eDonkey Drops All Bundled Software

[SlyckTom]

During the installation process of the official eDonkey client, one is given the option to install four different types of adware; Webhancer, GloPhone, Web Search Toolbar and New.net. Although this third party sofware is optional, those unwitting enough to install these additions were quick to criticize eDonkey as a spyware client.

Although eDonkey was an adware client, labeling it as a spyware application was a bit extreme. Simply opting-out these four adware programs during installation prevented their presence on one's machine. Never the less, this distinction did not help this client's situation as it was delisted from Download.com in early May.

During this time, Download.com instituted a "no adware/spyware" policy. The policy dictated that an application could still have bundled software, providing it was "opt-out." As far as most people were concerned, this description fit eDonkey. However Download.com still detected Webhancer even after opting-out of its installation - an assertion that remains questionable to this day.

In MetaMachine's ongoing campaign to gain favor in the P2P community, it was announced yesterday that eDonkey would no longer be accompanied by third party software. During installation, the adware option screen no longer appears.

Instead, MetaMachine has initiated an affiliate program. Those with high traffic websites are invited to direct users to eDonkey's download page. The hope is that more individuals will purchase the full version of eDonkey, and affiliates directing to this end will share in the profits.

While eDonkey was always a fairly respected P2P client, this move should help push this client back into serious competition with eMule.

<b>Update:</b> eDonkey has returned to <a href=http://www.download.com/eDonkey2000/3000-2196_4-10401234.html target=_blank>Download.com</a>.

[webe3]

Well I am glad to hear this news! This takes out ANY doubt about edonkeys intentions as being a good p2p program. Now if they can just get their speed up.....

[Overnet User]

It doesn't really affect me as I have been using it for over 2 years now. Maybe new people will join the system and help out w/ ed2k by its userbase and file avability.

[OhMyGod]

Great job! eDonkey2000 , I have been also using it for years inspite of the opt out adware. It seems more and more file sharing applications are starting to clean up their programs. That's good.

[Evil-Dude]

I don't very often download stuff from edonkey but i wish it had the option to only display users with available slots like in DC++. Then queuing would not be a problem.

[Nessmaster]

Being an ed2k fan. I have to say that this a step in the right direction, but I don't feel like eDonkey is anyway near eMule, or any eMule mods. I personally don't feel that the Overnet network is doing it's job, and feel that KAD is better, making eMule a top choice for me no matter what.

[tbaster]

I've flipped between being an edonkey or emule user a few times since edonk was first made public. I've probably given up on Swamp (the edonkey guy) for good at this point. The client has never had the user features that a popular p2p app ought to have, and even after losing nearly everything to emule through neglect, it still doesn't have what it ought to have. I give up on the guy, it isn't in him. He's a low-level technology coder, doesn't have the chops to build a really good user app and won't let anyone with him off the leash to do it. Instead he works on another network that nobody wants. It's a shame, but c'est la vie.

[eisa01]

For me eDonkey is the best p2p app out there, it does its job and nothing more. I don't need all the unnecessary features of eMule. Since it's using horde, I get much better speed than with eMules. Sure I can get good speeds with eMule if i qeue up 20 downloads, but I don't need to download that much, I manage just fine with the occasional lost episode movie.

[lilhockeybro]

I think edonkey2000 is an awesome program for DOWNLOAD, but if i want to distribute some of my own content, emule is WAY BETTER at UPLOADING.

Emule- uploading
Edonkey2000- downloading

its good to have both clients probably. (as well as Azureus, lol)
______________________________________________

Check out "Crackass: the Movie" on ed2k
Crackass the Movie
and the retarded website! http://lilhockeybro.tripod.com/

[tomy]

Instead he works on another network that nobody wants.

What network is that?

[Super_Mew]

Ah good to hear! Now I can put ed2k back onto my website. Damn adware & bundling garbage made it a hard sale for downloaders.

[eisa01]

Instead he works on another network that nobody wants.

What network is that?

He's refering to the overnet network. But eDonkey naturally connects to the eDonkey network as well, which eMule also does. eMule has its own network similar to overnet called Kademlia.

[Hostfat]

KAD is the name of the eMule serverless network.
KAD ( eMule devs have few fantasy ) is based on Kademlia protocol like Overnet

@lilhockeybro
You must disable Horde if you want to release
If you think that the release is complete you can renable the Horde

[tomy]

Instead he works on another network that nobody wants.

What network is that?

He's refering to the overnet network. But eDonkey naturally connects to the eDonkey network as well, which eMule also does. eMule has its own network similar to overnet called Kademlia.

Thats what i thought, but i was asking about the nobody wants thing.

[Psycho Ced]

Good news, Nice article.
Glad to see this chapter of their book done. Now only time will tell if they can reclaim some of their lost.

[jimmy90]

hahaha the mule undoubtedly rules

[HouseCrowd]

Good move!

I never did see the point of it really. The only purpose it really served was to annoy newcomers to the software. Those 'in the know' would simply opt-out or circumvent it.

[O_Coala]

hahaha the mule undoubtedly rules

Great argument.
Stop flooding.

[johngalt]

Interesting take on this ST.

I use a Messenger enhancement called MessengerPlus - a while back the dev, Patchou, decided to partner with lop.com to offset his costs and still provide a free product to the masses. There was much consternation, and some backlash as initially the installation process had it defaulted to install the lop.com Malware, but it was *easily* opted out of - and I say the same thing, that since there is an opt out mechanism, there is no reason to label it as spyware.

Just to give you and idea, Micro$oft AntiSPyware labels Messenger plus *itself* as spyware and attempts to remove it - I finally had force M$ AS to ignore messenger plus altogether.

A popular site for hosts files to block Malware sites has a list of over 30,000 sites - many of which cannot be justified as true *malicious* sites, b/c there is no drive by installations, no Malware introduced to an end users system, nothing at all except a little advertisement that end users think they are entitled to not have to see. But when I asked why messenger plus' home page was included, I was told that they were affiliated with spyware, and that automatically made them a rogue site in the maintainer's book. I have since stopped using that product and stopped visiting the site regularly.

Now another product is causing havoc on my machine - regardless of what folks say, I like DAP as my DLM b/c the feature set is rivaled, in my opinion, only by other commercial / shareware products - and of all the ones I tried, I liked DAP the best. I bough DAP 5, and more recently purchased the DAP 7 upgrade, but since I brought SAV 10 CE home from work, I found out that the new SAV doesn't play nice at all. I have marked the DAP folder as off limits to both real time scanning as well as in regular manual / automatic scans, and yet it still finds the dapbho.dll, quarantines it, and 'fixes' about 100 references to DAP in the registry (or, at least that is what is indicated by the quarantine message) - and an attempt at restoring DAP on fixes is partially, to the point where i have to re-install DAP. Added to that horror is the fact that now SpeedBit think I am using a pirated key and has locked access to my attempts to register the last time I installed it (last night) _ all because SAV keeps marking the gd dll as spyware and quarantining it.

The worst part is that on the Symantec web page dedicated to 'DAP.Adware', it acknowledges that the adware is only in the unregistered version, and yet SAV finds the .dll even though I have a legitimately registered version ***AND*** I have told it to not go looking int the DAP folder.

My point in all of this is that just because a program says something is spyware does not make it so. Programs are not perfect - and C|Net was stupid to start removing products from their inventory before conducting a full and thorough analysis on the program to determine the *true* maliciousness / lack there of of that particular file.

Also, when you run multiple products and some products find stuff that others do not, it is not *automatically* because one product is better than another - it could also be a difference in the rule set used to determine the maliciousness of a file, and it could also be that the program has a tendency to find false positives a lot.

[Doobie]

EDonkey never secretly nor required anyone to install adware (other than their own built-in banner). Good for them. But, Jed sees the huge growth of eMule and the increasing intolerance toward adware. With a low takerate for the optional adware, might as well take it out.

[SharedHolder]

It was , spyware free and only for a week :4: This is the installer downloaded today atm from edonkey website :




:35:

[LxBeast]

Didn't the old ED2K installer have the boxes ticked for the additional progs by default?

<Now>In other words, if a user clicks 'next' all the way through they won't install any additional progs.

<Then>If above was done with the old ED2K installer, the additional progs would be installed by default <boxes already ticked>.


Edit: To clarify, it was always spyware free, it only contains adware.

[Psycho Ced]

WTF?

[LxBeast]

You literally posted right after me PC

<Old ED2K>Simply opting-out these four adware programs during installation prevented their presence on one's machine.

<New ED2K>No longer is the adware ticked/installed by default, case closed.

[Psycho Ced]

LOL ment for both posts.

It was , spyware free and only for a week :4: This is the installer downloaded today atm from edonkey website :




:35:

I concur!