Downloads Page

Overview

The Downloads Page shows you all of your active, pending, completed, and failed downloads. After you have chosen one or more files for downloading, they will appear in the list. You can monitor the progress of your download, view any errors that occurred while downloading, or control the state of your downloads from here.

Appearance

Download List

This list shows all of your downloads. These are the columns:

File Name The name of the file you requested. If the server reports a different file name, it is updated to reflect the actual file name.
Size This is the size of the requested file. If the file exists in your temporary directory, two sizes are displayed. The first is the size of your file. The second is the size of the requested file. If the file you requested is of a different size than indicated in the search result, the total size is updated to reflect the actual size when known.
Status

This is the status of the transfer. Sorting on the status column will group the transfers logically. When at least one byte of the requested file is received, the status changes to a percentage indicator. For resumed downloads, this will start off at the percentage of the file you already have. For a new download, the file is not created until the percentage indicator appears.

Before the transfer completes or fails, you will see these states:
Push A direct connection could not be made to the remote host, and a push message was sent out.
Request A request was made for the file, and you are waiting for the response.
Trying BearShare is trying to connect to the host.
Waiting The download is queued and will start when there is an open slot.

When a download terminates, these are the possible states:
Busy The remote host indicated that the request was valid and the file exists, but they are at the limit of concurrent uploads. BearShare will automatically retry the server periodically until the transfer begins or until the remote host no longer responds.
Canceled The FreePeers agent canceled your download request. This can happen if you try to download the same file while it is already in the list.
Closed The connection was closed.
Done The transfer is complete. These items are displayed in green, and disappear after a few seconds if Keep Completed is not checked.
Exists The file already existed in your downloads directory. BearShare will not attempt to download files with the same name that exist in your downloads directory.
Incomplete The remote host closed the connection gracefully before sending all of the file data. The FreePeers Agent will automatically attempt to re-connect to the server in order to resume the download. If the reconnection attempt fails, an Incomplete status is indicated. Incomplete files are displayed in blue. These items remain in the list for a while before being removed, if Keep Completed is not checked.
Not Found This is displayed when the requested file could not be located on the remote server.
Not Moved The transfer completed, but the FreePeers Agent could not move the file from the temporary directory to the downloads directory. This can happen if you have the file open in another program (like a media player) when the transfer completes. This can also happen if you rename or delete your downloads directory. These items are drawn in green, with the status drawn in red.
Not Shared This is displayed when the remote server indicated that it has the file, but is no longer sharing it.

When the request is terminated, these states are possible:
Aborted You aborted the transfer.
Bad The remote server issued a bad response to the request. The reason is reported in the error list if Show all download errors is checked in the Network Setup.
Problem There was a problem with the connection. Problems are reported in the error list.
Timeout The FreePeers Agent terminated the connection for one of many possible reasons. The reason is reported in the error list if Show all download errors is checkd in the Network Setup.
Error A program failure occurred. The reason is reported in the error list.

Due to the nature of TCP/IP over the Internet, connections can frequently fail. When they fail, the status will show one of the following:
Abort The connection was aborted by the remote host. This can be the result of user actions, or a problem with their software.
Refused A manual or automatic connection attempt was refused by the remote host. The remote host may not be running the program any more, or they may be behind a firewall. This can also happen if the remote host has more incoming connections than it can handle.
Reset The connection was reset by the remote host. This can happen when the disconnect sequence is abruptly terminated, or through a software problem.
Down The remote host is not responding to a connection attempt.
Unreach The remote host IP address is unreachable from your network.
Net Down The network subsystem failed.
Failure Another problem was indicated with the connection. The reason is reported in the error list.

Time For transfers in progress, this is the estimated time until the transfer is done. If the server was busy, this shows the number of seconds until BearShare will requeue the download and try again. For other active items, this shows the number of seconds for the current status to change until BearShare gives up on the transfer. If this is a completed item, the total elapsed time for the transfer is displayed.
Bandwidth The amount of bandwidth used by the connection, both incoming and outgoing. If the transfer is complete, this shows the average throughput for the entire transfer.
Host The IP address of the computer you are downloading from is displayed here. The computer name is displayed when it can be determined if reverse lookup is enabled in the Setup and your DNS server allows reverse lookups.
Origin The country of origin, internet service provider, or business entity corresponding to the remote address is displayed when it can be determined if reverse lookup is enabled in the Setup and your DNS server allows reverse lookups.
Version The type of software the remote server is using is displayed here when it can be determined.

An active transfer is displayed in black. Queued or waiting items are displayed in dimmed text. Failed transfers are shown in red, and completed transfers are shown green. A failed transfer will be automatically reattempted if the failure was not terminal.

Completed or failed items are usually removed from the list after being displayed for a brief interval, unless the Keep Completed or Keep Failed checkboxes are checked.

You can select a download by left clicking in the list. You may select more than one download by holding down the control key when you click. You can access the downloads menu by right clicking in the list.

Double clicking a download will open the selected file using the appropriate program if the file exists. You can open a file even as it is downloading. If the data is not coming in fast enough, however, music or video files may not play all their contents until the download has been completed.

If the transfer failed, is waiting, or is queued, double clicking the item will move it into the waiting, queued, or starting state respectively.

Tip: Windows Media Player cannot play files while they are being downloaded.

Tip: You can drag any URL from your browser (Internet Explorer, Netscape or any other browser) which references a file from the browser window into the Download List and it will be requested and downloaded like a search result.

Download Menu

You can access the download menu by right clicking in the download list. Most menu items apply to all currently selected items. These are the choices:

Queue This will re-queue a failed or aborted transfer. Items in the queue will be started when there is an open slot.
Start Start or restart the selected downloads if they can be started. Most downloads that have stopped can be restarted. You can use this to start a download that is waiting in the queue, or resume a failed or aborted transfer. It is possible to go over the concurrent limit by starting downloads manually.
Open Opens a single selected file using the program appropriate for the file type. The file must exist in either the temporary directory or the downloads directory. You can open files even while they are being transferred. You can also double click an item in the list to open it.
Explore Opens the directory containing the partial or completed file using the Windows Explorer. This is a useful shortcut for managing your downloads.
Clear Choosing this will remove a red or green item from the display. It does not affect your files.
Abort This aborts selected downloads. This applies to downloads that are waiting in the queue, waiting for a retry, connecting, or transferring. The partial results of the download, if any, are not removed from your temporary directory. If you start an aborted download over again, BearShare will resume with the partial contents of the file if it exists.
Abort All This aborts all of the downloads in the list, with the same rules as aborting each download individually. Don't choose this menu item accidentally!
Clear All Choosing this will remove all red or green items from the display. It does not affect your files.
Connect Host This will attempt to connect as a host to the computer that is serving the selected file. This can speed up searches targeted towards that computer.

Download Errors

Any problems with your downloads will appear in this list. Sometimes problems do happen; For example, the computer you are downloading from may become disconnected from the network, or the user may decide they no longer want to share files. When this happens, try to get the file from another host, or try your request again later.

Problems related to your local file system are reported in the list as well. If you run out of hard drive space in your downloads directory, it will be reported in the list.

You can clear the list by right clicking with the mouse and choosing Clear List. You may also resize the errors list by clicking and dragging in the space between the errors list and the host list.

Download Display Items

Turning these boxes on instructs BearShare to clear the appropriate item from the display automatically. When the option to clear is checked, the items will be removed after a brief pause.

Note: These checkboxes do not affect your files

Download Controls

The Always retry failed option, when checked, will re-queue any download which fails due to a non-terminal error.

The edit box controls the maximum number of files BearShare will try to download at once. If you have a slower network connection, consider setting this to one or two. Users with faster connections can have a larger number of concurrent downloads; However, if you have too manu downloads going at the same time, this will reduce the amount of bandwidth available for uploads.

It is possible for the number of active downloads to go over the number you enter here if you manually start downloads using the Start menu item.

When a download completes and there are several downloasd waiting in the list to choose next, the FreePeers Agent will prefer servers that you are not already downloading from. This keeps the load down on any one particular server when possible, and therefore increases your chances of getting the file.

Download Statistics

This section shows the number of downloads in progress, and the portion of your bandwidth used for downloading. The bandwidth does not include the bandwidth used for hosts or uploads, and does not include bandwidth used by other programs.

The number of downloads is shown as the number of currently active items, followed by the total number of items (active and queued). If they are the same, only one number is displayed.