How to increase your torrent download speed

I am a linux user.. and i use Bitswash .
Here are the settings to check : TCP (Port Range)
DHT
Maximum connection
Maximum upload slot
UPnP
Nat Port mapping
local service discovery
Peer Exchange
Half-Open Connection

Firstly, In computer networking, the protocols of the Transport Layer of the Internet Protocol Suite, most notably the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and the User Datagram Protocol (UDP), but also other protocols, use a numerical identifier for the data structures of the endpoints for host-to-host communications. Such an endpoint is known as a port and the identifier is the port number. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is responsible for maintaining the official assignments of port numbers for specific uses.
Uh..long list..To put it in layman term for bittorent..It allows you to recieve data for seeders and peers..not all ports are open..Some are closed some are restricted.
Default port for transmission is 9090
While my port range is from 6112 to 6889
My default was 6881 to 6889...

DHT.. Distributed hash tables (DHTs) are a class of decentralized distributed systems that provide a lookup service similar to a hash table: (name, value) pairs are stored in the DHT, and any participating node can efficiently retrieve the value associated with a given name. Responsibility for maintaining the mapping from names to values is distributed among the nodes, in such a way that a change in the set of participants causes a minimal amount of disruption. This allows DHTs to scale to extremely large numbers of nodes and to handle continual node arrivals, departures, and failures...

DHTs form an infrastructure that can be used to build more complex services, such as distributed file systems, peer-to-peer file sharing and content distribution systems, cooperative web caching, multicast, anycast, domain name services, and instant messaging. Notable distributed networks that use DHTs include BitTorrent (with extensions; simply put, 'DHT allows not to depend exclusively on tracker sites), eDonkey network, YaCy, and the Coral Content Distribution Network.
..Er..In short DHT allows you to get extra peers if available ..Er..if its not necessary disable it


Maximum Connection ...eh in short means the total number of seeders and peers u are allowed to have.My recommended maximum...if u are using a router like me....Linksys ...is 350.minimum is 200

Maximum Upload slot...Simply means how many people you can upload too..one slot equals to one peer....Recommended minimum is 2..As for maximum..ah well depends on how good your download and upload speed is..and depemds if u are a big hearted seeder....Me? not the biggest hearted seeder..i use 10 upload slots.

UPnP...Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) is a set of computer network protocols promulgated by the UPnP Forum. The goals of UPnP are to allow devices to connect seamlessly and to simplify the implementation of networks in the home (data sharing, communications, and entertainment) and corporate environments. UPnP achieves this by defining and publishing UPnP device control protocols built upon open, Internet-based communication standards.
Eh..InShort it allows the discovery of new peers , seeders and ports automatically..Enable it for faster download.

NAT Port Mapping Protocol (NAT-PMP) is an Internet Engineering Task Force Internet Draft, introduced by Apple Computer as an alternative to the more common Internet Gateway Device (IGD) Standardized Device Control Protocol implemented in many network address translation (NAT) routers. It was introduced in June 2005. NAT-PMP allows a computer in a private network (behind a NAT router) to automatically configure the router to allow parties outside the private network to contact itself. NAT-PMP runs over UDP. It essentially automates the process of port forwarding.

Included in the protocol is a method for retrieving the public IP address of a NAT gateway, thus allowing a client to make this public IP address and port number known to peers that may wish to communicate with it. This protocol is implemented in current Apple products including Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and 10.5 Leopard, AirPort Extreme and AirPort Express networking products, and Bonjour for Windows.
Importent for automated port forwarding...Please enable it if you want faster download speed..

The Service Location Protocol (SLP, srvloc) is a service discovery protocol that allows computers and other devices to find services in a local area network without prior configuration. SLP has been designed to scale from small, unmanaged networks to large enterprise networks. It has been defined in RFC 2608 as Standards Track document.
Local Service discovery is not the most important thing for normal bittorent downloads...OPTIONAL

Peer exchange (PEX) is a feature of the BitTorrent peer-to-peer protocol which, like trackers and DHT, can be utilized to gather peers. Using peer exchange, an existing peer is used to trade the information required to find and connect to additional peers. While it may improve (local) performance and robustness—e.g. if a tracker is slow or even down—heavy reliance on PEX can lead to the formation of groups of peers who tend to only share information with each other, which may yield slow propagation of data through the network, due to the few peers sending information to those outside the group they are in.
Very Important..ENable it.

A TCP connection is referred to as half-open when the station at one end of that TCP connection has crashed, or has otherwise removed the socket without formally notifying the other end of the TCP connection.

Due to the stateless nature of the Transmission Control Protocol, it is possible that if the application controlling the still-existing end of the connection is not expecting a response, then that socket may persist indefinitely in the state known as TCP half-open.
VERY important...my half-open connection limit is 2048..
I am a linux user..So i can choose freely....But For Windows XP User..You would need to patch ur tcp list..For windows xp sp2 onwards.default maximum is 10...Go to here to download file to patch
windows xp half open connection http://www.lvllord.de/?lang=en&url=downloads
And go to http://www.technovice.net/archives/12-Increase-Your-Half-Open-Connection-For-Better-Download-Speed.html for more info bout using the programme..

Most importantly..Make sure the blasted firewall doesnt block your ports for downloading..And if you are a windows user..Anti virus firewalls are known to cripple torrent downloads badly..
Get a good seeded torrent and happy downloading..
And if all doesnt work..Get a new internet plan..