Skip to main content

Downloading problems

Internet Explorer over HTTPS: Internet Explorer Cannot Download [...]

Please set "session.cache_limiter" to "private_no_expire", in your PHP configuration. It should fix the problem. The problem is caused by a weird Internet Explorer behavior. 

Downloading very large files

 For FastCGI Servers (Usually Microsoft IIS)

If the transfer stops for no apparent reason while downloading large files, try increasing the values of "RequestTimeout" and "ActivityTimeout" FastCGI configuration directives (on Windows servers, the location of the file is usually "%WINDIR%system32inetsrvfcgiext.ini"). The default values do not accommodate downloading large files over slow Internet connections.

For Apache Web Servers

Applies to Web File Share version (020710A)

Most shared hosting services configure the servers so that PHP scripts that are running for too long (usually more than 30 seconds) and use to much CPU or memory are automatically stopped. This is to save money by crowding as many customers as possible on a single server. Downloading large files trough PHP, using a slower internet connection can take quite a long time, requiring the PHP process to run for a few minutes. If your large downloads do not complete successfully, you might want to take advantage of this workaround. This will make Web File Share pass the download to the web server (Apache), instead of letting PHP deal with it.

Requirements

 

  1. Apache web server (it doesn't work with IIS or other web servers)
  2. Apache module "mod_rewrite" needs to be enabled
  3. (on Linux servers in particular) the users under which Apache is running (usually "www" or "apache") must have permission to access the files that are to be downloaded. Sometimes Apache's access is limited to the "www" or "public_html" folder and additional permissions must be configured.

To enable the workaround, please follow these steps:

  1. Open "/path-to-WebFileShare/customizables/config.php" in a text editor
  2. Copy the following three lines of PHP code at the end of the file:

$config['enable_download_trick'] = true;

$config['download_trick_minimum_filesize'] = 20971520;//in bytes, recommened value: 20971520 (20MB)

$config['download_trick_links_life'] = 10; //in seconds, recommended value 10

  1. If the code already exists in the file, you can simply replace "false" with "true".
  2. Make sure a file named ".htaccess" is availabe inside the folder "/path-to-WebFileShare/download". If a file "htaccess.txt" exists in the folder, please rename it to ".htaccess".

Troubleshooting

If you are getting a "500 Internal Server Error" when trying to download files, most probably "mod_rewrite" is not available on your server.

If you are getting a "404 File Not Found" error, please make sure the file ".htaccess" is located in the folder "/path-to-WebFileShare/download", it is not empty and has proper permission settings. If you are accessing the Web File Share installation using a subdomain, you should add "RewriteBase /download/", right after "RewriteEngine On", inside the ".htaccess" file.

 

 

 

Back to top