To create simulated clients

1. On the Tools menu, click Settings.
   
   
2. On the Client Profiles tab, create simulated clients by typing a number in one or more of the six client profiles. One Long Play Client is configured by default.

   Each client is assigned a single entry from the selected play list to stream. Assignments are made either at random or sequentially (depending on the Stream List Usage setting) via the protocol you selected (on the Protocol List setting) on the Sources tab. When a simulated client closes, it is assigned another stream unless the test duration has expired. For more information, see To set the load-test duration.

   Simulated clients stream the source content according to their profile settings in Windows Media Load Simulator:

   • Browse. Clients in this profile simulate browsing users. They play for random lengths of time, seek, stop, pause, and sometimes close.
     
     
   • Play. Clients in this profile play entire streams from start to finish.
     
     
   • Seek. Clients in this profile attempt to seek forward and backward in a stream. The stream must be indexed for the seek function to be successful.
     
     
   • Open/Close. Clients in this profile open a stream and then close before playing it.
     
     
   • Random Bit Rate. Clients in this profile stream multiple bit rate content at a random bit rate. The content must be encoded to multiple bit rates with Windows Media Encoder, a feature of Microsoft Windows Media Tools version 4.0.
     
     
   • Fixed Bit Rate. Clients in this profile stream multiple bit rate content at a bit rate that you select in Bytes per second. The bit rate you select is fixed and cannot be changed. To simulate multiple bit rates, you must run multiple instances of Windows Media Load Simulator and select different bit rates for each one. The content must be encoded to multiple bit rates with Windows Media Encoder, a feature of Windows Media Tools 4.0.

Note You cannot assign more than 200 clients across all client profiles. To create more than 200 simulated clients, you must run another instance of Windows Media Load Simulator.

3. (Optional) To limit the maximum rate at which the simulated clients connect to the Windows Media server, select Max Connected Rate. When this option is selected, Windows Media Load Simulator will connect up to two clients to the server every second by default. You can increase the maximum client connection rate by typing a new value in Clients per second. The maximum client connection rate is limited by the value you type in Clients per second or by the client connection rate specified on the Windows Media server, whichever is lower.

Note If you type a value for Clients per second that exceeds the client connection rate value that is set for the Windows Media server, the server may drop clients. By default, the Windows Media server allows up to 25 clients to connect every second. For more information, see Configuring the client connection rate in a Windows Media server in the online help for Microsoft Windows Media Administrator.