Net download speed: Set the pace

By Lim Tri Santosa

BANDUNG (JP): One day my boss kept asking me if he could have a look on "my Internet". I said he could, and he logged in and directed the browser to a search engine so he could find the information he wanted.

It was the first time he had encountered the Internet. Fifteen minutes later he called me and said: "The Internet is running too slow. Could you reboot it, please?"

I would love to reset the Internet, but how? No one can control the Internet traffic. Yes, the problem with Internet connection is speed; the problem of the Internet user is time and money. The slower the traffic, the more time and money spent. What a waste!

Some downloading take longer than others. Your download speed depends on several variables, including your modem transfer speed, the size of the file to download, the quality of your Internet connection and server speed at the host site.

If you are downloading at a crawl, you may want to cancel it and try again during off-peak Internet usage times, such as late at night. But I think it would be unwise to wake up in the middle of the night or wait until midnight to turn on your computer just to download files from the Internet. Everyone needs a good sleep to work or carry on with their activities in the morning.

Because many of the files you may want to download will take time to be transferred to your computer, you will want to save yourself the headache of discovering, after the fact, that you downloaded a file that won't work on your computer.

Here's the worst case scenario; you're in the middle of trying to download a large file only to have the server reset or the phone connection broken by someone picking up your extension while you are connected, or a thunderstorm breaks.

Speed and Safe

Of course, you can download the file right after disconnection, but how long would it take to start over again? Even though you may have a fast connection, downloading can be much slower. Why? Because the problem does not always lie with your provider's connection speed, the slow speed can be caused by the remote site from which you are trying to download. You won't get a faster speed while downloading if the remote-site speed is slow.

The fact is there is no faster speed to achieve when connected to the Internet, only the current connection speed between the user and Internet Service Provider (ISP). Even when the remote- site speed is faster than the speed between the user and ISP. No one can deny it. That's the reason why downloading e-mail from your ISP POP server is much faster than downloading a website or a file from a remote site, other than your ISP.

Thus downloading files directly from your ISP is the fastest speed available to you. You will never waste time waiting for slow sites. There is a new free service from Em@ilFile at http:www.emailfile.com which can deliver any files from the Internet to your e-mail address as an attachment.

The service supports both File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and HTTP for downloading. How does it work?

Just fill in the file location address and your e-mail address at Em@ilFile web-form, then click the Submit button. Generally, it will be delivered to your e-mail address within 15 minutes. If Em@ilFile server fails to find the file you request, you will receive an e-mail message describing the error.

How do you know the file location address to be downloaded? Once you have found the file you want to download by browsing or searching the Internet, point your cursor to a download link then click the right-mouse button, choose properties. You can copy the full URL address and paste it into the file location field at http://www.emailfile.com.

The main limitation of this service is you cannot download files larger than 3MB. And you can not ask to download more than one file at the same time. Em@ilFile will advise you that your e- mail address recently submitted URL for downloading and you must wait before your first request is completed.

Here's the cool way, a trick I use to fool Em@ilFile service. You can make several e-mail addresses from free web-based e-mail services like Yahoo E-mail, Alta Vista E-mail.

These web-based e-mail services have an option to forward any e-mails to your original POP e-mail address. Thus you can use your web-based e-mail addresses to ask for several files to be downloaded. The benefit is Em@ilFile server will download and deliver your requested files to your original e-mail address at the same time.

If you have a problem with getting "cut off" or "dropped" while downloading large files more than 3MB from the Internet, then Net Vampire (http://www.netvampire.com) is for you. Net Vampire is free software. Use Em@ilFile service to deliver Net Vampire software to your e-mail address (file location address at http://www.netvampire.com/ftp/netvampire.zip).

What's so great about this product is the way you can make it "browser aware". You can press the "Alt" key before downloading a large file and Net Vampire will take over. Once Net Vampire takes over the downloading, it will be completed without starting over again! Even if you get disconnected, Net Vampire will pick up where you got dropped off.

I find this feature very useful, especially when there is a thunderstorm or I need to terminate the connection to receive a phone call. If you need to download more than one file you can run them parallel or line them up one after the other.

This program is intended to replace the downloading feature in your browser (either Netscape or the Internet Explorer). It is a kind of tricky to make Net Vampire "browser aware". Here are the steps to take. Close your browser if it is still open. Open Net Vampire on the program menu, click on Input command, then place a check by Monitor Browser Click. Now restart your browser and go somewhere on the Internet from where you want to download a large file. Hold down the Alt key before you click on the link to download.

That's all you need to do. Net Vampire will protect the downloading and you can stop and resume the downloading whenever you like. You do not need to download a big file in a single Internet connection. You can resume downloading tomorrow, two days later, anytime you want. You can check the progress of the downloading any time by clicking on the small Net Vampire window. Net Vampire is easy to use, though the program has numerous options, you don't need to use or understand most of them for simple downloading.

One last piece of advice; please do not use the above service or freeware to download any pornographic files or any commercial pirated software in many websites. You must refrain from doing that, otherwise you will spend more time and money to pay phone charges just to download the indecent and illegal files.

Oops, I forgot, before opening and unzipping any download file, first scan it with the most up-to-date virus scanner you have, otherwise take it at your own risk.