Additional Vuze Settings

Introduction

These are some additional settings for features in Vuze that may prove useful.  If you want information on any features not listed here, please post in the comments below and I will try to post some information.
This is a work in progress and I will post more information when I have time.

Mode
To make sure that you can see all the options referenced here you should be in Mode = Advanced.
The location for this option is at
(Windows/Linux) Tools>Options (Ctrl+,)>Mode
(Mac) Azureus>Preferences (⌘ + ,)>Mode

• Dealing with ISP Interference
• IP Filter
• Loading Torrents

Dealing with ISP Interference 

If you are having troubles with your transfers after Optimizing Vuze for Speed and choosing good torrents, then your ISP may be interfering with bittorrent.   This section offers some information on determining if there is interference and how you can try  to circumvent this interference.

1.  Check for ISP Interference:  You can check at Azureus-Wiki: Bad ISPs  to see if your ISP is known to interfere and for suggestions on how to circumvent their interference.  
If your ISP is not listed, your ISP may still be interfering.  FileShareFreak has a good article on the ways to test for this at 6 Things You Can Do to Test Your ISP for BitTorrent Throttling.

2.  Encryption If your ISP is interfering Vuze offers 5 different levels of encryption to try and circumvent this.  For most people Level 2 encryption (below) will suffice.  The setting for this is at:
(Windows/Linux) Tools>Options>Connection>Transport Encryption
(Mac) Azureus>Preferences>Connection>Transport Encryption

3.  Lazy Bitfield  Some ISPs (like my Comcast) interfere with seeding.  The usual symptom of this is that upload  is fine while downloading, but connections cannot be maintained after the download is complete.  Enabling Lazy Bitfield has Vuze always send send a faked incomplete bitfield, which may help in defeating this ISP interference.
The setting for the Lazy Bitfield option is at:
(Windows/Linux) Tools>Options>Transfer (5th option from bottom)
(Mac) Azureus>Preferences>Transfer (5th option from bottom)

IP Filter

The Vuze IP filter blocks the IPs entered within it.  Most commonly, the blocklist from BISS is used to block  IPs that are "known" to interfere with bittorrent.   There is some controversy over whether these lists are useful.  There is some evidence to support their use in this article and there is some evidence that they are not useful in this post.   I leave it up to you as to whether this is necessary for your situation.

Vuze offers a built-in IP Filter that has the ability to auto update itself.  You can also manually update.  It is located at:
(Windows/Linux) Tools>Options>IP Filters
(Mac) Azureus>Preferences>IP Filters

1.  Auto  As of now, and for the foreseeable future, BISS is no longer supporting auto updating.  The blocklist is only available as a manual download. 

2.  Manual   There are two sources for blocklist download, BISS and Nexus23.  For BISS It is suggested to use the Level 1 blocklist.  For Nexus23, the Peerguadian IP Filter should be used.
BISS Level 1 Blocklist Download
Nexus23 Peerguardian IP Filter Download
They are both zip files and have to be unpacked.  Unpack the file to a location you want (I suggest in the Vuze program folder as it will be easy to remember).  Then in Vuze at the location above, select the browse button to locate the file and then press the Load Now button.  Thereafter you can unpack to that location, overwriting the existing file and press Load Now. (Click on image if you need clearer picture)

Loading Torrents

 My suggestion for new users is to follow the Azureus-Wiki:  What to do Now?:  Best Way setup instructions.  This method sets a download to automatically start when you download the torrent to the default directory.  If you then wish to only select some files out of a torrent, you can save to a different location and open manually through File>Open>Torrent File and you will see a screen where download location and files to download can be selected.  The setup under the Files and Torrents options for the above Best Way would look like this:

Related Articles

• Optimizing Vuze for Speed setting Vuze up for best download speeds
• Searching for Torrents Popular and unique torrent search sites, with comments.
• Finding Legal (and Free) Torrents sites that offer only legally downloadable and distributable content.

Gizmo's Best Ever Freeware Forums

If you still have issues after using this guide and would like some assistance, you may post here or our Forums.  The comments section here is not well set up for ongoing discussions, so the forums are a better place.

If you have a suggestion or correction for the guide, please post here.

Steve