
                                 -----------
                                    aMule
                                 -----------
                         The All-platform eD2k Client


 About
-------
  aMule is a multiplatform ed2k client, fork of the eMule client, using the
  wxWidgets class library. It was originally forked from the xMule project,
  which in turn was forked from the lMule project. This is turn was the first
  fork of eMule to run nativly on Linux and other Unix-like systems.


 Installation
--------------
  See INSTALL file


 Configuration:
----------------
  - Go to the "Preferences" tab

  - Enter a nickname or leave as the default value.

  - Enter the "Download Capacity" and "Upload Capacity" according to your
    internet connection. All values in aMule are kiloBytes (kB), but your
    Internet Service Provider's numbers are most likely kiloBits (kb). 
    
    8 kiloBits make up 1 kiloByte, so if your Internet Connection is 768kb
    Downstream and 128kb Upstream (i.e. German Telekom DSL), your correct
    values are:

      Downstream: 768kb / 8 = 96kB, so you enter 96 as "Download Capacity"
      Upstream:   128kb / 8 = 16kB, so you enter 16 as "Upload Capacity"

    Anyway, these values are used to calculate the current bandwidth usage for
    display purposes only (mainly for statistics). Nevertheless, you need to
    know them to determine the following down/upload limits:

  - Enter "Download Limit" and "Upload Limit"  (IMPORTANT!)
    
    Download Limit:
        Leave this at 0, which stands for "no limit". However, if aMule uses
        too much bandwidth and causes problems with other applications using
        your internet connection, it would be a good idea to limit this to
        aproximetly 80% of your downstream capacity.
 
    Upload Limit:
        It is recommended that you set this limit to around 80% of your actual
        upstream capacity, in order to avoid degrading the performance of your
        connection.

    Setting the Upload Limit to a value less than 10 will automatically reduce
    your Download Limit after the following schema:

      Upload Limit  |  Max Download
         >= 10      |    No limit
          < 10      |    Upload Limit * 4
          <  4      |    Upload Limit * 3
          

    NOTE: 56k Modem users: aMule only accepts integral values for these
          settings, you can't enter 1.6 or whatever your sweet-spot setting
          is. Sorry.

  - "Maximum Connections":
    As a general rule, set it to 500 - 2000.

  - "Maximum Sources per File":
    This depends on how many files you tend to download at a time, if you 
    tend to download few files, high values are acceptable, otherwise go
    for lower values so that all files will be able to get sources.

  - Choose the directories you want to share with other users:
    DO NOT SHARE YOUR COMPLETE HARDDISK!
    
    It is suggested that you either use the "Incoming" folder or a seperate
    folder for the files you wish to share, to avoid inadvertedly sharing
    private files.

    If you share more than 200 files, you should consider that some servers
    have a hard limit due to resource constraints, which means that you may
    be kicked from them if you share too many files or that some of your
    files won't be populated to the network through that server. So it is not
    always a good idea to share lots of files.

  - Other:
    The other options are pretty self-explanatory. If you don't know what it
    does, don't touch it as a general rule. More information on getting started
    can be found in the aMule wiki:
      http://www.amule.org/wiki/index.php/Getting_Started

    Don't forget to connect to a server, or you probably won't download too much.


 Basic aMule Tips
------------------
  * NEVER run aMule as root.
  * If you are behind a firewall or router, be sure that the ports have been
    opened. The default ports are 4662 (TCP). 4665 (UDP) and 4672 (UDP). If
    these are blocked, you will receive a "LowID" which results in fewer 
    availble sources for the files you are downloading.
  * Obtain an appropriate server.met: e.g., if you are a dialup, using
    a large server list is not appropiate.
  * Set your temp and shared directories in Preferences->Directories
    * To recursively select a certain directory, right-click over it.
    * You should *NOT* share
      * Your temp download directory!
      * Your /etc directory
      * Probably not your /var, /lib, /boot, or /usr directory
      * Certainly make sure that any really confidential files (password files,
        private SSH keys, credit card numbers :) are *not* shared. So generally
        do not share your entire home directory, although you might want to
        share some files or directories in it.
  * Remember that you get certain download priveledges with those clients
    (aMule, eMule, etc users) to whom you upload files, in the form of reduced
    queue waits.
  * Please note that compilation with optimizations is supported. However, if 
    you pull a Gentoo, we will probably just tell you to recompile aMule and/or
    your system with sane compiler-flags before we will attempt to address the
    problem.


 Obtaining your first server list
----------------------------------
  Use one of the following links in the "Update server.met from URL" box in 
  the Server tab. They are apparently updated every 20 minutes.

  * The current top 50 servers (these fill up fast):
      http://ocbmaurice.dyndns.org/pl/slist.pl/server.met?download
  * The current top 150 servers:
      http://ocbmaurice.dyndns.org/pl/slist.pl/server.met?download/server-good.met
  * The biggest list (about 300 servers) maintained by the site. Only if you
    have a very decent connection:
      http://ocbmaurice.dyndns.org/pl/slist.pl/server.met?download/server-max.met 
  * Should maurice be down for some reasons, use this server.met instead:
      http://www.srv1000.com/azz/server.met

  If these are non-functional, simply google for 'server.met'.


 Tranfers icons
----------------
  To find descriptions of the various icons found inside aMule, take a look at
  http://www.amule.org/wiki/index.php/Getting_Started#Icons_and_What_They_Signify


 License
---------
  aMule -- like eMule -- is released under the GNU General Public License. 
  See the "COPYING" file for details.


 Developers
------------
  See AUTHORS


 FAQ:
------
  -- How do I know whether my ID is high or low? --

  Look at the arrows at the bottom right corner, wrapping a world icon, next to
  the server name you are connected to. If they're green, your ID is high. If
  they're yellow, your ID is low.

  
  -- What does high and low ID mean anyway? --

  When your ID is high (green arrows), everything is fine.
  When it's low (yellow arrows), you are probably behind a firewall or a
  router, and other clients can't connect to you directly (which is a bad
  thing). Please read the FAQ, search our wiki or forums on how to configure
  your firewall/router for aMule.

  NOTE: you can also get a low ID when the server you connected to is too busy
  to answer properly, or simply badly configured. When you are sure your
  settings are ok and you SHOULD have a high ID, connect to another server.

  
  -- I'd like to search for specific file types, what filter stands for which files? --

  File Type Extensions found
  --------------------------------------------------------------------
  Audio         .mp3 .mp2 .mpc .wav .ogg .aac .mp4 .ape .au .wma
  Video         .avi .mpg .mpeg .ram .rm .vob .divx .mov .ogg .vivo
  Program       .exe .com
  Archive       .zip .rar .ace .tar.gz .tar.bz2 .Z .arj
  CDImage       .bin .cue .iso .nrg .ccd .sub .img
  Picture       .jpg .jpeg .bmp .gif .tif .png

  
  -- What are all those fancy colors in the download progress bar about? --

  Each download in the the transfers window has a coloured bar to show current
  file availability and progress.

  * Black shows the parts of the file you already have
  * Red indicates a part missing in all known sources
  * Different shades of blue represent the availability of this part in the
    sources. The darker the blue is the higher the availability
  * Yellow denotes a part being downloaded
  * The green bar on top shows the total download progress of this file

  If you expand the download you see its sources with the corresponding
  bar. Here the colours have a slightly different meaning:

  * Black shows parts you are still missing
  * Silver stands for parts this source is also missing
  * Green indicates parts you already have
  * Yellow denotes a part being uploaded to you

  Learning how the progress bar works will greatly help your understanding
  of the eD2k network.

  
  -- Where can I get more information? --

  Here are some links that might be of your interest:

  * aMule Wiki (documentation pages)
      http://wiki.amule.org

  * aMule forums
      http://forum.amule.org

  * eMule documents
      http://www.emule-project.net/home/perl/help.cgi
 

 Want to help?
---------------
  aMule is a free software project and requires the cooperation of its users
  to improve the quality of the software. We welcome all contributions to the
  project in the form of new features, bug fixes, feature requests, etc.

  If you are not a programmer you can still contribute by providing good bug
  reports  when you come accross a problem with aMule. A good bug report gives
  the aMule Team information enough to reproduce the bug (so we can see it in
  action) and fix it. If possible, try to isolate under which the bug occurs 
  (eg. does it happen on some specific window, with some specific files, some
  specific conditions etc.) and provide as much detail as you can in your
  report.

  If you are a programmer and fix a bug you observe, please send us a patch or
  a note about how you fixed the problem.


 IRC, Links and Contact
-------------
  IRC: Channel #aMule on FREENODE IRC Network (irc.freenode.net)

  aMule homepage
      http://www.amule.org

  aMule related links
      http://www.amule.org/wiki/index.php/FAQ_ed2k
      http://www.amule.org/wiki/index.php/aMule
      http://www.amule.org/wiki/index.php/FAQ_aMule
      http://www.amule.org/wiki/index.php/FAQ_utils
      http://www.amule.org/wiki/index.php/Getting_Started
      http://www.amule.org/wiki/index.php/aMule_problems

  wxWidgets toolkit homepage
      http://www.wxwidgets.org

  eMule homepage
      http://www.emule-project.net

  Contact (administrative issues only!)
      admin@amule.org

 Legal Notice
--------------

  aMule is an interface to the ed2k network. As such, the aMule developers have
  absolutely no control or say over what is transferred on this medium and
  cannot be held liable for any non-personal copyright infringements or other
  illegal activities.


-- Last modified Sun May 1 13:05:02 CEST 2005 --
