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Totally Bewildering Download Problem


HoppaLong

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I've been downloading files since the earliest days of the internet, but I've never seen
anything like this before. It vaguely reminds me of an unstable torrent download, but
this has nothing to do with torrents.

There is one large corporation that is linked to or owns hundreds of sites that list MP4s.
If I mention their name this post might become an argument about the company.

I start an MP4 download with an amazing burst of speed. A huge file seems like it will
complete in a few minutes. After several seconds the speed drops to almost nothing
and download fails. If I use a manager like FlashGet the mystery deepens. FlashGet
shows the same drop to zero bytes. After two or three seconds the download resumes.
This process repeats over and over. I suppose I could let the download complete, but
a zillion starts and stops would guarantee a corrupt file.

Could this be a simple case of overloaded servers? If so, why does the download start
at all?

I did check my own network connection by downloading different file formats on other
sites. There was no problem.

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I've recently seen the same behavior. However, I almost always use FlashGet, exactly for fear of random stream failures. I've used it for many years, since it used to display that advertising banner.

 

As I mentioned a few times around, I have a metered connection that allows me 5GB download monthly at full speed (that'd be about 512kB/s for a 7.2Mb/s GPRS connection), thereafter dropping to about 15kB/s for the rest of the month. The temporary stream disconnections are somewhat harder to notice when speed is capped, but at full speed there are clear gaps, repeating at a consistent rate.

 

I'd bet on the DASH system, possibly combined with a quick server switch to maintain an equal load. Remember YouTube also uses the DASH system which makes certain players unable to playback mp4 files downloaded from there. Since most servers support the 'resume' feature, these gaps shouldn't be a problem when using a capable download manager such as FlashGet.

 

[rant]

There is however another issue that's aggravating: the timed out connections. I have a truck load of "blessings" for those […] who invented and those who employ such connections.

 

Basically you get a link, start downloading (directly or through download manager) and at some point it stalls indefinitely. The server stopped delivering data because the link "expired". You stop and restart the download only to see that the previously advertised resume feature is now gone (the small green dot at the bottom-right of the triangle 'running' icon in FlashGet) and the download started from scratch. Now how retarded is that!? Nobody seems to take into account dial-up and dialup-alike users that practically have zero chances to finish such download at their extremely low speed. Not to mention that one may just want to "bookmark" a download link in their download manager for a later job (for example I collect links during the day and set them to start downloading before I go to sleep) only to find out the link won't work a few hours or days later.

 

I could go on about indirect links served through a bunch of subsequent pages (possibly on different servers of different companies/owners) asking for confirmations and verifications and whatnot, which in many occasions cannot be captured by the download manager, leaving the user with the constant fear of a broken download especially on large/huge files.

 

Should I mention the "downloaders" or "installers" that nobody knows who created and what they actually do, while "nicely" offering to download/install this or that application, this or that driver? You see an application/driver name and version in big characters, you see a valid name/version package URL when hovering the link and yet you only get to download a stupid few-hundred-kilobytes stub that's supposed to do the job for you. What if I just want to download the desired package without installing it, maybe because I need it for another machine that has no Internet access (yet)? Or maybe because I'm a paranoid hoarder which thinks that at any moment that package might just dissapear from the Internet, like many, many other useful things so I like to get it myself, intact and stored in a place known to me (not to the installer only, if it doesn't delete it immediately after installation).

 

Bottom line is, the Internet has changed to the worst these last years, despite - or maybe exactly because - of the new and ultraperformant technology. I long for the simple HTML links that just delivered what they advertised for right there, right then. :(

[/rant]

 

My apologies for drifting away from the topic, just couldn't resist  spitting it all out. :blushing:

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There is no mystery I think, this is how media streaming seems to work on many sites now, you get an initial burst at high speed which gives you a small buffer of data and then you get just about enough to maintain that buffer and most of the file is downloaded at not much more speed than the streaming media playback data rate.

 

And I guess things may get worst with downloader s if they are identified  as such. I am however using happily and almost exclusively youtube-dl (and helper programs rtmpdump and fribidi it uses automatically if it needs) those days  for downloading  media streams from a large variety of sites, it doesn't speed things up but if it starts it always completes for me.

Edited by loblo
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Guys, I have to stop embarassing myself.

As soon as you mentioned streaming media it was obvious why my FlashGet downloads
were starting and stopping.

The funny thing is, I always kind of know the reasons why things happen the way they do.
I can't promise I won't post foolish questions in the future. I'll try my best not to.

Thank you Drugwash and loblo.

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