How can I resume downloads from Firefox?

[Thor the Bassist]

I'm using firefox and want to download a demo thats about a gig big. Thats pretty huge and unless you're running some fast city broadband then you proberably aren't gonna get it done below half a day of downloading.

So I start downloading and theres like a pause button and a cancel button. If I pause then restart the download the thing tells me that it cant find a file thats in a temp directory (whether i restart the computer or not).

From the looks of things I should be able to resume the download but how?

[Cúchulainn]

If you clear your private history when Mozilla closes, well then it's gone.

If you reset your pc is should also be gone, I think.

Temp files are normally cleared when you reset.

Otherwise it's no problem.

I've stopped files that are using all the bandwidth so other files can download quicker.

As long as you don't close Mozilla noting should happen.

[Thor the Bassist]

It says this:

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\Downloads\SupremeCommander_Demo.zip.part could not be saved, because the source file could not be read.

Try again later, or contact the server administrator.

[Cúchulainn]

That basically means Mozilla can't find the original source location, i.e that server that's giving you this information.

So the connection is being broken somewhere.

Either you internet connection is cutting out or the providing server has a time limit on pauses.

It could detect your pause as a stoppage and cancels your download.

So unless your clearing your privacy history without knowing you are stuck downloading it in one go.

Read a book while time passes.

------

I've just tried it with a file.

It is indeed giving me an error.

If your using Mozilla 3.something just hit Retry

The file I downloaded was only a few mb, so a gig file might might not work.

But all you can do is try.

[Simetrical]

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Source_file_could_not_be_read

It's kind of vague about what that means. It could be that unlike a good download manger, Firefox keeps partial downloads in the temp folder and leaves them there when the download is canceled. In that case, the OS might have gotten rid of them by the time the download resumes, if you reboot your computer or something.

That basically means Mozilla can't find the original source location, i.e that server that's giving you this information.

So the connection is being broken somewhere.

Either you internet connection is cutting out or the providing server has a time limit on pauses.

It could detect your pause as a stoppage and cancels your download.

Download resumption generally makes use of the HTTP 1.1 Range header. When the download is paused, the connection is closed entirely, and the server forgets about you. When the download is resumed, the browser requests the file again, but this time only requests the part starting with byte X of the file, where it left off, so the server just skips ahead and starts sending from there ― not knowing or caring whether you have the first part, since you didn't ask for it.

I suspect the error is not related to the server at all, but I'm not certain.