Alongside with IP Filtering, selecting proper eDonkey servers is crucial to eMule security. Wherever possible, it is recommended to connect to Kademlia exclusively (see our article) without using servers. However, this is not possible for everyone, and in some cases a server must first be connected to in order to generate KAD client connections. Thus, eDonkey servers are still an integral part of eMule.

Using a good eD2k server (in addition to KAD) can add variety to the search results, especially when switching between them. While KAD generally brings about more search results (with more sources), requests are somewhat predictable and static. Specific eDonkey servers may help you find a particular rare item that otherwise wouldn’t be available through Kademlia.

It is recommended that you read the entire article below before appending servers / serverlists.

1. eMule Configuration

First; we strongly advise the use of ipfilter.dat for eMule (or, alternatively - PeerGuardian or similar IP Blocking software).

Second; there’s one small configuration to eMule’s settings that should be applied before adding new servers. This is imperative because a fresh installation of eMule v0.48a has the settings incorrect, by default. Here’s how to modify them:

— Launch eMule, click on the OPTIONS menu icon (at the right), and select “Server” from the left list of tabs. You’ll see these settings:

— Here’s what you need to change: Remove the checkmark in “Update server list when connecting to a server”. Add a checkmark to “Auto-update server list at startup”. Change the “Remove dead servers after 1 retries” to “3″. (see below).

— Don’t forget to click “Apply” to save your settings; select “OK” to close.

2. Remove any old Servers

Before adding serverlists (or individual servers) it’s recommended to delete the ones you already have (if any). In the case with a fresh installation of eMule v0.48a, it comes with 19 servers pre-installed. The problem: this list of servers is only as recent as the release date of the eMule installer, so it is grossly outdated. Some “mods” of eMule connect to an online database during the initial-run to get a list of servers - but often it’s unknown where this list resides (or if it’s deemed trustworthy). It’s best just to delete anything listed and start afresh. To delete the listed servers, click on the SERVERS menu icon, and right-click on any server, then select “Remove All”. This will clear the list. If none are in the list, this step is already done for you.

3. Adding Servers/Serverlists to eMule

There’s plenty of locations to find eDonkey servers and lists of servers (called serverlists). Some sources are more reputable than others; some will host outdated lists. All of the sites included below have reliable, updated servers - it is generally assumed throughout the eDonkey community that these sites host lists that are superior and free of fakes.

There are two (easy) ways to import servers into eMule. Both are acceptable.

1.Serverlists (or just individual servers) can be manually added into eMule, usually from “eD2k magnet links”. Servers are then directly imported into eMule. This is handy for adding servers that don’t exist on ’serverlists’ but can be found elsewhere.

2.Serverlists can also be set up to automatically update by using a URL within eMule’s settings. (recommended)

1. Manually-added servers/lists

This approach assumes you’ve set up eMule as your “eD2k magnet handler” - during the installation of v0.48a, this is set to “Yes” by default. If, for some chance, eD2k links aren’t working for you, or you’ve specified a different program to open them (such as Shareaza) and you can’t or don’t want to change this, simply move on to the second method.

To manually add servers, visit a reputable serverlist-updating site such as http://gruk.org/list.php. Click on the “Add to emule” link:

In Firefox, this should launch an “eD2k Magnet Link” popup window (see below). eMule should appear in the ‘Application:‘ field. Click “Launch Application” - this will open eMule and add all of the eDonkey servers.

Here’s another reputable list that can be manually appended into eMule - http://www.serverlist.info/. Here, you’ll need to click the link near the bottom of the list (as shown below). Presently, 40 eDonkey servers are listed.

And another highly reputable list of good eDonkey servers - ocbmaurice. Browse around the site for other lists here - http://ocbmaurice.no-ip.org/index.html. We like this list because they’ve blacklisted all U.S. servers due to “fakes”.

And, here’s another “eD2k link” for eDonkey servers. In the middle of the screen, click on “Evaluated servers list”:

Lastly, http://www.server-met.de/ offers three different lists (all clickable) for eMule.

2. Automatic ‘URL-updating’ serverlists

This is the recommended approach for adding viable eMule servers, as the list is kept constantly updated through a URL to a proper list. Here’s how to do it:

Launch eMule, click on the ‘SERVERS’ menu icon. Look to the right, where it says “Update server.met from URL”.

In the text-box window, ‘copy’ this URL - http://gruk.org/server.met and PASTE it into the window. Click “Update” (see below).

The servers should begin to update in the left pane. To connect to a server from the list, right-click one and select “Connect To”.

And here are some other good serverlists that you can “Paste” into the above window, as well:

• http://peerates.net/servers.php
• http://ocbmaurice.no-ip.org/pl/slist.pl/server.met
• http://emugle.com/server.met

NOTE: You can switch between lists by clicking the dropdown arrow (see image - right). This doesn’t just ’switch’ lists, but it will update the left pane (servers list) with ALL servers from all selected lists. Be sure to click “Update” for each separate URL to add each one’s list of servers to eMule.

Each sites’ serverlists will have redundancy among their listed servers - technically there aren’t all that many good servers to choose from - perhaps as little as 60 (and even fewer are listed as “best” servers). Adding the same server from multiple serverlists (i.e. from the locations above) will only add one instance of each server to eMule - thus it is OK to use multiple serverlists.

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• Date Wednesday, 26 Mar 08 at 12:03 am
• Under eDonkey/eMule
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