My downloads are interrupted

[jarod1005]

This is technically related to videos because the files which I am attempting to download or avi or mkv formats.

Anyway, here is my situation.

The files that I attempt to download do not complete. It tells me that the download was interrupted. For example, a 2 hour download will be interrupted within 30 minutes, or so. I then hit resume, but it will only resume for about 20 minutes until it has failed or has interrupted. I have used Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, and Firefox.

Also, my internet speed is normal.

Is there a solution to fix this?

Thank you.

[DB83]

That is typically a server-side issue. Nothing you can do but keep trying.

Or just buy the video on disk.

[jagabo]

Is there a solution to fix this?

Get a better ISP. Or use a download manager that automatically resumes when the connection is lost.

[jarod1005]

My current ISP is Xfinity, so I cannot change from them right away.
Do you have a recommendation for a download manager to fix my problem?

[davexnet]

Don't have a recommendation for download manager,
but I would ask what is your OS version and anti-virus?

Occasionally you do hear of the A/V interfering and breaking downloads

[jarod1005]

I have Windows 10 Home.

The anti virus is Norton Internet Security, but it must be renewed.

[davexnet]

It might be a good test to uninstall Norton and temporarily put back Windows Defender to see if the problem remains.

Or, you may be able to temporarily disable the "web shield" (at least this is what it was called when I used avast) to try your download

[jarod1005]

Is disabling the web shield the best option?

[davexnet]

that's for you to decide; it's quicker, you can do your download and reenable it.

Just don't do anything else on the web while the shield is closed

[jarod1005]

Where do I disable web shield?

[davexnet]

I can't/wont answer that for two reasons the first is that i'm not familiar with Norton at all, and secondly
If you don't know how to do it and are not familiar enough with your A/V product then my
advice is don't do it until you know what you're doing.

[october262]

My current ISP is Xfinity, so I cannot change from them right away.
Do you have a recommendation for a download manager to fix my problem?

does your ISP have some sort of throttling cap in place ??
or try looking in your router settings to see if there's some sort of internet protection program that
your ISP may be using.

[johnmeyer]

I may have missed it, but did anyone ask the obvious question: from what site are you downloading?

A corollary question: are you doing a standard download, or is this a torrent?

Related to the torrent question, are you downloading simply by clicking on a link in your browser and then having the download start from there, or are you using some specific downloading program? These downloading programs used to be quite common and I think people still use them when they want to download many files.

Finally, can you download files of the same size from other sites?

[DB83]

I doubt if it is the ISP or Norton. My ISP is not the quickest and I do use Norton. Depending on the site I frequent some downloads complete (in time) whereas others do become interrupted. And it makes no difference from that site whether it is a free download or a subscription one apart from the relative speed of the download.

My original comments still stand. And that is from the above experience.

If you must use a download manager then you can try jdownloader. Still will not prevent server-side issues though.

[Marsia Mariner]

Yes, that does smell like a server-side problem. Some webmasters assume everyone has a fast /very-fast /lightspeed Internet connection and therefore configure the web server to interrupt (i.e., "time out") the contact with the HTTP-client after N seconds or X minutes, depending on the size of the requested file.

[pasja]

Still a possibility that it is your PC. Go to power management and uncheck settings which might provoke sleeping or hibernation.

[jarod1005]

Thanks for the help. I did install the jdownloader download manager. It does assist me in completing the entire download, however, the downloads are extraordinary slow. A 2 hour file will take 8-10 hours to finish.

This is a free program, so do you have any recommendations for a free download manager which may have a faster download speed?

[jimdagys]

Give exact url of stream video you want to download. I can try to download it for you and post the link.

[DB83]

Thanks for the help. I did install the jdownloader download manager. It does assist me in completing the entire download, however, the downloads are extraordinary slow. A 2 hour file will take 8-10 hours to finish.

This is a free program, so do you have any recommendations for a free download manager which may have a faster download speed?

Download managers just mange downloads. They have no control of either your own download speed or the access speed of the server you are getting the file from.

[poisondeathray]

Thanks for the help. I did install the jdownloader download manager. It does assist me in completing the entire download, however, the downloads are extraordinary slow. A 2 hour file will take 8-10 hours to finish.

Did you increase the number of concurrent connections ?

If the server side allows for multiple connections, this will increase the speed . If you had 8 connections it would be 8x faster. 16 would be 16x faster etc...

But as mentioned above, you are often limited by the server limitations. ie. The site you are downloading from . Some may limit you to 1 or 2 connections, or limit the speed of each individual connection



What site are you downloading from ? Sometimes there are premium sites where you can download faster from . Many are paid, but some are free or there are free workaroudns

[DB83]

I always thought that the concurrent connection bit applied when you wanted to download multiple files at the same time and not just one file.

[poisondeathray]

I always thought that the concurrent connection bit applied when you wanted to download multiple files at the same time and not just one file.

Different software use different names.

In jdownloader , "max chunks per download" is a single file, divided up and reassembled. "max simultaneous downloads" is multiple separate files. I think jdownloader is great, but there is a very large footprint. Many people hate it.

In IDM , max connection number would be analgous to max chunks in jdownloader. IDM isn't free but there is an "eagleget" which offers similar function (but not quite as good IMO)

The very first software I can remember splitting up a single file and re-assembling to increase speed is "flashget", back in the 90's . There might have been older ones, but I remember that was super cool software back then

[lingyi]

Some sites limit the number of simultaneous connections per IP during download and I've had to reduce the Max chunks per download (max 20) to get max speed.If downloads are slow, reduce the number of connections incrementally or set it to 1 and increase until you don't see any increase in speed. In addition, some sites only allow one connection (they'll usually warn not to use downloaders) per download.

To increase speed, try pausing, wait a few seconds and restart your download. Also download during off-peak hours based on the time zone of the website's location. There's scheduler in JDownloader.

I've switched to Free Download Manager as my primary download program because Malwarebytes Pro flags the download of JDownloader as containing malware. Once installed, I don't see any warnings, but it does phone home for updates upon startup and it contains an ad (currently for Uploaded) that changes every one in a while (I believe during updates)*

*Edit, I just noticed the ad has changed to FileJoker in the last 10 minutes, so ads are not changed only during updates.

Free Download Manager isn't as feature packed as JDownloader (e.g. I haven't found a way to make it download YouTube playlists) and seems a bit slower.