Corrupt Downloads (Download Manager Problem?) (WXP-Pro)

[n7Epsilon]

Hello forum,
I'm having this annoying problem with my dial-up connection under WinXP and 98SE, Last week, I tried to download a trial version of Norton Internet Security Professional 2004 from Symantec's cdrom.digitalriver.com. After hours of waiting for the painfully large download (for me!) to finish, I open the SFX RAR Installer file, and to my greatest frustration, It simply tells me that the files are corrupt and suggests that I download them AGAIN! I tried downloading it again and still no change. I thought that it just might be a server thing, so I tried downloading the trial of Norton Internet Security 2004 (not Pro), same results, also with Norton Personal Firewall 2004 and AntiVirus 2004. I figured that it might be a problem with my download manager, I used FreshDownload, and GetRight with the same results......

I tried downloading smaller files using the aforementioned download managers and both of them got the files corrupt.

I then tried to use Download Accelerator (with its annoying Ads) with the smaller files and it worked,
while it still didn't work with the Symantec Downloads.

This has really got on my nerves...
I don't know if the problem is with my connection or with the server?

Any suggestions to solve the problem and why that happens?? Can you suggest a good download manager to me?

Thanks for all the help with my previous problems, WindowsXP is really giving me a headache :)

[tom_keefer]

Your problem is more than likely a corrupted download. Very large programs downloaded over a dial-up connection can often times be corrupted due to poor connection, line probems, etc.

Get rid of all those download manager programs, un-install the trial version of that Norton program and try downloading it again, say late at night when the Internet is a little quieter.



<font color=purple>Tom</font color=purple>

ya'aa'tey

[report_2]

Your download manager may be too aggressive.

Try setting it to "Passive mode"

Otherwise some good reading all about bad packets can be found at the below link I was referred to by Dudecybetron on this forum board.

It is a lot of reading but once you get past it being gibberish it becomes understandable. It takes a few paragraphs before you start to understand it.

<a target="_blank" href=http://www.rfc-archive.org/getrfc.php?rfc=1323>TCP Extensions for High Performance</a>

Good luck and I hope it helps.

[n7Epsilon]

Well, I have opened the link you posted and I really tried to understand any of that gibberish but I frankly don't think that anyone but holding a Telecom degree could understand all of that stuff. I'm still not that knowledgable about TCP and all the other internet transmission protocols.

Anyway, I can't understand how a download manager can be too "aggressive", doesn't a download manager download different portions of the same file from multiple sites and stitch them all up in the end thus helping to download files at maximum throughput of the connection?

I connect to the internet @ 44Kbps, which means that I should be getting (44 divided by 8) a download throughput of 5.5 KB/sec but I usually get 3.3 KB/sec with the highest once reaching 4.2 KB/sec despite using segmentation. I tried using all four optimization methods offered by TweakMaster, but nothing's really different, same throughput.

I have also noticed a strange thing, sometimes my downloads start at a rate of 4.2 KB/sec but then the rate slowly decays to very low rates and sometimes the connection simply terminates with a time-out error!

I don't know, does anyone have any suggestions to increase the throughput?

As I'm posting its 3:00 AM in Egypt, and I'm redownloading Norton Internet Security 2004 but from another mirror (store.softlinks.ru)(4 simultaneous connections) at 3.3 KB/sec, hope it doesn't get corrupt.

(PS: 2 weeks ago, I downloaded the full 266.01 MB Windows XP SP2 over my connection with DAP and it worked but also with pathetic throughput!)

_n7Epsilon: Ok// SessID: 22334BC:B7JRX10Z_

[monkey_1]

Just one thing: Symantec, as I know, doesn't offer *.RAR files, they MUST be *.EXE files... Check your DNS servers as well as your HOSTS file...

<font color=orange>Mono</font color=orange>

[n7Epsilon]

That is absolutely correct and I know that. Symantec offers its trialware in the form of a Self-Extractor (SFX) program that contains the install files, compressed in the RAR format.
(SFX Solid RAR compression as reported by WinRAR 3.00, no recovery record)

When I run it, it asks where to extract the install files, and then to click "Install", when I do however, it starts and then about a third of the way it stops at some file (differs each time I redownload the file), and then it gives the following error:
- Unexpected end-of-archive, the installation files may be corrupt, please try downloading the file once again and re-run the install (or something that is equivalent to this meaning)
- CRC failed for (filename), the installation files
may be corrupt, please download the file and try again (or something equivalent to this meaning)

- As I previously said in my previous post, that is strange, since the same error occurs each time I redownload the file, which made me believe it was a server problem on their side. I am now downloading the program (Norton Internet Security 2004) from a different server. The one that caused all of this was cdrom.digitalriver.com.

That corrupt thing is strange since I was able to download a much larger XP SP2 (266MB) over the dial-up connection and it astonishingly worked!

I did check my DNS servers, they are working correctly and my computer can resolve DNS address names correctly, and my hosts file is completely empty except for the built-in comments.

- There is one strange thing in my HOSTS file, though, occasionally I do see a (127.0.0.1 localhost) entry sometimes, which I delete.

- I am using ZoneAlarm Pro firewall (updated), Webroot's SpySweeper and Norton AntiVirus, as well as Download Accelerator.

_<font color=blue>n7Epsilon</font color=blue>: Ok// SessID: 22334BC:B7JRX10Z_

[report_2]

"doesn't a download manager download different portions of the same file from multiple sites"

The way I understand it is it makes several connections to the same site.
Being too "aggressive"...If you make a single connection to that site then the site is less busy allowing more bandwidth to your single connection using Passive mode.
An aggressive download manager can and will make hundreds of attempts to connect to a site depending upon how it is set.

Alternately, every attempt to connect is also sharing your outbound bandwidth clogging your pipeline.

Also, some people have expressed improved connection speeds using the correct <a target="_blank" href=http://www.modemhelp.org/inits/>Modem Init Strings</a>.