How to Add Peers in uTorrent

uTorrent is among the best and most popular torrent clients in the world. For the most part, it’s very intuitive and easy to use. And if you know a little about torrents, you’ve probably heard of peers and seeders.

These are people who are currently downloading a torrent, helping you download it even faster yourself. In case you were wondering how to add peers in uTorrent, you should know that it can’t be done directly. But you can add trackers, which will add peers and seeders, resulting in faster download speeds.

Read on for more details, and remember to always use a VPN when torrenting.

What Are Peers?

Torrent peers are the people currently downloading the same torrent you’re downloading. When they download a portion of said torrent, they help you download what they have already downloaded. Hopefully, that makes sense, if it truly isn’t complicated at all.

Unlike peers, seeders are people who (mostly) intentionally share the torrent files they’ve already finished downloading. These help you even more because they’re sharing the whole torrent file with you.

If you add torrent trackers, you’ll most likely (although not always) increase both the number of peers and seeders. You can find lists of torrent trackers online, but we’ll provide you with one later on.

Make sure that you find the updated list of trackers. The one we’ll share is active at the time of writing (January 2020), but if you’re reading this in the future, consider finding an updated tracker list.

How to Add Peers

As mentioned, you can’t add peers directly in uTorrent, but you can add trackers – which is basically the same thing. Adding trackers is really easy, just follow these steps:

Make sure that you have updated or installed the latest uTorrent program suited for your operating system from the link.
Launch uTorrent and start downloading any torrent.
Right-click on the torrent while it’s downloading and select Properties from the dropdown menu.
The list of trackers will appear at the top of this window. Open this list of torrent trackers, then copy and paste some trackers into the trackers field in the mentioned window.
When you’re done, click on OK to confirm the changes.

This will increase the number of peers and seeders for your torrent. Sometimes that number is insignificant, whilst other times you should see a great improvement. The result will be an increase in download speed, depending on the numbers.

Additional Torrent Tips

Before you start downloading torrents, make sure of the following:

Get a decent internet package from your ISP. If you want to increase the download speed of torrents and everything else, you can always get a better package. Of course, this will cost you.
Better use a cable connection, rather than a wireless connection. An Ethernet cable connection will give you maximum download speed and internet signal, unlike Wi-Fi.
Only download “healthy” torrents. You can easily determine if a torrent is healthy by looking at the number of seeders, and leechers. Seeders are the good guys, leechers are bad. A healthy torrent has at least a 2:1 ratio (e.g. 300 seeders and 150 leechers). Leechers are people who only download a torrent, without seeding it.
Use trustworthy torrent sites. In my personal experience, the Pirate Bay and Rarbg are the best choices, at least at the current time.
Use a VPN!

Step 5 deserves a section all of its own because it’s incredibly important.

Always Use a VPN When Torrenting

Torrenting is illegal in most of the western hemisphere. If you live in the U.S. you probably know this already. Therefore, you should find a trusted VPN (virtual private network) service and use it if you’re downloading any torrents.

Without a VPN, you’re more likely to be charged for pirating, i.e. breaking copyright laws. Be warned. The fines for this are quite hefty. Instead, why not spend several bucks every month and stay safe? There are many VPN services, not all of which are that great.

We recommend using ExpressVPN or NordVPN. Both are very popular and trusted options. They have great encryption and value their users’ privacy. Also, they have many servers across the globe which offer great internet speed.

What’s great about these VPN providers is that they allow you to use their service across multiple devices, without having to pay extra. Whenever you’re torrenting, make sure your VPN is active. This way you’ll stay under the radar at all times.

Enjoy Fast Torrent Downloads

If you follow our advice, you’ll surely have a much better time torrenting than you did before. Always stay safe with a VPN, and don’t bother downloading unhealthy or sketchy torrent files. These may have malware too, but on trusted torrent sites that usually won’t be the case.

When you’re done with your download, remember to seed the torrent so you can return the favor. Don’t be a leecher, sharing is caring. That said, adding more peers is sometimes impossible, usually on older torrents.

We recommend that you download torrents as soon as they come out, or shortly after. If you want to watch a show from 20 years ago, you probably won’t have as many peers and seeders as you would for a more contemporary release.

Have you ever added peers in a torrent? Why not share your experiences in the comments section below?