Problems Downloading Large Files Linux in General

[gonzrick]

Hi,

I have been using different versions of Linux now for a couple of years. Ive had 2 notebooks, 2 netbooks, and 4 desktops in this time. The only place I do not use Linux is my HTPC because of this reason...

Every Linux system I have ALWAYS fails to download large files (400+ MB's). Firefox, Opera, Konquerer all get stuck in the middle of the download or they say they are complete but the files are smaller than they should. Or I have to keep restarting the DL so it continues. This is also with different ISP's and different locations as well. I have tried wget but it never even tells me how far along the download is (command line and with the wget GUI program), it just looks like it's stuck and I don't know what it is doing (I hate it).

Right now, I am using Kubuntu 9.04 with KDE 4.3 on the comp I use the most and it's my favorite OS yet. But today, the first large file I go to download and the same thing.

I can't find absolutely nothing anywhere on the internet and this is the one reason my HTPC (which I use a lot) is still with Vista.

Can someone please tell me that there is a simple fix to this? Or is there something similar to Orbit in Linux (don't say wget, please)

This is happening with Ubuntu, Kubuntu, PCLOS, openSUSE, Mint, Mandriva and probably a few others I can't think of right now on multiple computers and multiple internet connections.

Please, It's ridiculous and I can't seem to find any help on this.

Thanks

[Snowhog]

Re: Problems Downloading Large Files Linux in General

To be straight upfront, it isn't Linux that is at fault. I've regularly downloaded linux .iso files of well over 600+ megabytes. If you are having issues, it is most certainly with your network connection manager and/or the ISP you are connecting to, that, or you may have configured certain power saving fuctions, such that your hard drive enters 'sleep'? If the latter happens, any download is going to stop, and has to be restarted.

Just some thoughts.

[gonzrick]

Re: Problems Downloading Large Files Linux in General

I've tried on different networks and with different computers...by the way, it's not always that they fail, I misstated that, it's most of the time.

[Snowhog]

Re: Problems Downloading Large Files Linux in General

Not intended to be prying, but where are you located - what country? Also, what country locales are in the sources.list entries?

[gonzrick]

Re: Problems Downloading Large Files Linux in General

I'm in Miami, FL USA....interesting, how do I check the locales in source.list?

thanks

[GreyGeek]

Re: Problems Downloading Large Files Linux in General

Snowhog is right.

There could be several reasons, mostly related to the hardware you are connected to the internet with (does it use the correct size mta?, etc.), your ISP throttling your download, or your internal networking chip.


There are two helps for file downloads in the repository, filezilla and aria2. Aria2 does excellent job of maximizing the download speeds of your connection, and restarting automatically if it is interrupted.

Another file download accelerator is Prozilla:
ftp://fr2.rpmfind.net/linux/Mandriva/official/2009.1/i586//media/contrib/release/prozilla-2.0.4-6mdv2009.1.i586.rpm
which you can use alien on to convert it to a deb package and then install it.