Search

There are various search types in the eD2k/Kademlia network:

Local search

If you are connected to an eD2k server, your search pattern is sent to that server and this server will answer with all the clients it knows which have files matching your search pattern.

The results are then listed in your client.

Since not all clients are connected to both the eD2k network and the Kademlia network, the results of this search and the Kademlia search may vary. Anyway, in most cases the clients are connected to both (if the client supports both networks, of course).

Global search

The search pattern is sent through UDP queries to all servers listed in your client's server list, including the server you are connected to.

The results are then listed in your client.

As a way to enforce clients to be always connected to some server, global searches aren't available when the client is not connected to any server.

This type of search will provide you the same results as the local search plus (maybe) some more.

Since not all clients are connected to both the eD2k network and the Kademlia network, the results of this search and the Kademlia search may vary. Anyway, in most cases the clients are connected to both (if the client supports both networks, of course).

This search is quite heavy in terms of the load of the network, so it is recommended not to use it if it is not necessary.

Kademlia search

This search will search through the Kademlia network. Since it is a serverless network, the search is done through clients.

The results are then listed in your client.

Since not all clients are connected to both the eD2k network and the Kademlia network, the results of this search and the local or global searches may vary. Anyway, in most cases the clients are connected to both (if the client supports both networks, of course).

Web search

There can be more than one single web search (as many as searching eD2k webs are recognized by the client).

This search, depending on the client, will either show a list of files the web has found matching the search pattern or (in most cases) just pop up your web browser with the search results.

The results of this search are independent of those resulting from any of the other types of searches.