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DownShift 1.2 - User Guide and FAQ
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Tips to get the Fastest Downloads:
There are several features in DownShift to help you get the fastest downloads possible. They all rely on the idea of "Mirrors" (or "Alternate URLs"). Most files on the Internet are not located on just one server - other servers with the same file are called Mirrors.
Finding Mirrors. DownShift has several ways to automatically find Mirror sites where you can download the file.
- On the Downloads-Mirror Search you can set the different methods DownShift should use to help search for mirrors for you.
- DownShift will automatically calculate Mirrors for many popular sites (such as TUCOWS).
- You may also use FTP Searching to find more Mirror locations for a file. (The biggest of these has stopped providing this service, FileMirrors below may be a better choice.)
- You can use DownShift's FileMirrors.com searching. This is a service that allows users of DownShift to (if you wish) anonymously and automatically share and search for mirror URLs for downloading files.
- DownShift can do these searches for you: press the Options button when a file is downloading, and pick the "Search for Alternates" item in the menu.
- Or if the site where you found the file to download lists several Mirrors, just click a few. DownShift will automatically add them as Mirrors when the file name is the same.
Fastest Mirrors. A server close to you is likely to be faster than one on the other side of the Earth. DownShift will periodically "Ping" each of the mirror servers for the file to see which is likely to be the fastest, and then will automatically switch to download from the fastest.
Segmenting. Segmenting a file allows DownShift to download different parts of the same file at the same time. For example, DownShift would start at the beginning of the file from server A, and at the middle of the file from server B. Depending on your Internet connection, this can dramatically improve the download speed...DownShift higher allows up to eight Segments, so your downloads can be up to eight times as fast as regular downloading! (Earlier verisons allowed 4 or 6 segments.)
To tell DownShift to use Segmenting when downloading a file, press the Options button when a file is downloading, and pick the "Segmented Downloading" item in the menu, then the number of Segments to use!
The results of Segmented Downloading will vary depending on your Internet connection, your ISP and their connection to the Internet, the servers you're downloading from, and just the Internet in general. If you are not reaching the download speed at which your modem is connected, Segmented downloading can really help.
Frequently Asked Questions - DownShift
- No servers resume downloads for me.
Not all servers support resuming (but most do.)
If you are using a Proxy server, they can cause no servers to resume--some older ones don't know anything about the resuming features DownShift is using. You can sometimes play with the proxy settings (there are some things to try listed here) and get resuming to work, but you may have to have the proxy server upgraded to get resuming to work.
- I'm a site administrator, how do I get my site to support resuming?
It probably already does. DownShift uses abilities built into most FTP servers and most newer HTTP servers--there's no special server software needed for DownShift. You will probably only need to get the latest version of your web/ftp server software. And it is likely you already are using a version of your server software that resumes just fine. (For HTTP, Apache servers >=1.2, Microsoft IIS >=3.0 and Netscape servers >=2.0 all resume great.)
- What FTP and HTTP servers allow download resuming?
Most web and ftp servers do support resuming.
- How do I download one file after another?
On the Automatic Mode configuration tab, you may set the number of downloads to do at once.
After you have the downloads you want in DownShift's list, turn on "Automatic" downloading on the Download Status. When one download finishes, another will be started (up to the limit you set for downloading at the same time.)
In "Basic" mode, as long as no errors occur, when one file finishes, DownShift will start the next one.
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