eDonkey - publisher's description
eDonkey is an application that allows you to
share and download files with millions of other
people across the globe. It is fast and easy
to use with the most sophisticated file sharing
technology available.
more about eDonkey
The eDonkey network (also called eDonkey2000
network or ed2k) is a file sharing network used
primarily to exchange music, films and software.
Like most file sharing networks, it is decentralized;
files are not stored on a central server but
are exchanged directly between users based on
the peer to peer principle.
The eDonkey client programs connect to the
network to share files. eDonkey servers act
as communication hubs for the clients and allow
users to locate files within the network. Clients
and servers are available for Windows, Macintosh,
and Linux and other UNIX variants. Anyone can
add a server to the network. Because of constant
changes to the server network, clients update
their server lists regularly.
The eDonkey network uses a compound MD4 hash
checksum to identify files which permits identification
of identical files with different filenames
as well as distinction of differing files with
identical filenames. Another feature of eDonkey
is that for files greater than about 9.8 MB,
it shares file segments before the download
completes; this speeds up the distribution of
large files throughout the network. To ease
file searching, some websites list the checksums
of sought-after files in the form of an ed2k
link. Some of those websites also have lists
of active servers for users to update.
In 2004, the eDonkey network overtook FastTrack
to become the most widely used file sharing
network on the Internet. While figures vary
from hour to hour and day to day, it is thought,
in mid-2005, to host on average approximately
two to three million users sharing 500 million
to two billion files via 100 to 200 servers.
The network's most popular server was, at one
time, Razorback2, which usually hosted about
1 million users. Sometimearound February 21,
2006 the Razorback2 servers were raided and
seized by the Federal Belgian Police. The servers
are no longer online.
This article is licensed under the GNU
Free Documentation License.
It uses material from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edonkey_Network.
External links
Official
eDonkey Websit
eMule
project
News
story about raid on large eDonkey server in
EU
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