Vuze adds a social component to it among other things. Users can for instance add friends to the client and prioritize this traffic and share torrents with their friends easily. A torrent search engine is included as well in the client with the option to add other search engines that are not listed yet.

The old user base that was happy with just the Bittorrent client is at least partially unhappy with the decision. Many users will continue using the old Azureus client or start using another client like uTorrent.

While the old interface of Azureus is still available in Vuze users will have no way of downloading the Bittorrent client without the additions implemented by Vuze.

ISPs use a variety of techniques to prevent their clients from using P2P networks like Bittorrent. Limiting the clients bandwidth is just one of them. Other techniques limit the bandwidth during a certain period of the day, prevent the user from downloading files with the .torrent extension, prevent seeding while some even cause unresolvable NAT problems.

The developers of the Bittorrent client Azureus have created a plugin for their application that gathers information “relating to network interference, in particular, to shed light on which ISPs are forging RST packets. Every ten minutes, the plug-in detects from your computer the number of reset tcp connections, and then displays the results to you.”

Those information can then be anonymously shared with a central server which in return leads to an updated table of Bad ISPs but also gives the Bittorrent community more firepower against those ISPs.

I like the second sentence on the page with the table, it says: “If you are using one of the following ISPs, please consider finding a new, better one.” That’s exactly what one should do and what I would consider doing even if I would not be affected by it.

The United States, Canada and the United Kingdom lead the table currently with several ISPs that impose some sort of restrictions on their users. Interesting read.

One way to check your settings would be to use a calculator that would output good settings for your connection type. Those settings are close to optimal for Bittorrent then and should work fine for most users. The Azureus U/L settings calculator needs only your upload speed and calculates everything else automatically. It recommends maximum upload and download speed, maximum upload slots and the maximum number of connections per torrents and globally.

Last but not least it suggests settings for maximum active torrents and maximum simultaneous connections. Although the calculator has been designed with Azureus in mind it can be used for other Bittorrent clients as well. The settings are almost identical and it should not pose a problem to change them in your client of choice.

The most important setting is of course the global upload speed that you define in your bittorrent client. If you set it to high your download speed and other activities on the web might suffer. You should not set it to low on the other hand because most clients reward uploaders and the system at all would not work if everyone would set the upload speed to a minimum, Remember you can’t download if others do not upload.

“Following the acquisition, patented content delivery innovations made by BitTorrent, Inc. will be integrated in the µTorrent client in a manner that will remain seamless to the community of users. Ultimately, the integration of best-of-breed BitTorrent technology will result in an improved client and an enhanced user experience. It will also accelerate BitTorrent’s plans to provide high-performance content delivery services that power websites seeking the most efficient platform for distributing large, high-quality files. Lastly, the incorporation of µTorrent’s lightweight codebase strengthens the adoption of BitTorrent technology in embedded systems, including televisions, mobile phones and other non-PC platforms.”

Utorrent on the other hand does not seem to be the only bittorent client which seems to be affliated with the content industry. There are at least rumors that Azureus was sending stats of your sessions over the network as well. And finally a photo appeared on Flickr that shows the author of Bitcomet and Aswhin Navin of Bittorrent.

Alternatives:

Some users prefer to switch clients based on those rumors which is totally understandable. But which clients can be used except the most popular ones ? Here is a list of alternatives.

• ABC (Open source)
• BitBuddy (freeware)
• BitSpirit (down atm)
• BitTornado (Open Source, one torrent per window)
• gTorrent (Open Source, Linux)
• Halite (still in early development, Open Source)
• XBT (Open Source)

It will be hard for every client in that list and possible future clients to come close to the excellent functionality and performance of uTorrent.

I do know that uTorrent qualifies for those reasons as well but I encountered an error at the time I was using uTorrent which had no fix and I therefor had to make a change. BitComet has a clean interface which uses a split screen to display the information. The left side contains the navigation with entries such as Downloading and Downloaded and links to some torrent websites as well. I have never used those links but it could be useful for some.

The right pane displays the files that you are currently downloading or seeding with typical information like size, speed and time. It would be a good idea to visit the options before you start using BitComet, you find them in Options > Preferences.

If you know what you are doing you should tweak your connection settings and change the default download location. BitComet has a CPU usage of about 2-3% even when I’m downloading many big files at once. Ram usage stays between 50-60 all the time, less if you download smaller files.

Overall speed was improved as well which needed to be done. I personally disliked Azureus because it was slower compared to uTorrent and Bitcomet. The new version might change this in favor of Azureus although I´am pretty sure that Azureus will never reach the performance of the other two clients.

Check out the complete change log on the Azureus homepage. Some security features have been introduced as well which make a fine addition like blocking certain port ranges or signed updates for increased security. If you encounter problems with Azureus check out the Azureus wiki homepage which provides articles that deal with common problems.

If you like changing the way your programs look the plugins that change the appearance might be worth taking a look at. The article mentions the 3d-view plugin which displays a 3d-view of the torrent swarm and the firefrog plugin which displays the downloads similar to firefox. The category is not really needed but if you like playing around they might be worth a try.

The following plugins prove more useful when using azureus regulary. First you have the Safe Peer plugin which imports a list of IP addresses from Blocklist.org to use as an IP filter before connecting to peers, Peer Guardian uses the same list btw. The I2P Network plugin allows the usage of the I2P anonymous network. I2P is an anonymizing network, offering a simple layer that identity-sensitive applications can use to securely communicate.

Last but not least we have Autospeed which handles the upload speed for you. It increases and decreases the speed to maximise download speeds. Pretty useful don´t you think ?

[tags]azureus, plugins, blacklist, anonymity, security, torrent, bt, bittorent[/tags]

JohnTp published an article that tries to explain how to increase download speeds with uTorrent, another popular client. This article is really helpful, besides a step by step walkthrough John added screenshots as well to visualise everything even more.

Just a sidenote, you will never be able to download at greater speed than your connection is capable of, that means: If you already have near to max speeds it is not necessary to tweak the settings even more. It´s great for everyone else who is having troubles.