eMule Mods and Friend Slots

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Phuzzy4242
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eMule Mods and Friend Slots

Post by Phuzzy4242 »   1 likes

Which eMule mod(s) automatically give friend slots to specific nicks? I've looked at eMule, DreamMule, Scar Angel (which I'm using now), and a couple others. ScarAngel has been very stable - much more so than some of the other mods - but it doesn't do automatic friend slots.

Any recommendations?
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Re: eMule Mods and Friend Slots

Post by FLL »   0 likes

From the way you have described it -- you enter a list of nicks and whenever someone with that nick shows up they get a friend slot -- none that I have ever heard of. Too easy to spoof nicks and give friend slots to people you don't want to have friend slots. eMule remembers who friend slots are assigned to ased on their eMule ID which gets communicated when clients connect.

If you mean which mods allows you to right-click-assign friend slots to as many others as you wish, and they will retain that designation every time they show up -- then MorphXT and its derivatives does that. Only caveat is if they change their IP or have a LowID they lose the friend slot, to prevent spoofing (which is in my opinion going overboard but that's how they do it.) So periodically I just look at the queue and see which friends are red (no slot) and make them green (slot).
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Phuzzy4242
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Re: eMule Mods and Friend Slots

Post by Phuzzy4242 »   1 likes

FLL wrote:From the way you have described it -- you enter a list of nicks and whenever someone with that nick shows up they get a friend slot -- none that I have ever heard of. Too easy to spoof nicks and give friend slots to people you don't want to have friend slots. eMule remembers who friend slots are assigned to ased on their eMule ID which gets communicated when clients connect.

If you mean which mods allows you to right-click-assign friend slots to as many others as you wish, and they will retain that designation every time they show up -- then MorphXT and its derivatives does that. Only caveat is if they change their IP or have a LowID they lose the friend slot, to prevent spoofing (which is in my opinion going overboard but that's how they do it.) So periodically I just look at the queue and see which friends are red (no slot) and make them green (slot).
It looks to me like only one friend slot can be assigned (which I don't have a problem with) but you have to do it manually if a different "friend" is desired. If someone else already has a friend slot and you reassign it, the original friend no longer has it. I've heard of mods that base friend slots on part of the nick (like "[FLM]") so that anyone with that tag gets a friend slot when they start downloading. This is what I'm looking for.

Nick spoofing was the reason some mods were written that add a random string of characters to your nick. I'm not too concerned with spoofing - virtually all my shares are FLM material so even if a someone spoofs the [FLM] tag, they're only getting the good stuff anyway. I just want it to give the friend slot without my intervention so that FLM'ers get priority in the download queue even when I'm not here to manually do it for them.

I go through the "known clients" list often and manually add anyone with the [FLM] tag to the Friends list under Msg - you can't give a friend slot to someone unless they're in this list - but even if someone's in it, they don't get the actual Friend Slot unless you manually right-click and assign it to them. That's what I want to be automatic.

I'll take a look at MorphXT and see if it's the ticket - thanks for the info.
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Re: eMule Mods and Friend Slots

Post by FLL »   0 likes

Phuzzy4242 wrote:It looks to me like only one friend slot can be assigned (which I don't have a problem with) but you have to do it manually if a different "friend" is desired. If someone else already has a friend slot and you reassign it, the original friend no longer has it.
Yes, that's how standard eMule works. Not MorphXT, it allows multiple simultaneous friend slots. There's a setting in there to specify what % of your bandwidth to give to friend slots.
Phuzzy4242 wrote:I've heard of mods that base friend slots on part of the nick (like "[FLM]") so that anyone with that tag gets a friend slot when they start downloading. This is what I'm looking for.
That's known as "community" mods, and there are many of them. I have never used them, they effectively lock out anyone who doesn't tag themselves as FLM and I don't like that. Some of my friend slots even go to people with no nickname at all.
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Phuzzy4242
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Re: eMule Mods and Friend Slots

Post by Phuzzy4242 »   0 likes

I'm leery of the less-popular mods - they tend to be less stable and might be doing things behind the scenes I don't want them to. For example, DreaMule phoned home all the time (see A Caution and What eMule Client Do You Like).

I'm not looking to lock people out but I want to give FLM folks first dibs, and I want to do it automatically because I'm lazy. I've got about 50 people on my friends list so the percentage of bandwidth thing is probably the way to go. I'll try Morph out and see if that does the trick. Stability and security are more important to me than convenience - if I have doubts about the program at all, I'll go back to ScarAngel.
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Re: eMule Mods and Friend Slots

Post by vidman49 »   0 likes

I am trying to understand "friending." Most of the posts on friending other than this thread are at least 5 years old so I imagine that a lot of the information is out of date as programs change. When I notice someone whose name I recognize from this site downloading one of the movies I have uploaded, I have been right-clicking and friending them, such as Phuzzy who I see is downloading Iphigenia.

I am assuming that this helps their download share time or something like that? What exactly does this do and how can I improve on this feature. Your talk of "mods" and "nicks" is over my head.
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Re: eMule Mods and Friend Slots

Post by For An Angel »   0 likes

A while ago I noticed someone downloading from me who had my exact same nickname. I started freaking out and I tried changing my nick to something else and before I knew it, someone with that name was downloading from me too. Has this ever happened to anyone else? It hasn't happened to me for a few weeks now so I guess I don't have to worry anymore.
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Re: eMule Mods and Friend Slots

Post by BizarreLoveTriangle »   0 likes

ForAnAngel wrote:A while ago I noticed someone downloading from me who had my exact same nickname. I started freaking out and I tried changing my nick to something else and before I knew it, someone with that name was downloading from me too. Has this ever happened to anyone else?
Yes: https://www.first-loves.com/forums/v ... php?t=6558
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Phuzzy4242
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Re: eMule Mods and Friend Slots

Post by Phuzzy4242 »   0 likes

vidman49 wrote:I am trying to understand "friending." Most of the posts on friending other than this thread are at least 5 years old so I imagine that a lot of the information is out of date as programs change. When I notice someone whose name I recognize from this site downloading one of the movies I have uploaded, I have been right-clicking and friending them, such as Phuzzy who I see is downloading Iphigenia.

I am assuming that this helps their download share time or something like that? What exactly does this do and how can I improve on this feature. Your talk of "mods" and "nicks" is over my head.
And I appreciate the friend slot!

Normally, eMule gives each person in the queue about 9.2 MB at a time and then switches to the next person in line. The one who just got a chunk goes to the end of the line and has to wait his turn again. When you give someone a friend slot, it doesn't switch to the next person in line at 9.2 MB, it keeps sending to your friend (for example, FLL and Mimzy have each gotten over 100 MB so far of l'annee in one chunk). Also, friends' "points" are boosted a LOT so they move to the front of the line again much faster. Regular eMule only lets you give one (1) friend slot at a time. That means if you have 5 FLM friends trying to download some files, you can only give one of them the boost. If you give a different one the friend slot, the first no longer has it and is back to 9.2 MB chunks and normal movement through your queue.

Mods are modified versions of eMule such as ScarAngel, MorphXT, eMule Plus, etc. I've tried 6 or 7 mods but I settled on MorphXT because it's got some features I like, such as being able to give more than one friend slot at a time, assigning a percent of your available bandwidth to friend slots, "funny nicks", and a few other features, plus it's been stable and I haven't seen any suspicious behavior out of it. I'm not "pushing" any one mod, just commenting on what works for me.

Installing a different mod is usually very easy. 1) shut down eMule; 2) copy the entire eMule folder to a different name (e.g. "Morph"); 3) download the mod you want to try in ZIP form; 4) extract ONLY the eMule.exe file to the new folder you just created; 5) create a new startup icon for this version; 6) read the release notes. I do it this way so I don't lose any of my settings or points and can go right back to the prior eMule if I want since it hasn't been changed in any way.

Nicks are just nicknames - "User Name" in eMule's General Options menu. We encourage people to put [FLM] in their nick so other FLM people can recognize you and help you out by giving you a friend slot. Mine is "Phuzzy4242 [FLM]". Some mods see the [FLM] part of a nick and can automatically give you a friend slot. I agree with FLL that it tends to block out everyone but people with that tag and can be easily spoofed, so I don't use one of those mods.

MorphXT's "funny nicks" are ... funny. Many (probably most) eMule users don't bother to change their user names, so you have a huge list of users named "http://emule-project.net". I tend to give them much lower consideration than people who do bother to create a nickname because it tells me they're either hit-and-run takers or noobs. Morph makes up a nickname for the nicks that weren't changed from default so the user can be identified. Right now I see a "Barbarious Sock Puppet", a "Mutated Smurf", and a "Stinky Guinea Pig" in my queue. :)
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Re: eMule Mods and Friend Slots

Post by Phuzzy4242 »   0 likes

ForAnAngel wrote:A while ago I noticed someone downloading from me who had my exact same nickname. I started freaking out and I tried changing my nick to something else and before I knew it, someone with that name was downloading from me too. Has this ever happened to anyone else? It hasn't happened to me for a few weeks now so I guess I don't have to worry anymore.
I have some guy from Israel that mirrors my nick all the time while downloading from me. I don't know exactly which mod he's using but it's not really a problem. When you installed eMule, a user hash was created that is used by other people's eMule to recognize you. It would be difficult for someone else to impersonate your eMule client well enough to fool other clients into letting them use your "points", and what real benefit would that give them anyway? They might move up the queues faster (and you might move slower) but that's about it. I think mirroring like this is more useful for obfuscating their identity, but heck, that's not real useful either.

I wouldn't worry too much about it.
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