eDonkey2000 is a file-sharing program, like
Napster or
Gnutella. Like Napster, eDonkey is server based, and,
like Gnutella, any type of file can be transferred over eDonkey. There is no central eDonkey server, and while
the system is not as fundamentally cool as Gnutella's peer-to-peer network, it works much faster and supports a
bunch of great features. Files can be downloaded from multiple users, and downloads automatically resume from
session to session. Files can be uploaded as they're downloading. Also, files aren't downloaded from start to
finish, instead the donkey just grabs whichever parts happen to be available. That's probably confusing. Try it
out and you'll understand.
It works a lot better than Gnutella did, in my opinion, and it just needs some support now.
www.eDonkey2000.org
"Harness the power of 2000 electronic donkeys!"
update: 10/2/03
At long last, broadband internet access is available in
these barracks, and I realize now that there now exists
a decentralized version of the donkey that is completely peer-to-peer, much the way
Gnutella is, I imagine, as well as a
third-party version that uses the same server network (as the donkey).