5 ms·

What's the difference between AMule compared to say torrents ? (I know about the latter but not about the former)

ohgodplsno 5y ago
Fundamentally ? Not too much. AMule and other similar clients use both the eDonkey and Kademlia protocols. Kad is a DHT too, only taking different approaches to it than torrents do. Part of it includes it being searchable. Otherwise, similar P2P with buckets and downloading files in verifiable chunks.
marcodiego 5y ago
Main advantage: decentralized search.
- shp0ngle 5y ago
  Yeah, I always show the crappy results of EMule/GNUtella and friends as a proof "decentralized X" does not really work Torrents really work only because there are centralized search sites like piratebay or 1337x
  - Darmody 5y ago
    That decentalized search is what allowed me to find stuff that was impossible to find on any torrent sites.
  - capableweb 5y ago
    How does something actively existing, being worked on and working for the people using it lead to you thinking its proof that it doesn't work?
    - user-the-name 5y ago
      The fact that it got absolutely hammered in popularity by BitTorrent is the proof.
      - q-rews 5y ago
        Popularity has absolutely nothing to do with centralized search sites. Nothing technical ever prevented "ed2k-based Pirate Bays" to take off the same way, it's just that eMule included search so sites were never required 15 years ago, when I was using eMule, I made the switch to Torrent because Torrent was way faster for me. That's all.
        phone8675309 5y ago
        ShareReactor was a user submitted index of content on the eDonkey network and its layout and functionality were clearly an influence on the not-yet-created Pirate Bay: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ShareReactor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ShareReactor
        fishtacos 5y ago
        When SR was at its peak, that was also ed2k's peak. In my teen and possibly post-teen years, I managed to upload some hard to find (pirated) pieces of software on the network and indexed on SR. A quick search some months back showed there were still some of them available (via a tag I used) which was a pretty fun discovery considering they're almost 20 years old.
      - capableweb 5y ago
        The only proof you get from BitTorrent being more popular than eMule is that BitTorrent is more popular than eMule. Doesn't mean eMule doesn't work for what it's supposed to do. "Crappy results" is at least possible with eMule while BitTorrent needs to rely on centralized tracking. That eMule still exists, is being used and no one has been able to stop it is proof to me that it does work.
        user-the-name 5y ago
        Every single file sharing client other than bittorrent had search. BitTorrent easily beat them all. You can argue if you want that this is a pure coincidence, but it's not going to be very convincing.
  - mavhc 5y ago
    Need to be able to vote after downloading as to whether it was good or bad
hannob 5y ago
Superobscure stuff. The thing with the ed2k network is: people tend to share whole directories of their content. If you want to find a documentary that ran once on TV, is not available commercially anywhere, you might have a chance that amule will find it. You may have to run your client for weeks because it goes offline from times and will only give you a few kb/s download rate, but you may get stuff you just cannot get otherwise.

Fundamentally ? Not too much. AMule and other similar clients use both the eDonkey and Kademlia protocols. Kad is a DHT too, only taking different approaches to it than torrents do. Part of it includes it being searchable. Otherwise, similar P2P with buckets and downloading files in verifiable chunks.

marcodiego 5y ago

Main advantage: decentralized search.

shp0ngle 5y ago
Yeah, I always show the crappy results of EMule/GNUtella and friends as a proof "decentralized X" does not really work Torrents really work only because there are centralized search sites like piratebay or 1337x
- Darmody 5y ago
  That decentalized search is what allowed me to find stuff that was impossible to find on any torrent sites.
- capableweb 5y ago
  How does something actively existing, being worked on and working for the people using it lead to you thinking its proof that it doesn't work?
  - user-the-name 5y ago
    The fact that it got absolutely hammered in popularity by BitTorrent is the proof.
    - q-rews 5y ago
      Popularity has absolutely nothing to do with centralized search sites. Nothing technical ever prevented "ed2k-based Pirate Bays" to take off the same way, it's just that eMule included search so sites were never required 15 years ago, when I was using eMule, I made the switch to Torrent because Torrent was way faster for me. That's all.
      - phone8675309 5y ago
        ShareReactor was a user submitted index of content on the eDonkey network and its layout and functionality were clearly an influence on the not-yet-created Pirate Bay: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ShareReactor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ShareReactor
        fishtacos 5y ago
        When SR was at its peak, that was also ed2k's peak. In my teen and possibly post-teen years, I managed to upload some hard to find (pirated) pieces of software on the network and indexed on SR. A quick search some months back showed there were still some of them available (via a tag I used) which was a pretty fun discovery considering they're almost 20 years old.
    - capableweb 5y ago
      The only proof you get from BitTorrent being more popular than eMule is that BitTorrent is more popular than eMule. Doesn't mean eMule doesn't work for what it's supposed to do. "Crappy results" is at least possible with eMule while BitTorrent needs to rely on centralized tracking. That eMule still exists, is being used and no one has been able to stop it is proof to me that it does work.
      - user-the-name 5y ago
        Every single file sharing client other than bittorrent had search. BitTorrent easily beat them all. You can argue if you want that this is a pure coincidence, but it's not going to be very convincing.
- mavhc 5y ago
  Need to be able to vote after downloading as to whether it was good or bad

hannob 5y ago

Superobscure stuff. The thing with the ed2k network is: people tend to share whole directories of their content. If you want to find a documentary that ran once on TV, is not available commercially anywhere, you might have a chance that amule will find it. You may have to run your client for weeks because it goes offline from times and will only give you a few kb/s download rate, but you may get stuff you just cannot get otherwise.