A download manager is a Aol Media Player Embedded Download computer program dedicated Aol Media Player Embedded Download to the task of downloading (and sometime Shenmue Zero Download uploading) possibly unrelated stand-alone files from (and sometime to) the Internet for storage. This is Aol Media Player Embedded Download unlike a World Wide Web browser, which is mainly intended to browse web pages, composed of a Aol Media Player Embedded Download multitude of smaller files, where error-free moving of files for permanent storage is of Aol Media Player Embedded Download secondary importance. (A failed or incomplete web page file rarely ruins the page.) The Aol Media Player Embedded Download typical download manager at a minimum provides means to recover from errors without losing the work already completed, and can optionally split the Aol Media Player Embedded Download file to be downloaded (or uploaded) into 2 or more segments, Aol Media Player Embedded Download which are Aol Media Player Embedded Download then moved in parallel, Aol Media Player Embedded Download potentially making Aol Media Player Embedded Download the process faster within the limits of the available bandwidth. (A few servers are known to block moving files in parallel segments, on the principle that server capacity should be Aol Media Player Embedded Download shared Aol Media Player Embedded Download equally Aol Media Player Embedded Download by all users.) Multi-source is the name given to files that are downloaded in parallel.
There Aol Media Player Embedded Download are several things that some web browsers are not Aol Media Player Embedded Download very Aol Media Player Embedded Download good Aol Media Player Embedded Download at. Aol Media Player Embedded Download That's where Aol Media Player Embedded Download the Aol Media Player Embedded Download download managers enter the equation:
Pausing the downloading of large files.
Resuming broken or paused Aol Media Player Embedded Download downloads (especially for very large files).
Downloading Aol Media Player Embedded Download files on Aol Media Player Embedded Download poor connections.
Downloading several files from a site automatically according to simple rules (file types, updated files, etc. - see Aol Media Player Embedded Download also Offline Browser).
Automatic recursive downloads (mirroring).
Scheduled downloads (including, automatic Aol Media Player Embedded Download hang-up and shutdown).
Searching Aol Media Player Embedded Download for mirror sites, and the handling of Aol Media Player Embedded Download different connections to download the same Aol Media Player Embedded Download file Aol Media Player Embedded Download more quickly (segmented downloading).
Download managers Aol Media Player Embedded Download are useful for active Internet users. For dial-up users, they can automatically dial the internet service provider at night, when rates or tariffs are usually lower, download the Aol Media Player Embedded Download specified files, and Aol Media Player Embedded Download hang-up. They can record which links the user Aol Media Player Embedded Download clicks on during Aol Media Player Embedded Download the Aol Media Player Embedded Download day, and queue these files for later download. For broadband users, Aol Media Player Embedded Download download managers can help download very large files by resuming broken downloads, by limiting the Aol Media Player Embedded Download bandwidth used, so that other internet activities are not Aol Media Player Embedded Download affected (slowed) and the server Aol Media Player Embedded Download is not overloaded, or by automatically navigating a site and downloading pre-specified content Aol Media Player Embedded Download (photo galleries, MP3 collections, etc.) this can also include automatically downloading Aol Media Player Embedded Download whole sites and regularly updating them (see Mirroring).
Many download managers support Aol Media Player Embedded Download Metalink, an XML file listing mirrors, checksums, and Aol Media Player Embedded Download other information useful Aol Media Player Embedded Download for downloading.
See below for some examples Aol Media Player Embedded Download of commonly used download managers. Some downloaders are optimized Aol Media Player Embedded Download for a certain function. For example, Offline Explorer is designed Aol Media Player Embedded Download to download entire websites.
Download managers, such as Go!Zilla, were among the first adware applications displaying Aol Media Player Embedded Download a banner ad in the user interface.
Related to download managers are two other breeds of Internet programs, file-sharing peer-to-peer applications (Kazaa, eMule, BitTorrent, Gnutella) and stream recorders (such as StreamBox VCR).
While download managers are designed Aol Media Player Embedded Download to Aol Media Player Embedded Download give users greater control over downloads, some downloaders are created to give Aol Media Player Embedded Download that control to Aol Media Player Embedded Download content distributors instead. Some software companies, for example Adobe [1], provide such downloaders for downloading software on their own site. Presumably this increases reliability and reduces tech support costs to Aol Media Player Embedded Download them. A possible reason is increasing the control Aol Media Player Embedded Download over redistribution of their software (even when the software is freeware).In computer technology and telecommunication, on-line and off-line are defined by Federal Standard Aol Media Player Embedded Download 1037C. They are states or conditions of a "device Aol Media Player Embedded Download or equipment" or of "a functional unit". To be considered on-line, Aol Media Player Embedded Download a device must be at least one of:
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"Under the direct control of another device"
"Under the direct control of the system with which it is associated"
"Available for immediate use on demand by Aol Media Player Embedded Download the system without human intervention"
"Connected to a system, and is in operation"
"Functional and Aol Media Player Embedded Download ready Aol Media Player Embedded Download for service"
while a device that is off-line is not (e.g. it has "its main power source disconnected or turned off", and is "off-power").
One example of a common Aol Media Player Embedded Download use of Aol Media Player Embedded Download these Aol Media Player Embedded Download concepts is a Mail User Agent that can Aol Media Player Embedded Download be instructed Aol Media Player Embedded Download to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" Aol Media Player Embedded Download states. One such MUA is Microsoft Outlook. When it is "on-line" it will attempt Aol Media Player Embedded Download to connect to mail servers Aol Media Player Embedded Download (to check for new mail at regular intervals, for example), and when it is "off-line" it will not Aol Media Player Embedded Download attempt to make any such connections. The "on-line" or "off-line" state of the MUA does not necessarily reflect the Aol Media Player Embedded Download connection status between the computer on which it is running and Aol Media Player Embedded Download Internet. Aol Media Player Embedded Download The user may have the computer itself on-line, connected to Internet via a cable modem or an Zonealarm Download ADSL connection, but may wish for Outlook to be off-line, so that it makes no attempt to send or to receive messages. Or the computer may be configured to employ a dial-up connection on Aol Media Player Embedded Download demand (whenever an application such as Outlook attempts to make connection to a server), but the connection may be an expensive telephone call from the particular location in which the computer currently happens to be (such as a hotel room) and the user may not wish Outlook to trigger Aol Media Player Embedded Download making that Aol Media Player Embedded Download call every 5 or 10 minutes to check for mail.[1]
Another example of the Aol Media Player Embedded Download use of these concepts is in the world of digital audio technology. A tape Aol Media Player Embedded Download recorder, digital editor, or other device that Aol Media Player Embedded Download is "on-line" is one whose clock is under the control of the clock of a "synchronization master" device. When the sync master commences playback, the "on-line" device automatically synchronizes itself to the master and commences playing from Aol Media Player Embedded Download the Aol Media Player Embedded Download same point in the recording. Whereas a device that is "off-line" uses no external Aol Media Player Embedded Download clock reference and relies upon its own internal clock. When a Aol Media Player Embedded Download large number of devices Aol Media Player Embedded Download are connected to a sync master, it is often convenient, if one wants to hear just the output of one single device, to take it off-line, because if the device is played back on-line all synchronized devices Aol Media Player Embedded Download have to locate the playback point and wait for Aol Media Player Embedded Download each Aol Media Player Embedded Download other to be in synchronization.[2] (For further Aol Media Player Embedded Download related discussion, see MIDI timecode, word sync, and recording system synchronization.)
A third example of a common use of these concepts is a web browser that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. The browser only attempts to fetch pages from servers Aol Media Player Embedded Download whilst in the "on-line" state. In the Aol Media Player Embedded Download "off-line" state, users can perform offline browsing, where pages can be browsed using local copies of those Aol Media Player Embedded Download pages that Aol Media Player Embedded Download have previously been downloaded whilst in the "on-line" state. This can be useful when Aol Media Player Embedded Download the computer itself is also off-line, with connection to Internet expensive or Aol Media Player Embedded Download impossible. The pages are either downloaded implicitly into the web browser's own cache, as a result of prior on-line browsing by the user, or explicitly by the browser being configured to keep local copies of certain web pages, which it keeps updated when the browser is in the on-line state, either Aol Media Player Embedded Download by checking that the local copies are up-to-date at regular intervals or by checking Aol Media Player Embedded Download that the local copies are up-to-date whenever the browser is switched to the on-line state. One such web browser capable of being explicitly configured to download pages for Aol Media Player Embedded Download offline browsing is Internet Explorer. When pages are added Aol Media Player Embedded Download to the "Favourites" list, they can Aol Media Player Embedded Download be Aol Media Player Embedded Download marked for being made Aol Media Player Embedded Download "available for offline browsing". Internet Aol Media Player Embedded Download Explorer will download to local copies both the marked page and, optionally, all of the pages that it links to. In Internet Explorer Aol Media Player Embedded Download version 6, the Aol Media Player Embedded Download level of direct and indirect links, the maximum amount of local disc space allowed to be consumed, and the schedule on which local copies Aol Media Player Embedded Download are checked to Aol Media Player Embedded Download see whether they are up-to-date, are configurable for each individual "Favourite" entry.
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See also:
Offline browsing known as "Offline favourites" was removed as a feature in the most recent version of Internet Explorer 7, which only now supports single web page saving, Aol Media Player Embedded Download but not Aol Media Player Embedded Download browsing Aol Media Player Embedded Download or storing an Aol Media Player Embedded Download entire site offline.[citation needed]
Similarly, off-line storage is computer storage that is not "available for Aol Media Player Embedded Download immediate use Aol Media Player Embedded Download on demand by the system without human Aol Media Player Embedded Download intervention", i.e it is storage that is off-line.
The ideas of "on-line" and Aol Media Player Embedded Download "off-line" have been generalized from computing and telecommunication into the field of human interpersonal relationships. The distinction between what is Aol Media Player Embedded Download considered "on-line" and what is considered "off-line" has become a subject of study in Aol Media Player Embedded Download the field of sociology.[7]
The distinction between "on-line" and "off-line" Aol Media Player Embedded Download is conventionally seen as Aol Media Player Embedded Download the distinction between computer-mediated communication Aol Media Player Embedded Download and face-to-face communication (e.g. face time), respectively. "On-line" is virtuality, Aol Media Player Embedded Download and "off-line" is reality (e.g. real life or meatspace). Slater states that this distinction is "obviously far too simple". To support his argument that the distinctions in relationships are more complex than a simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes that some people draw no distinction between Aol Media Player Embedded Download an "on-line" relationship, such as indulging in cybersex, and an "off-line" relationship, such as being pen-pals. He also argues that even the telephone can be regarded as an "on-line" experience in some circumstances, and that the blurring of the distinctions between Aol Media Player Embedded Download the Aol Media Player Embedded Download uses of various technologies (such as PDA and mobile telephone, television and Internet, and telephone and Aol Media Player Embedded Download voice-over-IP) Aol Media Player Embedded Download has made it "impossible to use the term 'on-line' meaningfully in the sense that was employed by the first generation of Internet research".[7]
Slater asserts that there are legal and regulatory pressures to reduce the distinction between "on-line" and "off-line", with a "general tendency to assimilate online to offline and erase Aol Media Player Embedded Download the distinction", stressing, however, that this does Aol Media Player Embedded Download not mean that on-line relationships are being reduced to pre-existing off-line relationships. He conjectures that greater legal status may be assigned to on-line relationships (pointing out that contractual relationships, such as business transactions, on-line are already seen as just as "real" as their off-line counterparts), although he states it to be hard to imagine courts awarding palimony to people Aol Media Player Embedded Download who have had a purely on-line sexual Aol Media Player Embedded Download relationship. He also conjectures that Aol Media Player Embedded Download an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction may be seen by people as "rather quaint and not quite comprehensible" within 10 years.[7]
The distinction where "on-line" is seen as virtuality and "off-line" Aol Media Player Embedded Download as reality is sometimes Aol Media Player Embedded Download inverted, with "on-line" Aol Media Player Embedded Download concepts being used to define and to explain "off-line" activities, rather than (as per the Aol Media Player Embedded Download conventions of the desktop metaphor with its desktops, trash cans, folders, and so forth) the other way around. Several cartoons Aol Media Player Embedded Download by The New Yorker have satirized Aol Media Player Embedded Download this. One includes Saint Peter asking for a user name and a password before Aol Media Player Embedded Download admitting a man into Heaven. Another illustrates "the off-line store" where "All Aol Media Player Embedded Download items are actual size!", Aol Media Player Embedded Download where shoppers may "Take it home as soon as you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled prior Aol Media Player Embedded Download to purchase!". |