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Re: Browser limits

Jim wrote:

> Once upon a midnight dreary, while Roy Schestowitz pondered weak and weary
> over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore...:
> 
>> __/ [ BearItAll ] on Wednesday 16 August 2006 14:47 \__
>> 
>>> I wouldn't normally use a browser to download large files, much easier
>>> with wget. So I haven't hit the 2G limit before.
>>> 
>>> But I was on a site this morning and the only way their gave was via the
>>> browser, though they did tell you that most browsers would hit a size
>>> limit including Firefox (of cause I missed that bit of text until I
>>> discovered the file wasn't fully downloaded, as you do). I thought that
>>> Opera would have no trouble, but it turns out that is the same.
>>> 
>>> Gzilla is the one to use for these large downloads, it's working fine so
>>> far.
>>> 
>>> But I just wondered if anyone had seen a reason for the download size
>>> limit? I can understand the limit of number of concurrent downloads,
>>> browsers are too big-n-bulky for that sort of job, but the file size
>>> limit doesn't seem to have a reason other than a number the browser
>>> writers picked out of the air.
>> 
>> I can only think of the file size limit (4GB for NTFS) as a factor. I can
>> recall being forced to slice zip files to make file transfers possible.
>> Also, as my external hard-drive comes with a braindead filesystem, tars
>> need to be sliced and reassembled. Could the limit, which needs to be
>> imposed somewhere (probably not if properly implemented), be driven by
>> some obscure convention? Vista (beta 2) ISO is 3.5 GB.
> 
> ntfs filesize limit is 16TB IIRC. You're thinking of the VFAT filesize
> limit (4GB). The filesize limit of the lowest common denominator of
> filesystems, that being FAT32 as used on flash drives, is 2GB. Perhaps
> this is what browser limitations are keyed for?

So it seems we are being held back by an MS filesystem. The browser could
check for for the Linux system phpinfo()-system. Then we are free of MS's
limitations.

Makes a nice change, instead of us being left out of sites because we happen
to run Linux, MS users would be denied large downloads because they run MS.



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