I have dial-up Internet access and I want to find a way to download games or other applications (usually archived in zip format) in segments that can be saved to disk one day, then resumed another day, and so on until the complete archive has been downloaded. Segments will generally not exceed 15 MB in size, corresponding to about one hour of download time per session.

I see from the Wget man page that Wget will allow such behavior using the "c" (continue) command-line parameter. However, the downloads I am primarily seeking are protected by layers of security to deter "link stealers." Thus, if a URL for a download can be resolved and can be seen on-screen, it cannot be used after the session has ended. The URL changes each time a new session is started.

I also see from the CURL man page that it accepts the "--referer" command-line parameter, which might make it a more likely candidate for segmented downloads than Wget.

I would guess that I could use my web browser to work through the layers of security, resolve a download's URL, then enter the URL into the command-line for starting Wget, but this creates another problem. Some sites will not allow simultaneous downloading of muliple files, nor will they allow download managers that use multiple connections to accelerate downloads. Using a web browser and Wget to simultaneously download the same archive, even for a fraction of a second, would probably get me banned from some websites.

So, does anyone know a good way, if any, to do what I want to do? My primary objective is to be able to resume a file download that has been partially saved to hard disk during a previous session. My secondary concern is the best way to get around the "multiple-file-download" ban.

My one-and-only operating system is Mandriva 2007.0, kernel 2.6.17-5mdv. I primarily use Firefox 1.5.0.7, which came with my Mandriva installation discs, but I also have Firefox 3.0 and Opera 9.50 installed.

If you just cannot download the whole file because you log out of the system after a certain time - "screen" might be an option.
You start "screen" - from there you start your wget session.
You can then detach from screen and log out - screen (and wget) will keep running and downloading as long as the internet connection is up and the machine too.

Or is there another limit why you can only download for approx. 1 hour a day?

My download transfer speed decreases dramatically after being on-line for one hour. This happens for every session, forcing me to conclude that my ISP is trying to discourage prolonged connect-time per session, although this practice is not part of the "fine print" in the contract. So, I keep sessions to one hour or less.

I am going to try a procedure briefly outlined on the HOTU FAQs page that might enable me to save segmented downloads session-to-session for archives available on that website. If it works, I will post here to describe the procedure. Meanwhile, I am still interested in a download manager for Linux that can be set for web browser integration, and that will allow entry of referer information, with the final objective of enabling session-to-session segmented downloads.