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Re: Step-by-Step eMule Setup

Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2022 7:59 pm
by emuler
mimzy wrote: Mon Oct 17, 2022 9:04 pm In sum, having LowID means downloads will be a little bit less efficient, but uploads (sharing) will be very inefficient. And I think eMule gives higher priority to users with better up/down ratio.
Very inefficient, yes, but not a hopeless situation especially if there are High ID clients connected to the same server. I'm stuck with Low ID but have managed to upload 8 TB of FLM files in about 2 years.

I'm seeing that I upload better if I'm downloading something - maybe the High ID clients I'm downloading from help others in finding me. So I have set my download speed very low so I can stay downloading for longer.

I'm also noticing that it helps to shut down eMule for a couple of hours and then start it again. I will then upload nicely for a few hours and then the connection will stagnate again. Very annoying.

Btw the government in my country is restricting the use of VPNs.

Re: Step-by-Step eMule Setup

Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2022 9:40 pm
by mimzy
emuler wrote: Thu Oct 20, 2022 7:59 pm I'm stuck with Low ID but have managed to upload 8 TB of FLM files in about 2 years.

Wow, that makes about 11GB/day if you are muling 24/7! Probably downloading from other FLM (HighID) users is the crucial thing that facilitates this, because when you download from somebody, their client asks your client for what they need (source exchange).

I suspect that if a LowID user releases a file and is not downloading anything, then nobody will get that file, but I can't tell for sure.

Re: Step-by-Step eMule Setup

Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2022 6:34 am
by Night457
emuler wrote: Thu Oct 20, 2022 7:59 pm I'm also noticing that it helps to shut down eMule for a couple of hours and then start it again. I will then upload nicely for a few hours and then the connection will stagnate again. Very annoying.
HOURS? How do you know that it would not just speed up again anyway a couple hours later if you did nothing? Do you have experience of waiting a couple hours with emule on and stagnating and the speeds do NOT come back?

If you are going to shut down eMule anyway, have you tried switching your IP and/or restarting your computer and then restarting emule right away, NOT waiting a few hours? Maybe a changed IP and an emule restart together will do the job more quickly.

Re: Step-by-Step eMule Setup

Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2022 8:22 am
by emuler
Night457 wrote: Fri Oct 21, 2022 6:34 am
emuler wrote: Thu Oct 20, 2022 7:59 pm I'm also noticing that it helps to shut down eMule for a couple of hours and then start it again. I will then upload nicely for a few hours and then the connection will stagnate again. Very annoying.
HOURS? How do you know that it would not just speed up again anyway a couple hours later if you did nothing? Do you have experience of waiting a couple hours with emule on and stagnating and the speeds do NOT come back?

If you are going to shut down eMule anyway, have you tried switching your IP and/or restarting your computer and then restarting emule right away, NOT waiting a few hours? Maybe a changed IP and an emule restart together will do the job more quickly.
I've gone days without uploading anything. Then I've shut down for some unrelated reason - software update or work related - and then when I started again I was uploading nicely after about an hour. Eventually the uploading tapers off again. This could well be related to the ed2k server itself which doesn't like having to deal with Low ID clients or something my ISP is doing. I've tried unsharing files which no one wants in order to reduce protocol traffic between my client and the server but the results have not been conclusive.

Re: Step-by-Step eMule Setup

Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2022 2:09 pm
by Night457
Oh well it was just a thought. Days of stagnation makes it pretty clear that it will not "fix itself"! Sadly, patience does not always work. But your answer makes it sound as if it takes emule about an hour to continue uploading, rather than emule needing to be off for an hour. (?) I can totally believe it could be ISP-related.

I am generally "forced" to have daily restarts which I have interpreted as being due to my VPN needing the restart. When I am going to restart my VPN and emule, I go ahead and restart the computer also because I don't trust Windows either, even when the installed updates supposedly do not require a restart.

And I swear by the old standard for fixing anything electronic when nothing else works: power down completely, wait a minute, and restart.

Re: Step-by-Step eMule Setup

Posted: Sat Dec 31, 2022 11:19 pm
by goku33
So aMule is still not recommended and unstable/buggy?

Also I wanted to ask if eMule/amule automatically display any kind of previews of search results? The only reason I haven’t fully set up eMule yet is security worries. (I’ve read that in some countries eMule is used for lots of illegal activities, so I wonder if you can accidentally download/share illegal content without explicitly clicking on „download“.

I have VPN/Mullvad. Which can do port forwarding. So far Mullvad‘s „killswitch“ and „always-on“ vpn features have never disappointed me.

I guess you could run eMule in a Windows VirtualMachine. (I don’t really like running Windows apps with WINE).

To be fair, I needed years until I got over my fears of torrenting. But when I saw in my torrent client that it used my VPN‘s IP address I was less worried :D

I think I have UPnP disabled on my router. Was wondering if UPnP would lead to any leaks even if you have killswitch & always-on feature enabled on your computer/VPN App ?

Re: Step-by-Step eMule Setup

Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2023 3:28 am
by Night457
LINUX AND TECH EXPERTS OUT THERE: You will need to please address goku33's questions on amule stability, Windows VirtualMachines, and UPnP.

I can answer a few of your questions. Most of them I have to leave for Linux/Apple users and the tech experts.
goku33 wrote: Sat Dec 31, 2022 11:19 pm Also I wanted to ask if eMule/amule automatically display any kind of previews of search results?
If you mean a short video preview that you can play back, absolutely NOT! Search results are text only and include access to the ed2k hashes. (The eMule equivalent of .torrent file hashes.) You have to download at least some of the file before you have any of the contents. AFTER you have downloaded a significant portion of the video, you can sometimes Preview what you have downloaded so far. (Such as in a media player like VLC.) Of course this is dependent on how complete the time index is. You may have it 70% complete but only be able to play two minutes. Sometimes that will tell you whether you want to continue downloading, as certain media players can also give you codec information.
I’ve read that in some countries eMule is used for lots of illegal activities, so I wonder if you can accidentally download/share illegal content without explicitly clicking on „download“.
No, you can not accidentally download anything unless you are really really drunk and have a blackout. You must choose to download it.

Honestly, EVERY SINGLE TOOL USED ONLINE is used for illegal activities. And sometimes they are not. File sharing, social media, cryptocurrency -- anyone can use them for any purpose, including criminal ones. eMule has the same legal status as torrenting, although these days it is much lower profile. Make your own choices. If you are concerned about copyright lawyers looking for easy targets, then do not download the recent movies they are seeking to protect. Get the older forgotten movies instead, they are better anyway.

There is PLENTY of porn available on eMule, but I don't download it. Most of it is pretty obvious from the titles, although an "innocent" search term like "Dad" will also give results that are clearly porn and perhaps not what you were looking for. In rare cases, a file will be misnamed either accidentally or deliberately, because there are still trolls and rotten brats online. Your safest course is to choose files that have already been vetted by trusted sources, such as other FLM users. Of course sometimes we DO share search results BEFORE we have downloaded them ourselves. In those cases you have to decide for yourself if it is worth the "risk". The vast majority of the time for the eMule searches that I download, a file is exactly what it claims to be. My biggest risk is downloading something of lower video quality than I had hoped.
I have VPN/Mullvad. Which can do port forwarding.
Yes, absolutely use your VPN for eMule! Set up the port forwarding with specificly chosen ports
for eMule! This provides greater security, anonymity, and makes eMule work better.

Re: Step-by-Step eMule Setup

Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2023 4:22 am
by mimzy
goku33 wrote: Sat Dec 31, 2022 11:19 pm So aMule is still not recommended and unstable/buggy?
It depends. aMule worked OK with wxWidgets 2.8. The bugs are caused mostly by incompatibilities with wxWidgets 3.0 and/or wrong compilation options on Linux. Probably the MacOS packages are still more-or-less OK.
goku33 wrote: Sat Dec 31, 2022 11:19 pm Also I wanted to ask if eMule/amule automatically display any kind of previews of search results?
Nope. That's why I don't use search and I don't really like unverified links to be posted here. I think you can check alternative filenames, though. So if many sharers have the same filename, then the file is probably what it seems to be.
goku33 wrote: Sat Dec 31, 2022 11:19 pm I guess you could run eMule in a Windows VirtualMachine. (I don’t really like running Windows apps with WINE).
Virtual machine works for sure, but Windows is still Windows. eMule works very well with Wine. I think you can run it in sandbox if you need more safety.
goku33 wrote: Sat Dec 31, 2022 11:19 pm I think I have UPnP disabled on my router. Was wondering if UPnP would lead to any leaks even if you have killswitch & always-on feature enabled on your computer/VPN App ?
UPnP is based on UDP multicast. The VPN app should intercept the packets. I would not worry too much about this.

Re: Step-by-Step eMule Setup

Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2023 7:29 am
by Night457
A slam dunk from mimzy for all the technical details, thank you.

From his answer I now realize I was probably misinterpreting goku's interest in previews.

Re: Step-by-Step eMule Setup

Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2023 2:15 pm
by goku33
Thank you guys! You rock! Hopefully I will have set up everything in the coming days/weeks. Lots of rare/old films and tv series I’ve already bookmarked on here :D

I got more privacy & security concerned in recent years when I learnt more about how much is being tracked, spied on, logged etc.

The truth is, I still often choose the more comfortable path: e.g. you rarely can prevent Browser fingerprinting with Safari & iOS devices. You’d need a hardened Firefox with uBlockOrigin & preferably NoScript/JavaScript disabled etc.

Anyways, I shouldn’t go off-topic here lol.

You both answered my question about previews/downloads/search in eMule perfectly fine! I remember for example the old Usenext Tangysoft Client (Usenet) automatically showed previews of images when you did an image search.

Should I just try aMule myself? The majority of people on FLM uses eMule ?

Also @Night : I actually often still used Windows7 ISO‘s for Windows VIrtual Machines since it’s more lightweight and has less tracking when freshly installed (no cortana etc I think). But I use Windows only for few apps anyways. Gladly most stuff is covered by Linux nowadays. Can’t imagine using the crappy windows10 these days as a daily driver. Linux just never bothers me and „just works“. And system configuration is so much easier. Windows10 doesn’t even adhere/follow .hosts file anymore cause it has hardcorded Microsoft’s dns/ip‘s..