[Tfug] HTTP file size limitation

[Bexley Hall]

Hi John,

--- On Tue, 9/25/12, John Gruenenfelder <jetpackjohn at gmail.com> wrote:

> > Perhaps over-tired and this might make more sense to me
> > after some Zzzz's...
> >
> > I was trying to pull down a 4.4G file on an XP box via
> > Firefox, today.  Transfer went well for the first 435MB,
> > then, suddenly, stopped.
> >
> > Hmmm...
> >
> >......
> >
> > So, what's going on??
> >
> > (sigh)  I'll look at it again in the morning.  My body can't
> > handle these 40 hour days, anymore.  :<
>
>
> The short answer is, no, there is no such ~434 MB limit in
> the HTTP protocol.  If there is a defined maximum, it's very
> big.  People download CD and DVD images from the Net everyday
> and the latter can be far larger than 434 MB.

Yes, sorry I wasn't clear.  I wasn't suggesting this 434MB was a
real limit.  I had, earlier, quickly tried to pull the same file
down when at the library and aborted the transfer at 600MB -- just
to prove to myself that "something was wrong" on my end.

A friend had similarly pulled down ~800MB before aborting.

> You mentioned trying two versions of Firefox and one version
> of IE on Windows as well as wget on NetBSD, which would seem to
> insulate your end from being the problem.

That was my thinking when I tried the different clients.
*But* that doesn't seem to be the case!  (see the library
and friend experiments, above)  Something *in* my connection 
is most definitely causing the problem.  Either something in
the DSL modem or at my ISP (I took care to make sure nothing
else was in the link at the time).

> You didn't mention trying more than one
> website, however.  I would place my guess for the blame
> on the remote end.

I was initially hoping that was the case.  But, it hasn't
panned out that way.

I can, of course, work around this -- I'll drag a small NTFS
disk up to the library tomorrow and I should be able to pull
it down in about half an hour.  And, I rarely need to pull
down anything larger than a CD ISO (hence the reason I've
never bounced off this problem previously).

But, it has me wondering how this sort of problem could
be biting me upstream of *my* machines, and downstream
of the site!  :-/

Maybe, when the fog clears, I'll have a "d'oh" moment.

Perhaps a bit of brain-rot before bed will help drain the
cobwebs...

Thanx,
--don