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Posted by fj on 12/04/06 14:39
Thanks,
flip
"Andy Dingley" <dingbat@codesmiths.com> wrote in message
news:1165227537.458153.206390@80g2000cwy.googlegroups.com...
>
> fj wrote:
>> I also tried to link to .exe files but it will not download those files
>> either. I've downloaded .exe and .rar files from other sites. The .rar
>> files
>> just show as garbled computer language (I think).
>
> Then it has linked to the file, but not managed to serve it correctly.
>
> As a guess (as a I don't know which site you're talking about) then the
> page linking to these files is correct. The server where these files
> are located is incorrect and badly configured.
>
> Many servers assume that all the files on them are either "HTML" or
> "plaintext", unless they're specific sorts of file (like JPG) that it
> knows about. The "type" of files can be guessed from the file extension
> in their name, but that's not how the web protocols work. Instead they
> have a particular header of "content-type" such as "text/plain",
> "text/html", "image/jpeg" or "application/octet-stream".
> "application/octet-stream" means "We have no idea what this is, just
> treat it as raw data and store it, but don't try to view it, run it or
> do anything clever with it"
>
> A well-run server should serve file types that it understands
> correctly. It will also need a fallback or default for those it doesn't
> understand, and that should be "application/octet-stream". If the
> server admins want an easy life and no support calls from people
> inventing crazy new file extensions, then the temptation is to set the
> default up as "text/plain" (or even worse, "text/html") and then let it
> serve everything unknown as if it's a viewable text document.
>
> It looks like the server here understands ZIP files and serves them
> correctly, but it doesn't know about RAR files and so lets them default
> to text/plain. Your browser then sees this (as instructed) as a
> viewable text file and tries to view it.
>
> If you have to link to such a file and download it, then one quick hack
> is to find a link to it, then instead of following that link and trying
> to save it, instead don't follow the link but just use your browser's
> "Save link as..." feature (try the right-mouse menu).
>
>
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