eMule is a peer-to-peer file sharing application for Microsoft Windows. Started in May 2002 as an alternative to eDonkey2000, eMule now connects to both the eDonkey network and the Kad network. The distinguishing features of eMule are the direct exchange of sources between client nodes, fast recovery of corrupted downloads, and the use of a credit system to reward frequent uploaders. Furthermore, eMule transmits data in zlib-compressed form to save bandwidth.

eMule is coded in Microsoft Visual C++ using the Microsoft Foundation Classes. As of July 2002 eMule has been free software, released under the GNU General Public License; its popularity has led to eMule's codebase being used as the basis of a Linux-specific client, xMule, and a multiplatform client, aMule, along with the release of many eMule mods (modifications of the original eMule) on the Internet.

The eMule project was started on May 13, 2002 by Hendrik Breitkreuz (also known as Merkur) who was dissatisfied with the original eDonkey2000 client. Over time more developers joined the effort. The source was first released at version 0.02 and published on SourceForge on July 6, 2002.

eMule was first released as a binary on August 4, 2002 at version 0.05a. The 'Credit System' was implemented for the first time on September 14, 2002 in version 0.19a. The eMule project website started up on December 8, 2003. Since its inception, eMule has been downloaded over 330 million times as of July 2007 making it the most downloaded project on SourceForge.

Current versions (v0.40+) of eMule have added support for the Kad network. This network has an implementation of the Kademlia protocol, which does not rely on central servers as the eDonkey network does, but is an implementation of a distributed hash table.

Also added in recent versions were the ability to search using unicode, allowing for searches for files in non-Latin alphabets, and the ability to search servers for files with complete sources of unfinished files on the eDonkey network.

In new versions, a "Bad source list" was added. The application adds an IP address to this list after one unsuccessful connection. After adding an IP to the "Bad source list", the application treats this IP as a "dead" IP. Unavailable IPs are banned for a time period from 15 to 45 minutes. Some users have complained that it leads to a loss of active sources and subsequently slows download speed.

Other recent additions include: the ability to run eMule from a user account with limited privileges (thus enhancing security), and intelligent corruption handling (so that a corrupted chunk does not need to be re-downloaded entirely).

The 0.46b version added the creation and management of "eMule collection" files, which contain a set of links to files intended to be downloaded as a set.

Recently, many ISPs are bandwidth throttling default P2P ports resulting in slow performances. The 0.47b version adds protocol obfuscation; eMule will automatically select two ports at random in the startup wizard.

eMule is now considered a stable product, and new versions are not released as often as they used to be; five to six months is now a typical time interval between releases. The latest version is 0.48a which was released in May 2007.

A scam site exists at which asks you to call a 900 number during installation in order to pay for an installation code. The installation wizard is almost identical to the real thing. There is another scam site which asks for your email address to become a member.

As eMule is Free software it can be used and redistributed without any charge.

Advantages of eMule

One of the advantages of eMule is a large user base, currently averaging just over 20 million, which makes it excellent for finding rare content. It is said to be the most complete implementation of the ed2k protocol and its extensions. eMule supports AICH, making its corruption handling competitive with BitTorrent. eMule also supports source exchanges, allowing it to substantially reduce the loads on the servers and KAD. With a HighID and well-sourced downloads pre-acquired by server and/or KAD, eMule is able to sustain the sources on these files completely independently longer after disconnection from ED2K and KAD.

eMule mods

As a popular open source program, eMule has many variants, usually called mods. Some mods started as a fork of an eMule code, and then continued to develop independently from the official version. Emule 2008 is such a mod. Sometimes features first debuted in a mod later find their way into the official version.

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