eMule 0.49b

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At dawn of May 13th 2002 a guy called Merkur was dissatisfied with the original eDonkey2000 client and was convinced he could do better. So he did. He gathered other developers around him, and eMule Project was born. Their aim was to put the client back on track where eDonkey had been famous before, adding tons of new features and a nice GUI. They couldn't imagine what impact this decision would have...

As of today, eMule is one of the biggest and most reliable peer-to-peer file sharing clients around the world. Thanks to it's open source policy many developers are able to contribute to the project, making the network more efficient with each release.

Features:

• Clients use several networks to create one reliable network. (ED2K, Source Exchange, Kad)
  • eMule can be enabled to use Kad (Kad is in an open testphase)
• eMule's Queue and Credit system helps to ensure that everyone will get the file he wants by promoting those that upload back to the network.
• eMule is completely free. eMule is also completely free of any Adware, Spyware, and ect. We do this for fun and knowledge, not for money.
• Each file checked for corruptions while downloading to ensure an error free file.
• The eMules Intelligent Corruption Control helps to speed up the correction of corrupted parts.
• Auto priorities and Source management allows you to start many downloads without having to monitor them.
• The Preview function allows you to look at your Videos and Archives before they are completed. For video previewing, we recommend the Video Lan Client.
• The eMule features webservices and a webserver that allows you to have quick access to and from the internet.
• You can create categories for your download to organize them.
• To find the file you want, eMule offers a wide range of search possibilities which include: Servers (Local, and Global), web based (Jigle, and Filedonkey), and Kad (Still in Alpha).
• eMule also allows you to use very complex Boolean searches that make the searches much more flexible.
• With the messaging and friend system, you can send messages to other Clients and add them as friends. In your friend list, you can always see if a friend is online.
• With the build in IRC client, you can chat with other downloaders and chatters around the globe.

eMule 0.49 concentrates on improving Kad making it more stable, reliable and future proof. Of course other areas got some attention too:

The mainfeatures of this version are

• Major Kad protocol improvements, like kad obfuscation, better NAT handling, direct callbacks, flood protections, etc.
• Several changes to the message system to get rid of spammers (by Captchas) and stay in touch with friends with dynamic IPs
• Several GUI improvements like storing searches between eMule sessions, a searchfilter for shared files and easier access to the comment filter
• And as always fixing bugs and adding other small changes

Detailed changelog for eMule 0.49b:

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- Jul, 31. 2008 -
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.: Fixed some rare possible crashes

eMule 0.49b BETA2
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- Jul, 28. 2008 -
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.: Added deleting of single entries from AutoComplete drop down lists by pressing the DEL key.
.: Added a new search method option "Automatic" which lets eMule choose which search method to use. eMule will select either Servers (Local) or Kad, based on which network we are connected to and some other indicators if connected to both networks.
.: Removed a general exception handler for the Beta version. This means eMule crashes instead of ignoring unexpected errors, which however is needed so we actually can find such bugs (if any exist) in the crashdumps.

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- Jul, 26. 2008 -
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.: Implemented a special nodes.dat version, which is more suited for mass distribution without causing significant additional traffic for the included nodes. This hopefully allows us to add a nodes.dat to the installer, so that new user can connect to Kad without having to connect to servers or downloading a nodes.dat themself

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- Jul, 15. 2008 -
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.: Implemented an alternate method to estimate the total user count in the Kad network, which is not based on our local routing table. Its experimental and only shown in the network dialog (double click the world icon in the status bar)
.: Adjusted the displaying of the user count by not showing numbers for a network we are nto connected to

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- Jul, 14. 2008 -
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.: Fixed a minor bug with kad obfuscation when contacting answering unbofuscated hello-requests
.: Made sure that only one challenge to verify a contact is sent at a time to the same IP

eMule 0.49b BETA1
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- Jul, 11. 2008 -
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.: Added MiniUPnPLib as additional UPnP implementation, the current Windows service based implementation is used as fallback. This will hopefully make eMule's UPnP compatible to most available routers. [miniupnplib by Thomas Bernard, Test & Suggestion: leuk_he]
.: A specific UPnP implementation can be disabled by adding "DisableMiniUPNPLibImpl=1" or "DisableWinServImpl=1" into the "UPnP" section of the preferences.ini

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- Jul, 5. 2008 -
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.: When reading a nodes.dat without any verified contacts (possible an old file version), eMule will assume all contacts to be verified to avoid slowing down the connecting process
.: Project files for VS2005 and VS2008 have been added, however the official eMule is still developed and compiled on VS2003

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- Jun, 27. 2008 -
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.: Several changes were made to Kad in order to defy routing attacks researched by University of Minnesota guys [Peng Wang, James Tyra, Eric Chan-Tin, Tyson Malchow, Denis Foo Kune, Nicholas Hopper, Yongdae Kim], in particular:
.: Kad contacts will only be able to update themself in others routing tables if they provide the proper key (supported by 0.49a+ nodes) in order to make it impossible to hijack them
.: Kad uses now a three-way-handshake (or for older version a similar check) for new contacts, making sure they do not use a spoofed IP
.: Unverified contacts are not used for routing tasks and a marked with a special icon in the GUI

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- Jun, 22. 2008 -
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.: Fixed: Shared Files window splitter did not properly save/restore position.
.: Did first small step in dropping Kad1 support by not probing unknown Kad contacts for Kad1 anymore to save overhead. Kad1 clients will nevertheless still be work for now.
.: Fixed a bug which let Kad sometimes assume a Kad2 contact to be Kad1 after probing for both versions

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- Jun, 18. 2008 -
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.: Fixed: Memory leak in context menus.
.: Added: Vista styles for context menus.

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- Jun, 12. 2008 -
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.: Fixed: Pressing ESC in Shared Files window filter destroyed the entire window.

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- Jun, 10. 2008 -
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.: Added additional sanitize checks to make sure eMule never writes downloaded data into an already completed part
.: Optimized the Kad packettracking code to only tack packets which we check later, to save ressources

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- Jun, 9. 2008 -
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.: Fixed 100% CPU usage bug with tooltips in Statistics Graphs.
.: Added: Tooltip in Statistics Graphs show the Y-value.
.: Kad no longer tries to add UDP firewalled (and therefore mostly unreachable) nodes into its routing table, reducing overhead and increasing reliability [Idea: Netfinity]
.: Kad tries to determine the overall ration of firewalled clients in the Kad network and shows them in the statistics tree. This will only work if you are not firewalled yourself and know enough 0.49b+ nodes
.: When calculating the total user count, Kad now uses (if available) the real number of firewalled clients for the calculation instead a fixed value. This will take more effect when 0.49+ nodes become common

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- Jun, 5. 2008 -
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.: The "Handle eD2k-Links" button now also works properly with Vista's UAC enabled

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- May, 31. 2008 -
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.: Added: Unshare context menu entries for directories within the virtual "Shared Directories" folder.

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- May, 28. 2008 -
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.: Added: Vista themes for all owner drawn tab controls.
.: Added: Vista themes for category selector controls.

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- May, 25. 2008 -
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.: Fixed main toolbar redrawing problems under Vista.
.: Reworked connecting code, fixing some minor and some major bugs, including a possible loop in unreachable DirectCallback sources

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- May, 19. 2008 -
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.: Added new close icons for closeable tab controls.
.: Kad now ignores multiple IDs pointing to one IP in routing request answers

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- May, 18. 2008 -
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.: Fixed: Tab controls were not sized correctly on certain text contents.

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- May, 17. 2008 -
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.: Fixed: Category tabs in Transfers window did not show correct default text color.
.: Fixed: Category properties dialog did not always show the correct (default) category color.
.: Added: Hot tracking effects for Vista themes for all (owner drawn) tab controls.

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- May, 12. 2008 -
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.: Fixed: Tooltips did not show correctly with Vista Aero theme.