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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?

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  • I am some what interested in what the file is. There are likely easier ways to get it.
    – Ramhound
    Nov 19, 2015 at 16:17
  • MS support can't think of any. It's the Office 2016 Business installation bundle - all other methods fail with cryptic errors even MS techs can't figure out. There's no (legal) online download, just a MS installer which fails
    – user56reinstatemonica8
    Nov 19, 2015 at 16:20
  • If the server doesn't support resuming/partial downloads then there's nothing you can do about it on your end.
    – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007
    Nov 19, 2015 at 16:22
  • Perhaps your download failures are related. ;) Do you have an unstable internet connection, an AV scanning firewall, a NVIDIA NIC, a personal AV scanner, a personal firewall or anything the like involved?
    – Daniel B
    Nov 19, 2015 at 16:23
  • @DanielB I'm in a country where every internet connection is unstable, hence my difficulties... literally driven to the fancy hotel with the best internet in town, but it still has occasional fraction-of-a-second blips, which are enough to kill this download
    – user56reinstatemonica8
    Nov 19, 2015 at 16:30

1 Answer 1

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The unfortunate answer is no. Unless the HTTP server supports requests with the Range header set, resuming is not possible. And even if the server theoretically supports it, the download could be served by a backend (PHP script, ASP, Perl, whatever) that doesn’t.

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