Lancast

Lancast allows clients in the same LAN (or VPN) to share their files at a very high speed, providing them with the ability of finding sources and files (keyword searches are available only on Lancast version 2; the first version of Lancast looks for ed2k hashes only) inside their LAN or VPN.

Lancast does not require an ed2k server and does not implement a LAN/VPN implementation of Kad network. Lancast relies on UDP multicasting (and thus may require IGMP support in the LAN or VPN where the clients reside; people may use UDP multicast streaming features of the VLC media player to see whether multicasting works in their net).

It is a common misconception that Lancast uses UDP multicasting also for file transfer. In fact, it doesn't! Files are served over regular (unicast) connections.

For file transfer a modified Upload Bandwidth Throttler is used which provides a separate upload limit for LAN/VPN clients. Simpler implementations of Lancast use just unlimited upload.

LAN/VPN download is usually always unlimited; however, Lancast Version 2 in NeoMule provides its Download Bandwidth Throttler which also has an ability to manage LAN/VPN download speed.

Lancast is not usable over the Internet since multicast is disabled by 99,9% of all providers (except MBONE) and because Lancast wouldn't bring any speed advantages over ed2k/Kad anyway.

The Lancast feature is currently available in the followin mods:

• Lancast version 2 — in NeoMule since v4.x,

• Lancast version 1 — in eMule Plus and Sivka.

Lancast is also in the «to do list» of features for the Morph Mod, but is not likely to be implemented soon.