The Settings page lists a few configurable options that allow you to customize the application behavior.
The TCP Payload panel determines how the application selects the data size to be sent and received during each TCP testing cycle (chunk size). By default, Tessabyte employs an automatic, adaptive mechanism to determine the chunk size based on multiple factors: connection type (wired or wireless), connection bandwidth, and the results of the previous testing cycle. Generally, the goal is to select a chunk size that can be sent and received within a reasonable amount of time (typically between 0.5 and 1.0 seconds). However, you can select a custom data chunk size that best meets your specific testing requirements. Note that selecting a chunk size that is too small will typically produce imprecise results with a volatile chart line, while selecting a chunk size that is too large will result in a slow testing cycle, causing long delays before the next chart update.
For example, consider a 1 Gbps link between a client and a server. Such a link provides about 110 Megabytes per second of application-level throughput under ideal conditions. If you set the chunk size to 1 Megabyte, the chunk would be transferred in just 9 milliseconds, which is too fast to precisely measure actual throughput due to several factors, such as network stack buffering and OS task scheduling. On the other hand, if you set the chunk size to 2,000 Megabytes, you will get high-quality measurements, but each TCP testing cycle would take 18 seconds × 2 = 36 seconds, as the application needs to measure both uplink and downlink speeds.
The UDP Payload panel determines how the application selects the UDP datagram size to be sent and received during each UDP testing cycle. By default, Tessabyte employs an automatic, adaptive mechanism to determine the datagram size based on multiple factors: connection type (wired or wireless), connection bandwidth, and the results of the previous testing cycle. The goal is to select a datagram size that ensures the maximum possible UDP data transfer rate while minimizing packet loss and avoiding fragmentation. Normally, you should not need to select a custom UDP payload size, but you may use this option if required for your specific testing needs.
Note that while the maximum theoretical UDP datagram size is 65,535 bytes (minus the size of the IP and UDP headers), in practice, applications rarely use datagrams that exceed the MTU size (about 1,500 bytes). Exceeding the MTU size can lead to UDP packet fragmentation and packet loss. In other words, while you can use a custom size of, say, 4,000 or even 64,000 bytes, you should not expect reliable delivery of such UDP data streams. Additionally, note that on macOS, the maximum supported UDP datagram size by default is 9,216 bytes.
The options on the HTML Reports panel determine two parameters of HTML reports generated by the application. The Split table on hour boundary option paginates tables in HTML reports, splitting them by hour. The Dark report style option toggles the dark visual theme of the reports on and off.