MindFlavor's Http Leech

For Windows 98, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows .NET

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What Http Leech is for?

Http Leech helps web surfers with high bandwidth to download from http sites efficiently. Often, when looking for some kind of data on internet (such as MP3 or videos), we are taken to sites with a lot of garbage (nonworking' links), pop-ups and (this is nasty :-) Trojan horses. Such sites use normal features of our browser to attack/annoy us. While this behavior is boring for everyone, broadband connections will waste time (and maybe money) just trying to figure where to download. Http Leech helps by hiding all the unwanted informations, rejects all cookies and Trojan horses and shows you only the wanted files' download locations. It also let you download such files in a highly optimized way so you can continue surfing the web while the program keeps downloading. As an option you can tell Http leech to join the MPEG files so Http Leech speeds up the process of downloading and joining spitted video files.
Last but not least this program is written entirely in C# so you can control it before executing (ie if you want to keep this program away from your confidential data you can before the program executes). By the way I assure you that this program isn't a spy ware nor maliciously written.

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Conditions of use

You use this program at your own risk.


If you have problem of any sort you may email me (mindflavor_posta@hotmail.com) but I not guarantee an answer. By executing the Http Leech you fully accept this agreement. If you don't accept this agreement please don't execute Http Leech.

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How to install

Image 1 - Installation (click to enlarge)
  1. Download the program.
  2. Unzip the downloaded file in a temporary folder.
  3. Launch setup.exe.
  4. Follow the on-screen instructions (clicking disk cost tells you how much space is needed for the installation).
  5. Delete the temporary files.

To uninstall use Add/Remove programs.

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How to use

Using Http Leech is easy. Once started the program shows like this:

Image 2 - Main window (click to enlarge)

There are several fields to complete:

  • Starting URL: Here you type the starting Url to look for. You may insert a file Url and press Get if you wish.
  • Output Directory: Type in a directory where you want to store the downloaded files. This directory must exists.
  • Extensions: Type the extensions to look for. As shown here we are looking for video files. The extensions must be separated by a ; (with no spaces).
  • The Join MPEGs from the same site checkbox is useful if you want Http Leech to join spitted MPEG video files. Leave it unchecked if you don't need it.

Let's try with an example: set the program as shown in image 3 and press the Go button.
Look in the bottom bar: the program is contacting our site. It may take a while depending on your connection speed and location. When done, you should see the files on the left pane and the links on the other. Notice the bottom bar: it now shows that we have successfully downloaded and parsed the requested page.

Image 3 - Browsing (click to enlarge)

Right now we can do two things:

  1. Check the files we want and begin download (pressing the Get Files button).
  2. Follow a link on the right pane (just by clicking on it).

Now we try to download something. Press the Get Files button. Another window will appear. This is the multi-download window (image 4). It tells us how the downloading process is going. This windows is the very chore of the application. It keeps track of downloaded files and keeps downloading the remaining ones. By default, it will close automatically itself once all scheduled files are successfully downloaded. If something wrong happens (such a remote server failure), it stays open to let you handle the issue (either by retrying or discarding the download).
This windows shows the files to download and its status. The status may be:

  1. Waiting: the program waits for other download to finish before starting this one.
  2. Downloading
  3. Downloaded as xxxx: the file has been successfully downloaded. The program preserves the file name if possible but will rename the file to prevent overwriting.
  4. Error: [description]: An error happened. The incomplete file will be deleted.
  5. Unscheduled: We requested the file to be unscheduled and the program will skip its download.

Image 4 - Multi-Download window (click to enlarge)

In the rightmost pane you can suspend the download process (or restart it) and reset the status of erroneous downloads. It helps because sometimes the remote server closes a download lasting too long. In this case the program will report an error (Connection closed by remote server). You can, if you wish, reset the status of the selected file and try downloading it again.

The last thing you can do is to unschedule a download so the program will skip it. It's useful when you find that a particular server is busy (and so the download speed is low): you can unschedule that server's file and try download them later.

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Download

Note: This programs uses the .NET framework developed by Microsoft. This framework isn't shipped with Windows 98, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows 2000 and Windows XP but you can download it from Microsoft's web site.
Version Build version Changes Bugs Download
0.8
0.0
None Alpha version. Many functions disabled.
1.3
1053.34142
  • HTML page download handled in a separate thread (the main window does not froze).
  • Added support for resuming interrupted/erroneous download.
  • Automatic closing of a multi-download window on full success.
  • Suspend button now works properly.
  • Better error handling (the program crashes less when parsing malformed html pages).
  • Back button not working properly.
  • Lack of error checking of user input.
  • Redirection URLs may not work.
  • img tags not parsed (just skipped).

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Last update: September 8, 2003

@2002 Francesco Cogno