Getting Started

Prerequisites

Torrent-fu uses uTorrent WebUI or Transmission to download torrents to a remote computer, it does not download torrents directly to your phone. Therefore, either uTorrent or Transmission is required. It has been tested with uTorrent versions 1.8.2 and 1.8.3 and Transmission versions 1.73 and 1.72. It may work with earlier versions, but I have not personally verified any, besides they’re free so why not keep up to date?

Note: uTorrent 2.0 users

If you upgraded from uTorrent 1.8 and can no longer connect, there seems to be a bug in uTorrent’s settings that makes it refuse connections.
To remedy: disable then re-enable webui.token_auth in the advanced preferences section, then re-enter your username and password in the webui settings.
I have no idea why this works, but it did for myself and others that have emailed with the issue.

You can download uTorrent at http://utorrent.com

You can download Transmission at http://transmissionbt.com

Setting up uTorrent

Follow the instructions to get uTorrent installed. Once uTorrent is installed, you can enable WebUI by clicking on Options>Preferences in the toolbar.

utorrentprefs

Then, on the prefrences window, select WebUI marked 1 in the screenshot below.

utorrentprefs-webui

Then check the box (#2 in the screenshot) to enable WebUI.

#3 is the admin username, you can leave it admin, or change it to whatever you like, remember the name, it will be used in Torrent-fu’s preferences.

#4 is the admin password, remember this as well it is used in Torrent-fu’s Preferences too.

#5 is optional, but can be useful if your computer is behind a router and you are forwarding a port to WebUI. For more info on port forwarding click here.

If you set #5 remember that too, it will be the port that is used in Torrent-fu’s preferences.

If you do not set a port in the WebUI preferences window, then the port you will use is located under “Connection” in the prefrences window (see screenshot below). You don’t have to change anything, just note the port number listed.

utorrentprefs-connection

To check that uTorrent WebUI is set up properly, type http://localhost:[your port number]/gui, replacing [your port number] with the port you chose in the last step ie:

http://localhost:8080/gui

or http://localhost:55671/gui.

If you are prompted for a username and password, WebUI is set up properly.

Now, uTorrent’s WebUI needs to be seen by the outside world in order for Torrent-fu to be able to communicate with it.

Setting up Transmission

transmission_prefs

Once you have transmission installed go to File>Preferences and click on the “Remote” tab in the preferences window. Check off “Enable remote access” and “Require authentication”, then type in a

(#3) username

(#4)password

and write down

(#5) Listening port

To check that Transmission  is set up properly, type http://localhost:[your port number]/transmission, replacing [your port number] with the port you chose in the last step ie:

http://localhost:9091/transmission

If you are prompted for a username and password, Transmission is set up properly.

Now, Transmission needs to be seen by the outside world in order for Torrent-fu to be able to communicate with it.

Making your torrent client visible to your phone

If your computer is connected directly to the web (through a modem, not a router) then you should be able to access uTorrent’s WebUI through your external IP address.

You can find out your IP through many sites, but the first one I found with a google search was: http://www.whatismyip.com/

If you go there you external IP will be dispayed just under the header with the label “Your IP Address Is:”

To check to see if you don’t need to set up a forwarded port go to

For uTorrent:

http://[your IP address]:[your port number]/gui

For Transmission:

http://[your IP address]:[your port number]/transmission

and see if you are prompted with the same login prompt as before. If you are, then you now have all required information to set the preferences in Torrent-fu!

If you are not so lucky, then one more step is needed to allow Torrent-fu to connect to your uTorrent WebUI. Port Forwarding.

Port Forwarding

If you are not familiar with port forwarding, this may be a little confusing, and I can’t help much outside of links and a little explanation.

port forwarding opens up  a connection between your router and a machine on your network that data can be passed through. The information required to forward a port will be: a source port (what port the connection comes in to the router on), a destination IP(the local IP of a computer on your network), and a destination port (the port data is passed to on the destination IP)

Here’s an example: If the external ip is 60.24.200.35, the local IP of the machine running uTorrent is 192.168.1.100, the source (incoming) port is 8080 and the destination port is 8080, then all data sent to port 8080 on 60.24.200.35 will be passed to the target computer 192.168.1.100 on port 8080. Sound confusing? it’s really not that bad.

For more info on port forwarding check out this wiki article.

Basically what you have to do is forward the port from #5 above to the local IP of the computer running uTorrent.

For help on setting up port forwarding on many routers, you can visit http://portforward.com/ and follow the instructions there. There are tons of tutorials with screenshots and even specific instructions of setting up port forwarding to uTorrent.

After you are done, use the external IP, port, username and password in Torrent-fu.

Torrent-fu Profiles

(Note: the home screen shot is of the upcoming release, which is why Custom Search Providers is listed)

homescreen

Torrent-fu profiles are accessed by going to the main screen and tapping “Profiles” or hitting the menu button on the phone, then tapping “Profiles”. Then tapping “Add Profile”

profiles

addprofile1

Under “Name” type a name for the profile, it can be whatever you want.

“Type” is simple, just pick your client, either uTorrent or Transmission.

Your external IP goes under “Host”

addprofile2

Your port goes under “Port”

Your username goes in “Username”

And your password goes in “Password”

Hit Save and you’re done!


Comments

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  • Kloopk

    Ignore my previous comment, I resolved it by doing the one thing I should have done at the beginning, I removed and reinstalled TorrentFU permissions somewhere must have been crossed.


    • Matt

      That is odd, I’ve never seen missing INTERNET permission pop up. I wonder if that was stopping it from connection to the beta. I’m going to d/l the beta and check it out.


  • Kloopk

    I tried out the Beta for uTorrent and torrentfu refused to work, transdriod did however.

    I have downgraded back to 2.02 as i need stability. however TorrentFu continues to report “permission denied (maybe missing INTERNET permission)” any ideas on resolution as I prefer TorrentFU to transdriod and want to return to the fold.

    all other webui connections work PC, and android

  • Where are these torrents coming from exactly, like piratebay or something like that? Or they actually accessed directly through torrent-fu and that is the only place. I guess my question is what is the search engine for the torrents.


    • Matt

      t-fu uses isohunt and mininova, but also supports adding any site that has an RSS based search. Also if you have a what.cd account it can use that.


  • Mike

    I know you can get the application to search other torrent sites for torrents, but, to those who belong to places that require logins, is there a way to search those sites? I’d like to be able to have the app log in to demonoid, and I can search and start torrents there. Thanks!


    • Jared

      I am STUMPED. I’m rather computer savvy, forwarded ports for both my firewall as well as my router. I’m thinking that my using uTorrent 2.02 my be what is causing my problem. I turned off/on webui.token_auth as suggested but I STILL can’t connect. Can anyone offer other suggestions?


      • Matt

        @Jared, to check that the port is forwarded correctly try: http://www.yougetsignal.com/tools/open-ports/
        That’s generally where the problem lies.

        Can you connect to the webui from an outside computer using http://external ip]:[port]/gui ?
        2.0.2 works fine for me, so that’s definitely not the issue.

        Also, Have you tried using your local ip over Wifi (just to verify that t-fu can connect?)


      • Jared

        According to your first link, my port is forwarded correctly. I however cannot connect to the webui from an outside computer. I’ll try to connect over local wifi now.


      • Jared

        I used my local IP and tried to connect… no go.


      • Matt

        @Jared can you connect via local ip from the computer?


      • Jared

        I get “invalid request” for both external and local ip addresses.


      • Jared

        I GOT IT! haha. I turned OFF the Alternative listening port. It was the same though so I’m not sure why it wasn’t working.


      • Matt

        I’d double check that the local ip for that computer hasn’t changed, if that’s still ok then try disabling windows firewall (or any other firewall) and trying again. If that still doesn’t work try another port like 8081 or 8082. once you can get to http://localhost:port/gui then try http://internal ip]:[port]/gui, once you get there (as long as the forwarding is ok) you should be able to connect with the external ip


      • Matt

        Cool! scratch that last bit then :)


      • Jared

        Thank you very much for your help Matt.


    • Matt

      login based sites (except what.cd) won’t work. I have written a demonoid search, but have been unsuccessful at getting the torrents to transfer to the clients because of demonoid’s annoying security.


  • diddydeadman

    I’m having problems connecting via 3G. I can connect WiFi wit no issues. I’ve put in the IP I got off whatsmyip.org went into my router to set a permission. But it just says ip address is illegal. It won’t allow a 2nd permission for port 8080. Keep getting the message “this rule already exists.” Any help would greatly appreciated. Connecting while at home is good. But I wanted this for while I was out and about. Really don’t want to have to uninstall.


    • Matt

      You’re probably adding the external IP in the rule instead of the local. In your router you should add the local ip (192.168.x.x) of the computer.


  • Jack

    Web UI works on my laptop, but not on my phone browser. Doesn’t work with the torrent fu app either – what am I doing wrong? I looked up the ip, forwarded the port (8080 alternative listing port) and edited the Web UI settings on utorrent respectively. Tried both upper and lower case Passwords and Usernames.


  • Riverfalcon

    Just set it up now running under Verizon network (3G not wifi mode) using WinXP and the latest version of uTorrent. I have no issues and it runs great! Directions are very straight forward and simple. Using the Motorola Droid!

    Excellent App…highly recommended!!!


  • jeff

    I was getting a JSON error but was able to fix it by changing the username and password to all lowercase on the utorrent webui setup.


  • Aaron

    Hi, great app, this was working on Windows XP perfectly, now that I upgraded to Windows 7. I cannot get it working! I have applied the same setting, but still no luck. Does this app work with Windows 7?


  • Kiwi

    Same problem, through wifi or 3G. I checked on some other computer and that can connect to the webUI perfectly, the browser on my milestone can access the webui (locks on load though), but torrent-fu isn’t able to


  • joe

    does it only work on WIFI?? or can it work on 3G too?


  • Darin

    i get a JSONObject text must begin with ‘{‘ at character 0 of when i click manage.

    im using EVO android 2.1 utorrent version 2.0.2


    • Kevin Francis

      I’m getting the same error:

      JSONObject text must begin with ‘{‘ at character 0


      • Matt

        that means t-fu can’t connect (usually generated by a 404, page not found error). Can you connect from a web browser?


  • Collegedropout

    okay tried everything then i figured it out when you log in on or cell phone most start typing with capital letters so make sure the password o utorrent is a uppercase letter to begin with


  • Joshua

    For some reason, it only works on wifi and it never works on a full 3G connection, any ideas on how to fix it.

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