Sunday, July 16, 2006

How to use Uploading.com

Uploading.com is an file hosting service. Instead of emailing large attachments, it's better to use a file hosting service. The file hosted on the server will remain for 30 days, and if it has not been downloaded for more than that, it will be deleted.

Some file hosting services support downloading managers, and uploading.com is one of them. But if you are on a slow connection, it could be a problem if you are downloading a large file, because links expire after 24 hours.

So here is a tutorial which will help you to use the service to your best advantage, from queuing the file in your download manager to resuming download even after 24 hours.

FlashGet is used to explain the tutorial becuase it's one of the best download managers available, but the principle remains the same:

When you visit the download page, you have to enter a number in the box, after which there is about 40 seconds of waiting. Once the time is up, you will find this message:

Click here to download
Download will start during 5-30 seconds after click.

Chances are your default download manager will catch the click, i.e it will queue the file and the download will start.

If however, the download manager doesn't start the download, here is what you can do:

1. Right click on the link that says: 'Click here to start download' and copy the link location.

2. Start a new download task by clicking on the 'New' button in your FlashGet window.

3. In the URL section of the new window, you will find a link already placed.

4. Start the download. You will find that initially it doesn't show the file name, but after a few seconds, the file name will appear in the download window and the download will start.

To resume files after a delay for 24 hours

Files will have their links changed every 24 hours. So if you have a file in queue that's over 24 hours old, chances are the link won't work.

So you will have to get a new link. Here is what you do:

1. Visit the page again, and repeat the process to get a new link.

2. Copy the link location of 'Click here to start your download' again.

3. Now, right click on the file in FlashGet and open the properties. Now paste the new link in the URL section, and press OK.

4. Now start the download. It will resume again.

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