Update: I've written a follow-up article to answer all the questions I've received.
I've had a lot of friends want to install Azureus, a fantastic open source bittorrent client, but were unable to get it running properly. To get Azureus running properly and efficiently, a few settings deep within the configuration panel need to be set. I'm writing this article so I can send it to those who need a quick way to install Azureus and getting it running quickly.
First, you need to open up the configuration panel so we can get to tweaking some settings. Click "Transfer" on the left pane. Here we are going to enter the values for download and upload speeds. Since my connection gets fidgety and pretty much dies if I have my upload speed higher than 15KB/s, that's what I set my upload speed to in Azureus. This is dependent on your connection, but unless you have an synchronous connection your upload speed won't be so great and you don't want to go higher than 30kb/s assuming the average upload speed on a Cable/ADSL line is 30-50KB/s. It depends if you are going to use the Internet for anything else than bittorrent when you have Azureus open. If you are going to be browsing too, which is what I'm acquainted to, you might consider having a lower upload speed. The next box to fill in is for download speed. As a general rule, I keep this set to 0, which is unlimited.
Then you'll want to click the "Files" selection on the left. Make sure what your settings look like mine with the exception of the download directories. Find a directory location where you want to save all of your downloaded files and make a folder within that called done, completed or something to that extent. Azureus has a great feature where it will keep incomplete files in one directory and then move the completed files to a new directory.
The last option that I like to change is on the last settings page, "Queue." Simply uncheck "Show confirmation popup when stopping seeding with a share ratio lower than 1." I find that more of an annoyance than anything, considering my Azureus client is always open anyways so I do my fair share of seeding. Now click "Save" and you're set!
Hopefully these few settings make your Azureus client run better.