A quick question about downloads (complete?)

[household]

Just wondered if someone can let me know a little about the various different numbers and columns after doing a search on emule...

For example there is filename, size, available, complete etc.

I am not sure what "available" means, but my main concern is the "complete" column. Almost none of the files have 100% so does this mean it is pointless downloading them

Despite this, some of the file names list the file as complete, even though it may only be 22% complete under the complete column.

Practically no files ever appear as 100% complete in this column, so I now don't think it is a problem, but what I am wondering is how do I select a file which will be quick to download, and more IMPORTANTLY how do I know which files are not complete and are pointless in downloading (I don't want a situation where I download 85% of a film, and then it stays on this for 3 months as no-one else has the remainder of the file)

I know this will happen from time to time, but it would be helpful if someone could tell me what to look out for so I know when a file is not complete. I thought it would be impossible for people to list an incomplete file, but perhaps not.

I did try clicking on a rare film before, and received the message "the file is not complete meaning you may not be able to download it all would you like to continue?"

I was actually delighted to see this, as I took it to mean that if there had been a problem with all the other films I am downloading not being complete surely I would have received the same message when attempting to download those files earlier.

2.Also some files are in red, some in blue,and some in black. I think red files are ones I am already downloading, but not sure the difference between blue and black.

3.The other thing I wanted to ask about is waiting times when connecting to emule. Earlier I had about 7 films downloading, including Ponette at about 20kbs, but it crashed and I had to connect again. Now I have been waiting for around an hour on high id but still not a single file is downloading. Is this because I have to wait in the queue again for all the files? If so it would seem there are huge advantages to just keeping emule running in the background constantly. I expected to wait a few minutes to connect and get speed up, but I thought at least 1 file would be downloading by now, abouy 8 people are uploading from me, but i'm downloading nothing

As you can probably tell I am a little confused, but once it is explained I should have no problem in understanding. I just don't want to be wasting my time, getting my hopes up about a file waiting for it to download, when it has no chance of doing so as its not even there.

Thanks for any help

[terry666]

I am not sure what "available" means, but my main concern is the "complete" column. Almost none of the files have 100% so does this mean it is pointless downloading them.

'Available' is how many people have parts of the file you want, and 'Complete' is how many people have a full copy. Just because complete says 0, doesn't necessarily mean you won't get the file. Select it for download and wait. If you see after a while you are not getting any new parts, you may want to cancel the download, or ask for a reshare. How long you wait is up to you. I sometimes wait months.

2.Also some files are in red, some in blue,and some in black. I think red files are ones I am already downloading, but not sure the difference between blue and black.

Generally, blue on search results means many sources. Black, not so many. Red you are already downloading, and green is what you have download (or canceled).

3.The other thing I wanted to ask about is waiting times when connecting to emule.

Just select a bunch of files for downloading and wait. Times can vary from right away to a few days. The more you use emule, the faster it will get, because you're building up credits with other users. Unless you are talking about connecting to a server. That should be instantaneous, unless the server you want is full.

[household]

Thanks terry, appreciate the help.

[emuler]

On the transfer page, click the + sign on the left of each file to expand the list of sources. Notr the QR number in the sources column; that shows you your position in the other guy's upload queue. These numbers will change every 21-42 minutes. Eventually your turn will come.

Patience is the name of the game here. After all, its eMule, not eStallion or eCheetah.

And yes, every time you restart eMule, you'll start at the back of every queue. Most of us keep it running 24/7 and only close it when we need to reboot for other reasons.

Each client has a support forum where there is a FAQ and a quick start guide. eg. for eMule Plus, there is a section 'Main Interface Explained'. Essential reading.

Sadly, there are a lot of incomplete files out there. The tooltips for the file (hover your mouse over the file in downloads) will show 'never' in the info for 'last seen complete' even after many hours. The worst ones are those that have plenty of sources, but ALL of them are missing the exact same parts.

The main advantage of sites like FLM is that you get confirmed links. If you get stuck, ask nicely and someone will help you finish the download.

[FLL]

I am not sure what "available" means, but my main concern is the "complete" column. Almost none of the files have 100% so does this mean it is pointless downloading them

If it shows 10 sources, and says 50% complete, that means 5 of those 10 have the full file. It's a percentage of users, not the percentage of the file available (that would be too complex for a server to calculate).

Keep in mind that your search results almost always reflect fewer sources than there really are. Not all are connected to servers, some connect only to KAD and vice versa. When you actually start downloading eMule will query both the server and KAD (if you are connected to both). It also asks connected sources for any others it doesn't know about, (source exchange).

(I don't want a situation where I download 85% of a film, and then it stays on this for 3 months as no-one else has the remainder of the file)

This is bound to happen unless you download only well-sourced files. But much more often than not it won't. If you start downloading and almost everyone is at the exact same completion level with no complete sources in sight, that's when I'd start worrying about not being able to finish. But wait a few days to make that determination... sometimes sources come and go, as they shut down part of the day or frequently change IP addresses, or have long queues so they uplaod only a small percentage of the file each day.

I thought it would be impossible for people to list an incomplete file, but perhaps not.

The file was complete at one time but when all the complete sources disappeared the others are left with partially downloaded files... over time everyone trying to download gets all the available parts and waits for a complete source to show up. I have waited weeks but gotten the file eventually. If the file is posted here then about half the time asking here will lead to a re-share.

Is this because I have to wait in the queue again for all the files? If so it would seem there are huge advantages to just keeping emule running in the background constantly.

Bingo! Some people are sharing so many files that their queue is very long and it can take a long time (more than a day) to get back to the front. (This is actually a good thing, the alternative is no complete sources on rare files like we typically post here).

If you are in someone's queue and they don't hear from you for an hour, they forget you. So it's OK to shut down for a few minutes if you need to but wait too long and you go to the back of the line.

[household]

Wow, some great responses there.

Have just been checking through files, checking the "seen complete" dates.

If any files says "never" in the seen complete section is it worth keeping the file downloading, or is it unlikely it will ever be finished?

As I understand it there is nothing you can do with a incomplete file? For example If I downloaded a movie and had 95% complete (950mb of 1gb) I don't think the file would be any use to me untils its complete, as you can't watch the film until its finished. Obviously it would be good if you could watch the first 95% of the film but as far as I am aware this is not how it works.

[terry666]

If you see "never" for "last seen complete", you may just have to wait longer. It all depends how long you waited in the first place. (If you see 'never' after a month, its a good chance it will never be seen, but not necessarily.) There is also the small possibility that all the parts are available from different users, but no one has the complete file.

There are programs that can fix incomplete AVI files like AviPreviewC.exe and avifixed.exe, but in order for these to work, you need at least the header information which is at the beginning of the file. In OPTIONS > FILES select "Try to download preview chunks first". Every file you are downloading in Emule corresponds with a .part file in the \emule\temp directory, like 005.part. Find out which file you want to look at, COPY it to another directory, rename to .avi if you wish, and apply a fix. (The part number is indicated in the details for each download.) Many incomplete AVIs can be opened with VirtualDub without fixing.

[FLL]

Videolan (VLC) can play .part files directly, while they are downloading, without copying them or fixing them. There's a .part plugin for it, I'm not 100% certain it's actually required to do so.

You will of course have gaps where the picture freezes for a while (if you need 5% to complete that missing 5% could be in several places anywhere in the file, not at the end), and sometimes seeking doesn't work. But if you have the "try to download preview chunks first" option on, the beginning of the movie is usually there even if it's only 10% complete. It's a good way to check it's really the movie you want (lots of fakes out there, though almost all links on this site have been verified) and check quality.

[emuler]

The partfile plugin for VideoLan tells the player which parts are missing, so it jumps the gaps to the next downloaded parts. If you don't have the plugin VLC will play upto the first gap, then ther'll be a pause while it seeks through the empty portion till it finds the next downloaded part, and so on.

So, the partfile plugin makes no difference until a gap is encountered. However, mpg filetypes normally seek very quickly, so the pause is not noticeable. For avi the pause is considerable and the plugin is strongly recommended.

Remember, the partfile must match the VLC player version. VLC version 0.8.6 is out, but the partfile for it is not. Until then, stick with the 0.8.5 version which has the plugin.

VLC http://www.videolan.org
plugin http://www.geocities.com/sibermutant/

[household]

Thanks again everone, and thanks for the link. I have vlc, but not the plug in so I will download that.