eMule Plus problem

August 3, 2005 10:01 PM

I've recently installed eMule Plus; I used it many months ago but uninstalled because of connectivity problems. So now I have a new computer, I figure I can start with a fresh slate. But the same thing happened--it cut out my internect connectivity after about 5 minutes or so. Firefox, IE, all messengers, stopped working and the emule downloads slowed to a crawl. Also, it took a very long time for it to connect to servers in the first place. What's causing this? I have ZoneAlarm but it's "approved" eMule so I don't know why this is happening.
posted by zardoz to computers & internet (12 answers total)

Sounds like your router/(A)DSL modem is having problems coping with the load. Does eMule do the swarm thing like Bittorrent? Some routers have a maximum number of connections they can keep alive.
posted by krisjohn at 10:36 PM on August 3, 2005

Same thing happened to me, it had something to do with zone alarm blocking emule's connection to KAD, I don't know why that messed with my browser. I uninstalled zone alarm and switch to XP's built in firewall. I don't know what changed but everything works fine now. Make sure the emule connects to KAD, it will speed things up
posted by 517 at 10:42 PM on August 3, 2005

Well, I use bit torrent (ABC Client) and have no problems there. The strange thing is that eMule works for about 5 mins. or so, and then everything craps out.
posted by zardoz at 10:46 PM on August 3, 2005

There's a known prob with ZoneAlarm, it leaks memory every time an Internet connection is made. Since eMule makes lots of connections, ZoneAlarm gradually eats your memory. Normally this takes several hours to become noticeable, then you need to shutdown ZoneAlarm and restart it ...

You can see the problem in Task Manager; look how much memory vsmon (=zonealarm) is using. It should be about 8 meg, but can become hundreds, slowing your PC to a crawl.

(this may not be your current problem, of course, but it's one you will certainly face if you ever succeed in getting the mule to work at all. )

I also heard some ISPs deliberately block emule. Could that be the problem? Check the small print of your contract. If so, change to a less fascistic provider would be in order... since there are legal uses for emule, they have no right to do that.
posted by cleardawn at 5:18 AM on August 4, 2005

Another possibility is that your maximum upload speed is set too high for your uplink connection. With cable, I find that when my uplink is maxed out, my download speed (across all applications) slows to a crawl also.

The solution in this case is to make sure your max upload speed in Emule is set to 5k/sec or so below the upload capacity of your uplink.
posted by killdevil at 8:45 AM on August 4, 2005

You have too many connections at one time and your upload speed is too high. eMule is notorious for setting this pie in the sky and not warning you about the consequences. Even on a fat pipe, any more than 5-10 connections and 25k upload are going to kill Linksys, Netgear, type routers...

Drop down and ease off the pipe, you'll be fine.
posted by cavalier at 11:14 AM on August 4, 2005

eMule's using too many sockets, and very likely it's also saturating your upstream pipe. ZoneAlarm probably isn't helping -- use a real firewall, not some client port filter.

Also, no, I put easily 250+ connections at just shy of 768kbit aggregate across a dirt-cheap Linksys WRT56G and a (reasonably robust) SMC Barricade for days at a time without problem. I had a Netgear WAP that choked on that traffic after a day or so, but it died of natural causes, not usage. The SMC needs to be reset every couple of weeks, especially when room is warm, but only the utmost crappiest of consumer gear should have problems with such a feeble stream of traffic. Certainly more than 25k and 10 connections should be no problem at all.
posted by majick at 12:23 PM on August 4, 2005

I had this exact problem. The solution is to use only one of the two networds, because the other has a known issue with ZoneAlarm which couldn't be resolved the last time I checked. I think it's KAD which has the problem, but it might be the other, I don't remember. Try each. It's simple to turn them off, just uncheck them. Using the other one works just fine.
posted by callmejay at 1:23 PM on August 4, 2005

networks.
posted by callmejay at 1:24 PM on August 4, 2005

One more thing -- if you have a DLINK router, that might be it rather than ZA. Same solution though.
posted by callmejay at 1:28 PM on August 4, 2005

(Note that the 768k figure given above is aggregate upstream... I can sustain 5.5Mbit downstream on top of that -- total bandwidth across the network border at my house runs >6Mbit flawlessly, pretty much as long as I care to do so, and that's on top of the ~10Mbit average traffic on the network that's not being routed. Cheap gear still works fine at these low speeds if properly configured.)
posted by majick at 1:37 PM on August 4, 2005

there are extensive discussions on these on the e-mule forums.
posted by flyby22 at 7:54 PM on August 4, 2005