There you go: https://github.com/qbittorrent/qBittorrent/issues/3089

Nice, thank you!