InformAction Forums

Sometimes I have only access to a Modem or have unreliable (W)LAN access I am away from home.

I cannot define the circumstances when it happened, if it was the Breakup-up in my Modem-Connection or because my XP hung shortly after this, but I had to restart my NB. I had already downloaded 23 MB of 27,8 MB (5 kB/sec average) when this happened. After a restart I only saw that the download was unsuccessful but I could not continue.

Is there someway to define breakpoints, e.g. by defining the size of chunks manually and allow to add them later once all are downloaded. The way I understand this is done if parallel downloads are supported.

Thinking about it the same would also help for very large images even if I have a fast connection. Living outside the city I have power outages which could also happen during a download.

Thanks for considering my question

Almost any of the supported download managers make it possible.
Firefox's built-in is still unreliable under this aspect, therefore an external download manager such as Orbit Downloader or Free Download Manager is strongly recommended.

Post deleted.

I'd ask around here, dslreports: Comcast.

Virtually all dial-up modems sold in the last 10 years, more or less, have had a 56k rating. That is a "maximum". True speed will always be less, depending on how busy your ISP is, the Internet is, and the server of the web page. Also please note that when you download, you do not do so all at once. Every so many "packets" (chunks of bytes), the server waits for an acknowledgment from your computer that it received it correctly. When I last had dial-up with 56k modem, actual speeds indicated were about 40-48kps, and downloads averaged 3-20kps for the reasons above.

Broadband typically refers to cable, or to DSL, which is a telephone line that is privately yours and not part of the network shared with others. Max speeds promised range from 750 kbps to 10+Mbps, with the same cautions that traffic, etc. will affect actual speed. My ISP claims my service maxes at 7 Mbps. Various test meters have shown speeds from 1.5 Mbps (1500 kbps) to 6+ Mbps. Once again, though, in downloading applications, videos, etc., you will not get that as an average speed. Because of the need to break up into chunks and wait for acknowledgment (and resend if your computer does not verify correct receipt) , I average about 350 kbps total download speed -- about 3 seconds per megabyte. Still about 30 times as fast as what you quote.

Incidentally, as a noob, I was told by a dial-up provider not to use a phone cord more than 12' (3.7m) long if possible; ideally, 6 feet (1.9 m). Apparently, more "noise" (interference).

Hope that answers your question.