How to tell if a file download completed?

I have a large install file (an exe) on my web Apache server that people
download and install from. Looking at my log files, I see a lot of
people downloading it, but no way to tell for sure if they completed the
download or cancelled out before it completed. Are there any known
methods that would allow the web server to send the file and detect a
completion or cancellation?

Or perhaps a javascript method or html request trick that would allow a
second file (say an image) to be requested if the first file downloads
to completion but not if cancelled?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Dan

Dan D wrote:

Quote:

I have a large install file (an exe) on my web Apache server that people
download and install from. Looking at my log files, I see a lot of
people downloading it, but no way to tell for sure if they completed the
download or cancelled out before it completed. Are there any known
methods that would allow the web server to send the file and detect a
completion or cancellation?

This probably won't help you, especially if you can't add to the
installation file, but our situation was more under my control:

We had a package that had to be downloaded and installed. What we did
was include a DLL that we could check for in our login page. If we saw
the OBJECT correctly, then we didn't go to the download page. If we
didn't see the OBJECT then we asked the person to run the install file,
then click a button to try login again. They basically could not get
in until we saw the DLL we had installed.

If you can include an ActiveXObject like this in the installation, you
could check for it later.

Just a thought,
Kev

Dan D wrote:

Quote:

I have a large install file (an exe) on my web Apache server that people
download and install from. Looking at my log files, I see a lot of
people downloading it, but no way to tell for sure if they completed the
download or cancelled out before it completed. Are there any known
methods that would allow the web server to send the file and detect a
completion or cancellation?

Change protocols:

ftp://...

--
Rob

Kevin Darling wrote:

Quote:

Dan D wrote:
>

Quote:

>>I have a large install file (an exe) on my web Apache server that people
>>download and install from. Looking at my log files, I see a lot of
>>people downloading it, but no way to tell for sure if they completed the
>>download or cancelled out before it completed. Are there any known
>>methods that would allow the web server to send the file and detect a
>>completion or cancellation?

>
>
This probably won't help you, especially if you can't add to the
installation file, but our situation was more under my control:
>
We had a package that had to be downloaded and installed. What we did
was include a DLL that we could check for in our login page. If we saw
the OBJECT correctly, then we didn't go to the download page. If we
didn't see the OBJECT then we asked the person to run the install file,
then click a button to try login again. They basically could not get
in until we saw the DLL we had installed.
>
If you can include an ActiveXObject like this in the installation, you
could check for it later.
>
Just a thought,
Kev

I thought of trying something like that, but couldn't quite get that to
fit into the entire scenario. Thanks for the advice. Dan

RobG wrote:

Quote:

Dan D wrote:
>

Quote:

>>I have a large install file (an exe) on my web Apache server that people
>>download and install from. Looking at my log files, I see a lot of
>>people downloading it, but no way to tell for sure if they completed the
>>download or cancelled out before it completed. Are there any known
>>methods that would allow the web server to send the file and detect a
>>completion or cancellation?

>
>
Change protocols:
>
ftp://...

Yeah, I wish. I think those 3 little letters scare too many people :)
Dan

Change protocols:

Quote:

ftp://...

Quote:

Yeah, I wish. I think those 3 little letters scare too many people :)

:-)
Client:
<a href="TinyCuty.html">Tiny Cuty HTML page</a>

Server mod_rewrite:
TinyCuty.html HellBigExecutable.exe
:-)

:-|
IMHO "3 little letters scaring too many people" are not "ftp" but
"exe". Unless you are some trusty brend, you'll get much better chances
to be downloaded in .zip format.

For the original question I don't see a way to do anything client-side.
If you have control over server, you can bind each download to some
deamon to compare later the file size with actual packets sent.

How to tell if a file download completed?

re: How to tell if a file download completed?

re: How to tell if a file download completed?

re: How to tell if a file download completed?

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re: How to tell if a file download completed?

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