Thread: How to setup webui

This isn't my guide, but I felt that it was so useful I had to share it with you guys. This psuedo seedbox can be used on the worst of computers, using a interface competitive with rTorrent and the like. I personally use this on my main computer, and it really helps me with my seeding and off site downloading. I can access it from outside home and most importantly, at school.


CREDIT: ADAM PASH OF LIFEHACKER.COM
Remote control your torrents with uTorrent's WebUI - BitTorrent - Lifehacker

You're a BitTorrent freak, so why should you let a little thing like being away from your home computer stop you from getting your fix? Using the popular, free uTorrent client, you can control your BT downloads from anywhere using a full-featured web interface. With uTorrent's WebUI, you can add, remove, and manage the downloads you've got running at home no matter where you are. Hit the jump and I'll show you how to get it all set up.
NOTE: uTorrent is Windows-only, but you can access and control uTorrent via the WebUI using virtually any browser on any platform (except for IE6, that is, which "is not supported and never will be").
Set up WebUI on your home computer

First, you'll need to grab a copy of uTorrent if you don't already have it. It's a standalone executable, so just put it wherever you like, give it a run, and let's get started.
Next you've got to grab the WebUI files (the first link in the post). Here's a direct link that should work for now, but I can't guarantee it'll always be the latest, so you might want to check the first link to make sure.
The file you've downloaded should be called something like webui_v0.310_beta_2.rar. The .rar extension is an archive, so use your favorite unzipping program (like Lifehacker favorite 7-Zip) to get to the goods inside.
Inside, you should see a zip file named webui.zip. You need to copy this file to your uTorrent application data directory, so hit Windows-R to bring up your Windows run box and paste in %AppData%\uTorrent, then hit Enter. Now just drag the webui.zip file into the Explorer window that just popped up.
Simple so far, right? Now you need to open up uTorrent and go to Options -> Preferences, then expand the Advanced tab and click on Web UI. Tick the box labeled Enable Web Interface, and enter in a username and password (it can be whatever you want).
As you can see from the screenshot, you can also set up a different port for the WebUI to listen for connections, but since the default uses the already-forwarded BitTorrent port, it'll probably be easiest to just stick with the defaults. If none of what I just said makes any sense to you, don't worry about it - just forge ahead.
Now just hit Apply and you should be set up. However, before you close the uTorrent Preferences, go to Connection and take note of the Listening port (see screenshot below). You'll need this in a bit.
Take the WebUI for a test drive

Now that you've got the uTorrent WebUI all set up on your home computer, test it out on the same computer by directing your browser to http://localhost:port/gui/ where you replace 'port' with the port number you copied down above. If all goes well, you'll be prompted for a username/password. Enter in the credentials you set up above and voila - the familiar uTorrent interface should load into your browser. For a larger example, click the screenshot above.
Play around with the interface to get an idea of what you can do. The WebUI doesn't offer every feature of your desktop version, but it lets you tackle most of the same features, most notably the ability to start new downloads by either uploading a .torrent file or by entering the address of a torrent URL. You can also start, stop, and remove torrents, tweak bandwidth settings for your torrents, or tweak your uTorrent settings. If you've spent much time playing with uTorrent on your desktop, the WebUI is nearly identical, and surprisingly responsive.
Access uTorrent from anywhere

Of course, the whole point of the WebUI is to allow you to access the WebUI interface from any computer connected to the internet. To get connected from another computer, all you need to know is the proper URL and port. If you're accessing the WebUI from another computer, you can't use the localhost address we used above, so you'll need to connect using your IP address. Since your IP address can change on you, and since remembering a string of numbers can be difficult, I'd recommend that you assign a domain name to your home computer. That will allow you to get to your WebUI from any computer by entering an address like http://mywebui.homeip.net:portnumber/gui. Handy, huh?
If you'd rather not set up a domain name, you can quickly grab your host computer's external IP address from a site like WhatIsMyIP and just hope it doesn't change. Just swap the IP address for localhost in your URL. Just remember that in any case, you need to have uTorrent running on your home computer in order to access it via the WebUI.
But wait, there's more! You can also install and set up the uTorrent WebUI Firefox extension, which provides a live update of your uTorrent download/upload speeds in your Firefox statusbar. Clicking the uTorrent status bar will open the WebUI in Firefox's sidebar. If you need help setting up the extension, TorrentFreak's guide should help.
Finally, iGoogle/Google Personalized Homepage lovers might want to try running the uTorrent Google Gadget to keep tabs on their downloads.

Great tutorial! But in some cases this won't work directly, for instance if your using a NAT router, you will have to setup port forwarding. But portforward.com will help you with that.

Thats a very good point, but most uTorrent users should be aware of that as by default, webUI shares the incoming port used for downloads, and as many trackers require there members to be connectable, that shouldn't be a problem

For me the point of a seedbox is the speed, not the fact that I can access it from anywhere. This just seems like a lot of work when you could just set up RSS feeds to download automatically - or wait til you get home.

Still, thanks for sharing, I'm sure some will find it very useful.

You people do understand that this is not a seedbox, right?

The purpose of a seedbox is fast speeds, anonymity, and torrenting all on a box/computer which is solely used for seeding.

This is all on your computer, so the speeds are the same, and it's even LESS anonymous than normal @home seeding since it's basically being broadcasted to the world.., nowhere near the anonymity of a seedbox.
Since it's on your computer, which you obviously use for more than seeding, it's in no way a seedbox.

There is one benefit to this, however, and that's the ability to access your uTorrent transfers from anywhere with internet.
Not worth the hassle or reduced security IMHO.

Just informing the uninformed.
Cheers

Originally Posted by konVILEuted

You people do understand that this is not a seedbox, right?

The purpose of a seedbox is fast speeds, anonymity, and torrenting all on a box/computer which is solely used for seeding.

This is all on your computer, so the speeds are the same, and it's even LESS anonymous than normal @home seeding since it's basically being broadcasted to the world.., nowhere near the anonymity of a seedbox.
Since it's on your computer, which you obviously use for more than seeding, it's in no way a seedbox.

There is one benefit to this, however, and that's the ability to access your uTorrent transfers from anywhere with internet.
Not worth the hassle or reduced security IMHO.

Just informing the uninformed.
Cheers

Hm... I would disagree with the first statement, but that's because I have a different definition of a seedbox. I define a seedbox as a computer dedicated to seeding torrents. In this case, the only difference is that it's using your home connection.
Oh, well, such is the complexity of language.

There is one more use for such a setup. Assuming users have a primary PC at home for games, office work, internet, etc., a separate computer connected to the home network and dedicated to running your torrent client can keep torrents alive 24/7 regardless of what happens to your personal PC. Whether you're gaming and want to maximize available resources on your machine or whether you like to tinker with your PC, a seedbox can keep your torrents running when you otherwise can't. It's especially useful if your current torrent machine is a laptop that you often disconnect and take to work or school.

Another benefit is power usage. If you are using a desktop PC 24/7 for torrenting, you're using on average 100-150W which adds to a lot of energy over the course of a year. With the right hardware, you can drop that number down to 20 W or less at full load, although it'll be quite slow with very little capacity. Bump up power and capacity, you can get a moderate seedbox running within a 50 W envelope.

Originally Posted by verily

Hm... I would disagree with the first statement, but that's because I have a different definition of a seedbox. I define a seedbox as a computer dedicated to seeding torrents.

Yes sir, but had you read and understood that statement in its entirety you may have noticed, not one but two discrepancies in your argument.
Firstly, I never attempted to define a seedbox.
I did, however, state the purpose of a seedbox.

Secondly, you define a seedbox as a computer dedicated to seeding torrents.
While I said, a box/computer which is solely used for seeding.
So by disagreeing with my statement you're also disagreeing with yourself.

Originally Posted by ME

The purpose of a seedbox is fast speeds, anonymity, and torrenting all on a box/computer which is solely used for seeding.

There is one more use for such a setup. Assuming users have a primary PC at home for games, office work, internet, etc., a separate computer connected to the home network and dedicated to running your torrent client can keep torrents alive 24/7 regardless of what happens to your personal PC. Blablalbla....

Most people purchase a seedbox to prevent their home network from being congested with BT transfers.
The one thing that accomplishes, is that you do indeed have a seedbox (Yaaay), and as sucky as it would be.
It would be able to run 24/7.

Now find me 5 people on this website who have the necessary hardware.. an extra computer, monitor (unless you can set up VNC while looking at a computer's box), keyboard, and mouse.
Now ask them if they would rather spend an hour setting up a computer that does nothing but seed torrents.
Or if they'd rather use their laptop (or get a netbook for 100 bucks), to do the same thing except quieter and more portable, and still retain full usage of the notebook.

It's an AWESOMELY AWESOME tutorial dude :) Now I have access to all my pc's around the country and seed whatever I want to :D

But still I prefer windows remote access, however it can be tricky to set up....

Useful for person who want to share his huge bandwidth with another (via means of some cash or pure helping).

Talking about lifehacker, how could this guy know so much?