UG Options
From AzureusWiki
This page gives an overview to the options offered in Azureus/Vuze (current version when writing: 4.2).
Mode options
This allows you to alter the complexity of the controls that are offered to you. You might choose to set this to avoid the possibility of messing up the settings.
Beginner just allows managing of torrents, intermediate allows local trackers, advanced allows access to everything.
Connection options
- Incoming TCP/UDP listen port This is index number of the port to 'open' in your firewall or 'forward' in your router, if you go through any to the Internet. Azureus only uses one port for all torrents.
- From a Tracker
- Decentralized Tracking
- Supplied by another peer
- Added by a plugin
- Incoming connection (If you disable this, your Vuze will not accept remote connections)
- PublicIP Network
- I2P Network see http://www.i2p.net or Wikipedia
- The Onion Router (Tor) see http://tor.eff.org or Wikipedia
Proxy Options
For use if you are behind a firewall.
- Enable proxying of tracker communications The following options are for use if you're using a proxy to connect to the internet.
- I have a SOCKS proxy check this if you're using a SOCKS proxy.
- Enable proxying of peer communications enables you to use a proxy when uploading information to the peers (seeding and all uploads).
- Inform Tracker of limitation check this to let the tracker know you're using a proxy.
- SOCKS version The version of the SOCKS protocol your proxy uses.
- Use same proxy setting for tracker and peer communications proxy Check this to use the same settings for the peer and the tracker proxy.
Advanced Network Settings
- Max simultaneous outbound connections attemptsThis options set limits how many connection attempts can be "half-open" simultaneously.
- Bind to local IP This option allows you to bind Azureus to a specfic IP address and thus a (virtual) network device. This may be useful if you have multiple internet connections. It can be used with the multi-instance flag and the LAN peer finder plugin to run multiple Azureus instances to use more than one line for downloading
- Bind to local Port This sets outgoing connections to a fixed source port. This can be used with full cone NAT routers to reduce the number of NAT table entries and thus prevent crashes on some router models. When the outgoing port is bound to the same as the incoming port that might even solve NAT problems on full cone NAT routers.
- Note: Binding to the same port as the incoming port works under Windows 2k and greater only. Unix users should use a different port. It's not working at all under Mac OS X.
- Line maximum transmission Unit The greatest amount of data or "packet" size that can be transferred in one physical frame on a network.
- Socket SO_SNDBUF size The TCP window size is implemented by send and receive buffers on each end of the connection. To set these buffers, the SO_SNDBUF and SO_RCVBUF fields need so be changed (KB).
- Socket SO_RCVBUF size see Socket SO_SNDBUF size
- Outgoing packet type-of-service Sets traffic class / type-of-service (TOS) field in the IP header for outgoing packets.
- Azureus leaves this unset by default, meaning the defaults for the underlying OS are used.
- Example values are:
- 0x02 for IPTOS_LOWCOST
- 0x04 for IPTOS_RELIABILITY
- 0x08 for IPTOS_THROUGHPUT
- 0x10 for IPTOS_LOWDELAY
- Underlying network implementations may ignore this value, so this option is highly dependent on OS and JRE versions.
- On Windows 95/98/NT for TCP sockets the IP_TOS socket option is ignored and all packets are sent with the TOS set to 0.
- On Mac OS X setting TOS does not work yet, due to a bug in Apple's JRE.
- On Windows 2000 and XP IP TOS needs to be enabled via the registry setting HKEY\LOCAL MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\DisableUserTOSSetting as a REG DWORD type set to the value 0.
- Note:Azureus 2.2.0.3 and newer will automatically set this registry key for you when enabled (reboot required).
Transport Encryption
- Require encrypted transport
- Minimum encryption level
- Allow non-encrypted outgoing connections...
- Allow non-encrypted incoming connections
Transfer options
Only experienced users should change these options. You can badly hurt your download speed. If you are new to Azureus, use Azureus > Tools > Configuration Wizard or ask for help in the IRC channel. You may also want to read Good settings.
These values are initially taken care of through the configuration wizard run the first time you start up Azureus on your system. They are very dependant on your internet connection and what capacity you want to make available to BT activity. If you want to vary some of these parameters to better settings then the configuration wizard is available through the File Menu. Only experienced users should change these options because you can badly hurt your download speed.
| Option visible in User Mode: | Beginner | Intermediate | Advanced |
- Global max upload speed and Global max download speed set the maximum amount of the network capacity that you will allow BT activity to use for up-/download. Upload should be about 80% of the bandwidth on your internet connection
- Alternate rate when only seeding defines the max download speed if there are only uploading torrents.
- Max upload slots per torrent default is the number of people to whom you will upload data on a torrent. This value balances potential speed increases with fewer peers against more peers at possibly lower speeds. This can be altered for individual torrents in the 'General' tab for that torrent. Allow at least 2 kB/s for every upload slot for best performance.
- Alternate default when seeding defines the default value if there are only uploading torrents.
- Max number of connections per torrent default is the maximum number of peers to which you can be connected on a torrent per default. Sets the default number of seed and peer connections each torrent can have. A higher-than-optimal number here is the primary cause in reports of computer lagging when Azureus runs. Usually, 30 to 60 connections per torrent will suffice. Set it to 100 or 150 and your transfers may slow as protocol overhead increases noticeably.
- Max connections globally is the total number of peers, for all torrents, to whom you will allow connections from this client.
- Prioritize most completed files where your client resources are limited Azureus will make more attempts to complete file downloads, and therefore usable, instead of maximising transfer rates.
- Allow multiple connections from the same IP leave this disabled unless you have a specific need for it or enjoy people leeching your bandwidth.
- Use lazy bitfield sends altered bitfield information when torrents switch from downloading to seeding. At least Optonline detects the normal bitfield and sends spoofed packets to both peers causing the clients to terminate the connection. You should only use this option if you need to.
- Prioritize first and last piece of file(s) tries to download the first and last pieces of individual files in the torrent. This allows previewing certain media files before they are completed. Those files are usually large, so this is of little use. VLC Media Player is a better alternative.
- Further prioritize High priority files according to % complete and size of file ???
- Ignore peers with these data ports ignores peers who have set these port numbers for their incoming connections. If your firewall complains that Azureus is trying to send email, then your firewall may be brain-dead and you should add 25 here.
Auto-Speed
Here you set Vuze to automatically adjust its speed limits either with Auto-Speed Classic or with Beta version. You can sen the functionality to be active when downloading and seeding, or when only seeding.
The main parameters for Auto-Speed Classic:
- The min/max limits for uploads
- Max increase/decrease to the speed
- The choking ping time (latency in ms). Lower time here means more sensitiveness for smooth internet traffic.
LAN
Separate speeds for LAN connections enable you to set different max. speeds for those peers, which are located in the same LAN with you. For most users, there is no other peer in the same LAN and this "LAN speed" setting should be disabled.
Files options
This set of preferences allows you to fine tune the way Azureus handles the files it creates.
- Default directory defines a directory path you would like your torrents to automatically download into. This is one of the most useful settings here, as it enables you to relocate your data directory for new downloads. If you have activated this option, it's still possible to download a torrent to a different directory by using the File -> Open menu.
- Allocate and zero tells Azureus to pre-allocate the space to be used by the file and fill that space with zeroes before it downloads the actual data of the file. This means that there is no chance that later Azureus will stall because there is not enough space on the destination disk. This option will minimize fragmentation of the hard drive in comparison to incremental allocation. If this option is checked, incremental file creation can not be used
- Truncate existing files will remove additional bytes at the end of a downloaded file (e.g. that has been imported from an other BT download tool)
- Enable incremental file creation will make Azureus increase the size of the file only as it is data is downloaded which means that you can trigger torrents that may take up a lot of space and that space will in reality remain available until actually needed to store file content.
- Re-check pieces when download is done instruct Azureus to do a check at the end of download to be completely sure no piece of a file was missed. If any piece doesn't pass the error correction, it is simply discarded and downloaded again. This option may cause occasional high CPU usage on slow systems.
- Enforce exclusive file write access locking across torrents ???
- Use Fast Resume mode saves the state of your downloads into the .torrent file so that if you stop and restart a torrent it will resume 'instantly'. If you don't do this then Azureus will conduct a review of the download on startup to check the torrent content, which can take time. You can specify the interval between saves which will then be the maximum time you would loose if you had to restart. You can also instruct Azureus to save the information about peers to speed up restarts.
- Update resume data every X minutes defines how frequently resume data is written to the .torrent file.
- On crash-restart check entire file for completed pieces... ???
- Save peer connections for quick reconnects caches information about the peers it's connected to and stores it in the .torrent file. This cached information makes it possible to connect to peers and seeders even in the case of the tracker going offline.
- Max peers to save sets the maximum number of peer connections to cache (per torrent).
- Auto-prioritize files with extension... lists extensions of files inside torrents that will automatically be given a download priority of High. Individual file priorities can be viewed on the files tab of the advanced view.
- Confirm when deleting data request a confirmation before deleting downloaded data. Deleted data does not go to the recycle bin.
- Files to ignore when creating/deleting... defines the files ignored when creating/deleting data files. Typically the low-level information files of the operating system.
- Move deleted files to the Recycle Bin prevents the files being deleted completely for recovery purposes
- Backup configuration files for recovery purposes ???
Completion Moving
- Move completed files will move the files from the download directory to another location when they are completed.
- Directory is the directory you want torrents to be moved to when they finish downloading and start seeding. Unchecking this option will result in torrents staying in the download directory. It can be hard to tell the difference between finished and incomplete torrents however, so it's recommended they be separated
- Move .torrent will also move the .torrent file from its saved location (see below) to the completed files directory. Can be useful to keep track of .torrent files for later reseeding.
- only if in default data directory will only move torrent to the completed directory if it was originally saved to the default data directory. This is useful if you have certain torrents you want saved somewhere else, otherwise when they finished downloading they'd just get moved into the completed directory with the others.
Torrents
- Import new torrents automatically lets you choose a directory that will be scanned for new torrents and automatically added to Azureus’ queue. (in Files > Torrents)
Removal Rules
From the menu, select Tools->Options...
In the left pane of the Options tab, expand the "File" entry, then expand the "Torrents" entry.
Click on the "Removal Rules" entry.
Now, in the right pane, you will see three options that control how and when torrents are automatically removed. By default, Azureus will only remove updates (for Azureus) when they are no longer needed.
Some trackers can issue an error response such as "torrent is not authorized by this tracker". You may configure Azureus to automatically drop the torrent when such error messages are received.
This type of error message from a tracker can be generated if the torrent was never authorized by the tracker, or when the tracker administrator wishes to prevent further distribution of bittorrent content for a particular torrent. The latter case is common among trackers which distribute fansubbed anime, which eventually gets licensed - at which time distribution should cease. By enabling these features, you can help to prevent further distribution of bittorrent content that is no longer authorized for distribution.
Read the Azureus FAQ
Performance Options
- Friendly hash checking by default, Azureus uses friendly hash checking. You can disable this in the configuration. Friendly hash checking does not lock up your system while it does the hash checking. For faster systems, this should not be a problem but with slower machines, it can lead your system to be unusable until all the hash checking is done.
- Enable disk cache enables disk cache, this could help reduce disk fragmentation.
- Size of cache in MB (default 4) Important: set it to 32 MB or less!
- Trace cache operations for diagnostic purposes
Interface options
These preferences allow you to configure the interface that Azureus presents to you.
So you can select:
- Auto open details tab which will add a 'details' tab to the main display window for each torrent as it is added. This tab will be named after the Torrent.
- Auto open download bar opens a download bar whenever a torrent is added.
- Enable system tray places an icon in the system tray.
- Close minimizes to system tray won't close Azureus if the windows is closed via the top right close button but minimize it to the tray
- Minimise minimizes to system tray minimize will only show a tray icon, nothing more
- Allow Azureus to send ...
- Play sound when a download ...
- Play sound when a file ...
- Show confirmation dialog on exit
- Show confirmation dialog on torrent removal
- Clear remembered dialog decisions
- Drag and drop action for directories sets the action for Azureus to take in the event that a directory is 'dropped' onto the application. The actions can be to open the contained torrents, to share the directory, to share the directory's contents or to share the directory's contents and the contents of any contained directories.
- Reset explorer file associations sets the .Torrent file extension to refer back to Azureus by default. This may be needed if other BitTorrent clients modify the reference.
Language
Settings here enable you to select the language used in Vuze user interface. English is the default choice, and not all parts of the user interface have been translated to each language.
Start
Settings here enable you to adjust Vuze's behaviour when starting.
Display
Settings here enable you to adjust the outlook of Vuze by selecting the shown information, used unit anlso alos update intervals.
Color Scheme
Alerts
Settings define how Vuze should alert you regarding certain items.
Password
- Protect Azureus using a password prevents the use of Azureus unless the password is known. The password will be requested when starting, quitting, or restoring the client from the system tray.
IP Filters options
This allows you to block connections to specified addresses. You might do this to avoid known organisations or nodes that are behaving in ways you dont find useful.
Note: old Safepeer plugin is incompatible and obsolete with current Vuze versions. The built-in IP Filters functionality has replaced the need for the plugin. Please read Safepeer_Migration.
The options available here:
- Enable switches on the filtering by Azureus of IP addresses. That means you can enter a range of IPs you don’t want to have access to your computer (which will mean all IPs will have access except the ones you specify).
- ALLOW which means you can choose to only enable only IP addresses instead (which will mean that all IPs will be blocked except those you specify).
- Save blocked IP ... means you dont have to type the filters in each time
- Block peers that ... adds the address of any sources of bad data to the blocked list. Associated options enable fine-tuning of the blocking rules.
- Ban a block ... allows the assumption that once a few bad addresses are blocked in a small range then the range should also be blocked.
You may decide to acquire standard blocklist from somewhere. Otherwise you can add IP addresses or ranges of addresses along with a descriptive name for the range.
Plugins options
Plugins offer you additional ways to extend and modify Vuze's behaviour.
The main view displays the plugins that are installed and its sub choices allow access to the option panels of each installed plugin. This is where you get to configure and control the plugins that are loaded with your copy of Vuze. Also the version information for each plugin is shown here.
Statistics options
Tell Azureus to save statistical performance and activity information to a file.
- Enable activates periodic statistical data saves
- Statistics save directory indicates where to save the files
- Statistics file name indicates the name to use for the files
- XSL file name ??? Style sheet to insert for the formatting of output ???
- Save frequency sets the frequency of those saves
- Export peer details ??? indicate whether the data output to the file should include peer details which could enlarge the file size considerably ???
See also
Tracker options
Client
Server
Controls the built-in tracker capability of the Azureus client.
This is where you set up the Azureus’ embedded tracker.
- First you need to have a “fixed” external IP address. Click on the “Check Address” button and everything will be explained.
- You can then choose the port on which the tracker will operate.
- The “Tracker client poll interval (secs)” is the time your tracker will ask the peers connecting to it to wait before asking the tracker again.
- On the tracker URL, which will be something like http://yourExternalIPAddress:6969/, you can choose to publish details about the torrents you are hosting (or just publishing). And the access to that webpage can be protected via a password (“Enable password on tracker web”).
- “Publish torrent file and peer details” gives even more information, on the webpage, about who is downloading the torrent and how much is being transfered.
See also
Security options
Enables verification of the authenticity of some plugin files
Classic-Sharing options
High level control of the built-in tracker
Logging options
Instruct Azureus how to log its activity
If you want to keep track of the console output, enable logging to file.
Queue options
Control the most important aspects of the client's torrent queueing behaviour.
Seeding
Seeding rules are a set of rules that determine a torrent's Seeding Rank, a measure of how much it needs to be seeded. For the most part, the options are self-explanatory.
Auto Starting
These rules determine the seeding rank, and affect which torrent will be seeded first.
First Priority
See also
Ignore Rules
The torrents which match "Ignore rules" will not be started automatically. These rules define your wishes to when vuze should stop seeding these torrents.
See also
Devices options
If you are using the Vuze interface, you can also see the Devices options:
Subscriptions options
If you are using the Vuze interface, you can also see the Subscription options:
