Your home network probably isn’t optimized for BitTorrent. How do I know? Most people install the software, search for the torrent they want to download and initiate the download without ever taking the steps to configure the network for optimal downloading. Optimization does make a difference. It requires a few setting tweaks in the software and on the router protecting your home network, but the BitTorrent optimization process isn’t as bad as it might seem. If you’re using the original BitTorrent client from BitTorrent.com, step one is to dump it. The underlying download system is great, but the user interface is lousy. I recommend using Azureus. It’s not a perfect solution either, but Azureus is easy to configure for the basics and exposes a ton of features, like RSS support, through a robust plug-in system. To configure your network, including instructions on the important steps in forwarding router ports, check out my tutorial on how to configure BitTorrent.