Tips Of The Week

Tip 1:

In SERVERS tab of eMule, you'll see the list of known servers. If you hit the CONNECT button, eMule will randomly connect to a server. To update them regularly, go to OPTIONS -> SERVER and select "Update server list when connecting to a server". Uncheck the options "Update server list when a client connects and Autoupdate on startup". Next time when you go to SERVERS tab, click on FILES to show in descending order. Choose the top one (Usually eDonkey server No.2). Right click and then CONNECT. Always connect to ED2K Network manually like this.
Tip 2:

To connect to Kad network for the first time after downloading eMule, use the BOOTSTRAP button.

* Connect to the ED2K network.

* Queue up a few downloadable files

* Wait for eMule to find sources.

* Change to the Kad Tab.

* Activate "From known clients" option.

* Finally press the BOOTSTRAP button.

And remember that the BOOTSTRAP button is for first use only. After that, simply click on the CONNECT button whenever you want to connect to Kad network.
Tip 3:

In ED2K Network, you'll have to earn credits from other users by uploading to them. Only then you'll get to download from many sources at once, and that's when you'll start seeing truly decent download speeds.I am not sure if this credit system applies to Kad Network. So, it would be wise to connect to the ED2K Network first whenever you open eMule. Wait until your upload limit gets saturated by ED2K and then connect to the Kad about 5 minutes later.
Tip 4:

There is one more program called eMule Plus from the creators of eMule. It's main advantage is improved GUI (Graphical User Interface). But there are two big disadvantages. It provides support only for ED2K network, not for Kad. And you can't expect faster downloads without Kad. Secondly, it won't encrypt the data transfer (Obfuscation). In some countries, there are some ISPs (Internet Service Provider) with anti-P2P policies who will throttle the user's bandwidth if they find out P2P data transfer. That's why Obfuscation is necessary.
Tip 5:

If your internet connection has got time limits for free data transfer, be cautious in running eMule. Because, even if you don't intend to download anything (STOPPED all downloads), the moment you hit the CONNECT button for some other purpose (SEARCH), eMule will start uploading the shared files (all files in the download list are "shared" by default). Such uploaded data will be added to your ISP account and don't faint when you see the monthly bill !!

Tip 6:

Even though you can find old and rare files just with a single click in eMule's SEARCH tab, don't forget Google Search and Rapidshare. They still come to your rescue whenever you can't find a file in Torrents and eMule.

ED2K Vs Kad

Question Of The Week

ED2K Vs Kad

Which is more fruitful?

ED2K is a peer-to-peer (p2p) file sharing protocol. It allows sharing of all file types from multiple sources (similar to torrents). The ED2K network is not supported by any organisation and works fully supported by its users alone.

There are many programs that act as the user-clients of the ED2K network. The first one was eDonkey2000 (Currently eMule represents about 90% of all clients in the ED2K network). ED2K client programs connect to the network to share files. The network relies on central servers run by users willing to donate the necessary bandwidth and disk usage (most popular is eDonkey server) which act as communication hubs for the clients, allowing users to locate files within the network. Files on the ED2K network are uniquely identified using MD4 root hash (a cryptographic calculation or simply to say... signature of a file). This treats files with identical content as the same (file names don't matter).

Some websites (mostly European) list the hash of popular files in the form of an ED2K link. Some of these websites also have lists of active ED2K servers for users to update (peerates.net). As the number of servers and their addresses change frequently, client programs have to update their server lists regularly. If the biggest ED2K server collapses, the Network potentially could be crippled until more servers come to facilitate because ED2K depends on Servers to work. Since the ED2K servers were subjected to heavy traffic, the eMule Project developed a new network of their own called Kademlia (Kad).

Kademlia is a routing algorithm designed to find computers on a network that are closest to you out of a list of computers your client program knows about. Kad network has now grown up with more users and sharing more files than ED2K!! It helps to find more sources for quicker file download. But it also comes with a small price to pay. All clients have to contact each other for finding sources. Being connected to the Kademlia network does incur additional overhead for processing (Overhead is the bandwidth used to recieve/send non-data traffic, such as exchanging sources info). So which network is better? The answer is...

NEITHER!! In fact, the only difference between the Networks is how you connect and how source finding and searches are performed. The files on each network are not completely different at all. However, at times, one might have more users than the other making the amount of files higher. So, the wise users connect to both networks while running eMule.

eMule

Program Of The Week

eMule

When I started using Broadband, I learned about the torrent downloading program - uTorrent - during the first month itself. But, it took nearly two and a half years for me to rediscover a damn useful downloader program - eMule. I might have come across the name somewhere before... I'm not sure. But only a couple of weeks back, when I was searching for a rare movie in Google Search, I stumbled upon an ED2K link (see Question of this Week) and that made me read about eMule.

This is a downloader program using P2P (peer to peer) file sharing protocol similar to uTorrent. The main difference is... there is no need of a .TORRENT file and that automatically rules out the need of torrent websites and their trackers. But I started loving eMule for some other reason...

I used to search a lot of webpages to find download links of old and rare movies which are not available as torrents. After finding the download links (usually fragmented .RAR files), it will take quite a patient effort to download those files from file storage servers like Rapidshare. Now, eMule has eliminated both these problems for me to save time and energy.

Just click on the CONNECT tab in eMule and then type the filename (however rare it is) in the SEARCH tab. You will get the results in a few seconds along with some description. I usually check the runtime for movies (with that of IMDB), the filesize and then, the available number of sources. Just highlight the chosen file and click DOWNLOAD. I was overjoyed when I found out this program because we can PAUSE/ RESUME the download whenever we want, just like in uTorrent (Remember, we can't PAUSE/ RESUME the downloads from file storage servers except Megaupload).

Even though, eMule maintains its overall upload limit strictly rather than the download limit, it is not a nagging problem if you make multiple downloads at the same time.

Although the settings of eMule are slightly lengthier than uTorrent, they can be done. Just click HERE. If you still have some doubts, click on the HELP tab in eMule to read about the settings in its homepage.

Oldapps

Website Of The Week

www.oldapps.com

Do you strongly believe in the adage "OLD IS GOLD"? Well, so does this website. That's why it is providing downloads of old versions of popluar programs. And, of course, they are free. Since I prefer to use a couple of old versions too, I thought some of you might be interested to take a look at this website. Programs are presented in different categories for the viewer's convenience.