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Kazaa Loses P2P Crown To Edonkey

I(rispee_I(reme writes "According to the network population stats at slyck, FastTrack (home of Kazaa) is no longer the most populous filesharing network. Top honors now belong to edonkey, a network of German origins. (Most edonkey users connect with emule, a gpl client for Windows)."

47 of 483 comments (clear)

  1. It all makes sense now by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    No wonder I can find so much David Hasselhoff stuff on edonkey.

    1. Re:It all makes sense now by AresTheImpaler · · Score: 3, Funny

      the real question is.. why are you looking for David Hasselhoff stuff on edonkey? That is just disturbing...

    2. Re:It all makes sense now by Gaewyn+L+Knight · · Score: 4, Funny

      He must be German!

      (Excuse the SNL moment :})

      --
      Telcos have alot of dark fibre in the States. Most people assume that's optical fibre...but it's actually moral fibre.
    3. Re:It all makes sense now by khrtt · · Score: 3, Funny

      You look for a love song

      You look for a love song?? Ehm..

  2. Got plenty of time? eDonkey may rock. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    If you're in a hurry, try something else.

    I was looking for PS2 Linux a while ago, and the only place I could
    find it was on eDonkey. 10-15 people shared it, so I started the
    download, and went out to buy a USB keyboard and mouse. After letting
    eDonkey run for about 1 week, my brand new and unused keyboard+mouse
    had collected enough dust, so I gave up and uninstalled it in frustration.
    The same day I found a guy on a DC++ Hub that had the two DVD iso's online.
    Downloaded them in a couple of hours, and had the thing installed on my PS2
    a little later the same evening.

    eDonkey may have lots of users and files, but MAAAN it's slow!

  3. The reason? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    At least in my personnal circle of friends, the reason why Kazaa usage stopped was the effective killing off of Kazaa lite.

    1. Re:The reason? by Sebadude · · Score: 3, Funny

      Kazaa lite is available on eDonkey.

      --
      Eh.
  4. So that explains the deterioration by nurb432 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I've noticed a *drastic* deterioration of quality of content lately, having all those kazaa losers coming over would explain that.

    Now, being #1, means the industries will start targeting ed2k and its associated clients next.

    Greaaaat...

    --
    ---- Booth was a patriot ----
    1. Re:So that explains the deterioration by secolactico · · Score: 3, Informative

      industries will start targeting ed2k and its associated clients next

      That's already happening. I've seen several notices from MPAA and BSA regarding people using edonkey (I get copies of the abuse email). Usually for entire movies (600+ MB).

      --
      No sig
  5. Open source rules again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting


    see what happens when you let anyone grab the code
    you get a true distributed P2P system that is free and highly expandable

    grab the source and make a great app even better and more secure

    1. Re:Open source rules again by pchan- · · Score: 4, Interesting

      the eMule client (an open-source clone of edonkey, for windows) is an amazing piece of software. much better than the edonkey client, and and awesome program in its own right. and since it's open source, it's about as non-evil (no spyware or other intrusive shit) as they come. there aren't many windows-specific open source programs, and few approach this caliber.

      for linux, the mldonkey client is a pretty nice daemon. i generally use kmldonkey as a gui for it. kmldonkey (a nice attempt to clone emule) crashes quite often, but since it is separate from the network core daemon, nothing is affected. just launch it again, and your transfers are still going.

      good stuff. super slow network, though.

  6. More Soulseek by SilentChris · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Amongst the kids (which I'm no longer) Soulseek is the P2P of choice. Partially because it's so easy to find a friend's files.

    eDonkey has its place. I use it to download MST3K episodes from www.dapcentral.org. It's slow, but I've never had a single corrupt download. When you're talking 4.7 GB (in some cases) it's pretty damn good.

  7. Link to slycknews by kaosrain · · Score: 4, Informative

    I'm not sure why the link goes to slyck.com instead of the actual news story, but the direct link is here

  8. Re:emule? by iamatlas · · Score: 4, Funny
    emule...Who is the ass now?

    Maybe you are. I don't know. What I do know is that donkeys are asses. Mules are, well, mules. And sterile. Cross species lovin' doesn't pay.

  9. Re:Got plenty of time? eDonkey may rock. by js3 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    edonkey has an interesting race to the bottom characteristic. If you give it all your bandwidth you will end up sharing 5-10 times the size you originally intended to download. So any emule user with a clue will cap his upload bandwidth, which makes everyone else slow. Edonkey may be the place to find stuff, but it's not the place to download large binaries.

    --
    did you forget to take your meds?
  10. Re:Got plenty of time? eDonkey may rock. by xQx · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Parent is dead right.

    eD2k rewards people for uploading, but seems to reward people for sitting in queue better.

    The way to effectively get files with ed2k is with a 10GB queue of content which you just forget about for a week or two. -- It's a bit of a culture change after kazaa and napster where you immediatly start downloading files. ... but I suppose that was bound to happen when you move from exchanging 4mb mp3 files, to 4GB vob archives :)

  11. A GREAT open source client by spoco2 · · Score: 3, Informative

    My all time favourite client for accessing eDonkey, Gnutella, Gnutella 2 and Bitorrents, all in one shiney app is Shareaza. This is one great client that I've had wonderful success with. I recommend it as easy to use and very powerful.

    1. Re:A GREAT open source client by Dr+Reducto · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I heard that is because Shareaza is considered a leecher's client by Azereus, and thus Azureus will not share with Shareaza users.

  12. Edonkey vs. other p2p networks by humberthumbert · · Score: 5, Insightful


    The reason I use ed2k (through the emule client) is that the community is by and large really into file-sharing, NOT file-trading. Hence, you can readily find years-old material for download. In pristine uncorrupted condition no less.

    P2P networks like Bittorrent and DC++ have an air
    of "grab all you can and go offline, fuck the other guy" attitude that I really detest. Not to mention that they're only really good for brand new releases...

    1. Re:Edonkey vs. other p2p networks by line.at.infinity · · Score: 4, Insightful

      In any network, the net total uploaded is always equivalent to the net total downloaded, so all P2P networks has the same leech to share ratio (1 to 1). Bittorrent isn't very good for file diversity though, IMHO. It's easier to share 40 gigs of esoteric files on traditional P2P networks, while for BitTorrent you'd need to run 400 simultaneous connections to servers running trackers just to make visible to the world four hundred 100 MB files that have trackers.

  13. Kazaa Lite isn't dead by ikewillis · · Score: 5, Informative

    Haven't heard of Kazaa Lite Resurrection?

  14. Great... by Jim+Ethanol · · Score: 3, Funny

    Now thanks to that statistic the hired goons of the MPAA and RIAA will be trying to break the Donkey's legs.

    "Knock, knock, who's there?
    Goons.
    Who?
    Hired goons.
    punch-beat-pummel-club-club-stab..."

  15. crazy idea! by teamhasnoi · · Score: 5, Funny
    Why not take ed2k, rename it 200 times, make each version have it's own separate network.

    Ideally, name them all profanely, such as fuckcock, shitcunt, ect.

    That way, you make the **AA's press releases completely useless, the evening news won't talk about it, the networks are far less likely to be full of fake files, as there are too many to police.

    Meanwhile, I will continue to use Shitwhorrent!

    It works already!

    1. Re:crazy idea! by stratjakt · · Score: 3, Funny

      Then everyone with Tourrettes (sp?) syndrome will start getting bogus takedown notices.

      --
      I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
  16. Oh no. btw, Kad is server-less by real_smiff · · Score: 4, Interesting
    I don't want to see this story reported. it'll only bring the twits in suits' attention to the lovely, stable and diverse ed2k network. At least the eMule devs saw this coming and have already built the lovely, stable and diverse Kad network. (both available in recent eMule clients).

    btw, i run eMule 24/7 serving freeware files. no I actually do, i don't share copyright stuff, got caught doing that already (watch out Movie fans! don't share those files for months on end). i'm always uploading freeware aswell so i know it's a popular distribution mechanism for that.

    --

    This is my Sig, this is my Gun. One is for Slashdot and one is for Fun.

  17. RIAA hiring programmers! by Anubis333 · · Score: 4, Funny

    It seems that the RIAA is hiring programmers to 'alter current internal software suite ('AutoSue CopyProtector') to incorporate new networks and TCP IP protocols..'

  18. quality of content by rayde · · Score: 5, Informative
    what sets ed2k apart from kazaa is the quality of the content, and it's basically decentralized nature. Anyone is free to setup an ed2k server, plus the ed2k sister protocol, overnet (kademlia in it's eMule, open source variation) is serverless. As far as quality, everything is based on hashes, and your download results will be as accurate as the place you got the hash from.

    now, as far as speed, like many people have mentioned, it can be slow. I'm sure I'm over simplifying, but think of ed2k the same as BitTorrent, only instead of the queueing of bandwidth being for only one single file, it is for your entire list of files. It can take quite a long time to complete downloads, but knowing that you're going to get a nice, uncorrupted file makes it worthwhile.

    eMule, the open source variant, contains many enhancements over the standard eDonkey client, and there are numerous mods in circulation. this can include Fakelist databases, ip to country checking, and the ability to tweak your bandwidth usage. there is also a web-based and mobile (cell phone) client built in so you can monitor your eMule from anywhere.

    It should be noted that there is a Legal Content Database hosted by the project, containing links to freeware/shareware and public domain stuff.

  19. suprnova.org is bigger by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    look at the number at the bottom on the suprnova.org website:

    181473 seeded torrents (295138 total), 2594211 seeds & 4043961 downloaders (6638172 peers), on 1317 active trackers

  20. Not German by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Edonkey and the network have U.S. origins - http://www.edonkey2000.com/contact.html

    Although Emule, which I think is now the most popular client, has German origins.

  21. Re:Got plenty of time? eDonkey may rock. by Colonel+Cholling · · Score: 4, Funny

    That's because the PS2 linux dev kit is warez.

    Wow! You mean the eDonkey software is able to detect whether a given file infringes copyright, and automatically makes sure that those, and only those, files are incredibly slow downloads? That's better than anything the MPAA has!

    --

    I am Sartre of the Borg. Existence is futile.
  22. Too bad both networks are junk by Goosey · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Honestly, nothing compares to an intelligent blend of binary newsgroups, IRC, and torrents (when I am getting desperate only!) And I officially predict this post as flamebait

    --
    --- "End Of Line" - MCP
  23. An explanation of the 2 networks history: by Killswitch1968 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Currently FastTrack and eDonkey are the two top peer to peer networks. In almost every conceivable way, eDonkey is better than FastTrack. The reason FastTrack is popular at all is because it was the first decentralized network to pick up steam after the demise of Napster. They quickly rose to 4 million users, far above every other network.

    But after decentralization, no new features were added. Instead, lots and lots and lots of spyware was bundled into the Kazaa Client by Sharman Networks inc. Kazaa Lite, the popular non-spyware altnerative, was shut down by this same company. Several DMCA notices were issued to sites hosting Kazaa Lite.

    In the long run, a better client will supercede a poorer client once word of mouth gets around. And eDonkey far exceeds Kazaa with these features:
    Hashing (fingerprinting, prevents fake files)
    Swarming downloads
    ed2k link sites (fingerprint information on specific files in the form of html code)
    No spyware (for eMule)
    Lots of different clients to choose from

    In short, Sharman killed off their network by spending way too much time generating ad revenue, and not using that revenue to improve their client. There have been no important feature additions in years. This day has been long time coming.

    --

    Corporations: your universal scapegoat for all society's ills.
  24. the horde is well done by havaloc · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I don't know why anyone would bother with eMule anymore. The Horde is probably the best implementation of an anti leech system I've ever seen, and more importantly, it works well. You partner with other clients, and you both exchange parts you both need. Takes care of the leeching problem nicely, and gets you your download in a timely manner. Highly recommended.

  25. Re:eMule by real_smiff · · Score: 4, Informative
    Er that's pretty much all wrong.

    eDonkey started it all. eMule took the eDonkey idea and made a better compatible open source client. the eDonkey devs (MetaMachine?) got upset that they could no longer make money from the ads in their old closed source client, or sell an ad-free version as they're still offering. at some point MM came out with "hybrid" which added a serverless network and various other things, including Horde, which is like swarming with smaller chunks IIRC. this was after eMule go popular i think. anyway, the two sides have pretty much been at war, although most of its on the ed2k side, and i think the eDonkey devs have been trying to break compatibility with eMule, favour their own clients, etc. this fails because eMule has over ~90% of the "market" and many many developers. there are also other clients which can connect to the network, including mods of eMule, but they can't do much damage as few people use them. I may have got some details wrong but i think this is roughly right.

    Someone actually involved will probably see this and explain in much more detail, i haven't really cared too much.

    Suggest you start using eMule, it's great and the developers are good honest folk who seem to be interested only in technical excellence (just read the changelog!).

    --

    This is my Sig, this is my Gun. One is for Slashdot and one is for Fun.

  26. It's not a leaching network! by node159 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    That would be because it's not a leaching network. You get back what you put in, if you want to leech your not welcome here.

    The clients have been designed for fairness and _sharing_ rather than grab as much as you can and then go offline.

    DC on the other hand is this mentality, you can keep your leaching corrupt network.

    --
    GPLv2: I want my rights, I want my phone call! DRM: What use is a phone call, if you are unable to speak?
  27. A main point... by theamarand · · Score: 3, Insightful
    ...and the main goody that you can extract from all of this is that P2P is a genie out of the bottle.

    Regardless of "who's on top" or "who's bigger than whom," the fact that there are multiple, competing and viable peer-to-peer sharing platforms, should give most open-minded people a good, winning feeling. Fair use is a great thing, and some folks resent paying for four or five different forms (records, eight-track, cassette tapes, CDs, Music DVDs, digital MP3s) of the same exact song, piece of software or movie; simply because the old medium type was retired, or because the old media reached the end of its short useful lifespan. Wouldn't it be nice to buy a song, and have the right to listen to that song...forever?

    Yet, I digress. The media companies have, for too long now, held the consumers and the actual artists responsible for the art-form in question, hostage. The artists aren't losing the vast majority of their profits on P2P...it's the large corporations that take the lion's share of the end product that ends up with losses. I say turn all media digital, and have us pay for only the individual songs, videos, or whatever piece of work you actually like, and get rid of the rest of the album filler...and associated over-head cost. I'll bet people would like that a lot...and I think that P2P integrated with a useable, small cash payment system, is going to really hurt the greedy media companies, while helping bring more of the end profit directly to the artists responsible.

  28. Alternative: Shareaza by Whizzmo2 · · Score: 5, Informative
    Shareaza

    Why Shareaza?
    • Gnutella support
    • Gnutella2 support
    • Edonkey2000 support
    • BitTorrent support
    • Free!
    • No Spyware.
    • Open Source. Really!
    Where do I get it? Download (via Sourceforge:UMN)
  29. Cross-Platform OSS edonkey Client by zeromemory · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm suprised no one has mentioned it already, but mldonkey is a nice cross-platform edonkey client. It runs pretty nicely on Linux (and somewhat decently on Windows) and comes with a web and telnet interface (it also supports third-party GUI clients).

    As an added benefit, mldonkey supports FastTrack, Gnutella 1 and 2, DirectConnect, SoulSeek, Bittorrent, OpenNap...you get the idea. I've been using it for a couple of years, and it's replaced every P2P client for me.

    Oh, edonkey is a great network to find PDFs of textbooks - a godsend for students.

  30. Nice thing about eMule by jerometremblay · · Score: 5, Informative

    eDonkey is definitely not about speed. Bittorrent usually end up with much faster downloads. I consider it as my "archive" ressource. It's way easier to find old and obscure files on that than on bittorrent sites.

    One feature I particularly like about eMule is that it supports both server-based operation and decentralized Kademlia (a kind of distributed hash table) searching. The two systems work together nicely and usually end up with more sources than one one of them.

  31. Re:Got plenty of time? eDonkey may rock. by kjamez · · Score: 5, Informative

    >eD2k rewards people for uploading, but seems to >reward people for sitting in queue better.

    it rewards for not capping your upload in the software, but if you use an outgoing traffic limiting thing at the router the software knowns no different. i get the same dl speed if i'm giving my full 40k up (ack) or limiting it to 5k~10k

    --
    you can't have everything, where would you put it?
  32. Bittorrent is not P2P!! by mabhatter654 · · Score: 3, Informative
    That's why nobody uses it!

    Bittorrent is no better than vanilla FTP for "file sharing"! You can't hide your illegal activity behind it because it only works best if you PUBLISH [it better be legal!]what you're offering for download...exactly opposite of Kazzaa & such. Bittorrent isn't designed with "privacy" features...nor is it designed to catalog what you want to share. It's purly a distribution mechanism to ease the bandwidth issues... i.e. it's designed so the legal publishers can distribute files w/o paying enourmous bandwidth fees...think of it as "paying" for the download by sharing with the next person...

    Bittorrent is to allow sites with large files to BENIFIT from the /. effect!!!

  33. Re:Got plenty of time? eDonkey may rock. by obeythefist · · Score: 5, Informative

    A couple of things you need to understand about the technology before you immediately jump out and declare it to be "slow".

    Firstly, you need to open several ports on your firewall to ensure you have a "highid", which is, for our purposes here, a measure of your connectivity to the network and therefore your usefulness as an uploader.

    Secondly, you must understand that eMule uses a "credit" system. Your place on other people's queue is not simply determined on a first come first served basis. You continually jostle with other people in queues for the upload/download position. Some of the key helpers for getting a good spot in the queue: Good credit rating. If you upload a lot of stuff to the network, you will have good credit and you will quickly reach the front of the queue. Your connection speed, especially uploads, will help you. Whether you are uploading to the person you are downloading from will help. Whether you have a high-id or not (high-id's are very important!).

    eDonkey/mule is a long term download program, and should not be confused with bittorrent or DCC. Once you've been online for a while with eDonkey, you will find that you achieve downloads more quickly, and you will have a better experience.

    --
    I am government man, come from the government. The government has sent me. -- G.I.R.
  34. Re:Got plenty of time? eDonkey may rock. by rd_syringe · · Score: 5, Informative

    You get higher priority to download from users that you're uploading to. The system is set up so that people trade file chunks with each other that each person is missing. Uploading more gives you overall higher priority to download.

    The "5-10 times" is highly exaggerated. Usually, I'm uploading about 1/3 to 1/2 of what I'm downloading, which is right for this network.

    eDonkey has always been the premiere place to download large binaries. You just don't find good 800+MB files on Kazaa or anything else. Often, you can determine the validity of a file on eMule just by doing a search and sorting by availability. The highest availability is always (in every case I've tried) exactly what I'm looking for. eMule even highlights high availability hashes with blue.

  35. Re:eMule by Echnin · · Score: 3, Informative
    You do have to connect to a server, but with eMule it's not as annoying as it used to be in the eDonkey days. I've been using the network since late 2001, and I can assure you it's changed a lot. With eMule, you'll first need to find a serverlist (only once!). Site with links to serverlists. I'd pick "All servers". Once you've got those in, just connect and wait a while. Set the client to connect at startup and keep connected. Assuming you're using eMule and actually downloading a file, you will get new sources and new servers from the peers you're connected to. This means you'll never have to update the serverlist manually again, and being connected to a good server is not that important, because you get sources from your peers and not only from the servers. In the eDonkey2000 era (before eMule was created), finding servers was annoying, but it's greatly improved now.

    If you're on a Mac, you'll be using mlDonkey. I don't think it has these nice things, however. Contrary to the story submitter, I'd recommend aMule for Linux. I think it has those nice eMule features. Some time in the not-so-distant future they promise to have a working OS X version too.

    --
    Lalala
  36. Re:Got plenty of time? eDonkey may rock. by real_smiff · · Score: 4, Insightful
    you can start downloading with nothing shared and as soon as you complete one chunk your download becomes an upload to anyone else who needs that piece - in fact because you're only uploading that one file you'll get a better rating with the people who have it than you would if you were sharing many files, and this your download will complete faster.

    the credit system has now been secured, you can see the docs for details. hash stealing (credit theft) was a problem for a while, no longer.

    eMule is not an elitist network at all, it's the opposite. unlike DC++ etc. it requires very little user knowledge or share material. it does however take some time in some cases. it is fine for people who only want one album every other week. start it up, get your album, quit the app. in the time between the download finishing and you noticiing, on average you've done your bit for the network.

    this is all based on real experience using eMule. you should try it, it's got so popular for a reason.

    --

    This is my Sig, this is my Gun. One is for Slashdot and one is for Fun.

  37. Comparing DirectConnect, Kazaa, eDonkey by monsterhead78 · · Score: 5, Informative
    Direct Connect is constructed around "hubs". Users can establish their own hubs with or without restriction, forming mini-communities. When logging on, users select a hub or can connect directly to other individual peers. Hub owners have the ability to restrict users of their hubs depending upon amount and/or type of files the user is sharing. Those with smaller hard drives are restricted from joining a hub with a 10 gig minimum file share, for example, which will restrict this program's potential for less serious collectors. Direct Connect hub owners can also limit access depending upon connection speed - a lot of hub owners throw off modem users (hence the "elitist" reference). For users with a slow speed connection, Direct Connect is not your best file sharing option.

    Users also operate the servers on Edonkey2000 and KaZaA, although there appears to be less community-organisation and restriction surrounding their networks. With Edonkey2000, the program remains connect whenever you are online, so you may be vulnerable to hackers, as the program will not operate from behind a firewall, but there is no spyware. KaZaA on the other hand has built in spyware, which will deter many potential users.

    Edonkey2000 is a unique peer-to-peer sharer in its transfer system. Files are hash identified and transferred in "chunks". This means the donkey can identify identical files even if they have been renamed, increasing the potential of downloading the entire file. Because of the hash identification files can be uploaded before they have completed downloading - the "chunks" that have been received are immediately shared. Files propagate quickly over the donkey network, and the automatic resume feature has high success even after a reboot. One thing to remember though - check there is room on your incoming folder drive for the entire file - you can only change it by completing or cancelling all your downloads, and you don't want to miss the last few chunks of your file. Although this ingenious file sharing system means the donkey is reliable for getting entire files the downloads are very slow - you have to have a lot of patience.

    Direct Connect is a slow downloader as well. Users with a lot of files to share can get access to servers restricted to broadband users, which speeds transfers up a little, but one again you don't wouldn't want to be on a hurry. Direct Connect users a direct file transfer system and also has an auto-resume feature which completes file downloading from any user with the file. Direct Connect doesn't uniquely identify files and will not recognise variations in file names like Edonkey2000. On-the-ball users can rename their file and continue downloading from a new source if they identify it by the file size with a name variation.

    KaZaA downloads files from various sources at the same time, to speed up the transfer rate. The software downloads a file from several sources and the pieces are reassembled into a single file on the receiver's drive. Like Direct Connect and the donkey, KaZaA has a reliable resume feature if a transfer is interrupted, however like Direct Connect resumes will only recognise sources with identical file names. Users report KaZaA is one of the speedier peer-to-peer sharers, but once again, patience is in order, and broadband users will get the most from this program.

    All three programs have search features. Edonkey2000 has quick searches, and also offers an availability search, although the value of this is questionable. Direct Connect users can search particular hubs for material and although some users report it is time consuming going from hub to hub, the program does have an option to search the entire network. Direct Connect's sloppy interface has made this feature hard to find for some users. KaZaA has various search options and users report it is quick and reliable. Download times are shown with search results. KaZaA will also allow you to search for files not only by name, but by any keyword found in the stored description of the file. When files

  38. The slowness is a FEATURE! by Tord · · Score: 3, Informative

    It has seldom been pointed out, but there is a good advantage coming with this slowness:

    Files can easily live on the net without anyone having the entire file on their harddrive!

    Many odd and unusual files can be retrievable for years after anybody stopped keeping a share of them. As long as at least 10-20 people are trying to download it, there is a fair chance that they together have all the needed parts and they will stay on long enough for new people to join in and start downloading so no part of the file disappears completely.

    Sure, this is true for any smart P2P network that can start sharing before download completes, but with faster networks such as BitTorrent you much easier get incomplete files since everybody is downloading/sharing it for a much shorter time, decreasing the likelihood that the downloads overlap sufficiently to keep the file alive.

    That isn't to say that eMule doesn't have incomplete files, but they are usually the result of the original provider having taken them away too soon, before all the parts of the file had spread enough.