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Introduction

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The Speed Test service can be used for the following

• Determining the bit torrent protocol upload and download rates
• Determine if you ISP is limiting the BitTorrent protocol and is a light encryption can get around it.
• Set the input parameters needed for the AutoSpeed beta.

If you want to  measure your upload and download rates using the BT protocol from the Vuze, do the following:

Speed Test

Bring up the Speed Test Box:

    Windows
    - Go to the Advanced section of Vuze (View > Advanced), simply click the 'Advanced tab' on the right hand corner.
    - Click on (Tools > Speed Test...)

    Mac OSX
    - Click on (Help > Speed Test...)

Then proceed with:
1) Choose the speed test type you want to run from the drop-down menu and the encryption mode(Standard or Encrypted).
        - if you want to run an upload test, choose BT upload.
        - if you want to run a download test, choose BT download.
2) Click the 'Run' button.  
3) Click 'Next' after the test has completed (Take note of the results)
4) Check the values displayed.  If you are satisfied with the settings, click the 'Apply' button and
5) Click 'Finish' to display the final test settings.
6) Click 'Close'.

Notes:
The limits set on the results are used by the Vuze SpeedSense algorithm.  Set the transfer limits and the confidence limits.  Line speeds are often quoted in "bits per second" - however the value shown on the results are in "kilobytes per second".

Our Speed Test servers limits the test to 500 kilobytes/sec, so bandwidth consumption by our servers is reasonable.

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Running

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Start a Speed Test from the "Tool" menu item. It will be under the Advanced tab for version 3.0 users. The panel below will appear.

• Vuze speed test: drop down. Select either an upload or a download test.
• Press to test with encryption: Runs with either a standard unencrypted protocol, or with a light encryption.
• Click Run to start the test.
• The progress bar indicate how much of the test has been completed. It measures the median rate for 20 seconds once it has reached a peak. But if the test is taking too line it will abort it after 60 seconds.
• You can abort a test at any time once it starts.
• The text box at the bottom updates once per second with the measured rates, or displays any error messages if they occur.
• The Speed Test panel requires an upload test to be done first before advancing to the panel two. Plan on doing just an upload test, or doing both an upload and download test.
  

Speed Test results are used by the AutoSpeed beta. The panel allow you to accept the Speed Test results, or over-ride the setting with your own result.

• The bytes/sec column indicates the recommended values based on the speed test result.
• The bits/sec column displays what US ISP would quote.
• The confidence level column allows you to set how confident you are in the settings. See [Auto_Speed_Beta|Auto Speed _Beta] for a discussion of settings.
• You need to click Apply to make the settings active.

This page indicates the setting used by the Vuze AutoSpeed. Click finish when done.

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How It Works

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When you click run, the client contact the auto-speed beta servers which will

• send a challenge to determine if request is from Vuze client.
• schedule a slot on a server. Most times something should be available.

• When a testing slot is scheduled and that could be up to 30 seconds in the future, it client will send a test-id to the server and get back a torrent file for the test.
• The client at this point stops all running torrents, and limits anything which could interfere with the testing.
• Once the torrent is started it will take a few seconds to ramp up to full speed.
• After reaching the max speed for this network it will measure that speed for the next 20 seconds and use the median measured value as its result. Expect result to vary by about 10% from the true value. The server also will limit all tests to 500 kbytes/sec to keep server side bandwidth reasonable.
• This result is then used an input to the second panel with gives recommended values for the AutoSpeed beta.

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FAQ about the Speed Test

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Q: The ISP says my linespeed it 4.5 Mbits/sec, but Speed Test only measures 500 kbps?

A: First thing to understand is in the US ISP quote bits per second, but Vuze is measuring bytes per second. So you will need to multiple that value by 8x to convert to bits per second. The second thing to consider is the Speed Test servers limit all tests to 500 kbytes/sec to keep the bandwidth use reasonable.

Q: What if a see a high speed running with encryption then without?

A: Some ISPs have limited the bit torrent protocol in the past. It is possible that you might use one of them. The encryption used with SpeedTest is a light encryption, so even this test might still be limited. Please see this page if you think your ISP is limiting the bit torrent protocol.