utorrent1

Add-In Review: uTorrent

By on December 10, 2008 in Add-ins & Apps, Apps & Add-in Reviews, Reviews, Windows Home Server

One of the most demanded features for Windows Home Server has been the integration of a Bittorrent client. Your Home Server is an always on device meant for file storage (and more). And if you already have a machine set to use a torrent client, it makes absolute sense to migrate that to your Windows Home Server box. Always on, always connected, and lots of room.

Before I talk about the add-in itself, there are a couple things to keep in mind: uTorrent is a normal program and not a Windows Home Server add-in itself.  And as such, requires jumping through a number of hoops to get it running when no user is logged on.  (WGS Wiki tutorial here on how to set it up) Unfortunately, there is no torrent client available that will run as a service natively yet so you are stuck jumping through these hoops for now.

Marcel Nouwens has writting a nice Add-In for Windows Home Server that grabs information from uTorrent’s webGUI and displays it in the console.  It does just what you would need it to: it displays a list of your torrents, their status and other information about them.  It also lets you add, remove, stop, start, and force start torrents.

utorrent1 Add In Review: uTorrent

On the settings page, you just need to supply the full URL for that you would access the webGUI with.  For my server, that is “http://ummon:16655/gui”.  You would need to change that info based on your setup.  You also need to supply the user name and password to get it working too.

However, it doesn’t display any other information that you would find in the webGUI, such as a list of files in the torrent, a list of peers, detailed statistics, and related info.  To me, it is a good concept, though it feels like it needs more work.  And personally, I use a URL shortcut in the Advanced Admin Console to get the same functionality and more out of the uTorrent webGUI.

Author: Marcel Nouwens
Version Reviewed: 1.1.1.0
Release Date: 11 July 2007

More info: Download | Discuss


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  • http://friendfeed.com/seraph Ben

    I tried the uTorrent addin, but it just doesn’t get close to the level of customization I need from my torrent client. I use Vuze (Azureus) and just use the program launcher addin to start it up manually every time my whs reboots.

  • http://www.cybergamers.nl GaMeR

    Funny, I do the same in AAC but then with the url: http://locahost:6886/gui

    Works like a charm :)

  • https://technocore.homeserver.com/ Drashna

    Yup. That’s about the same thing that I do. Much better interface too.

    @Ben: i’m not a fan of azureus, so I don’t use it. But that is another option too.

  • Kevin

    Is anyone getting this to work though? I’ve spent days messing around with this and can only get uTorrent to work when I leave the appropriate account logged in. From the searching I had done at the time, I found that a lot of other people have had the same problem. Everything I’ve done to try getting this to work is way too lengthy to post here, but the basic problem is that the service doesn’t seem to “start” until the account is logged in (after trying a couple separate accounts, this is now set up in my Administrator account for convenience) – and then it is stopped once logged out – otherwise this works great, and I find the WHS addin to be sufficient for my needs (occassional torrent downloader).

  • merdzd

    i`m use from first install of WHS

    RSS options
    It would be very helpful.

  • https://technocore.homeserver.com/ Drashna

    Kevin, I’ve found that making sure which every account has admin rights does help. Also, makes sure “allow interaction with desktop” option is turned off. If it isn’t, you’ll get that effect also. uTorrent isn’t the perfect solution, by far, but it is the best working one I’ve seen for WHS.

  • Kevin

    Well – reading this got me to trying to figure this out again.

    When working on this the first time – I had not used anyserviceinstaller (the link does not work from this guide, and I could not find a copy from other sources) and so had tried setting up the service manually. I really believed that I had done this correctly…

    Anyway, today I did find a download of anyserviceinstaller and so decided to give this guide a go from the beginning again – and it works now… I don’t exactly know what was different, but it does. As best I can tell from checking all the settings, the way I had the service installed is no different, but apparently there is something I don’t understand. Go figure..

    Just wanted to pass that on. Good luck!!!!

  • https://technocore.homeserver.com/ Drashna

    Yeah, that’s the main problem I’ve had. What works once, may not always work. :( It’s really aggravating. And I’ll fix that link. :)
    Though you can find it here for now:
    http://forum.wegotserved.co.uk/index.php?autocom=downloads&showfile=7

  • GaryLW

    I’ve tried this feature on and off for months. I can’t get it to work no how (as we say in the States)! I can’t figure out what login and pw to use in the add-on config. I can’t seem to get (or understand) how WebUI works in uTorrent. I’ve tried the tutorial in WGS, but never seem to get beyond a blank screen. What I’m doing now consists of running uTorrent on the Server as normal and setting up the directories as shares in \\server\software. This way I can “send” torrents to the Autoload directory on the Server and have uTorrent pick them up. I have to RDP to the Server to manipulate uTorrent. Its not elegant, but it works most of the time. But I’d really like to get the add-on working because I hate having it best me! :(

  • Kevin

    Originally Posted By GaryLWBut I’d really like to get the add-on working because I hate having it best me! :(

    Yeah, I can understand! I spent a ton of time trying to get this to work; not really because I use torrents much, but just because I wanted to get it to work. I think that I can report that this should work just fine – THE KEY IS that it has to be set up EXACTLY as the guide states – it’s like if I did ANYTHING different, things just wouldn’t work (some for reasons I can explain, and for others I’m still stumped). I’ll try my best to offer some thoughts on your issues – I hope it helps a little bit.

    Originally Posted By GaryLWI can’t figure out what login and pw to use in the add-on config.

    There is on default username/password if that is what you’re asking – you set these in the uTorrent preferences for me (I am using v1.6.1) it is “Options -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Web UI” and then there is an area labled “Authentication”.

    Originally Posted By GaryLWI can’t seem to get (or understand) how WebUI works in uTorrent.

    As best I understand, the Web UI is completely useless for you or me to do much with. When I browse to that page, it’s complete nonsense. I think it was designed for an older version of Internet Explorer and so all the HTML gets interpreted as nonsense for my browser. HOWEVER – the uTorrent addin for WHS will access that page, authenticate with the user/pw that you assign and then post that information in your WHS console for your viewing pleasure and allow you to do some basic interaction with your torrents – the addin does not interact directly with uTorrent in any way.

    Originally Posted By GaryLWI’ve tried the tutorial in WGS, but never seem to get beyond a blank screen.

    [I assume you mean a blank screen on the uTorrent addin in the WHS console]

    Looks like you’ve messed with this just as much as I have – but just in case you haven’t done these two things specifically, these are the two steps that that I had the most issues with:

    (1) MAKE SURE YOUR PORT FORWARDING IS SET UP CORRECTLY. I have always found this to be extremely frustrating, and in the past have completely given up on certain setups just to avoid dealing with it. However, I recently got my own router (which I run behind my AT&T 2Wire router – a whole ‘nother story how I got that to work, but I digress). It is a Linksys router and I followed the instructions at portforward.com. If I recall correctly, I had to fudge one step, but once I figured out how to do this, a LOT of things are a much easier to set up now. There is a way to check that port forwarding is set up correctly, but I forget how I did that now…

    (2) The other thing that I had an issue with was getting uTorrent to run correctly as a service (as I posted above). Your problem sounds like the problem that I had. Long story short, this was fixed by me using the anyserviceinstaller app which an updated URL was given above. I still cannot figure out what this is doing differently than when I set this up manually, but heck, it works!

    If you think this might be a problem, you will need to uninstall the uTorrent service before trying to reinstall it – there are two ways that I know how to do this – you can find detailed instructions by Googling – but quickly: For either way, first stop the service – then one way is to copy instsrv from your resource kit to c:\windows\system32 and then run “instsrv uTorrent remove” (without the quotes). The second way is by deleting the service from your registry from: HLM -> System -> CurrentControlSet -> Services — make sure you give your system a restart for good luck before reinstalling.

    Originally Posted By GaryLWWhat I’m doing now consists of running uTorrent on the Server as normal and setting up the directories as shares in \serversoftware. This way I can “send” torrents to the Autoload directory on the Server and have uTorrent pick them up.

    Just to point out that this is exactly how I have things set up too. Just make sure that the incomplete torrents are being stored in something like D:\Torrents\ instead of in a shared folder.

    ———–

    As an aside – I have no idea if this makes any difference with getting this setup to work, but I am using uTorrent version 1.6.1 (old versions can be found at filehippo.com – A couple issues why I bring this up:
    (1) I personally have issues with the fact that the MPAA now owns uTorrent, this ocurred just prior to v1.6
    (2) it is reported that most people don’t consider v1.6 tampered with by the MPAA and it has a couple nice features over 1.5 so I’m using that as a compromise.
    (3) If you ONLY download legal torrents (which I advise everyone should do..) then #1/#2 should mean nothing to you, but..
    (4) All the guides I’ve found are a little old, dating to about the time of v1.6 – so I bring this up only because I just don’t know if other people are having setup problems specifically because of using much newer versions. If anyone has experience with this, it might be nice to pass that on.

    Good Luck!

  • Chris Riccio

    I don’t know why so many people have problems with the WebUI. It is incredibly eas yto setup, and invaluable at managing torrents that are in uTorrent on our WHS boxes. I have uTorrent setup to watch the share \\SERVER\Torrents and when I drop a .torrent file into it via any PC in my house, uTorrent picks it up and starts DLing in. It keeps the incomplete torrents on C:\Incomplete Torrents, and when its done, moves it to \\SERVER\Torrents.

    I don’t even use this WHS add-in, and just rely on the WebUI. The add-in is more or less useless. The WebUI opens faster, is as large as your browser window is, reports DL speeds correctly and has way more options.

    Its incredibly easy to setup. The IP of my WHS box is 192.168.1.5, so on any PC in my house, I just type in “192.168.1.5:utorrentportnumber/gui” and then login to the WebUI page. Simple.

    And for those who said its for “old” browsers… what browsers are you using?? Works great in Chrome, FF3.0.4, and Opera 9/10. You shouldn’t be using IE at all anyway.

  • GaryLW

    Thanks to Kevin for Advice, Tips and Moral Support! As soon as I get up the gumpshin I’ll give your way another shot. (I had no idea MPAA got hold of uTorrent! No wonder they won’t work on a WHS version. I wonder how much moolah they shoved down the originators throats? I’ll step back to vers. 1.6 before I try webUI again.

    CHRIS wrote:
    I have uTorrent setup to watch the share \\SERVER\Torrents and when I drop a .torrent file into it via any PC in my house, uTorrent picks it up and starts DLing in. It keeps the incomplete torrents on C:\Incomplete Torrents, and when its done, moves it to \\SERVER\Torrents.

    Do you mean to say you keep the .torrents AND completed D/Ls in the SAME folder? Please clarify. Thanks to all! :D

  • Chris Riccio

    @Chris Riccio – No. I have uTorrent set to automatically delete the .torrent file when it starts DLing it.

  • GaryLW

    To Chris:
    Neat! I didn’t think of that.

    Now what I’m attempting is to test each part before I set it up completely. I got the WebUI working on WHS and can browse to the page and show uTorrent fine ;) . I haven’t yet installed uTorrent as a service. I installed the uTorrent add-in in the console, but I don’t know what the setup means by “Server.” I setup my name & pw fine, but no matter what I put in as “Server” the test shows red and the page stays blank. Any ideas?

  • GaryLW

    I got the “Server” name in the add-in right!! Now all I need is to get uTorrent installed as a service, and get the “Server” name right again! (BTW the name was “HTTP://localhost:port#/gui/” — yeah, what a dunce!)

  • Chris Riccio

    FWIW, this is the tutorial I followed back when the uTorrent add-in came out. http://mswhs.com/2007/07/02/how-to-install-utorrent-on-windows-home-server/

    Just pay attention to the parts about WebUI.

  • GaryLW

    Thanks to all the help I got here, I got uTorrent as a service working fine! I tried the add-in, but it didn’t give me all the features I wanted. So I setup A URL shortcut to “http:localhost:port#/gui/” in Advanced Admin add-in and WOW! just like running uTorrent from the program interface. (Just make sure you have the resources if you try this.)

  • Glenn L

    Used the Wiki tutorial to set up uTorrent on my server and had no problems. My home server is now a sharing machine! After using the WebUI I don’t see why the uTorrent add-in is even necessary. Thanks for the guide.

    -gl

  • Chris Riccio

    @GaryLW

    Why not just setup the shortcut to the WebUI in your browser… Even easier then opening up the Connector. I actually have no need to open my Connector at all, seems gimmicky now. Although I have been using WHS since it came out…

    @Glenn L

    Yep, the uTorrent add-in serves no purpose after getting WebUI to work.

  • Nick

    This would be soooo amazing if someone would/could write a working uTorrent add-in for WHS. Unfortunately looking at how so many people have trouble gettin this to work discourages me from even trying, I simply dont have time for anything more complex than a working add-in or at a push a simple work through. Well that and i’m gettin really lazy as I get older.

    Shame though it would be very cool!

  • Chris Riccio

    @Nick -

    The Add-In for uTorrent works perfectly fine… We are discussing its uselessness though. The uTorrent WebUI right in your web browser works much better.

  • Nick

    @Chris Riccio -

    I think a problem I may be having is understanding how the web UI works. ie. I imagine it works by you some how being able to input torrent links to a webui that then has been allowed to pass that link to utorrent on your remote computer (home etc) through a port you have opened in your firewall/router. utorrent on that computer then proceeds to leech/seed that torrent? If this is right then I can see a benefit of being able to download torrents from your desk at work etc. without having to remote desktop to your computer at home. What I need is to use my home server for torrents as it’s always on, thus saving me having to keep another machine in the house on just for torrent activity. I may have this all confused but if not, is my requirements catered for with this add-in and if so is it working reliably as I’ve read people complaining about problems with it working properly (something about having to be logged in to the server for it to work?)

    Thanks

  • Chris Riccio

    @Nick -

    First off, lets get 2 things straight. There are TWO things we are talking about here. The official uTorrent designed “WebUI”, AND the independently designed WHS uTorrent Add-In (of which the original article was about. Info about the (IMO useless) WHS Add-In can be found above, and info on the uTorrent WebUI can be found here: http://www.utorrent.com/webui-guide.php

    If you install uTorrent as a windows service with AnyService Installer, you do NOT have to be logged in to your WHS box to DL torrents.

    I have never tried using the WebUI outside of my home network, but if you forward the ports, I don’t see why that wouldn’t work.

    If you are competent with Windows/computers at all, and understand basic networking, there is NO reason why you can’t make this work. It is very simple.

    FWIW, forget about the WHS uTorrent Add-In, and just use the official uTorrent WebUI from the link I gave you above.

    Good luck.

  • https://technocore.homeserver.com/ Drashna

    Nick, exactly. The WebGUI can load torrents either by uploading the .torrent file through the webGUI or by linking to the torrent in it. I’ve used both, and it works great.

    The problem is, that this add-in is just a modification of the WebGUI and doesn’t offer anything more useful than that. Personally, I use the webGUI and don’t have this add-in installed.

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  • JeePee

    Why is the tutorial gone that describes how to ge uTorrentto running when no user is logged on?

  • JeePee
  • gggirlgeek

    Hmmmm… that link is gone now too. Anyway, I don't see what the big deal is. Why would you want WHS to ever log out? Install utorrent like you would on any other machine and set it to run at startup. Don't let it sleep or hybernate. If you do you will have to set up extra things in the Bios and Windows power and networking options to allow wake-from-Lan. So just don't. Then setup the WebGUI and its port. Get your address and password, and away you go.

    Type the address into the browser on ANOTHER COMPUTER — INSIDE THE HOUSE (without script blocking or addons at first.) Address example: http://192.168.1.100:55533/gui
    =
    [The Assigned IP address of your server where Utorrent is installed (in Ipconfig under IPv4 Address.)]:[The port number you put in Utorrent's WebGUI options]/gui (typed exactly)

    ON THE SAME MACHINE: (the UTorrent server) you have to substitute 192.168.1.100 with the word localhost. So it would be: http://localhost:55533/gui

    OUTSIDE THE HOUSE: You need your Internet IP address for the whole network. From any browser inside the house go to http://www.whatismyip.com/ and copy the IP address you see. For example 140.140.133.13. Substitute it for the assigned IP (in between http://and:55533/gui. Now your utorrent Webgui outside the house is: http://140.140.133.13:55533/gui Voila!

    Summary
    _______
    Inside the house: http://192.168.1.100:55533/gui
    Inside the server: http://loacalhost:55533/gui
    Outside the house: http://140.140.133.13:55533/gui

    Complications:
    ___________
    *Make sure you type http:// before the address in your browser. Some give you a blank page if you don't.
    *To avoid problems try forwarding the port in your router settings. Utorrent help files will guide you to a place for this. So, using the example again: IP address = 192.168.1.100. UDP = 55533 – 55533. TCP = 55533 – 55533. Other possible settings: "Always Allow" or "Forward" or "Schedule Always." Application name = Utorrent. Computer name = NameOfServer
    *Last: remember to check if uTorrent and your port (55533) are allowed through your server's firewall — both Home and Public in latest Windows OS.
    *Your router's firewall might need some trial and error if all else fails. I actually had to restrict it a little more to get it working. Go figure! (Dlink router: TCP and UDP Endpoint Filtering are both set to "Port and Address Restricted." Now I commonly get utorrent downloads at 600 – 1Mbps. No kidding.
    *Make sure UPnP is on in the router and in Utorrent.
    *Router: I do best with WMM and Auto Channel Scan turned off in the router settings. Let it scan for a day and then set it to that channel. (1,3 or 11 normally) Stick to Wireless G only rather than a mixed mode for faster speeds. Qos slows me down a lot. I turned it off. Sticking to either TKIP or AES, not mixed seems to help.
    *One last thing: make sure there's a wall between your wireless router and the microwave oven — the distance doesn't matter. It's like a dog and a cat. If they can see each other a fight will start. :) I just tucked my router around a cozy little corner rather than the middle of the desk and it's quite happy. Forgot all about that mean old bully microwave!

    Have fun and hope I helped.