The emule network does use servers but the vast majority of them have no restrictions on what is shared on them (except perhaps a max number of files per client). A server just keeps a record of what each client connected to them currently has shared. When you want to download a file, your client first queries the server its connected to to find out if any other clients connected to it have the file you want. If it has less than about a hundred sources for the file, after a few minutes delay your client starts asking other servers if they know anyone with the file. You don't need to change servers to do this or to download from people on other servers.

Servers are just a centralised database of what everyone connected to it has shared. It therefore doesn't matter which server you connect to either for uploading or downloading (but it is more efficient when files have few sources for everyone to be on one server to help them find each other quickly).

Taking your points one at a time:

• You won't need a "GCW Server", it would be nice to have one but totally unnecessary
• Most people don't join a specific server regardless of what they're downloading, they just use the first one they are able to connect to.
• Yes, many emule users do d/l and share illegal files. As most people don't care which server they connect to, servers usually have people sharing all types of files. The server itself isn't involved in any uploading or downloading of files however, only keeping a database of what everyone on it is sharing. It might be possible to restrict the files the server keeps track of (by size, type etc), I really don't know. If thats a problem, the solution is simple-- don't have a GCW server :)
• While servers do usually have a limit on how many files a person can share, that limit is per person, not per server. In theory everyone connected to a server could be sharing a different 500 files.

I do like the queue idea, waiting in a queue for an hour or two knowing you will get a file at the end of it is better than attempting to get something from an overloaded server which keeps stalling.

There is 60+ emule servers, How are you going to share the files on all those servers ?

If this happens on a GCW server, does that not put GCW one step closer to being a "warez" site. I dont know alot about laws, but is it worth the risk ?

That means hosting a emule server that spreads warez is legal?

yes, but this again increases problems with using emule ( If GCW has need to host over 600 files at once ). Now you suddenly have have 2 clients share the files.

There is no "singel" reason why emule is a bad sollution, just alot of small once :)
If you want another p2p network then bt, why not use one of the serverless once ( With encryption ). That should eliminate most of the emule problems.

Another thing, how many ppl have a folder named "game cracks" where they store most of their cracks ? Im guessing they either delete the archive once its downloaded.
Or have it stored have file stored in the folder that contains their CD backup ( ie. .iso or .cue ).
Since you can only share folders in e-mule. That means it now takes on avarage 3 "shares" to include 1 crack. ( .bin / .cue & crack). Again you run into a problems ;) (including shareing the image files might be illegal. )

As PrinceGaz said above, you aren't restricted to download a file from one server on the edonkey network - it will search other networks.

I dont think what other stuff people share will be of any relevance. GCW would provide the user with the hash to click on and this would initiate the download of the crack. The other stuff being shared by the person they are downloading from is not GCW's responsibility. GCW will only post a link to the crack on the network, nothing else.

Using a file queue is an option but it will be too centralized as not many of the mirrors offer any scripting... and I don't even know if a queuing system is available as I do not have the time creating one!

I am currently working on a script which will index the files and will create an ed2k link on the download page (for now flat text files until I or someone else converts it to mysql)

If this does not work I can setup an emule server which only shares the gcw files but I have to investigate if this is possible

I will also look into the webseed scripts, but I still think that bittorrent will take more time to maintain (because of the static trackers)

For now I do not see any other option which is easily implemented

Well, hopefully we'll come up with some to keep you guys in business.

What I'm wondering though, and I hope this subject isn't somewhat taboo right now, is what exactly is going on in the "world" of no-cd patches.

GCW suddenly seemed to lose a lot of mirrors, and the remaining were bogged down to the point of standstill. MegaGames has been extremely slow for the last several weeks, and GameBurnWorld has been all but totally crippled for at least the last month or so.

Is there some sort of crackdown on our supposed "activities"?

"Yeah officer, I payed $70 bucks for the game, and I just didn't want to use the shiny round thing. Hmmm....... what's that? Oh, I have to use the shiny round thing by law. Go figure......"

Thats a good idea and all...but are you planning to script in cgi or php? CGI would get crippled with all the requests, and php would cripple the server with all the requests.....

You say you will use text file to store the indexed data on the files...but for the script to search what im guessing is thousands of url's and file names would be a mamoth task which would no doubt drain the server.....maybe a .dat file would be better?

Thats one of the most negative sides with bt yes, But you could do something like what <InsertBigBTSite> did. Basicly give a group of ppl accesss to your tracker. And give them access to add/remove .torrents. That way you remove alot of the work you need to do. :)

@ PrinceGaz , i dident see that. My mistake.

can't you just make it to where people make an account and then have to wait in line to download a crack like fileshack or fileplanet? you could still keep it free

While a download queue would be a nice option for the mirrors if it were possible, EMPiRE mentioned in an earlier reply that most of the download mirrors available don't support scripting so its not really possible. Of course if demand considerably exceeds available bandwidth across all the mirrors then that wouldn't really solve the problem which is why alternative distribution methods are being explored.

So sorry

There i was moaning coz i could not get my file, i had no idea it was a problem with the site.

Anyway, i say dump the old files.

Soz for the bitch'n though, just so desperate to play my pro evolution with out the horrible slowdowns.

P E A C E

An ed2k link is now available on the download page, for now without serving the files. In the beginning most of the files will not be available as most people do not download to their shared drive(s).

If it does not work after some time an emule server will be added (as soon as we know how to setup one ;) or when there are other users who want to do this

The servers ask each other about files if they don't have them. So all it takes is a few clients connected to 1 or more servers to spread a file around the network.

There doesn't need to be a server run by GCW, although as another poster mentioned it would be nice.

That's the cool thing about eMule - the server doesn't spread anything. It just keeps track of who has what and then tells clients how to talk to each other when one has something that another wants. No files actually go through the server. An eMule serve is really just a big search engine that returns client info instead of web URLs.

So Empire, how much of a donation would be needed to keep the mirrors alive or updated. Is it a new server or just better lines. Throw out some numbers. I'm sure everybody could afford $10 or more to donate towards it. I've done this before with a group and you would be surprised at how many people will donate. And then again you could always use the eDonkey thing. Try asking some of the guys over at Sharereactor for help on the code. Perhaps they can help

I would be up for that. We could even do an annual membership or something like that to keep this site alive and kickin, as it is the BEST site on the web. $5 or $10 bucks isnt such a bad idea if it means keeping the site going full throttle. Maybe allow visitors a trial period, and if they want to join....Ante up for the cause.

I know you only want to do this as a last resort but where exactly do we stand on this subject. Maybe this would not be good for everyone but it is an option worth exploring. Maybe do a poll on our options to see what the other members think about this.

Donations need to be on a voluntary basis otherwise it will turn in a membership system. This is something that we do not want (for various reasons) as we want to keep it free for all.

We are getting some donations (thanks for who did this already) but most are in the region of $1-2 which will take a lot of donations towards an additional download server (these cost at least $400-1000 per month for a 10-20 Mbit/s server)

Some people are saying that running a emule server that you also will share warez... as far as I know we will only be sharing our own files... nothing more

Also dumping the old files will not fix the download problems as 80% of the downloads are the newer files <1 month and the fun is to have as much as possible available