Quote:
Originally Posted by eschwartz
There is nothing wrong with using something like IDM (IIRC I have used the similar tool Free Download Manager on Windows).
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I can not guess at how similar the two tools are.
But of note:
The licensed version of IDM uses multiple, parallel, connections.
The un-licensed version does not.
Quote:
Originally Posted by eschwartz
My go-to download tool on Linux is aria2 (the most awesome CLI download program of all), which also supports parallel downloads and cleverly figures out when to (try to) resume a download... the trick is knowing when a server doesn't support a feature which, ideally, all servers would support.
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In general, yes and in general, they do.
What we have here is a "corner case" (in technical terms) or a "loss leader" (in marketing terms).
More to follow. . .
Quote:
Originally Posted by eschwartz
And FWIW, aria2 gracefully handles servers which don't support resumed downloads -- it doesn't create a control file, which means it won't by default try resuming, and also doesn't open multiple connections even when told to try.
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knc1, at least one of the official mirrors (US-East) does support partial content --mediafire.
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Undocumented support as far I as I have been able to find.
But note that we are not using the old 'free' account, the mediafire account now in use is 'paid' service.
See: The more to follow . . . .
Quote:
Originally Posted by eschwartz
But the Europe one doesn't, the primary one uses a confirmation screen so no CLI downloads anyway, and the US-West mirror keeps giving 503 errors.
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This is the first report of 503 errors.
I own US-West - I'll look into it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by eschwartz
So, err, not strictly true? But still very good advice, since it is unpredictable.
Also, why on earth don't more download tools, especially something like Safari, know how to recognize servers which don't support partial content?  |
A really good question, I thought that 'super fast' download tools had all been fixed after the Internet wide fiasco of FF 'flash downloader'.
I suspect there is a config or environment setting to control that behavior in MacOSx -
There is one to disable the 'auto open' of known archives.
It is mentioned in the JB thread by a MacOSx user.
But I don't know MacOSx and no one that does has offered that information.
My information about Windows is almost as bad off.
I stopped using it at Win95 and stopped following it at Win-XP.
The more to follow thing:
1: My overall disclaimer:
It did not occur to me that there would be this sort of problem, like yourself, I thought all servers had been dragged into the 21st century by now.
2: IDM
I had never heard of it before now.
I have been doing some reading about it since the problem has been mentioned.
The quote from IDM was found at the start of my reading about it.
Of note:
The licensed version is the only version that opens multiple, parallel connections to the same file.
The unlicensed version(s) are single connection downloaders.
(A marketing incentive to sell users a license.)
3: The free file sharing market:
This is part of my recently learned knowledge -
learned the hard way (by spending (non-refundable) money on services that will not meet our requirements).
There are two things that can be sold in this corner of the market:
File storage space.
File transfer bandwidth.
Either or both (usually both) have some operational limits set for the "Free" (as in "Free Lunch") accounts.
Paid accounts have some, or all, of the limits removed.
The 'Super Fast' downloaders use the 'byte-range:' header to segment a large file into more than one connection and run them in parallel.
The object is to saturate the available bandwidth of the client's connection.
For discussion, let us say from 3 to 5 concurrent connections.
Now suppose that all clients of a server are using such downloaders - -
All of a sudden, a server that could easily handle 250 concurrent transfers can now only handle 50.
If your marketing plan includes "unlimited bandwidth" (either for "Free" or for "Pay") then you have just made a 5x increase in your physical plant (hardware, hardware environment, network connections, operating space, support personal, etc) requirements.
So some servers operations have the number of PtoF (point to file) connections limited.
The "Free" accounts almost always do.
What you get with "Pay" accounts varies.
If your marketing plan includes "unlimited storage" (or some ridiculously large amount) -
Then you make you money on the transfer bandwidth sold.
(Putting another disk drive in the hardware bay is a one-time expense, file transfers are a recurring expense).
But note: the "unlimited storage" accounts (paid or free) often have other, hidden, limits.
Such as no practical way to get large files onto the system.
At least for customers who consider an upload time measured in hours "impractical".
= = = =
Summary:
I am learning far more about this particular market than I ever wanted to know.
Now that I know that support for multiple connection downloads is one of our requirements, I'll check the sites we are using and flag (probably color) the geo-names in the JB instructions.
Note:
The service used for the
Primary is documented as supporting "download managers".
It also offers the greatest range of features for a very reasonable ($25/year) price.
They are very obviously trying hard to become #2 (behind MediaFire ($48/year) - who is so entrenched in the market that I don't see it ever being displaced).