[ale] large file downloads & Comcast

[Tim Meanor]

On Oct 1, 2006, at 1:01 AM, Michael B. Trausch wrote:

> Tim Meanor wrote:
>> Hi all,
>> I have a bunch of different PCs hiding behind a LinkSys wireless
>> router.  Comcast is my ISP.  I've been trying to download the Ubuntu
>> 6.06 PPC ISO.  I have an old Titanium Mac Powerbook on which I'd like
>> to try running Ubuntu.  Problem is, the download gets to 649 MB (out
>> of about 698MB) and it dies.  By "dies" I mean it hangs, no more data
>> comes down, etc.  This happens on Mac OS X, Linux, and Windows.  I've
>> tried downloading via Firefox, IE, Safari, and Curl, but always the
>> same result.  I suspect that Comcast is killing the download once it
>> hits 649MB, but I'm not totally sure this is the problem.  I've had
>> this problem downloading large files before (e.g. trying to download
>> XCode resulted in the same problem).  Has anyone had this problem
>> before?  Anyone have any insights?  Thanks for any ideas.
>>
>
> As a fellow ComCast customer, I can say that it is not ComCast (as a
> whole) that is restricting anything.
>
> I regularly download items > 700 MB without a problem, and keep data
> streams open for long periods of time without issues (long periods of
> time being defined as "longer than it would take me to download two  
> full
> DVD-DL sized images").
>
> There may be issues with your node; as I understand it, CC is  
> upgrading
> their network piecemeal, and there may be some problem with that.   
> There
> may also be problems with the servers that you are using; have you
> attempted from various servers?  It could also be a problem *between*
> you and the server; maybe the route that the connection is taking  
> has a
> nasty node along the path.
>
> If you have tried all of the above, (using different servers, anyway;
> you said that you have attempted different programs, though have you
> tried 'wget' with the '-c' option?) then I would wait a day and try
> again.  I would say to call ComCast, but I am afraid that I cannot
> recommend that as much help; most times, I find that when I call, I  
> get
> people that are less-than-adequate in terms of the ability to help the
> technically proficient.
>
> 	-- Mike
>
> -- 
> "Fate: Protects fools, children, and ships called /Enterprise/."
>                                -- William T. Riker, ST:TNG,  
> "Contagion"
>
>
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I didn't try using different servers.  I found one that was giving me  
decent download speeds, and stayed with that one.  I managed to  
download the file via bittorrent, but maybe I'll try downloading the  
file from a different server, just to see what happens.

I haven't tried using wget -c, but I used curl -C which basically  
accomplishes the same thing ( restarts a partially downloaded  
file ).  Perhaps I'll give wget a shot with a different server.

Thanks for the ideas.