Download Manager - Server Side

[tewari68]

Hi,
I am looking for options for allowing large file downloads from website (upward of 1 GB files).
Are there any server side download managers / accelerators which can monitor download and resume the download from the point where the client download stopped the last time.
I know there are client side download managers to do this, but I am looking for a server side solution.

OS: Solaris10 / Apache 2.x.

Appreciate if someone can suggest some solutions.

Thanks,
tewari

 

[ChrisHirst]

Nope! Can't be done, aerver side technology has no means of accessing the file storage on the client machine.

I'd suggest looking at the bitTorrent protocol.

Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Time flies like an arrow, however, fruit flies like a banana.
Webmaster Forum

 

[feherke]

Hi

Are there any server side download managers / accelerators which can monitor download and resume the download from the point where the client download stopped the last time.

Just to explain abit.
[ul]
[li]If a server accepts download resuming it sends the [tt]Accept-Ranges[/tt] HTTP response header.[/li]
[li]If a client wants to resume a partial download, sends the [tt]Range[/tt] HTTP request header.[/li]
[li]If the server fulfills a download resuming request, it sends the 206 Partial Content HTTP response code and the [tt]Content-Range[/tt] HTTP response header.[/li]
[li]If the server does not support download resuming, it sends the 200 Ok HTTP response code along with the entire requested content.[/li]
[/ul]
So as Chris mentioned, not the webserver is the one monitoring what the client already has. Is all controlled by the client, including parallel downloading on multiple threads. Looking from the other side : if a client not supports download resuming, the server can not help in any way.

For static files Apache can handle download resuming itself. You only have to implement it for dynamically generated content.


Feherke.

http://free.rootshell.be/~feherke/