Kad, short for "Kademlia," is a decentralized P2P network that was designed to be a distributed hash table (DHT) for P2P file sharing. It was first implemented in eMule in 2004 and quickly gained popularity due to its efficiency and scalability. The Kad network allows eMule users to search for and share files with others without relying on centralized servers.

Many fake servers are run by anti-P2P organizations, hackers, or copyright trolls to log your IP or spread malware.