The TCP and UDP port will have to be open from aMule to the internet.
The first obstacle is iptables in Ubuntu. Iptables will cause aMule to
receive firewalled status – or low id. Being firewalled will drastically
decrease performance. To open the ports you can either install
Firestarter, the GUI for iptables by typing the following in the
terminal:
sudo apt-get install firestarter
From Firestarter, open the ports in Preferences->Connection in aMule.
Or, you can just open the ports using the terminal. Type, e,g,
sudo iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 4711 -j ACCEPT
to open tcp port 4711, and
sudo iptables -A INPUT -p udp --dport 4712 -j ACCEPT
to open udp port 4712. (To close the ports again, use the same parameters, except replace «ACCEPT» with «DROP».)
To acieve maximim performance, it is also a good idea to open a UDP-port
for extended server requests. This means the port through which all
non-core packets are sent to the server. That is data such as file
rates, extended file descriptions (encoding, audio length, video
resolution, etc), and other trivial but very handy data. The UDP port
for extended server requests is always TCP-port +3, so in this case we
open it with
sudo iptables -A INPUT -p udp --dport 4714 -j ACCEPT
If you have a router, you also need to open the above mentioned ports
and forward them to your computer. If you open the ports but don`t
forward them to the right device, you will be firewalled.
If you don`t know how to open and forward your ports, enter this page:
http://portforward.com/routers.htm From this page, select your router.
You will now enter a new image with a lot of application names. aMule is
unfortunately not on the list, but select eMule instead. You should now
get a guide for your router on how to open and forward the ports.
(Remember that eMule and aMule uses different default ports.)
Max sources per file: This all depends on how much your router and modem
can handle. The more connections they can handle without problems, the
better. I have mine at 500 and 700 respectively. You may want to
experiment with these values. If you put the limit too high, you may
choke your router and internet becomes unresponsive.
Networks: Make sure you have both ed2k and Kad ticked.
Message Filter. This is where you can fill in common spam-messages. Just
copy and paste the spam message into the box and separate messages with
a «,» (without the «s) and you`ll never see the message again.
Server. This is important. Some servers are fakes, mainly run by the
entertainment industy, and will not give any results. To avoid the bad
ones, untick the «update serverlist» boxes, and tick «autoconnect to
servers in static list only».
Directories. Incoming directory is where your finished downloads will be
saved. Keep in mind that the default setting is within the hidden
.aMule folder, so if you don`t change it you will have to use Ctrl+h to
make it visible. I recommend making a folder in your home directory for
incoming files, and point towards it from aMule. Tempfiles is reserved
for non-complete files, and may well be hidden. Shared directories is
the files you share using aMule. (Please be generous. Filesharing is
after all about sharing, and not about using aMule as a download
machine. Whatever you download has to be uploaded by someone else.
Roughly speaking: Total network upload speed = Total network download
speed.) By default, you only share your incoming folder, and you can`t
unshare it. Double click on a folder to share the contents. This will
not share subdirectories! If you have one or more subdirectory within
that folder you want to share, right click the folder! Any shared
directory will be marked in bold letters.
Security. Tick «Enable IP-filtering.» The purpose of using an IP-filter
is to block the bad guys, mainly the entertainment industry and their
lackeys, who are sabotaging the ed2k network. Clients on your ipfilter
will not be able to establish a connection to your computer. I use the
ipfilter from Bluetack, so you can insert this url
http://www.bluetack.co.uk/config/nipfilter.dat.gz and then click «Update
now». The ipfilter should then download and install. (A known bug in
Feisty may cause aMule to crash while updating the IPfilter.) If you
can`t do without an IPfilter, try Moblock.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=192559
Gui-tweaks contains a few useful settings, like percentage, progress bar
and fast ed2k-links handler. You can use the latter for ed2k links
found on the internet and click apply, and the file shoud be on your
download list.
That`s it for the Preferences box! Click ok to save the changes.
The last thing you have to do before starting to use aMule is to add
servers. There are no servers by default. Select the Networks icon
between the Disconnect and Search button in the main menu. Add this
line in the top box and press enter:
http://peerates.net/peerates/certifiedservers.met
You can also add servers manually from e.g. http://gruk.org/list.php and
enter name, IP and portnumber in the boxes below. (Avoid servers marked
in pink.) Once you have a few servers, right click a couple of large
servers with low responsetime (ping) and right click. Select add to
static server list. (If you chose to autoconnect only to servers in
static serverlist, aMule will only try reconnecting to one of these safe
servers if disconnected.) Remember: Do not connect to servers located
in the USA, since they almost certainly are fakes.
