Official eDonkey Forums

mldonkey · Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2002 2:59 am Post subject:

We have released a client for donkey on
i386 linux platforms, called:

mldonkey-1.00.static.i386-linux.tar

It comes with both a command-line interface (using telnet in fact) and a GTK interface.
We might in the near future compile it on other platforms when enough bugs have been fixed.

It is available on the donkey network of course, not on the Web, unless a volonteer wants to publish it...

USAGE:
start the client:
> ./mldonkey > log &

start the GTK interface:
> ./mldonkey_gui

and have fun !

MLdonkey team

mldonkey · Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2002 3:43 am Post subject:

It is now available on:

http://mldonkey.sourceforge.net/

Have fun !!

[ This Message was edited by: mldonkey on 2002-02-08 17:20 ]

smurf uk · Smurftastic Joined: 19 Apr 2001 Posts: 3912 Location: UK

Are you sure you want the client to properly connect to 50 servers by default? Do you realise how much load that puts on the servers? We just had that big bot discussion, didn't we?

Please think about it.

[ This Message was edited by: smurf uk on 2002-01-24 10:03 ]

mldonkey · Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2002 5:05 am Post subject:

We updated mldonkey so that the default will be 10 servers. It is now available again.

mldonkey · Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2002 5:05 am Post subject:

We updated mldonkey so that the default will be 10 servers. It is now available again.

BSEsel · Donkey Joined: 23 Jan 2002 Posts: 58

2002-02-02 correction: This matter has been discussed very verbosely now and the new versions of mldonkey have a "milder" form of the multiple server connect and do not pose such a threat to edonkey2000 network any more. Therefor, all the flaming for the next four pages should be mostly regarded as outdated and is only left here for fun of the reader Wink

If you do not have popcorn handy or do not like reading through lots of (partially quite blunt, explicite or really stupid - yes, mine are no exception) flames, or if you are simply looking for newest information you should skip to the last page.
2002-02-06: Though, there are still open questions that haven't been answered properly, and lots of full servers - maybe we should go back to asking questions again?

Thanks,

Jaroslav

--< Old stuff (2002-01-24) starts here >--

mldonkey · Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2002 6:34 am Post subject:

There are a lot of ways to decrease the charge of the server. Having clients connect to only one server is a DREAM. You can't hope to save the donkey network this way.

You should probably consider different solutions like:
- having two kinds of servers
- Some only for localisation (small charge)
- Some only for queries (big inverted index)

The client could also record all the files it has seen to search these files instead of asking a server.

If you shake enough your head, maybe some ideas could come too...

BSEsel · Donkey Joined: 23 Jan 2002 Posts: 58

zKsToRm · Jr. Donkey Joined: 10 Dec 2001 Posts: 33

How about servers using a small percentage of the clients connected to it as slaves to do some work for it. In other words slaves clients would be turn into servers themselves at the request of the prime server ( a real official server ). And yes I believe periodic UPD calls to kee prime server and slaves in sync would be more efficient than TCP. Of course servers should choose clients with the lowest pings to act as slaves.

I would much prefer that edonkey had a bug reporting facility to submit ideas and bugs. That this forum.

Neko · Jr. Donkey Joined: 23 Jan 2002 Posts: 15

pockpock · Jr. Donkey Joined: 14 Jan 2002 Posts: 11

maybe you could give us some information:

- how did you create this core? ( i assume it´s reverse engineered )

- does swamp know about it?

- what is different to the "official" core?

- and _why_ did you create it?

mldonkey · Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2002 9:06 pm Post subject:

We created this core from scratch, using the protocol discovered by observing communications between clients and servers.

The reason to create it is that, at the time we started (end of november), there was no GUI, and the linux client was full of bugs, and lack many features of the Windows client. So, we decided to reimplement it in a modern functional language, with a garbage collector and all that stuff that simplify coding, and let you focus on important things.

I don't know if "swamp" knowns about it, but I asked the donkey manager (Jed M.) for advice, and he only pointed me to a boring GUI project in C++ ...

smurf uk · Smurftastic Joined: 19 Apr 2001 Posts: 3912 Location: UK

just on a sidenote: at the end of November, there were already two linux GUIs there Smile

BSEsel · Donkey Joined: 23 Jan 2002 Posts: 58

OK, my french friend, I ask you once again:

Why - what for - do you connect to multiple servers? What is the gain for the user from it?

mldonkey · Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2002 10:30 pm Post subject:

Two replies:

- At the end of november, the GUIs were starting to work, they were based (at least the one we tried) on the command-line client, which was buggy and missing functionnalities (like friends).

- The gain of connecting to multiple servers is that you can find more providers for a file, once you have chosen to download it.
I'm not against the use of UDP, I simply don't have access to the full donkey protocol, so I didn't know that you can ask servers for locations through UDP messages...

BSEsel · Donkey Joined: 23 Jan 2002 Posts: 58

Oh holy frell ... OK, I should have thought so much. OK:

@mldonkey: "extended search" works using UDP. You can use one single socket to communicate with UDP to as many servers as you wish, and you do not need to log on for this. You will receive more results using UDP as almost all large servers are completely full this days and will not allow you to connect, therefore users using the current mldonkey will very probably miss most of the sources. Full servers do reply to UDP extended searches however, so it is also in your own interest to implement it.

You can use netcat to listen on UDP ports to find out about the protocol.

On the other hand, I am sure Jed (swamp) will be _happy_ to tell you how to do this for the sake of averting the damage from the network and the users.

If Jed shouldn't give you the help you need, please email me at
macodiseas(at)gmx.net
and I will help you to set up a listening device to find out what the UDP search packets look like. It involves no programming at all so you will be done in a few hours. Maybe I even have some examples of the packets lying here around from my early serverlist building days.

I would _love_ it if you would stop delivering the mldonkey for a moment, put up a message to your website that the current version should not be used, and a fixed version is underway, and start delivering it again once it is fixed and you implemented the UDP stuff. This should not take long because it is extremely easy.

mldonkey · Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2002 11:49 pm Post subject:

The problem is not with extended search, it is with localisation of sources. Replies to extended searches don't provide enough information, such as where the files can be found. What we need is a UDP query for locations (ie clients having the MD4).

mldonkey is already able to send and receive UDP packets, what is lacking is a message in the donkey protocol ...

BSEsel · Donkey Joined: 23 Jan 2002 Posts: 58

I see. I am sure Jed will tell you how to do this.
Until then you can "walk" the servers (log in without reporting your files etc., ask for sources for all the files you download, and disconnect when you got them or got none). You do not need to stay connected to them all the time for this. This is not recommended but it is still better (and will earn more results) then sitting on 10 servers.

mldonkey · Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2002 2:24 am Post subject:

The problem is that only CONNECTED clients
can share their files. By connecting to lots of servers, you offer to the clients of these servers new sources for the files their are looking for. Isn't that good for users ?

BSEsel · Donkey Joined: 23 Jan 2002 Posts: 58

Obviously, you do not understand how the "original" client works.

The original client

* Connects to ONE server
* Requests sources from ALL servers on the list via UDP without connecting to them.

So at the end it gets ALL sources in the ENTIRE network, not just from the connected server.

Therefor, connecting to more then one server is completely useless. The only thing this does, is screwing up the availability list, because the search of every client will count 10 sources, where in fact there is only one.

What you are doing, is reducing the number of real users on the network because less people will be able to connect. Therefor there will be less files on the network, and less sources, so it is bad for all users, not just for those using mldonkey.

I hope you understand now?

osx · Jr. Donkey Joined: 20 Jan 2002 Posts: 17

mldonkey · Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2002 10:50 pm Post subject:

Which platforms are you interested in ?

chris74m · Jr. Donkey Joined: 25 Oct 2001 Posts: 28

BS-Esel , if msdonkey reverse engenierd the edonkey protokoll , then he will probably know much more about edonkey than you...

first my congrats to msdonkey ,

i havent tried out your donkey because my edonkey server was shut down because of excessive bandwidth usage bust i think i will soon.

look what happend, you did not code the new donkey client fast enough , or did not fix any important bugs , so someone with more time and a good coding skills just made a new version.

clients act as servers is a good idea , its like gnutella u know ..

greetings

chris

BSEsel · Donkey Joined: 23 Jan 2002 Posts: 58

mldonkey · Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2002 5:50 am Post subject:

Don't be that scared. There have been a lot of problems in the development of lots of Internet applications, and people always found a way to cope with them.

Computing power is still increasing, bandwith too, and they are a lot of people who are interested in exchanging big files on the Internet and are ready to work hard on this problem, so donkey is not dead yet, or if it dies, something better will immediatly arrive and solve a lot of his problems.

We are currently working on how to improve the servers, port them to mainframes and maybe move some of their charge partially to the client. Jed gave us some information on the UDP protocol, we will incorporate this in next releases of mldonkey, and the server part too. In the meantime, we will see if the donkey servers can cope with the current multi-servers feature... maybe mldonkey users can limit themselves to a few servers too...

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