Is there a p2p app included in OS X?

I need to download a big file through the internet & I don't want to use the common downloader that Safari uses for fear of loosing data & having to re-start the operation many times (my internet conn. is failing lately with increasing frequency).

I know there're some browsers that can be enriched by adding some 'add-ons' like Download Helper for Firefox. Is there something like it for Safari? Is it already included? Can Safari's downloader manage well partial downloads to continue at a later moment?

Have searched & read some web pages on the subject but, until now, I can't tell the answers to the above questions.

In the case the p2p app finally is my best (only) alternative, which one has given users of OS X the best results?

Thanks to anyone with some info on the above issues!

Suggest you avoid any download managers and best results come with just downloading via Safari. Goive it a go and get back. You do not say what is a 'big file' in capacity, but Yosemite and Mavericks were both over 5GB and presented few problems.

Thanks for replying, harryb2448!

You're right, I didn't mention the size: I'm talking here about Lubuntu which might be over 700 MB. My internet connection is rated at about 2-3 MB/sec (top). When I say connection failure above I mean that in some days I've seen at least 5 dropouts in less than a complete afternoon.

I would have downloaded this already had I had the knowledge that Safari normally will continue with a failed download, appending the rest of the missing data (here 'missing' is used as 'not downloaded yet').

I prefer to know the above questions' answers before committing to this but I might need to resort to try it anyway... and see what happens.

So, sounds like you're looking for a bittorrent app, of which.. the only one I've used is Transmission. Highly useful for downloading operating systems, especially with limited bandwidth.

My speed in rural Australia is limited to 6Mb/s so I know what you are talking about. Yosemite at 5.2GB took half an hour. Your file in ratio size/speed should take you around the 8 to 9 minute mark. Safari will resume where a break off occurs so give it a go.

These days 700MB is not a huge file.

Thanks for replying dysfunction!

I've used one of these apps many years ago for a 300+ MB OS that I wanted to test but forgot which one. In any case, buy that time I was with just Dial-up and I remember that it took about 3 weeks.

I'll check with transmission out.

harryb2448 said:

My speed in rural Australia is limited to 6Mb/s so I know what you are talking about. Yosemite at 5.2GB took half an hour. Your file in ratio size/speed should take you around the 8 to 9 minute mark. Safari will resume where a break off occurs so give it a go.

These days 700MB is not a huge file.

Click to expand...

Agreed. You can have the Downloads Button on your Safari Menu Bar, and when you click that and see Orange Circle with a round Arrow in it, you can click on that to continue the download. Safari downs lose its place when it loses connection, so you can actually start and stop it how ever many times you want.
This is particularly helpful, when you want to step out with you Notebook and stop the download.
On the other hand, Transmission is also a good torrent downloader as well, but if a Safari page has a download button, use Safari and don't worry about a Torrent Downloader. The digest download I have used with Safari was over 6Gb being Xcode, so you are safe.

I missed the last two posts because I was looking for, selecting the right version of Transmission & downloading it. Then started to look how to handle the file: learned it's a disk image (.dmg). Haven't done anything with it yet and now that I read what TattooedMac and harryb2448's last post I'm about to close all other apps and start to finding a way to put that Download Button somewhere handy for the real download.

Thank you guys, you're really helpful!

Benny7440 said:

I missed the last two posts because I was looking for, selecting the right version of Transmission & downloading it. Then started to look how to handle the file: learned it's a disk image (.dmg). Haven't done anything with it yet and now that I read what TattooedMac and harryb2448's last post I'm about to close all other apps and start to finding a way to put that Download Button somewhere handy for the real download.

Thank you guys, you're really helpful!

Click to expand...

Your welcome mate, and well done. Its best to download what you can through the Safari downloader, because its very good, very quick (as long as your got a quick network) and puts them all in one place.
If you do come back here, make sure you go Safari>Preferences>General ( ⌘+, ) and make sure you uncheck Open "safe" Files after Download . . . If you don't, you could unexpectedly open a file that you didn't mean to download and one that could also contain Malware. . . . its just a added Security precaution

Our pleasure mate and avoid one download Manager in particular - Speed Downloader from Yazsoft. Cerainly no faster than the native OS X download manager and each and every time an update cam along, new registration fee thank you very much.

I was looking at your signature, harryb2448, and something in my mind started to flicker:

"Hang on to those original install discs like grim death! Using OS X.7 or later make a bootable USB thumb drive before running Installer!"

Since I'm about to mess (a little) with the internal workings of this laptop something rang in my head: what about if something goes awfully wrong? Then, I realized that I don't have a cd or rescue disk of any sort. So I feel naked with respect to restoring everything to its original state.

What can I do about it? In other words, can I make a copy of the OS, or put somewhere (maybe that sdcard) some badly needed System files to help restoring my system, just in case?

Benny7440 said:

I was looking at your signature, harryb2448, and something in my mind started to flicker:

"Hang on to those original install discs like grim death! Using OS X.7 or later make a bootable USB thumb drive before running Installer!"

Since I'm about to mess (a little) with the internal workings of this laptop something rang in my head: what about if something goes awfully wrong? Then, I realized that I don't have a cd or rescue disk of any sort. So I feel naked with respect to restoring everything to its original state.

What can I do about it? In other words, can I make a copy of the OS, or put somewhere (maybe that sdcard) some badly needed System files to help restoring my system, just in case?

Click to expand...

There are two things I ALWAYS have, one a backup, and two, and USB with the OS on it.
With the backup, you can have either a TimeMachine Backup which when you do a clean install and it asks to restore from a TM Backup, will restore all your system files, bookmarks, preferences and the likes, OR a SupperDuper/Carbon Copy Cloner Backup, which is a Bootable clone of your HD, and when you restore this when asked, will basically clone everything back to the State it was in, with all files and folder, system files and preferences/bookmarks.
I have both of these, for triple protection, and it also gives me Options in how I will restore my Mac.
I alos have a USB Installer of the OS (I actually have one for every OS from SnowLeopard and up) and you can make one of the latest OS by using DiskMakerX and keep it safe. You need to have a downloaded copy of the Installer on your HD to achieve this, and is the easiest way to get it done.
Don't take any notice of the Lion part of it, as it does work for Yosemite down to Lion.
When/If you do this, when its doing its thing, it will look like its not doing anything, as there isn't a loading screen, or icon anywhere showing it working, so leave it, for a hour if need be, just to make sure its done what its meant to.
It will let you know when its all done and dusted.

HTH

Thanks for the info provided TattoedMac!

After following the link provided and reading a couple pages there it's still not clear for me which version of "DiskMaker X" or the previous named program to download for my system. My specs follow:

HARDWARE & OPERATING SYSTEM
iBook G4 Mac OS X - Version 10.5.8 Processor 800 MHz PowerPC G4
Memory 1.12 GB L2 Cache (per CPU): 256 KB Bus Speed: 133 MHz

BROWSER
Safari Version: 5.0.6 Last Modified: 9/23/12 6:59 PM

PLUGIN
Shockwave Flash 10.1 r102

Notice the RAM capacity because right today I installed a 1 GB card, it was 256 MB before making a total of 394 MB.

How big a pendrive needs to be ( in terms of GBs) for making a usb carrying my OS?* Is there a manufacturer that's not friendly to this process? Is there another that is?

* Can I pack (compress) certain files (safely) for making the backup significantly smaller?

PS. I don't remember if I've mentioned it before but I need to test an Iomega cd player/burner attached to the iBook to see if I am able to make a backup cd at least for certain things. I'm in that process these days...

It was a little silly of us to not have read your Mac Specs. 384mb RAM suggests that you have a Late 2004 Ibook G4 and are you running 9.3.7 or 9.4 ??
What we suggested re: the USB Drive and a backup of the OS, this won't be possible with your machine. The age of that is 11yrs old, but DiskmakerX is for Lion and above.

I'm not really sure where to go from here, as I don't have any knowledge of a system that old on Mac.

If you have a G4 running 10.5.8 I don't think any version of DiskMaker will work. DiskMaker didn't come onto the scene until long after Apple had stopped using PowerPC chips.

The easiest way to create a boot disk for that machine would be to do one of the following:
1. Use an older version of Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper to make a clone of your current drive, or
2. Use an install disk to install an OS onto that drive.

it's best to use a firewire drive as some older machines cannot boot from USB drives.

Thanks for replying TattooedMac & Slydude!

I'm not absolutely sure that I understood what I'm quoting below by TattoedMac:
..."and are you running 9.3.7 or 9.4 ??"... The OS X version is 10.2. When reading about DiskMaker X I think I read something about a previous version not named as that that might be useful for older systems. Think I need to go back to that info again.

One thing that I've been thinking of is to make ure this iBook can actually boot from a usb device. I've a bootable pendrive with DSL ready inside. How can I test if it can run in this machine? No idea, yet, if DSL was meant to boot in something else than a regular x86 PC...

Note: I already learned that pressing the Power button first and at the chord played by the system I can press, simultaneously, Command+Opton+O+F can take me to a simple terminal window which give me some lattitude to manage the booting process. The problem I had the other day was that I didn't have the device spec for deciding from where the machine was to boot from. This's something that I need to know before shutting down and powering up, and I can't remember the command in the Terminal to retrieve that info; here maybe one of you may lend a hand. In the meantime, I'm going to get in contact with the DSL forum people to check for further info.