Microsoft support are trying to send me a 1GB file. The problem is, their homespun file transfer service (filetransfer.support.microsoft.com) appears to be configured in a way which prevents downloads from being resumed. I don't know what they've done on their side, but here are some example symptoms:
- In IE's download manager, if I press "pause" then resume, IE says "resuming..." for a moment, then "restarting..." and starts again from 0 bytes
- In Firefox, any pause or interuption is reported as "Failed". If I do the "Firefox resume download trick" (copy the .part file, download again, pause, paste the old .part file over the newly created one, resume), it just instantly reports "Failed"
- In the Firefox extension / download manager DownThemAll, any attempt to resume after a pause or interupption is reported as a "406 error". It is also unable to partion the download into multiple parrallel downloads (normally, it can split it into four seperate streams)
Microsoft want me to download this file, but right now it seems impossible - I'm in a country where sustaining a connection with 0 milisecond blips simply doesn't happen.
Is there any way I might be able to restore a download from such a server?