How do download managers work?

[Chris]

How do download managers work?
I've been trying to download Mepis Linux overnight and kept getting
cutoffs.

I'm on ADSL and so I don't need to redial to get back on line - the
router is supposed to reconnect - and usually it does so.

I tried FileZilla but maybe didn't configure it right - because the
download had given up sometime in the middle of the night.

Fresh Download has been suggested - and I understand it has the
capability of finding more sources of the file (which sounds a bit like
KazaaLite).

How does that work?
What's the best bet for these big downloads?
How do you configure so that it keeps going through the night?

Anything you can say that leads to my greater understanding will be
welcomed and appreciated.

 

[Roger Johansson]

What's the best bet for these big downloads?
How do you configure so that it keeps going through the night?

Anything you can say that leads to my greater understanding will be
welcomed and appreciated.

I have used Leechget and Download Express to download big iso files with.

Once DE stopped in the middle of a download and said: No more connection
attempts left.
I resumed the download and it worked.

I think you may have problems with many interruptions on your connection.
That means that the downloader has to reconnect every time the connection
has been interrupted.

Downloader programs probably have a setting for maximum number of
re-connections to a server, after that you need to tell it to resume.

With a bad connection you may have to search for a downloader which keeps
on reconnecting no matter how many times the connection is broken.
Maybe there is a downloader where the user can set reconnect tries to a big
number or no limit.

 

[omega]

With a bad connection you may have to search for a downloader which keeps
on reconnecting no matter how many times the connection is broken.
Maybe there is a downloader where the user can set reconnect tries to a big
number or no limit.

Rarely, but there have been several occurences where my usual downloaders,
FD & DLExpert, could not get a file from some problemetic server, no
matter how many times I attempted; and that I then turned to Octopus for
successful retrieval.

Octopus has something that I haven't seen in the downloaders I've tried.
An option to have connection settings per each download individually, not
globally. For the problem downloads, I changed the settings (all of them,
easier than rtfm) to radical values.

threads count _____
number of times ____
receive timeout ____
send timeout ____
number of empty attempts ____
delay between attempts ____

I do not use Octopus too often (for several reasons), but like to be able
to turn to it this way for certains types of download difficulties.


__________
Note, to anyone who might be inclined to download this one. Careful if
via web search, or you might get stuck with an adware ver. Better to get
from the German server link listed at pricelessware.org.
http://www.pricelessware.org/2004/PL2004nINTERNET.htm#DownloadManager

 

[Roger Johansson]

Octopus has something that I haven't seen in the downloaders I've tried.
An option to have connection settings per each download individually, not
globally. For the problem downloads, I changed the settings (all of them,
easier than rtfm) to radical values.

threads count _____
number of times ____
receive timeout ____
send timeout ____
number of empty attempts ____
delay between attempts ____

Very interesting program, thanks.

 

[omega]

Octopus has something that I haven't seen in the downloaders I've tried.
An option to have connection settings per each download individually,

[...]
threads count _____
number of times ____

Very interesting program, thanks.

It has that feature. And also the feature of no-install. (One could have
its 275k exe on a floppy, aside for emergencies, for when booted into a
fairly bare system). I should also mention one serious problem I've had
with it, even while not knowing if others ever see it. Error message at
times, and failure. Something about "out of buffer space" I think it says.
I haven't figured out what it is talking about those times.

 

[starwars]

I have used Leechget and Download Express to download big iso files with.

Once DE stopped in the middle of a download and said: No more connection
attempts left.
I resumed the download and it worked.

<snip>

I have gone back to Download Express after trying Leechget. I had a
lot of problems where it would stop downloading one (usually the
first) thread. Pausing, closing & whatever else I tried could not
get that thread moving again. It has good potential, especially as
it can be added to Mozilla's right-click menu, but I think I'll wait
until a couple more versions have come along before I go back to it.

 

[Rob]

Octopus has something that I haven't seen in the downloaders I've
tried. An option to have connection settings per each download
individually,

[...]
threads count _____
number of times ____

Very interesting program, thanks.

It has that feature. And also the feature of no-install. (One could
have its 275k exe on a floppy, aside for emergencies, for when booted
into a fairly bare system). I should also mention one serious problem
I've had with it, even while not knowing if others ever see it. Error
message at times, and failure. Something about "out of buffer space"
I think it says. I haven't figured out what it is talking about those
times.

It looks like Octopus v3.11 has spyware! See the Screenshot for Octopus
v3.11 at http://www.freewareweb.com/cgi-bin/archive.cgi?screenshot=1&ID=720
At the bottom of the screen is an ad from radiate!

Can someone confirm this.

Rob

 

[Roger Johansson]

It looks like Octopus v3.11 has spyware! See the Screenshot for Octopus
v3.11 at http://www.freewareweb.com/cgi-bin/archive.cgi?screenshot=1&ID=720
At the bottom of the screen is an ad from radiate!

Can someone confirm this.

I haven't tried it yet, but reading the readme file I found this:

WHAT IS NEW
-----------

ver. 3.11
--------

- Octopus is absolutely free now. Ad system was deprecated;
.........

It looks like it had an ad system earlier, and that screenshoot is probably
from that time.

 

[Susan Bugher]

Octopus has something that I haven't seen in the downloaders I've
tried. An option to have connection settings per each download
individually,
[...]

threads count _____
number of times ____

Very interesting program, thanks.

It has that feature. And also the feature of no-install. (One could
have its 275k exe on a floppy, aside for emergencies, for when booted
into a fairly bare system). I should also mention one serious problem
I've had with it, even while not knowing if others ever see it. Error
message at times, and failure. Something about "out of buffer space"
I think it says. I haven't figured out what it is talking about those
times.

It looks like Octopus v3.11 has spyware! See the Screenshot for Octopus
v3.11 at http://www.freewareweb.com/cgi-bin/archive.cgi?screenshot=1&ID=720
At the bottom of the screen is an ad from radiate!

Can someone confirm this.

see:

http://www.pricelessware.org/2004/PL2004nINTERNET.htm

version 3.1 is adware, version 3.11 is adware-free

Download Link: v 3.11 (317 KB)
ftp://ftp.freenet.de/pub/filepilot/windows/internet-tools/octopus.zip

Susan

 

[Ardent]

X-No-Archive: yes

I do not use Octopus too often (for several reasons), but like to be able
to turn to it this way for certains types of download difficulties.

I found this gem two years back and I never touched another
downloader. I have not lost a single download in spite of downloading
with several resumed downloads, some in more than 10 times.

The only problem is that it does not maintain a log for the downloads
and there is no filter for the clipboard watcher but that is no big
deal.