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Loading ...WebUI is a feature in uTorrent that allows you to access and control uTorrent remotely. It gives you almost complete control as if you were sitting right at the terminal. There are a few limitations to this method and possibly a few security concerns. However, it is very light-weight and easy to use/manager for anyone already familiar with the uTorrent client.
This tutorial is broken down into 4 easy to follow parts:
- Pre-requisites (default locations)
- Enabling Web UI in uTorrent.
- Accessing it remotely
- Setting up a dynamic address for easy access. (Optional – Recommended)
For this tutorial we are using uTorrent 1.8.5 running on Windows 7.
Part 1 – Pre-requisites (setting default locations)
In order for Web UI to function properly please double-check your default download locations for files (.torrent files, and the downloaded files [complete/incomplete]). You can access these by going to Options > > Preferences then selecting directories on the left menu.
Web UI only allows you to download to one directory for any torrents you manually add.
Once you have set all of your default locations, then you can enable WebUI.
Part 2 – Enabling Web UI in uTorrent
With the Options >> Preferences window still open, click on the WebUI option in the left menu.
Check the Enable Web UI box and I recommend changing the default username from Admin to something you will remember (for basic security reasons) and also changing the password to something you will remember. I recommend NOT enabling a Guest account unless you have to.
I recommend running this service on a separate port than your listening port (a port other than whatever port you have selected under Connection). You will most likely have to forward this new Web UI port on your router to access it from outside the network (see www.portforward.com for further information).
** Please note for our exercise we are using port 31337 for Web UI **
Lastly, if you are only planning on using this internally on your network then you may want to look into restricting which IP’s can access it otherwise you can leave this blank for now.
To access the Web UI service now running on port 31337 and make sure it is currently running properly you can use the loopback IP of the computer you are currently on. Open up Firefox or Internet Explorer and in the address bar type: http://127.0.0.1:31337/gui/
Pretty much to access your Web UI you will always need to use the following structure:
http://address:port/gui/
Address = can vary, we will be using a direct IP address until part 3.
Port = must be the port you set Web UI to listen on.
/gui/ = is telling uTorrent to use the GUI by looking in the GUI directory.
This should now bring up the Web UI interface. Just type in the login credentials you provided and viola! Fantastic! It’s working! Now we want to access it remotely. We will need a bit of information namely your Internal network IP (for accessing the Web UI while on your network)
You can get all this information easily by running a Command Prompt in Windows (Start Menu >> Type cmd + hit Enter). This will bring up a Command Prompt window.
In this window type the command ipconfig /all
Now depending on which network card you are using to connect to your network, you should be able to find your IP address by looking at the results (it should be under IPv4 Address):
** I know wireless and Bittorrent isn’t the best idea, a hardline to your router is ideal. I’m just using my laptop for this demonstration.
Using this address you can access Web UI remotely from any computer on your network (including the one it is setup on). Assuming mine is the IP shown (192.168.2.3) it can be accessed by typing it into the address bar with the port and /gui like so: http://192.168.2.3:31337/gui/
Part 3 – Access from Anywhere, Free DNS Usage! (Optional – Recommended)
Assuming you’ve forwarded the correct port on your router (we are using port 31337 for this demonstration), you can proceed with the next step. Since your external IP changes from time to time it can be a real hassle to remember your IP. Thanks to services like www.no-ip.com which provide free DNS services you can add a domain name for your external IP address for FREE! This is much easier to remember. So instead of typing something like http://199.201.33.121:31337/gui/ (which will change in a few days) you can access the same Web UI by always typing something like http://customurl.no-ip.org:31337/gui/ which is permanent and is much easier to remember! I recommend this solution as it updates automatically.
I’m not going to walk you through this part however, since there are so many options to www.no-ip.com, however it’s the only one I’ve tested and works perfectly. Here’s a list of possible free DNS solutions:
www.no-ip.com – tested, working.
Most of these should work as well, I just don’t know if they allow you to specify ports or not (if not, this would not work). If anyone else has tested these, please leave feedback and I’ll update this article.
This will also work if you host your own domain of course J. But that’s a whole different tutorial.
Troubleshooting
- Remote access (outside the network) stopped working after awhile.
I recommend whichever computer you are going to use as your Web UI host, that you set a static IP for this. This will prevent it from losing it’s IP and screwing with your port forward settings on the router.
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