How to Download

How to Download
Downloading is the process of copying a file (such as a game or utility) from one computer to another across the internet. When you download a game from our web site, it means you are copying it from the author or publisher's web server to your own computer. This allows you to install and use the program on your own machine.

Here's how to download a file using Internet Explorer and Windows XP. (This example shows a download of the file "dweepsetup.exe" from Dexterity Games.) If you're using a different browser such as Netscape Navigator or a different version of Windows, your screens may look a little different, but the same basic steps should work.

   1. Click on the download link for the program you want to download. Many sites offer multiple download links to the same program, and you only need to choose one of these links.

   2. You may be asked if you want to save the file or run it from its current location. If you are asked this question, select "Save." If not, don't worry -- some browsers will automatically choose "Save" for you.

   3. You will then be asked to select the folder where you want to save the program or file, using a standard "Save As" dialog box. Pay attention to which folder you select before clicking the "Save" button. It may help you to create a folder like "C:\Download" for all of your downloads, but you can use any folder you'd like.

    4. The download will now begin. Your web browser will keep you updated on the progress of the download by showing a progress bar that fills up as you download. You will also be reminded where you're saving the file. The file will be saved as "C:\Download\dweepsetup.exe".

Note: You may also see a check box labeled "Close this dialog box when download completes." If you see this check box, it helps to uncheck this box. You don't have to, but if you do, it will be easier to find the file after you download it.

     5. Depending on which file you're downloading and how fast your connection is, it may take anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes to download. When your download is finished, if you left the "Close this dialog box when download completes" option unchecked, you'll see a dialog box like this one:

     6. Now click the "Open" button to run the file you just downloaded. If you don't see the "Download complete" dialog box, open the folder where you saved the file and double-click on the icon for the file there.

What happens next will depend on the type of file you downloaded. The files you'll download most often will end in one of two extensions. (An extension is the last few letters of the filename, after the period.) They are:

    * .EXE files: The file you downloaded is a program. Follow the on-screen instructions from there to install the program to your computer and to learn how to run the program after it's installed.
    * .ZIP files: ZIP is a common file format used to compress and combine files to make them download more quickly. Some versions of Windows (XP and sometimes ME) can read ZIP files without extra software. Otherwise, you will need an unzipping program to read these ZIP files. Common unzipping programs are WinZIP, PKZIP, and BitZipper, but there are also many others. Many unzipping programs are shareware, which means you will need to purchase them if you use them beyond their specified trial period.
(http://www.asp-software.org)

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Downloadable content

Downloadable content (also referred to as DLC) is a form of digital media distributed through the Internet. The phrase is used to refer specifically to content created for video games that is released separately from the main video game release.

HistoryPrecursors to Downloadable content
The earliest form of digital distribution in video games was the Atari 2600's GameLine service, which allowed users to download games using a telephone line. A similar service, Sega Channel, allowed for the downloading of games to the Sega Genesis over a cable line.

While the GameLine and Sega Channel services allowed for the distribution of entire titles, they did not offer Downloadable Content for existing titles. Perhaps the closest the services came to offering true Downloadable content was Shiny Entertainment's special edition of Earthworm Jim offered over the Sega Channel, though it too was still a stand-alone download.

On personal computersAs the popularity and speed of internet connections rose, so did the popularity of using the internet for digital distribution of media. User-created game mods and maps were distributed exclusively online, as they were mainly created by people without the infrastructure capable of distributing the content through physical media.

The majority of such content was available for free, and the phrase "downloadable content" is rarely used to refer to such content, instead being termed "user-created content" and or "mods", for example, the Spring game engine has many downloadable content under both free and proprietary licenses.

On consolesThe Dreamcast was the first console to feature online support as a standard; Downloadable content was available, though limited in size due to the narrowband connection and the size limitations of a memory card. These online features were still considered a breakthrough in video games, but the Dreamcast's immediate competitors, the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo GameCube, did not ship with built-in network adapters.

With the advent of the Xbox, Microsoft was the second company to implement downloadable content. Many original Xbox Live titles, including Splinter Cell, Halo 2, and Ninja Gaiden, offered varying amounts of extra content, available for download through the Xbox Live service. Most of this content, with the notable exception of content for Microsoft-published titles, was available for free.

Microsoft was the first company to charge for downloadable content, with the 2002 video game Mech Assault.

With the Xbox 360, Microsoft integrated downloadable content more fully into their console, devoting an entire section of the console's user interface to the Xbox Live Marketplace. They also removed the need for credit cards by implementing their own Microsoft Points currency, a strategy that would be adopted by Nintendo with Wii Points and Sony with the PlayStation Network Card.


Sony adopted much of the Xbox Live Marketplace's features into their downloadable hub, the PlayStation Store. With Gran Turismo HD, Sony planned an entirely barebones title, with the idea of requiring the bulk of the content to be purchased separately via many separate online microtransactions. The project was later canceled. Nintendo has featured a sparser amount of downloadable content on their Wii Shop Channel, the bulk of which is accounted for by digital distribution of emulated Nintendo titles from previous generations.

Music video games such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band have taken significant advantage of downloadable content. Harmonix claimed that Guitar Hero II would feature "more online content than anyone has ever seen in a game to this date." Rock Band features the largest number of downloadable items of any console video game, with a steady number of new songs being added weekly. Acquiring all the downloadable content for Rock Band would cost at least over $2000.
(en.wikipedia.org)

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Download acceleration

Download acceleration, also known as multipart download, is a term for the method employed by software such as download managers to download a single file by splitting it in segments and using several simultaneous connections to download these segments from a single server.

The reason for doing so is to circumvent server side limitations of bandwidth per connection. Because in normal networking situations all individual connections are treated equally, rather than actual file transfers, multiple connections yields an advantage on saturated links over simple connections, both in terms of total bandwidth allocation and resilience. Many servers, however, implement a maximum number of simultaneous connections per client in order to mitigate this.

This is not to be confused with segmented downloading, which allows a client to download segments of a file simultaneously from multiple servers. (en.wikipedia.org)

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Download Manager

A download manager is a computer program dedicated to the task of downloading (and sometimes uploading) possibly unrelated stand-alone files from (and sometimes to) the Internet for storage. This is unlike a World Wide Web browser, which is mainly intended to browse web pages, composed of a multitude of smaller files, where error-free moving of files for permanent storage is of secondary importance. (A failed or incomplete web page file rarely ruins the page.)

The typical download manager at a minimum provides means to recover from errors without losing the work already completed, and can optionally split the file to be downloaded (or uploaded) into 2 or more segments, which are then moved in parallel, potentially making 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 shared equally by all users.) Multi-source is the name given to files that are downloaded in parallel.

Features
Download managers commonly include one or more of the following features:

    * Pausing the downloading of large files.
    * Resuming broken or paused downloads (especially for very large files).
    * Downloading files on poor connections.
    * Downloading several files from a site automatically according to simple rules (file types, updated files, etc. - see also Offline Browser).
    * Automatic recursive downloads (mirroring).
    * Scheduled downloads (including, automatic hang-up and shutdown).
    * Searching for mirror sites, and the handling of different connections to download the same file more quickly (segmented downloading).
    * Variable bandwidth usage.
    * Automatic subfolder generation.

Download managers are useful for very active Internet users. For dial-up users, they can automatically dial the Internet Service Provider at night, when rates or tariffs are usually much lower, download the specified files, and hang-up. They can record which links the user clicks on during the day, and queue these files for later download. For broadband users, download managers can help download very large files by resuming broken downloads, by limiting the bandwidth used, so that other internet activities are not affected (slowed) and the server is not overloaded, or by automatically navigating a site and downloading pre-specified content (photo galleries, MP3 collections, etc.) this can also include automatically downloading whole sites and regularly updating them (see Mirroring).

Many download managers support Metalink, an XML file listing mirrors, checksums, and other information useful for downloading.

Related Applications
Related to download managers are two other breeds of Internet programs, file-sharing peer-to-peer applications (eMule, BitTorrent, Gnutella) and stream recorders (such as StreamBox VCR).

While download managers are designed to give users greater control over downloads, some downloaders are created to give that control to 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 their technical support costs. A possible reason is increasing the control over redistribution of their software (even when the software is freeware). (http://en.wikipedia.org)

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Music Download

A music download is the transferral of a song from an Internet-facing computer or website to a user's local computer. This term encompasses both legal downloads and downloads of copyright material without permission or payment.

Popular examples of online music stores that sell digital singles and albums include the iTunes Store, Napster, Zune Marketplace, Amazon MP3, Nokia Music Store, TuneTribe, Kazaa and eMusic. Paid downloads are sometimes encoded with Digital Rights Management that restricts making extra copies of the music or playing purchased songs on certain digital audio players. They are almost always compressed using a lossy codec (usually MPEG-1 Layer 3 or Windows Media), reducing file size and therefore bandwidth requirements.

However, this may cause an apparent loss in quality to a listener when compared to a CD, and cause compatibility issues with certain software and devices. Uncompressed files and losslessly compressed files are available at some sites.

As of 2006, digital music sales are estimated to have reached a trade value of approximately US$2 billion, with tracks available through 500 online services located in 40 countries, representing around 10 percent of the total global music market. Around the world in 2006, an estimated five billion songs, equating to 38,000 years in music, were swapped on peer-to-peer websites, while 509 million were purchased online. As of January 2011, Apple's iTunes Store alone saw $1.1 billion of revenue in fiscal Q1.

Music downloads offered by artists
Some artists allow their songs to be downloaded from their websites, often as a short preview or a low-quality sampling. Others have embedded services in their sites that allow purchases of their singles or albums.

Challenges to legal music downloads
Even legal music downloads have faced a number of challenges from artists, record labels and the Recording Industry Association of America. In July 2007, the Universal Music Group decided not to renew their long-term contracts with iTunes. This legal challenge[clarification needed] was primarily based upon the issue of pricing of songs, as Universal wanted to be able to charge more or less depending on the artist, a shift away from iTunes' standard 99 cents per song pricing. Many industry leaders feel that this is only the first of many show-downs between Apple Inc. and the various record labels.
(http://en.wikipedia.org)

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Uploading and downloading

In computer networks, to download means to receive data to a local system from a remote system, or to initiate such a data transfer. Examples of a remote system from which a download might be performed include a webserver, FTP server, email server, or other similar systems. A download can mean either any file that is offered for downloading or that has been downloaded, or the process of receiving such a file.

It has become more common to mistake and confuse the meaning of downloading and installing or simply combine them incorrectly together.

The inverse operation, uploading, can refer to the sending of data from a local system to a remote system such as a server or another client with the intent that the remote system should store a copy of the data being transferred, or the initiation of such a process. The words first came into popular usage among computer users with the increased popularity of Bulletin Board Systems (BBSs), facilitated by the widespread distribution and implementation of dial-up access the in the 1970s
DownloadThe use of the terms uploading and downloading often imply that the data sent or received is to be stored permanently, or at least stored more than temporarily. In contrast, the term downloading is distinguished from the related concept of streaming, which indicates the receiving of data that is used near immediately as it is received, while the transmission is still in progress and which may not be stored long-term, whereas in a process described using the term downloading, this would imply that the data is only usable when it has been received in its entirety.

Increasingly, websites that offer streaming media or media displayed in-browser, such as YouTube, and which place restrictions on the ability of users to save these materials to their computers after they have been received, say that downloading is not permitted.[1] In this context, "download" implies specifically "receive and save" instead of simply "receive". However, it is also important to note that "downloading" is not the same as "transferring" (i.e., sending/receiving data between two storage devices would be a transferral of data, but receiving data from the Internet would be considered a download of data).

Sideload
When applied to local transfers (sending data from one local system to another local system), it is often difficult to decide if it is an upload or download, as both source and destination are in the local control of the user. Technically if the user uses the receiving device to initiate the transfer then it would be a download and if they used the sending device to initiate it would be an upload. However, as most non-technical users tend to use the term download to refer to any data transfer, the term "sideload" is sometimes being used to cover all local to local transfers to end this confusion.

Remote Upload
When there is a transfer of data from a remote system to another remote system, the process is called "remote uploading". This is used by some online file hosting services.

Remote uploading is also used in situations where the computers that need to share data are located on a distant high speed local area network, and the remote control is being performed using a comparatively slow dialup modem connection.

For example:

    * The user remotely accesses a file hosting service at MyRemoteHost.
    * The user finds a public file at PublicRemoteHost and wants to keep a copy in their MyRemoteHost.
    * To have it done they "remote upload" the file from PublicRemoteHost to MyRemoteHost.
    * None of the hosts are located on the user's local network.

Without remote uploading functionality, the user would be required to download the file first to their local host and then re-upload it to the remote file hosting server.

Where the connection to the remote computers is via a dialup connection, the transfer time required to download locally and then re-upload could increase from seconds, to hours or days.
(http://en.wikipedia.org)

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