Strange PDF problems.

[Ed Fletcher]

squareyes wrote:
> Hi all,
> I have just downloaded a pdf file , 34,042Kb , am on dial up, so very slow.
> First time stopped at 9meg, re-tried and the download manager tells me
> it's downloading at 650kbs, not possible with dialup, but the file
> showed it was coming down at that speed in the download manager.
> (Gkrellm showed it at between 4.5 and 6.4 which is more realistic)
> The transfer rate gradually came down to 9.5 kbs which also isn't likely
> on a dial up connection. When fully downloaded, it will not open.There
> is a discrepancy between the downloaded file size and that shown on the
> site I downloaded it from. Site file size 34,042k   -  Downloaded file
> 33.200k .
> Can anyone tell me what happened with the transfer speeds?, 650kbs is
> crazy (wish it could happen though)
> 

I think that your second try at the download is starting at the point
where it left off from the first attempt.  So even though it's only been
downloading for a few seconds, the program sees that a large part of the
file has been received.  It uses the filesize (the total of both
downloads) divided by the elapsed time of just the current download to
determine the downoad speed.  And that's why the numbers dropped over
time to a more reasonable level as the true download speed came to have
more of an affect on the equation.

The speed of 9.5 kbs you report may indicate that either the server was
quite busy of there were a lot of bad packets that had to be resent.
Which may also explain why the file wouldn't open.

Ed
-- 
Ed Fletcher
ed at fletcher.ca

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