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Simple download manager?

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4wd:
What I meant was that 4wd's link was a direct download.  I was expecting the file to be embedded in its
-rjbull (February 13, 2008, 09:25 AM)
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Yeah, sorry - that's the direct link for updates, (of which it should be noted that's an old one).

I got it from http://www.portablefreeware.com/, they list a few other dl managers but almost all either write settings to registry or can't get the proxy automatically.

What happens if you explicitly tell wget to not use a proxy ?

eg. wget --no-proxy URL

Otherwise, the only way I think you're going to get out is by using some form of tunneling to bypass the firewall/proxy.

I just had a thought, (yeah, shocked me too) the absolute easiest way to do what you want is to use a Linux LiveCD distro.

The LiveCD runs in it's own environment and doesn't leave any tracks on the host PC.  All you need is either a CD or USB Flash/HDD to run it off.

Have a look at DSL, (Damn Small Linux 50MB http://damnsmalllinux.org/), which can be fired up within the host environment, (run it from within Windows), all you need then is any Linux download manager that can be installed in DSL, (using MyDSL will get access to hundreds of other apps), and the DSL environment should pick up the proxy settings via standard protocol.

There may be other distros that will allow booting within a host environment but DSL was the only one I could think of.

rjbull:
so what's your verdict - the search continues? :)
-lanux128 (February 13, 2008, 07:49 PM)
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Yes: though for now, I've bitten the bullet and am using FDM.  At least it works, which makes me wonder why I'd bother paying for one of the other download managers, which are just as likely to sprawl all over the Registry and have problems with proxies.

rjbull:
Yeah, sorry - that's the direct link for updates, (of which it should be noted that's an old one).
-4wd (February 14, 2008, 03:18 AM)
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No problem!  I see the author site is Russian.

What happens if you explicitly tell wget to not use a proxy ?

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I hadn't thought of that, but everything else I've tried doesn't work.  That is, ones that expect a direct Internet connection are defeated by the proxy.pac, so I assumed everything else that doesn't get the proxy automatically from IE would be too.

Otherwise, the only way I think you're going to get out is by using some form of tunneling to bypass the firewall/proxy.

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I don't have control over it, and it's over a network, so whatever I use on the local PC has to get through the network system...

Thanks again.  If something else turns up, I'll let folk know  :)

4wd:
Another to try  :D

WinBITS http://sourceforge.net/projects/winbits/ - It uses the XP/2000 Background Intelligent Transfer Service.  I played with it a couple of years ago - it only uses free bandwidth so it shouldn't slow down other programs accessing the net.

And, in theory, because it uses a default windows service it should pick up whatever proxy settings are required to access the net.

Also, it's portable (extract and run) and doesn't seem to create any registry entries (apart from the usual MRUs).

However, be warned - it IS simple  8)

Of course, it doesn't run on Win98 due to the service not being available.

EDIT: On another note, I've managed to create a portable version of FDM, that leaves no trace, using JauntePE.  I'm not quite sure whether Admin rights are needed to run the JauntePE dlls though.  Calls to registry and filesystem are caught and redirected to local file storage, so even if it crashes there no registry entries or %appdata% files sticking around.

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