Hard Light Productions Forums

Announcements => Announcements => Topic started by: Fury on November 30, 2006, 12:52:08 am

Title: Download links starting with http://downloads.hard-light.net/
Post by: Fury on November 30, 2006, 12:52:08 am
These links are no longer functional because of unexpectedly high bandwidth usage. It is unlikely we will be able to bring public http file downloads back, so we have to look for alternatives. Our monthly bandwidth is limited to 1.5TB (1500GB) and is shared by both Hard Light Productions and Game Warden.

I expect the alternative to be a BitTorrent tracker which we already tried a year ago and which was a mild failure. Now we have no options because of limited monthly bandwidth, but we need to ask for a permission from our service provider to host a BitTorrent tracker.

As of this moment hosting large public http file downloads is prohibited until further notice.
Title: Re: Download links starting with http://downloads.hard-light.net/
Post by: Vini on November 30, 2006, 01:43:32 am
Woah. Thats pretty bad.
Thx for the great effort and keep your chins up.

PS: Maybe banners and some advertisement on the pages can help lower the costs for hosting. I know that no one likes it but its a necessary evil when it comes to hosting large websites.
Title: Re: Download links starting with http://downloads.hard-light.net/
Post by: asyikarea51 on November 30, 2006, 03:11:43 am
PS: Maybe banners and some advertisement on the pages can help lower the costs for hosting. I know that no one likes it but its a necessary evil when it comes to hosting large websites.

I think they tried that before but problems cropped up with that too... :nervous: :\
Title: Re: Download links starting with http://downloads.hard-light.net/
Post by: vyper on November 30, 2006, 05:10:36 am
...
Title: Re: Download links starting with http://downloads.hard-light.net/
Post by: Wobble73 on November 30, 2006, 05:22:00 am


As of this moment hosting large public http file downloads is prohibited until further notice.

 :(

Bummer :sigh:
Title: Re: Download links starting with http://downloads.hard-light.net/
Post by: Goober5000 on November 30, 2006, 08:31:55 am
I think they tried that before but problems cropped up with that too... :nervous: :\

Google unilaterally screwed us on the advertising, unfortunately.

Anybody have any ideas for a source of income similar to AdSense, that is not AdSense?  (I know we've asked this before, but perhaps there might be some new ideas.)
Title: Re: Download links starting with http://downloads.hard-light.net/
Post by: Tolwyn on November 30, 2006, 01:19:55 pm
As of this moment hosting large public http file downloads is prohibited until further notice.

Which is why I have my personal server with unlimited monthly bandwith running :)
Title: Re: Download links starting with http://downloads.hard-light.net/
Post by: Vini on November 30, 2006, 03:58:59 pm
I was just thinking about hosting files. Why can you guys use Google storage? There are plenty of programs that allow to use a gmail account as a storage device. I cant remember any names right away but i know there are things like that out there.
Or trying to find a file hosting site. Plenty of those out there as well. Just keep your backup copies somewhere always (in case they close the account for some reason) but for public access use free hosting.
I just Googled and found several sites that provide file hosting with shared folders that can be accessed by anyone. And I'm not just talking of rapidshare de/com ... There are plenty of others around nowadays. Maybe thats a possible way out. Maybe not. Just my 5 cents.
Title: Re: Download links starting with http://downloads.hard-light.net/
Post by: rms on November 30, 2006, 04:15:51 pm
Hi, are there alternate links for the FS1Port?  Also, is anyone offering dvd/cd burning services for FS1Port/FS2Open, like people do for Thief mission packs?
Title: Re: Download links starting with http://downloads.hard-light.net/
Post by: vyper on November 30, 2006, 04:22:08 pm
These are educated guesses, but no, and no.


I expect the alternative to be a BitTorrent tracker which we already tried a year ago and which was a mild failure. Now we have no options because of limited monthly bandwidth, but we need to ask for a permission from our service provider to host a BitTorrent tracker.

Hey Fury  - you're going to be doing what you were actually made an admin to do. Whoda thunk it?!
Title: Re: Download links starting with http://downloads.hard-light.net/
Post by: Turey on November 30, 2006, 05:03:12 pm
Also, is anyone offering dvd/cd burning services for FS1Port/FS2Open?

What's the point? they change often enough that a CD/DVD would be useless within a month or two.

As for hosting files, www.mydatabus.com is giving away free 5GB accounts with no transfer limits, 500MB max per-file size, all file types allowed, and direct file links (no hunting for a download button on a page of ads.)

And if you need to put up a file bigger than 500MB, there's always multi-part archives.
Title: Re: Download links starting with http://downloads.hard-light.net/
Post by: Goober5000 on November 30, 2006, 06:14:27 pm
Hi, are there alternate links for the FS1Port?

A file mirroring solution is under investigation.
Title: Re: Download links starting with http://downloads.hard-light.net/
Post by: Fury on December 01, 2006, 02:00:54 am
As for hosting files, www.mydatabus.com is giving away free 5GB accounts with no transfer limits, 500MB max per-file size, all file types allowed, and direct file links (no hunting for a download button on a page of ads.)

And if you need to put up a file bigger than 500MB, there's always multi-part archives.
You know, that's an excellent suggestion. If any of you are aware of other such storage give-aways, let us know.
Title: Re: Download links starting with http://downloads.hard-light.net/
Post by: Col. Fishguts on December 01, 2006, 04:22:05 am
Scroll down here: http://techlogg.blogspot.com/search/label/Internet (http://techlogg.blogspot.com/search/label/Internet)

And I'm getting myself a myDataBus account right now.
Title: Re: Download links starting with http://downloads.hard-light.net/
Post by: Goober5000 on December 01, 2006, 05:25:24 pm
FSPort downloads have now been mirrored on wcsaga.com, and the links have been updated on the FSPort website.  Many thanks to Tolwyn for the help. :) 
Title: Re: Download links starting with http://downloads.hard-light.net/
Post by: FUBAR-BDHR on December 01, 2006, 09:32:44 pm
I don't know how much I can do but if you need some storage I might be able to help.  I've got a 100gig transfer package and I haven't even broken 500meg in a month.  Also have room for a couple of gig of smaller files with unlimited transfer. 
Title: Re: Download links starting with http://downloads.hard-light.net/
Post by: [DW]-Hunter on December 16, 2006, 12:32:25 am
I have 10 TB total bandwidth over 3 sites, if you need hosting help, just ask.
Title: Re: Download links starting with http://downloads.hard-light.net/
Post by: Huggybaby on December 16, 2006, 08:37:23 pm
[DW]-Hunter, Turey needs a direct link from someone who can host the 710 files for his installer. (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,42854.0.html)

And torrents are definitely the way to go. FSOpen is becoming much easier to use and demand increases accordingly. Were a definitive version put together it could easily be done. I know this because it's heading in that direction already with very good participation. An official endorsement would put it over the top by consolidating the current seeders and funneling 50%+ of new users into one place. And when the bugs are worked out of the updater it will be even better.  ;)

Observe a couple of successful torrents:

FreeSpace 2 CD's:
(http://xs210.xs.to/xs210/06500/FS2Torrent.jpg)

The first part of ShivanSPS's install:
(http://xs210.xs.to/xs210/06500/ShivanSPS1_3Torrent.jpg)
Title: Re: Download links starting with http://downloads.hard-light.net/
Post by: Turey on December 16, 2006, 11:40:29 pm
[DW]-Hunter, Turey needs a direct link from someone who can host the 710 files for his installer. (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,42854.0.html)

Now that's very interesting. I don't remember needing nor asking for that.
Title: Re: Download links starting with http://downloads.hard-light.net/
Post by: Huggybaby on December 17, 2006, 12:10:27 am
Sorry. I'll see if I can find my mistake....

<edit>Here's where I got the impression (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,42854.msg877319.html#msg877319), maybe the word "unfortunately" threw me off.

Quote
* This statement is not actually true. I spent a week looking, but I was unable to find a .rar extractor for NSIS, so unfortunately the 710 patches are included in the main installer. This problem could easily be fixed by someone uploading .zip versions of the 710 patches to a static url, or by someone kindly pointing me in the direction of a reliable .rar plugin for NSIS.
Title: Re: Download links starting with http://downloads.hard-light.net/
Post by: Turey on December 17, 2006, 01:23:36 am
Ah. That's an old post, and I answered it myself here (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,42854.msg878123.html#msg878123).