The last stop on our tour of BitTorrent clients is Azureus. This is decidedly the most robust of the three, written in Java, containing features BitLord and µTorrent can only aspire to. If BitLord is the smarmy pre-adolescent, and µTorrent the world-wise teen, then is Azureus the mature adult, outwitting them both with a sly grin? Read on.

Acquisition and Installation

   I grabbed the Windows version of Azureus (v3.0) from the home page here. It’s 7.5 megs, which is actually a bit down from previous versions, and a break in a trend of increased size. There are also Linux and OSX flavors to be had. Apparently, it’s available from many different locations across the net, but the developers urge you to limit your downloads to the Azureus and Vuze sites due to spyware infestations. Maybe it’s just so you see their ads instead of someone else’s? My guess would be that they’re trying to avoid having people download an older version of the client that isn’t combined with Vuze, a GUI and “entertainment” suite with short videos, sound bytes, and games. I actually thought I’d downloaded the wrong thing for a couple minutes.

Features and Use

   I found Azureus hidden beneath the ‘advanced’ tab. Once selected, the “classic” Azureus interface is revealed, which looks fairly standard. There are a ton of features under the hood, starting with the ‘configuration wizard’ under ‘Tools’ in the menubar. One of the first things it allows you to choose is your level of proficiency, beginner, intermediate, or advanced.

Beginner: Use this mode if all you want to do is manage your torrents.

Intermediate: Use this mode if you want to create your own tracker and host/publish your files.

Advanced: Not for the faint of heart. If you know without looking what “MTU” means, you might have a shot here. Probably.

   This customizes the options menu system to hide things that are not needed, and may confuse the user whose experience is low. This is also where you specify your connection type, test your connection (very useful if you have a router or firewall) and set the default storage location for .torrent files. Even on ‘beginner’, the number of options available is quite large. There are the expected options of course, such as download directory selection, manual bandwidth limits, and User Interface controls. However, there is also password protection, visual and audio alerts, integrated IP filter, and an IRC plugin. By default, the plugin connects you to an Azureus help channel on Freenode. I checked in several times over 24 hours, and there was never anyone there except a couple bots. There are likely other help channels available, or perhaps it was an ‘off’ day. The built-in speed test and firewall/NAT test are handy.

   In the Vuze interface, I looked at the videos, (which were largely pointless) and the slew of trial version games like Kane & Lynch and Hitman 2, which are probably “paid offerings”, and the whole premise behind the bundle. The musical offerings weren’t bad, but since they were free, I’m not certain how it’s legal, (though it likely is) since even Metallica is in there, one of the staunchest RIAA-supporting bands around. The thumbnails for available videos when in the Vuze Dashboard view can be a bit racy, and clicking on the wrong one will quickly download an R-rated video. Watch the kids unless you’re comfortable with them watching topless models with fake boobs writhing on the beach. Granted, you have to flip a ’switch’ at the top of the screen to enable “mature content”, but this takes half a second, and you get the ‘good stuff’ without further interference. I’m sure my daughter could have found the ’switch’ quicker than me. They’re like that, kids.

   The UI for monitoring torrents is superior to the other clients I’ve reviewed, a quick glance tells me how my files are doing, if anything needs my attention, or if everything is peachy, and I have my choice of interfaces to monitor.

   If you’re very brave, or clever, or just experienced, Azureus features a built-in tracker. Yes, you can create and run your own tracker, useful if you wish to share a package with a select group, such as a commercial enterprise. I did not set up a tracker, but I have participated in an Azureus-hosted tracker from the client side, and it works quite well, but reportedly does require experience and patience to set up.

   Azureus has a large number of plugins available here. There are plugins that automatically adjust bandwidth allocation, upload limiters, a peer finder for use within a Local Area Network(LAN), and an RSS reader for importing torrents from RSS-enabled trackers.

System Behavior and Uninstall

   Forget “memory leaks”. The left rear tire on my wife’s Miata has a “leak”. The relief valve on my air compressor has a “leak”. Azureus has a memory TORRENT. Ha! Torrent! I made a funny! On startup, it was gobbling 86,000K of precious memory; within 5 minutes, despite the fact that the client was just sitting there, no loaded torrents, nothing seeding, one tab open under ‘advanced’, with me staring at it, it had incrementally risen to nearly 100,000K. It didn’t stop there, either. By the time I downloaded 4 items and left them to seed, when I came back from eating my lunch usage had risen well over 110,000K, and still growing. After being left for 3 hours it expanded to 180,000K+, dwarfed only by Firefox.

  Azureus Vuze, as it’s now called, uninstalled cleanly and quickly from ‘Add/Remove Programs’ in the Windows Control Panel. So I thought!

UPDATE: I didn’t look closely, now did I? Well after uninstalling the client, and sitting at my machine reading my mail, when I realized that the hard drive was active. I checked my network; there was a low level of activity, both in and out. I pulled up the task manager, and checked processes. Lo and behold! Azureus.EXE was still sitting in memory, holding 120,000K of memory! I have no idea what it was doing, but it was still there. I had to delete the exe manually from the \program files\Azureus\ folder. May not have happened if I’d fully shut down the client before uninstalling, but this shouldn’t be needed.

Conclusion

   In many ways, Azureus Vuze is far superior to BitLord and µTorrent, however, the combining with Vuze wasn’t a good move. Vuze calls itself the “future of online entertainment”, but I’ve already got a media player, and can’t help but feel like this isn’t anything new. The inclusion of a tracker is awesome, but only if you’re skilled enough to operate it effectively and safely.

   In most ways, I’d take µTorrent. Vuze had me irritated from the start, and never really stopped. Rather than make the experience content-rich and entertaining, they’ve made it bloated, complicated and frustrating. It’s like strapping an old tour bus to your Ferrari.

   My recommendation, if you don’t like µTorrent, use BitLord or go to Oldversion.com and grab an older copy of Azureus that isn’t mashed-up with Vuze.

Pros: Integrated tracker, plugins available, many useful features, Great GUI (in advanced tab), variable skill level settings.

Cons: Resource hog, Vuze UI unnecessary and irritating, mature content built-in.

Conversation Tags: p2p, BitTorrent, Vuze, Azureus, µTorrent, BitLord