I hope the title makes sense, here’s the deal. I live in a Wi-Fi- hotspot run by the city, so I get free internet from home. I’m trying to download the game Rappelz (1.93 GB). I get to approx 200 MB and the signal drops. It’s free so I can’t bitch too much. However, I’m wondering if there’s a way to save what gets downloaded and pick it up from that point once the signal is back.
I’m saving it to it’s own folder, running Vista Prem on a Compaq.
Any help?
You need a download manager.
Lifehacker just finished their weekly survey on applications and guess what? Download managers! You can find the top five list here.
Of course, if you are not using Firefox you’re pretty much SOL for a quality download manager.
Free Download Manager works with other browsers (it’s in that lifehacker list). Of course the trick is to download the download manager without the aid of a download manager 
I’m not sure that’s true. While FlashGet integrates nicely with Firefox through the FlashGot extension, FlashGet is a perfectly decent download manager all by itself.
I have FlashGet installed on my WinXP box, and it does a great job. It’s perfect for the OP, because you can pause downloads, and even turn the computer off, and it will pick up right where you left off.
Good to see you back, duffer.
IE 5.5 and later can resume a file download, but it’s chancy, and you have no direct control over whether IE will decide to resume the file, or it just starts over.
Do not use any kind of web proxy or cache server. Ask your ISP if they have any kind of invisible proxies or cache servers set up for you, and if they do, ask how to disable/bypass them. Make sure your IE cache is at least twice as big as the file you’re trying to download. Never click “cancel”. If your connection is interrupted, let the transfer time out on its own. Leave the IE window that started the download open; don’t close it. Do as little extraneous surfing as possible in between the time the transfer was interrupted and when you resume. When attempting to resume, make sure you’re saving the file in the exact same spot with the same filename, from the exact same URL you were attempting before. If your IE process was terminated abnormally, the resume still might work properly if you follow the other steps.
If this kind of thing happens all the time, you’re probably better off getting a download manager. Research their features; not all of them support resuming a transfer.
*** Ponder
Opera allows you to stop downloads and resume them later, it’s a really simple interface (you can just right click on the download on the Download Manager and stop it or start it whenever you like). I love it.
You don’t have that control with any browser/download manager combination. Whether you can resume a download or not depends on the server you’re downloading from having support for resuming.
Iinstalled Free Download Manager and it’s working very well. Thanks everyone.
My favorite is DownThemAll, because it’s a Firefox extension and it doesn’t look like the work of some first time VB programmer.