Simple download manager?

[rjbull]

I thought of adding to an earlier thread, but SMF pointed out it was over 120 days old and would I like to start a new one...

I'm interested in a "simple download manager," in that all I really want to do is schedule downloads for slack times.  However, I ideally want it to meet these requirements:

• Run on Win98
• Can use a proxy.pac file, or read whatever proxy Internet Explorer is using (is that wininet technology?)
• Portable, avoiding he Registry and using relative paths
• Either built-in scheduler, or, easy control from external scheduler
• Can be used in a commercial environment

I haven't yet seen anything that matches all those; even FDM isn't really portable.  Does anyone have any suggestions, please?

Thanks in advance...

[iphigenie]

most portable does not integrate a scheduler, since they are by nature less portable... and the browser integration often requires some registry stuff. So you lose features if you want fully portable.

That is where the challenge is

I have seen some download managers that can catch urls in the clipboard, and that needs no installation, but you wont just be able to click a link and have a download manager kick in

I know of none that is really portable besides the wget based ones, but the capture of urls is more manual

You could get opera portable or firefox portable with a download manager extension, but thats a bit overkill

I know that some download managers have an "email me a link and i will queue this" feature, and some routers have a download queue feature on the router itself - thats the ultimate portable solution except the files end up in the wrong place if you are away from home.

update: in my mountain of links i find this http://www.webxpace.net/software/#Downldr - i havent tried it much and most of it is controlled via a text config, but it seems to be an "unpack and run straight" type of tool

[tinjaw]

If this needs to be portable AND scheduleable, does that mean you are going to leave the portable storage device with the program in the computer for the duration of both the time until the download starts and the time it takes to download? Or by "portable" do you mean you can drag and drop the applications folders to the desktop computer and run it from the desktop without a need for some kind of setup/installer? Can we count on access to the Window's Task Scheduler?

[4wd]

Use wget and the Task Scheduler.

It'll do HTTP, HTTPS and FTP, download to wherever you like, it's a CLI command so doesn't leave traces all over the computer, runs on all versions of Windows, and has more options than you can shake a stick at.

Simple example: wget.exe "http://somewhere.net/somefile.zip"

wget is at http://www.gnu.org/software/wget/, a search of Google will turn up precompiled binaries.

If you go to sourceforge.net and search for wget you can also get quite a few GUIs for Windows if you need one, eg. http://sourceforge.net/projects/wwget/ is a Windows GUI that allows scheduling.

Oh yeah, it's also GPL so no problem with commercial environment.

[rjbull]

Thanks, folks...  It didn't occur to me that portability and scheduled operation aren't really compatible, but I see what you mean.  I think I should drop "portable" in favour of "no-install," i.e., not needing full admin rights on the computer (tinjaw, you hit the nail on the head).  That still leaves me feeling uneasy at FDM, for example, which in "portable" mode still writes to the host computer's Registry.  It clears up when it exits, but that won't happen in a crash, and also apparently doesn't remember all its settings when used in portable mode.  There's a message in their forums about this, without any replies.

I'm not so bothered about browser integration as I expect to compile lists of URLs manually.  There are utilities like tranglos' VISIT, for example, which capture URLs from the clipboard (I haven't tried this one yet).  I assume most host computers will already have schedulers built-in.  I normally use the one in PowerPro, but could use something else if necessary.

@iphigenie:

i find this http://www.webxpace.net/software/#Downldr - i havent tried it much and most of it is controlled via a text config, but it seems to be an "unpack and run straight" type of tool

That looks nice, small and truly portable.  Apparently the author listens to his "customers," too.  However, it doesn't understand proxy.pac files, nor is there any provision I can see for scheduling.  Star Downloader is another one that expects you to have fixed proxy details, which rules it out for me.  Much kudos to Martin Aignesberger for WebSite-Watcher and Local Website Archive, also to Firefox, K-Meleon and Great News, all of which can be set to use whatever proxy stuff IE is using.

@4wd:
I was scared of wget on the grounds I probably wouldn't understand GNUishness    I suppose I'll have not choice but to check it out!  Thanks for the link, especially for the GUI shells.

[iphigenie]

Hmm i fell for the blurb that it did support proxies, somewhere in the config files. Maybe it doesnt or maybe it is not well documented, which is the same in the end.

wget is always a good choice, although I am not sure how to use it with a queue - i always just use if straight from the command line. Although I have used it to mirror entire sites so it can certainly do multiple downloads one after the other

[rjbull]

Hmm i fell for the blurb that it did support proxies, somewhere in the config files.

Configuration does have settings for proxies.  It's likely that either it doesn't like proxy.pac files, or, more likely, that it needs authentication - and at work, I don't know the settings for that.  Programs that auto-detect the proxy settings used by Internet Explorer work perfectly well.

wget is always a good choice

I struggle with GNU-speak manuals    and may still have the same problem with permissions.

[4wd]

I struggle with GNU-speak manuals    and may still have the same problem with permissions.

Doesn't everyone?

AFAICT, if you can run a program, access the net and write files then you shouldn't have a problem with using wget, permission wise.

A bonus is it will read from a file of URLs.

wget --input-file=<file>

Only thing is I believe you'll need to input the proxy manually - could be a problem if you don't know the authentication.

[rjbull]

A bonus is it will read from a file of URLs.

wget --input-file=<file>

Only thing is I believe you'll need to input the proxy manually - could be a problem if you don't know the authentication.

I don't.  I suspect that's why I can't get Web Downloader to work.  It lets you enter the proxy, but there's a separate field for authentication.  Yet, programs which auto-detect proxies by using Microsoft Internet Explorer do work; applause for Firefox, K-Meleon, Great News, WebSite-Watcher and Local Website Archive.  Oh, and Free Download Manager, but I'd rather avoid it; it spreads a load of stuff throughout the Registry and it's rather too "busy" a program.

[lanux128]

recently i posted about VisualWget which is a GUI front-end for wget that has features such as download queue but the downside is that it requires .NET 2.0.

[4wd]

Here's another downloader you might like to try, it seems to be geared towards fileshare sites like RapidShare, etc, but will probably handle normal file downloads.

http://usd.altupdate.ru/USD/clear.php?file=0 USDownloader

Doesn't seem to write anything to the registry, you can input a proxy but it also has a button to get it from IE - so it might work.

[rjbull]

Here's another downloader you might like to try

Thanks, I'll take a look.  The odd thing is it doesn't seem to have a home page as such.  Your link goes direct to the file, and truncating the end of the URL just gets forbidden pages?

[lanux128]

Thanks, I'll take a look.  The odd thing is it doesn't seem to have a home page as such.  Your link goes direct to the file, and truncating the end of the URL just gets forbidden pages?

some googling could locate the file for you and here is the first result.

[rjbull]

some googling could locate the file for you and here is the first result.

What I meant was that 4wd's link was a direct download.  I was expecting the file to be embedded in its author's Web site, so that truncating the link would get to the program's home page, and that didn't work.  I tried Googling as you suggest, and this link seems most helpful.  But, USDownloader is special-purpose:

The few limitation of Universal Share Downloader include unable to download normal download links (it works on those file sharing/hosting services only)

[lanux128]

from the link you found, the program does seem to be a specialized downloader. so what's your verdict - the search continues?

Universal Share Downloader is a download manager for automated download a list of files from most popular free uploaders or free unlimited upload files hosting servers such as RapidShare, MegaUpload, YouSendIt, FileFactory and etc.

[4wd]

What I meant was that 4wd's link was a direct download.  I was expecting the file to be embedded in its

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?

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).

No problem!  I see the author site is Russian.

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

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.

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 

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 

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.