Last month we talked about some of the cool new features of µTorrent 3.0 (www.utorrent.com), the latest version of the popular BitTorrent file-sharing app. But one that we didn’t mention was µTorrent Remote, an excellent new feature for managing your µTorrent client remotely. With Remote, you can add torrents, control speed settings and start and stop downloads from anywhere, just as if you’re sitting in front of the computer itself. It’s perfect if there’s a new torrent that arrives while you’re at work and you’d like to have it sitting ready for you when you get home.
µTorrent has had a web interface for some time, but version 3.0 has really jacked it up to the next level with µTorrent Remote. Unlike the web interface, Remote is a web service that doesn’t require you to set up your system like a personal web server or open ports on your router. It also gives you full access to all the features of µTorrent with an interface that looks almost exactly like it. You can even use µTorrent Apps through the Remote interface.
There’s a Remote icon (it looks like a mobile phone) in the menu bar of µTorrent 3.0. To set up Remote, just click on the icon — the preferences panel will open up at the Remote configuration page. To activate it, check the box to ‘Enable µTorrent Remote’ and enter a username and password. You don’t have to register anywhere beforehand — if you don’t already have a Remote account, µTorrent will immediately create one for you using the new account name you enter here. It will also ask you for an optional security question, but no personal details (not even an email address) need to be entered to create an account. Once you’ve done that, click Apply.
Keep µTorrent running (Remote will only work when µTorrent is running), open a web browser and head to https://web.utorrent.com. Log in using the username and password you entered. You should immediately see an interface that looks and works almost exactly like the desktop application. You can access this web page from anywhere and anything you do in the Remote interface will be immediately reflected in the desktop client and vice versa.
You’ll see any feeds you’ve set up in the left-hand panel, as well as µTorrent Apps designed for the web interface. You can add new feeds or new torrents just by copying and pasting their web addresses into the Add bar at the top of the window. You can also click on a link in your feeds to add a torrent. You can change your µTorrent preferences by clicking on the gear icon.
The Android client
The Remote interface is great if you’ve got a full-sized PC around to manage it on, but it doesn’t work so well on mobile phones. Fortunately, µTorrent has also released an Android client for Remote, allowing you to add and remove torrents from your Android phone or tablet. You need Remote to be active on your desktop µTorrent install to use the client.
The Android client is very simple — it’s designed for phone screens after all — and it doesn’t give you full access to the µTorrent settings. All you can really change in the settings is the maximum upload/download speed.
However, the Android client lets you see what’s currently being downloaded and seeded on your desktop µTorrent client, and you can add new torrents by typing or pasting the torrent web address into the application. It also allows you to browse your RSS feeds and add torrents from them just by clicking on a torrent name. That’s really what this client was built for — it works best if you have feeds set up on your µTorrent client; the Android Remote client lets you remotely choose which torrents to download from those feeds and kick them off with a single screen tap.
So what about iOS? Sadly, there’s no Remote client for iPhones, iPads and iPods, nor is there likely to be. Apple has thus far had a pretty much zero-tolerance policy for anything related to BitTorrent, citing its use by pirates as a reason to ban it from the iTunes App Store (though we dare say Apple may also be concerned about its use as an alternative to iTunes for content delivery). One BitTorrent application, IS Drive, appears to have slipped through the net, but for accessing µTorrent remotely from an Apple device, you’ll pretty much just have to use a web browser. Thankfully, the Remote web interface doesn’t use Flash, but it also doesn’t render well on a phone-sized screen.
Other BitTorrent clients for Android
The µTorrent client isn’t the only way to have BitTorrent access on your Android phone or tablet. There are several full clients available for Android right now. That’s actual BitTorrent clients that allow you to download torrents directly to your phone; not just remotely control a desktop client like µTorrent Remote does. Unfortunately, we’ve yet to find a client that’s anywhere near fully cooked yet. tTorrent lite, aDownloader and Swarm Torrent Client are the best, but that’s not saying a lot. tTorrent Lite (limited to 250KB downloads) and aDownloader are free, while Swarm is US$5. Until a really good client comes out for Android, however, we’ll be sticking to µTorrent Remote.
µTorrent Remote in action
