Pi in the Sky

Understanding eMule (part 2)

Posted on June 29th, 2007 at 11:17am by Pi.
Categories: Internet.

Before reading this long gabble, I recommend reading the previous gabble. In this one, I recommend a specific version of eMule, and I give out a couple of clues and tricks to configure eMule appropiately.

You’re reading the second part of the series Understanding eMule. You can also read the first part, which deals about how eMule and the eDonkey network work, and the third and last part, which talks about how use eMule efficiently with some tricks and knowledge.

Choosing the appropiate version

Speaking generally, all those mods of eMule have many, maybe too many, new features, sometimes of doubtful usefulness. Unless you know what you’re doing, don’t use a mod. And specially if someone tells you “but JPMule goes so much faster than normal eMule”. No mod has a magical recipe that makes it go faster in normal circumstances, seriously. Besides, some of those mods are incompatible or simply harmful to the rest of the eDonkey network. There are some mods which are useful and simple, but in my opinion, they’re minority. For normal users, I recommend only the official version available in the eMule homepage. At the moment of this writing, it’s 0.48a.

However, I’m going to confess that I don’t use the official version. I use a mod, oh big sin! Well, this mod is officially sanctioned by the eMule authors, since even the official forum of this mod is hosted with the forums of the original eMule. The mod I use is ZZUL, which has really few modifications; but due to the way I use eMule and how I share files, those modifications are very useful to me.

ZZUL has six or seven new features; the rest is the same as normal eMule. These characteristics are detailed and discussed in the official forum of eMule ZZUL. I’ll only talk about two: ZZ PowerSharing and ZZ SlotFocus.

ZZ PowerSharing is a special priority to share files. Since I’ve created (and I keep creating) some stuff I distribute with eMule, I needed something like PowerSharing. If a file is in priority PowerSharing (which is higher than release), it’s always uploaded. Clients which ask for that file don’t have to wait in the queue. Furthermore, all the available bandwidth is dedicated to the clients who are asking for files with PowerShare priority. If any bandwidth is left, it’s dedicated to files with other normal priorities. This priority is applied to the file in the normal way: in compartidos, right-click over any shared file, and in the menu which pops up, choose priority (upload) and then any of the PowerShare priorities.

PowerShare allows to distribute new or rare files while standard files are being downloaded, and without needing to stop sharing other more popular files which usually clog the queue. But PowerShare should only be used in special cases. Generally, with auto priorities, or in release in some cases, it’s enough. If you’re interested in sharing something that took too much to get, or maybe something you’ve created that it’s new in the network, then PowerShare is the perfect solution.

The other special feature is ZZ SlotFocus. In normal eMule, there’s an amount of upload positions (the exact amount depends on your bandwidth) called slots, and eMule distributes the available upload bandwidth between those slots. I.e., with 73kb/s of upload, I used to have between 8 and 12 slots, uploading at an average of 7kb/s (but sometimes 15 slots with lower averages). This means that a 9.28mb part took to upload a bit more than 20 minutes. In 20 minutes they would be distributed about ten complete parts to ten different clients. But due to the stochastic and cruel nature of internet, maintaining a stable connection between 20 minutes is not always possible.

With SlotFocus, the bandwidth is not distributed between slots equally, but it’s tried to be assigned to only one, or to the minimum possible amount so all the bandwidth is used fully. This raises the probabilities of finishing the upload of a complete part. In 20 minutes they’re still distributed about ten complete parts to ten clients, but with more probabilities that connection doesn’t break and parts complete properly. SlotFocus, with my bandwidth, only opens four to eight slots. One or two slots (although sometimes more) take 90% of the bandwidth; once a slot gets free, the bandwidth is focused in the next slot. If that slot doesn’t use all the bandwidth, what’s left is assigned to the next, and so on until all is used.

Furthermore, SlotFocus allows that complete parts are distributed faster, which makes these parts available to be shared immediately, raising the amount of available sources. SlotFocus, on average, doesn’t go faster or slower than normal eMule, but has certain quite useful advantages. Actually, it has been proposed that SlotFocus should be (optional) part of official eMule; although eMule authors are not convinced and keep believing in an equitative distribution of the bandwidth, something that in my humble and not too expert opinion is less practical than SlotFocus.

There are other differences, which I find benefitial for oneself or for the network. Two differences important to note are that the upload:download transfer ratio is fixed at 1:3, and it’s reset each time you close eMule ZZUL. The other difference is that stuff uploaded to your friends in reserved friend slots doesn’t count in the uploaded total, so it doesn’t count for the ratio. This encourages people to upload beyond the 10kb/s limit where in official eMule people are allowed to download without limit. In official eMule, many selfish and unaware people just put the upload limit to 10kb/s while downloading without limit, something which harms the network, and also these selfish people (this will be explained in the third article).

After saying all this, and if anyone dares, going to the official forum of ZZUL (linked a bit above) the last version of ZZUL can be downloaded, it’s 0.47c. Unfortunately, version 0.48a of ZZUL is only available in source code, since it has a couple of new things which are in beta testing period. In that same forum I saw that someone had compiled this new version, the binary is available in the eDonkey network: eMule_0.48a_ZZUL_20070516-2000_noTTS.rar (1.6mb).

I’ve tested this version and it works perfectly, actually it’s the one I’m using while writing this. ZZUL is only an executable; it should be put in the folder where eMule is already installed, and be run instead of the “emule.exe” you already have. It doesn’t have any new configuration, to the extent of my knowledge. Altough the first time you run it, it will ask you for information about your connection.

Configuring the connection speed

It seems that one of the most esoterically looking parts of the eMule configuration is the connection speed. Not at all actually, the connection configuration follows some simple rules. However, seeing that certain people seem to have difficulties with this part, I’m going to make more detailed explanations.

First of all, we should be sure of using the connection configuration wizard. This wizard appears automatically each time we install a new version of eMule. To access this wizard manually, we go to “Preferences”, inside “Preferences” we go to “Connection”, and there we click on the small button saying “Wizard…” (located in the bottom left).

The wizard is only one window with a few options. In this window, we choose our operative systems, the amount of concurrent uploads (slots), and the type and speed of our connection. Selecting the operative system is easy, although I hope you’re cautious and haven’t changed to Vista (expensive, full of bugs and harmful to the user). The amount of concurrent downloads it’s also easy, although not so obvious.

As I’ve already explained with SlotFocus, having less uploading slots is better for the network. If you use ZZUL, this mod automatically manages the amount of needed slots. If you use official emule, then it’s better to try to have the minimum possible amount of slots, but being sure that they can use all your bandwidth. If you have less than 128 kilobits per second (about 18kb/s), then you should choose 6-15. If you have even more than 100kb/s, then choose 16+.

Finally, it’s advisable to set the real speed of your connection. In the section “Connection Type”, choose “Custom”. Then the elements in the bottom will be enabled to be able to enter the true download bandwidth and the true upload bandwidth. You can choose to enter it as kilobits (the usually advertised speed) or kilobytes (approximately that speed divided by 8). People usually knows their downloading speed, but they often don’t know their uploading speed.

To calculate approximately your uploading bandwidth, enter a value equal to your download speed. Click on “Apply” and the wizard will be closed. Be sure to be sharing or downloading some files, and eMule will start using your bandwidth to upload stuff. Leave it like that for some time. When you see that it’s sharing to the maximum of its possibilities, look at the lower part of the eMule window, where it says ” Up: XX.xx | Down: XX.xx”. Since you’ve set it to an absurdly high upload speed, eMule is trying to upload more than what it really can, so we can be reasonably sure that the speed it marks as “up” is the upload bandwidth you have.

Then, use the wizard again, and enter the real values of download and upload bandwidth. As example, I have Shittel cable at 3 megs, that means 2900 kbits/seg. of download and 576 kbits/seg of upload, or in kilobytes, 360kBytes/seg. of download, and 73 kBytes/seg. of upload (with the units the wizard uses).

Once we’ve entered the appropiate values and we click on the “Apply” button, we return to the connection preferences. eMule has changed some of the configuration, but we’ll go through it all because some changes need to be made. Remember that in eMule’s official page there’s a large help section which explains what’s everything in the connection preferences.

In “Capacities”, be sure that there are correct values. In “Limits” relies the trick to share enough without your transfers being affected. Disable the “Download limit” to download at max, and change it only if you need it because you’re using other programs like BitTorrent or FTP. And in “Upload limit”, enable it and put it in about 85-90% of your uploading speed. For example, if you have 20kb/s, leav it in 16 or 17kb/s. If you have, like me, about 70kb/s, leave it in 60kb/s. If you have 200kb/s (lucky you!) leave it in 170 or 180kb/s. Usually leaving a minimum margin of 10% is enough for high speeds. For lower speeds, maybe you should need to leave a slightly larger margin, but not too much, to not waste bandwidth.

In my long experience with eMule, this 10% margin is adequate to take the maximum advantage of your bandwidth without it affecting your download speed, and at the same time allows to surf the web, chat in Messenger and everything else without interferences. EMule also has something called UploadSpeedSense, which raises or lowers the amount of bandwidth used by eMule when it detects that other programs need it; but I’ve never had any luck using it, so I can’t recommend it.

The next section is “Client ports”. This is the TCP port that eMule uses so other clients connect to it, I mean, to your computer and your eMule. I’m not going to go on and on about the importance of having this part of the configuration correctly set, it’s enough to say that if these ports are closed in your firewall or router, the other clients will not be able to connect directly to you, and you’ll have a lowID assigned (what’s a slight disadvantage). If these ports are open and available, you’ll have a highID and everything will go faster.

By default, eMule uses port 4662 for TCP, and 4672 (ten more) for UDP. I recommend to change them, if you know what you’re doing and you understand how to pen ports in your firewall or router. Explaining why it’s advisable to change the port would also be long and tedious; but if you dare doing it, choose a number between 2,000 and 65,000. Put this number as TCP port, add 10 to it and put it in the UDP port. I.e. I had for a long time the ports 24662/24672.

To be sure that you have the ports opened, there’s a button called “Test ports”, which opens a page in your browser which tells you if you have the ports apparently opened. Unfortunately, this page isn’t perfect, and doesn’t take into account certain proxies. Sometimes it says that you don’t have opened ports and that you’ll have a lowID, although in reality you have them opened and a highID as high as maria can make.

The section “Max sources/file” specifies how many sources eMule tries to find for each file. There are files which have thousands of sources; so many that it’s actually bad to ask for the file to all those sources. It takes up memory and bandwidth. Once the wizard has been used, eMule has already configured the maximum limit, but I consider that many times it’s excessive. In my 3 megs connection, I have it in 500 sources. In the past, with the 300k connection I had 300 sources set. I think that even 500 are too many, but if you have enough bandwidth, well, 500-800 are within the realm of the possible.

The wizard also configures automatically the “Connection limit”. Let’s not confuse this with sources; the connections refer to the amount of simultaneous connections with other clients. It doesn’t relate too much with the amount of people you downoad files from, it’s more about the amount of clients you can ask for information, positions in queue, etc. These connections are usually short lived, but due to the nature of internet and TCP/IP, computers have a practical limit in the amount of simultaneous connections. I recommend to leave the value that the wizard set, or maybe lower it a bit.

I have 500. This doesn’t mean that I can only ask for files to 500 sources, actually I can ask for files to an almost unlimited number (only limited by the system resources), but the connections for those petitions will be done with a limit of 500 simultaneous connections. Eventually all petitions will be processed, but maybe they’ll take a bit. In general, this limit isn’t really critic, so it’s not needed to put it to the maximum possible, although it shouldn’t be too low either.

If you use Windows 98 or Windows Millenium Edition, the connection limt must be 100, due to the particularities, I mean, extreme limitations of these imitations of operative systems.

The rest of the options there are easy. Generally everything must be enabled: “Autoconnect on startup”, “Reconnect on loss”, and enable also the two networks, both Kad and eD2K. I’ll leave the option “Show overhead bandwidth” to your choice, since even if you know what it means, it isn’t useful at all. And if you don’t know it, then even less ^_^

Other parts of the configuration

Speaking in general, the default configuration of eMule (the one it has the first time you’ve installed and run it) doesn’t usually need changes. Many options are simple and don’t need explanation, and for the complex ones, it’s better to not touch them unless you know what you’re doing. The exception are the server options, which I’ll explain in another section.

However, I’m going to mention a few options that I do consider interesting. In “General”, the option “Enable Minimule” has given me some troubles. Minimule is a small information window which apears when clicking only once over the system tray icon, in the right side of the task bar. This icon only appears if you’ve minimized eMule to the system tray and not to the task bar. But if you restore eMule while MiniMule is showing, it’s possible that eMule is unable to return to the system tray. I like to have eMule there, so I had to disable Minimule.

In “eMule”, you can leave it like it is, or tell eMule to save the temporary files and the incoming files (the completed ones) in other folders, as long as you follow two simple rules: First, both folders must be placed in the same drive. Second, the folders should be in the largest drive or with the most free space. You can ignore these rules, but then don’t be surprised if eMule can’t download stuff because it doesn’t have space, or if when completing a file, eMule takes a long time and computer goes slower.

In “Files” there are some options that you should make sure that are enabled. They are: “Add new shared files with auto priority”, “add new downloads with auto priority”, “Remember downloaded files” and “Remember cancelled files”. There’s an option I recommend to disable: “Try to download preview chunks first”. The first and last part of each file are needed for movie preview; but in eDonkey network it’s beter that parts are distributed randomly. Giving priority to certain parts is no good for the network, and certainly it’s one of the few things in eMule that I don’t like. Besides, it goes against the sharing philosophy that eMule’s own authors talk so much about.

The options in “Messages and Comments” and “Security”, more or less I’ll leave them to your taste; if you don’t understand them, don’t touch them.

To finish, in “Extended”, search for an option called “Safe .met/.dat file writing” and be sure that it’s in “Always”. If it’s in “Never” or “On shutdown”, maybe you’ll be surprised and some files you were downloading disappear if your computer crashes or power goes out. It happened to me a couple of times, and it’s not very nice.

Good servers, and evil, really evil devil servers

As I already explained in the first part of Understanding eMule, servers exist to indexing and searching for files and clients. These servers also communicate between them (I think), and they’re needed for the proper working of the eDonkey network.

However, certain servers are traps presented in several ways: servers indexing false files, server which log who downloaded or searched for what (violating our privacy rights), servers which are little more than porn ads, servers who create files on the fly to distribute more porn…

Other servers are simply slow or unstable. It’s better to be connected to a known, reliable and stable server. Having good server in your list helps in searches and in file exchange. At this time, the most used servers are DonkeyServer No1 and DonkeyServer No2. Between both they index more than two million clients with more than two hundred million shared files. Although actually you can obtain the same results connecting to other less popular servers, like the 13 different BiG BanG servers, or the eMule Serverlist ones.

But the big problem is avoiding the evil devil servers. For that, we should disable a feature which is by default enabled in eMule: the server exchange. When eMule connects with other client, servers are exchanged, and the ones that aren’t in the server list are added. This means that if a client tells to your eMule that there’s a server WhateverNetServer that you don’t have, then your eMule adds it to your server list. But that also means that if a careless server has an evil devil EvilNetServer, NixonServer or similar, then your eMule will also add it.

Since we don’t have a way to know if the servers exchanged with us are good or bad, the best thing is to not accept them. For that, in “Preferences”, in “Servers”, you need to disable three options: “Auto-update server list on startup”, “Update server list when connecting to a server”, and “Update server list when a client connects”. Disabling these options we make sure that the server list can only be changed manually. You can enable all the other options in the “Miscellaneous” subsection, it’s advisable.

Now I’ll explain how to get a list of good servers, and also up-to-date. I suggest to follow these steps once each month, to get rid of the old servers or the ones which have been discovered as evil devil, and get new servers that might have appeared.

Step 1: Be sure that Maurice’s list is available. Maurice is an eMule expert guy, who maintains a server list so other clients are able to update their lists. He has several server lists, I recommend the “good” one, a list of about 60 decent servrs. Maurice serves these lists from his computer, which sometimes is shut down or has crashed (sometimes for hours). To be sure that he’s connected, we enter the address “http://ocbmaurice.no-ip.org/pl/slist.pl/server.met?download/server-good.met” in “Update server.met from URL”, in the “Servers” part in eMule’s main window. We click on the button “Update”, and if eMule does the updating without problems, then Maurice is available.

Step 2: clean the current list server. Although it seems that, if in the previous step you did a successful updating, your list is well, remember that this way you’ve only added servers. Maybe you have servers which aren’t in the Maurice list anymore, because they’re not good, reliable and stable anymore. So ¡delete them all! In the server list, right click over any server, and in the menu that pops up, select “Remove all”.

Step 3: update again with Maurice’s list. You already know how: enter the address “http://ocbmaurice.no-ip.org/pl/slist.pl/server.met?download/server-good.met” (without the quotes) in “Update server.met from URL”, and click on the “Update” button.

Ready, you have a complete and up-to-date list of good servers. There’s a last step which is optional, but I recommend it. It’s giving more priority to the two first DonkeyServer, the two I’ve mentioned. For that, we right click over them, and select “Priority” -> “High”. We right click over them again, and select “Add To Static List”. That way, while these two DonkeyServer are available, you’ll be connected to them.

Conclusion

I’ve tried to explain some of the subtleties of eMule configuration, so it goes smooth and not coarse. Some stuff I’ve learned with my experience using eMule over some years, and the experiments I’ve done to try to take out the most from the eDonkey network. Although it hasn’t been a complete instruction manual, these explanations could be of use for someone who don’t find themselves comfortable configuring eMule, and maybe allow them to make a more proper configuration.

In the next and last part, I’ll explain other details of eMule and its practical usage: searches, detection of fake files, the myth of “friends”, and other nice stuff from eMule and the eDonkey network.

1 comment.

Understanding eMule (and part 3) »« Understanding eMule (part 1)

Understanding eMule (and part 3) »« Understanding eMule (part 1)

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