No matter how old or how new the file is, I can never ever get it to download. Am I doing something wrong or do these files die quickly?

If you click a link, the download should appear in your client. There is a possibility that there aren't any sources.
Overall, files on eMule live a loooooong life. Which ones did you try to download?

Yeah, I basically can't get any sources. I've tried pretty much every first page link on both the high and low quailty forums.

Then you should be seeing sources. Which client do you use? be sure to get emule and not edonkey (http://www.emule-project.net). Are you using a firewall, if so, open the right ports. Are you connected to a server? Do you even have servers in your list?

Something i should've asked first: Are you new to ed2k?

Yes, I am new. I am connected to servers and I use eMule Plus, the only client I've found that doesn't contain spyware.

strange,I didn't know there was spyware on the original eMule

I've heard although they say it's spyware free, it's actually bundled with it anyway.

..Not sure about the whole winking thing is about.

You've heard wrong.

Yeah, I've just done some more research and although there's been reports, nothing has ever been confirmed. I'm now switched over to plain-old eMule.

So is there a certain server I should be connected to? Or do you think someone could link me to a file that has sources for sure?

WTF, reports of what?? the source code is available, how the hell would they hide spyware??

Most people are on Razorback2 but most servers should be fine. I'm finding sources for ed2k: Hawk.The.Slayer.1980.DVDrip.XviD.MCMLXXXVIII.avi  [694.81 Mb] [Stats] now.
Have you opened needed ports in you firewall?

Well, I use to be a regular at a spyware forum and one of the guys was running a test on his computer installing eMule before and after. I guess he noticed some strange occurences, but I must be getting confused. I totally forgot that it was open-source.

funny,I always do a quick spyware scan whenever I update something
haven't ever found anything on eMule so far
guess you heard wrong

Yeah, it's definitely spyware free.

As for my problem, it's still happening. I'm sharing over 17gigs worth the music and when I go to download something it still doesn't move.

No you are not confused some spyware checkers report the presence of Bearshare in the registry when emule is installed, they are sort of correct, the bearshare part refers to the taking of ED2K links in the registry, you can choose to remove the ability to take ED2K links and then no more bearshare, the fact that the progrem will not work properly now is neither here nor there.

So it is a false positive given by some potentially badly written spyware checkers.

Probably obvious, but have you actually started the downloads?
It could be that every link you've clicked on has been added to your mule as "stopped". If that's the case, right click them and select "resume".

If they're all healthy (plenty of sources), but just not downloading, then give it time

It's not paused and has 220/221 sources. It has been like it for atleast three hours now, am I doing something wrong? Do I need to change any of my settings.. or anything I might want to change like my connection settings?

Also, I'm uploading to 4 people right now and have like 22 in queue.

It sounds fine

Because of the credit system used by emule, you probably won't download much for a while. Just leave it running and it'll pick up speed soon enough.
Emule works better the longer you've had it running, so it's really nothing to worry about for a new user to go a few hours before anything starts coming in.

Thats a real bad idea on this network, unshare any single mp3s. Sharing lots of files is counter productive on this network, sharing a small amount of rare files is a lot better.

Its not sharing more is better, its what you share really.