eDonkey network

The eDonkey P2P file sharing network began quite simply as a first generation server-client-protocol network, but became eDonkey2000 as part of its decentralization process. It no longer uses a centralized service as it did in the past, but unlike Napster who stayed centralized as a pay service, eDonkey became a totally different machine.

When eDonkey first began, it was sponsored by the MetaMachine Corporation who has since gone out of business, but the network still remains as a proprietary freeware based network that still runs on the original protocol developed by the MetaMachine Corporation. eDonkey2000 is a C++ based file sharing client application which was slightly modified from its original form to accommodate the decentralization process. The original server set-up used a closed-source C coded program that was developed by Lugdunum. Although the network is decentralized, it still utilizes its own servers to store the meta data much like the bit torrent indexing servers do.

Basically, the major difference between eDonkey and bit torrent, is that unlike bit torrent which you can get the .torrent file almost anywhere, the eDonkey network requires their tracker to be on their servers. Likewise, rather than the clients themselves making independent connections to each other autonomously, with the eDonkey Network, your client program first contacts the server who in turn will match your client up with another. All of the eDonkey file sharing is done in this “shaking hands” mannerism which basically requires the use of the servers.

Although it may be considered to be decentralized, the fact of the matter is that due to the necessity to shake hands with an eDonkey2000 server, it still falls under the first generation of file sharing networks, and may even be considered an out-dated technology by many. Unlike the bit torrent network, with eDonkey there is absolutely no privacy what-so-ever. Since each client has to shake hands with a server, these servers can then keep logs of all the clients around the world, as well as what files they have requested and what files they have completely downloaded.

Although eDonkey has a fairly good following that comes by means of many years of devoted users, eventually, due to the requirement to shake hands, their network will eventually disintegrate into an oblivion. eDonkey is considered by many to offer competition to the bit torrent network, but in reality, there is no competition because the number of users around the world is no where near being closely matched.

The truth is, that the bit torrent file sharing network is the largest community in the world. With literally hundreds of millions of users world-wide, this network is considered by many internet service providers to take up a large chunk of the world internet bandwidth usage.

Popularity: 6% [?]