downloading problems

[notageek]

I've lost the ability to download. My laptop was going very slowly and I tried to devirus it and remove harmful programs and defragment etc  It is a bit better but now I can't download anything - which is very frustrating. Any suggestions??

[Mick_L]

Hi Notageek,

Probably need Rob to sort this out, but I'll pre-empt what he'll probably request, and this is some more info. If you could answer the following questions, it might help:

*Did you post this query from your computer?
*Can you open web pages and  get email etc? (these are also downloads)
*When you say downloads, do you mean that when you want to fetch a file or image or something off the net, it does not happen?
*What operating system are you using, and what programs are you using to try and do these downloads? - Firefox, Explorer etc....

[notageek]

Hello Mick,
Thanks for replying - I've been away for a bit. In answer to your questions:
I did post the query from my laptop computer.
I can open web pages and emails but not attachments.
I can't download any programmes or updates, for example,  my university offers a programme to make referencing easier but when I get to the DOWNLOAD stage - nothing happens.
I'm using Windows XP and Internet Explorer. Had tried to use Firefox but can't download it!
My whole internet access has been slow for a while and I'm wondering if I should just wipe the whole thing and start again>
I'm no great shakes with a computer once anything goes wrong!!
Not sure if this info. will help solve my problem
Thanks

[Mick_L]

For the email attachment part, you might like to try out a suggestion I made to someone with a similar problem. It's at this link:
http://www.radiogeek.com.au/index.php/topic,114.msg271.html#msg271

Other than that, I will have leave the problem to the real geeks!

[AD007E]

I am experiencing exactly the same problem atm. Running XP SP3, Firefox or E8 (happens with both browsers). When I try to download a file or an update midway through the download freezes, if you stop the download and restart sometimes another 4-5MB downloads but this may need to be done 15-20 times to get the full download but it doesn't always work, also while trying to view a web page with images or photo's embeded (ie through photobucket or similar) the page stops loading about 3/4 way, "transfering data from ***" or "waiting for ***" is frozen in the bottom bar and only 1/2 of the photo has dowloaded. Sometimes you can refresh the page and it will load only if there isn't to many images. Have run virus scan using ESET NOD32, also used CCCleaner updated windows nothing has changed. Any pointers from anyone would be appreciated.

[The Radio Geek]

Hey there Notageek

Sounds like you might have either a connection issue or an ISP issue... If you are using two different browsers and they are both timing out, then it most likely something global on your machine (like network or router settings) or something related to your ISP or the website itself.  Either way it can be a tough problem to nut out!

A simple work-around might be to try using an enhanced download manager.  If you are using Firefox, perhaps you can test your issue out with this - try installing Down Load Them All.  It's free, and integrates into your firefox browser easily.  The main feature we are looking for here is that as a download manager it shuold maintain (mulitple) persistent connections and also resume stopped/broken downloads.

If this works - then that might fox your immediate problem and allow you to download material from that website.  (it should be faster too!)

Next - to try working out what the issue is - we need to test the target website, your ISP and also your machine... independently!

1) Perhaps you can post the website so that someone the forum can try downloading a file from their and view the website.  If we can, then the website works.  If we can't, then it might be totally out of your hands!

2) Try another machine on your ISP/connection.  This will test the ISP and the router.  If you have a second machine at your home that would be ideal.. Otherwise, see if you can get a friend with a laptop to plug into your network and try downloading the same file.

3) If we can reliably download with #1 &#2, then the last link is your machine settings.  I would start looking at some global settings that affect both browsers - networking settings, hardware faults, firewalls. 

I hope that helps - let us know how you go!

Cheers,
:)RG