1
2 -----------
3 aMule
4 -----------
5 The All-platform eD2k Client
6
7
8 About
9-------
10 aMule is a multi-platform ed2k client, fork of the eMule client, using the
11 wxWidgets class library. It was originally forked from the xMule project,
12 which in turn was forked from the lMule project. This in turn was the first
13 fork of eMule to run natively on GNU/Linux and other Unix-like systems.
14
15
16 Installation
17--------------
18 See INSTALL file
19
20
21 Configuration:
22----------------
23 - Go to the "Preferences" tab
24
25 - Enter a nickname or leave as the default value.
26
27 - Enter the "Download Capacity" and "Upload Capacity" according to your
28 Internet connection. All values in aMule are kiloBytes (kB), but your
29 Internet Service Provider's numbers are most likely kiloBits (kb).
30
31 8 kiloBits make up 1 kiloByte, so if your Internet Connection is 768kb
32 Downstream and 128kb Upstream (i.e. German Telekom DSL), your correct
33 values are:
34
35 Downstream: 768kb / 8 = 96kB, so you enter 96 as "Download Capacity"
36 Upstream: 128kb / 8 = 16kB, so you enter 16 as "Upload Capacity"
37
38 Anyway, these values are used to calculate the current bandwidth usage for
39 display purposes only (mainly for statistics). Nevertheless, you need to
40 know them to determine the following down/upload limits:
41
42 - Enter "Download Limit" and "Upload Limit" (IMPORTANT!)
43
44 Download Limit:
45 Leave this at 0, which stands for "no limit". However, if aMule uses
46 too much bandwidth and causes problems with other applications using
47 your Internet connection, it would be a good idea to limit this to
48 approximately 80% of your downstream capacity.
49
50 Upload Limit:
51 It is recommended that you set this limit to around 80% of your actual
52 upstream capacity, in order to avoid degrading the performance of your
53 connection.
54
55 Setting the Upload Limit to a value less than 10 will automatically reduce
56 your Download Limit after the following schema:
57
58 Upload Limit | Max Download
59 >= 10 | No limit
60 < 10 | Upload Limit * 4
61 < 4 | Upload Limit * 3
62
63
64 NOTE: 56k Modem users: aMule only accepts integral values for these
65 settings, you can't enter 1.6 or whatever your sweet-spot setting
66 is. Sorry.
67
68 - "Maximum Connections":
69 As a general rule, set it to 500 - 2000.
70
71 - "Maximum Sources per File":
72 This depends on how many files you tend to download at a time, if you
73 tend to download few files, high values are acceptable, otherwise go
74 for lower values so that all files will be able to get sources.
75
76 - Choose the directories you want to share with other users:
77 DO NOT SHARE YOUR COMPLETE HARDDISK!
78
79 It is suggested that you either use the "Incoming" folder or a separate
80 folder for the files you wish to share, to avoid inadvertently sharing
81 private files.
82
83 If you share more than 200 files, you should consider that some servers
84 have a hard limit due to resource constraints, which means that you may
85 be kicked from them if you share too many files or that some of your
86 files won't be populated to the network through that server. So it is not
87 always a good idea to share lots of files.
88
89 - Other:
90 The other options are pretty self-explanatory. If you don't know what it
91 does, don't touch it as a general rule. More information on getting started
92 can be found in the aMule wiki:
93 http://wiki.amule.org/wiki/Getting_Started
94
95 Don't forget to connect to a server, or you probably won't download too much.
96
97
98 Basic aMule Tips
99------------------
100 * NEVER run aMule as root.
101 * If you are behind a firewall or router, be sure that the ports have been
102 opened. The default ports are 4662 (TCP). 4665 (UDP) and 4672 (UDP). If
103 these are blocked, you will receive a "LowID" which results in fewer
104 available sources for the files you are downloading.
105 * Obtain an appropriate server.met: e.g., if you are a dial-up, using
106 a large server list is not appropriate.
107 * Set your temp and shared directories in Preferences->Directories
108 * To recursively select a certain directory, right-click over it.
109 * You should *NOT* share
110 * Your temp download directory!
111 * Your /etc directory
112 * Probably not your /var, /lib, /boot, or /usr directory
113 * Certainly make sure that any really confidential files (password files,
114 private SSH keys, credit card numbers :) are *not* shared. So generally
115 do not share your entire home directory, although you might want to
116 share some files or directories in it.
117 * Remember that you get certain download privileges with those clients
118 (aMule, eMule, etc users) to whom you upload files, in the form of reduced
119 queue waits.
120 * Please note that compilation with optimizations is supported. However, if
121 you pull a Gentoo, we will probably just tell you to recompile aMule and/or
122 your system with sane compiler-flags before we will attempt to address the
123 problem.
124
125
126 Obtaining your first server list
127----------------------------------
128 Use one of the following links in the "Update server.met from URL" box in
129 the Server tab. They are apparently updated every 20 minutes.
130
131 * The current top 50 servers (these fill up fast):
132 http://ocbmaurice.dyndns.org/pl/slist.pl/server.met?download
133 * The current top 150 servers:
134 http://ocbmaurice.dyndns.org/pl/slist.pl/server.met?download/server-good.met
135 * The biggest list (about 300 servers) maintained by the site. Only if you
136 have a very decent connection:
137 http://ocbmaurice.dyndns.org/pl/slist.pl/server.met?download/server-max.met
138 * Should maurice be down for some reasons, use this server.met instead:
139 http://www.srv1000.com/azz/server.met
140
141 If these are non-functional, simply google for 'server.met'.
142
143
144 Tranfers icons
145----------------
146 To find descriptions of the various icons found inside aMule, take a look at
147 http://wiki.amule.org/wiki/Getting_Started#Icons_and_What_They_Signify
148
149
150 License
151---------
152 aMule -- like eMule -- is released under the GNU General Public License.
153 See the "COPYING" file for details.
154
155
156 Developers
157------------
158 See AUTHORS
159
160
161 FAQ:
162------
163 -- How do I know whether my ID is high or low? --
164
165 Look at the arrows at the bottom right corner, wrapping a world icon, next to
166 the server name you are connected to. If they're green, your ID is high. If
167 they're yellow, your ID is low.
168
169
170 -- What does high and low ID mean anyway? --
171
172 When your ID is high (green arrows), everything is fine.
173 When it's low (yellow arrows), you are probably behind a firewall or a
174 router, and other clients can't connect to you directly (which is a bad
175 thing). Please read the FAQ, search our wiki or forums on how to configure
176 your firewall/router for aMule.
177
178 NOTE: you can also get a low ID when the server you connected to is too busy
179 to answer properly, or simply badly configured. When you are sure your
180 settings are OK and you SHOULD have a high ID, connect to another server.
181
182
183 -- I'd like to search for specific file types, what filter stands for which files? --
184
185 File Type Extensions found (this list is far from being complete)
186 --------------------------------------------------------------------
187 Audio .mp3 .mp2 .mpc .wav .ogg .flac .aac .ape .au .wma
188 Video .avi .mpg .mpeg .ram .rm .vob .divx .mov .ogv .webm .vivo
189 Program .exe .com
190 Archive .zip .rar .ace .tar.gz .tar.bz2 .Z .arj .cbz .cbr
191 CDImage .bin .cue .iso .nrg .ccd .sub .img
192 Picture .jpg .jpeg .bmp .gif .tif .png
193
194
195 -- What are all those fancy colors in the download progress bar about? --
196
197 Each download in the the transfers window has a coloured bar to show current
198 file availability and progress.
199
200 * Black shows the parts of the file you already have
201 * Red indicates a part missing in all known sources
202 * Different shades of blue represent the availability of this part in the
203 sources. The darker the blue is the higher the availability
204 * Yellow denotes a part being downloaded
205 * The green bar on top shows the total download progress of this file
206
207 If you expand the download you see its sources with the corresponding
208 bar. Here the colours have a slightly different meaning:
209
210 * Black shows parts you are still missing
211 * Silver stands for parts this source is also missing
212 * Green indicates parts you already have
213 * Yellow denotes a part being uploaded to you
214
215 Learning how the progress bar works will greatly help your understanding
216 of the eD2k network.
217
218
219 -- Where can I get more information? --
220
221 Here are some links that might be of your interest:
222
223 * aMule Wiki (documentation pages)
224 http://wiki.amule.org
225
226 * aMule forums
227 http://forum.amule.org
228
229 * eMule documents
230 http://www.emule-project.net/home/perl/help.cgi
231
232
233 Want to help?
234---------------
235 aMule is a free software project and requires the cooperation of its users
236 to improve the quality of the software. We welcome all contributions to the
237 project in the form of new features, bug fixes, feature requests, etc.
238
239 If you are not a programmer you can still contribute by providing good bug
240 reports when you come across a problem with aMule. A good bug report gives
241 the aMule Team information enough to reproduce the bug (so we can see it in
242 action) and fix it. If possible, try to isolate under which the bug occurs
243 (e.g. does it happen on some specific window, with some specific files, some
244 specific conditions etc.) and provide as much detail as you can in your
245 report.
246
247 If you are a programmer and fix a bug you observe, please send us a patch or
248 a note about how you fixed the problem.
249
250
251 Links and Contact
252-------------
253 aMule homepage
254 http://www.amule.org
255
256 aMule related links
257 http://wiki.amule.org/wiki/FAQ_eD2k-Kademlia
258 http://wiki.amule.org/wiki/aMule
259 http://wiki.amule.org/wiki/FAQ_aMule
260 http://wiki.amule.org/wiki/FAQ_utils
261 http://wiki.amule.org/wiki/Getting_Started
262 http://wiki.amule.org/wiki/aMule_problems
263
264 wxWidgets toolkit homepage
265 http://www.wxwidgets.org
266
267 eMule homepage
268 http://www.emule-project.net
269
270 Contact (administrative issues only!)
271 admin@amule.org
272
273 Legal Notice
274--------------
275
276 aMule is an interface to the ed2k network. As such, the aMule developers have
277 absolutely no control or say over what is transferred on this medium and
278 cannot be held liable for any non-personal copyright infringements or other
279 illegal activities.
280
281
282-- Last modified Thu Apr 7 18:06:32 CEST 2016 --
283