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Browser Web Download

Frequently, you will come across downloadable files that are linked to Web pages. For example, many Shareware sites use the Web browser as the primary interface for finding and downloading programs. Although you can download any type of file that a clickable link is connected to, most downloadable files you come across on the Internet will be compressed. You should either configure your browser to use helper programs to automatically uncompress these files, or just save them to your computer so you can manually uncompress them later. Some of these files will be self-extracting archives. (See the course notes on compression for a complete explanation of how to work with archives.)

To download a file with your web browser, click on the link for the file to download, and your browser will attempt to identify what kind of file it is. Some browsers are not configured to properly handle .ZIP files, in whihc case it will ask you what to do with it. You would get a screen that looks something like this:

After clicking OK, you will get a save dialog box to allow you to choose where to save the file and what to name it. At this point you will see a File donwload dialog window similar to the following to enable you to follow the download time.

Once the donwload is complete, you may receive a completion notice.

If your browser does not present you with the above dialogs, but instead gives Unknown File Type messages, you can configure your browser to handle the file type without asking you to resolve unknowm file type errors all the time. To save yourself a little time and avoid the unknowm file type errors all the time, you can configure Netscape, (or Internet Explorer), so that it will automatically open the Save As... box whenever you attempt to download a ZIP file.

From the Netscape Options... menu, select General Preferences.... Click on the Helpers tab. Scroll down and locate the item labeled application/x-zip-compressed. Where it says Action, click the Save to Disk button, then click OK.

Next time you download a file, Netscape will ask you where you want to save the file.