# Does anyone use emule? (a downloading program)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-use-emule-a-downloading-program/587276>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 29, 2011, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-use-emule-a-downloading-program/587276 "2011-06-29T16:42:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![PhiloVance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e19adc/32.png) [@PhiloVance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhiloVance)\
**Post date:** [June 29, 2011, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-use-emule-a-downloading-program/587276/1 "2011-06-29T16:42:39Z")

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I use .torrent namely uTorrent but it’s sometimes slow depending on the speed of your connection/machine/whatever. Also much depends on being ‘seeded’.

I was wondering if emule was any better from someone who’s had experience with both.

TIA.

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**Author:** ![Student\_Driver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@Student\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Student_Driver)\
**Post date:** [June 29, 2011, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-use-emule-a-downloading-program/587276/2 "2011-06-29T17:12:14Z")

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> [@PhiloVance](#):
>
> I use .torrent namely uTorrent but it’s sometimes slow depending on the speed of your connection/machine/whatever. Also much depends on being ‘seeded’.
> 
> I was wondering if emule was any better from someone who’s had experience with both.
> 
> TIA.

Let’s assume you’re looking for public domain files… 🙂

Much slower in general on eMule than torrenting, even if you hop on a file with a ton of people distributing… unless you’ve got a single torrent seeder on dial-up. More difficult to tell if something’s fully available… I complete ~50% of attempted downloads, and it usually takes a few days to download a file \<1 Gb. It gives very inaccurate estimates of file availability; you’ll complete a file supposedly 33% available, but something 100% available never finishes. I don’t like the opaque system of “credits” used on eMule that moves you up/down in priority. I _do_ like the integrated search capabilities that allow you to look for things without having to do more tedious searches on multiple torrent search engines/join private trackers. eMule seems to be preferred over torrent in South American countries, France, Spain, and the former SSRs, and I can often find things on there that I can’t scare up on torrent sites if they’re originally from one of those areas. A _lot_ of malicious servers attempt to serve trojan horses to download when you do searches; be attentive when selecting files.

It’s not necessarily better, but it’s been a better source for some things for me.

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**Author:** ![Lips\_Obsession](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bbce88/32.png) [@Lips\_Obsession](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lips_Obsession)\
**Post date:** [June 29, 2011, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-use-emule-a-downloading-program/587276/3 "2011-06-29T17:55:55Z")

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I would also caution on eMule… that particular distribution method is well known for being a vector for spreading viruses, trojans, and other malware. Whatever you might download from there, I would STRONGLY recommend you scan very strongly to make sure it is not bringing unknown bad guys onto your machine…

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**Author:** ![Cugel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cugel/32/1199_2.png) [@Cugel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cugel)\
**Post date:** [June 30, 2011, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-use-emule-a-downloading-program/587276/4 "2011-06-30T01:16:54Z")

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Pros and cons to everything, but you might also want to look at usenet.

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**Author:** ![chowching](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@chowching](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowching)\
**Post date:** [June 30, 2011, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-use-emule-a-downloading-program/587276/5 "2011-06-30T08:18:05Z")

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well i would recommend orbit downloader. 🙂

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**Author:** ![firstname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7ab992/32.png) [@firstname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/firstname)\
**Post date:** [June 30, 2011, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-use-emule-a-downloading-program/587276/6 "2011-06-30T09:00:12Z")

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I have in the past, I’d say no, it might\* have a wider range of content but its harder to find and slower to download.

\*Last time I used it, I’d believe it was a better resource for music but its been a while.

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**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\
**Post date:** [June 30, 2011, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-use-emule-a-downloading-program/587276/7 "2011-06-30T12:00:49Z")

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I’ve found a couple of obscure things there that were unavailable from other places, but in general, I don’t care for the interface or the experience.

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**Author:** ![PhiloVance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e19adc/32.png) [@PhiloVance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhiloVance)\
**Post date:** [June 30, 2011, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-use-emule-a-downloading-program/587276/8 "2011-06-30T15:16:48Z")

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> [@Cugel](#):
>
> Pros and cons to everything, but you might also want to look at usenet.

Yes, I already use usenet; does not have a real good search engine yet, but several are developing such as binsearch and nzb.cc

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**Author:** ![MrBerious](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MrBerious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrBerious)\
**Post date:** [June 30, 2011, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-use-emule-a-downloading-program/587276/9 "2011-06-30T16:12:26Z")

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> [@PhiloVance](#):
>
> Yes, I already use usenet; does not have a real good search engine yet, but several are developing such as binsearch and nzb.cc

Easynews has a really good web based search engine.