The K Desktop Environment

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3. Working with KGet

3.1 Starting Transfer

Drag and Drop

KGet makes use of the KDE Drag and Drop protocol. This means that you can drag and drop URL's from kfm or kmail into the KGet main or dock window. Then you choose directory and filename, under which you want to save it.

Opening transfer by hand

You can open transfer from menu or by keyboard shortcuts Ctrl-o or Ctrl-v. Ctrl-v is especially useful if you use WWW Browser which does not support KDE drag and drop protocol, e.g. Netscape. Use Netscape feature "Copy location to clipboard", then use Ctrl-v in KGet ( or simply press a toolbar button Paste transfer ). KGet will then open a dialog with pasted URL, which you can edit.
 

3.2 Transfer modes

Transfer is always in one of the three transfer modes :

Queued

Transfer is in a queue, which means that it's ready to be started whenever it's possible. For better explanation see Queueing.

Scheduled

Transfer is scheduled to be started at some later time. KGet checks every minute whether there is some transfer that should be started. It takes into account the maximum number of allowed transfers. Transfer time is set in Transfer Configure Dialog.

Delayed

Transfer is simply added to the list. KGet will not try to start it. You have to start it by hand, or change it's mode to queued or scheduled.

This is useful if you work offline, then you can set Add new transfer as delayed in a preferences dialog.

Use this feature if you have problems with connecting to server or slow connection and want to download files later.
 

3.3 Other features

Queueing

Queueing means that you can set maximum number of transfers that are running simultaneously. KGet tries to keep this number. Of course that you can at any time start the transfer by hand.

This doesn't mean that you cannot drag more files into KGet then this number !

KGet keeps record of all registered transfers and opens them when needed. Use queuing when you have bad connection to Internet or slow modem like me :-)

It is useful also when you do not want to take all network bandwidth you can, but rather download file after file.

Resuming

KGet supports resuming, which is a feature supported by most of ftp servers and is present in HTTP 1.1 protocol. If you download some big file and after 75% of download connection error occurs, you do not have to start all over again, but simply register this transfer again and it will continue in the place where it stopped ( KGet will append to an existing file and not overwrite it ).

However, this feature does not work for all ftp and http servers. KGet will check, whether server supports this feature, and will show this infomation in the listbox. Later, if you need to stop the transfer, you can easily decide, whether it is a good idea.

HTTP resuming is somewhat special. Please consider it to be experimental and don't rely on it too much.

Expert mode

Expert mode is recommended for experienced users.

When it is on, KGet will not ask you to confirm the deleting of transfer, but it will simply delete it.

If you are downloading many files, it is not comfortable to enter the saving location for each transfer or to confirm each pasted URL. When expert mode is on, KGet will not ask you to confirm it, but it will put the file into the last used directory. I use it like this : first I disable expert mode, paste / drag in the first transfer for which I specify the save directory. Then I turn the expert mode on and all following transfers will go to the specified directory without having to confirm it.

If some error occurs while starting transfer or while transfering, KGet will not show you the error message, but it will set transfer for retry without asking. This is very useful, if you drag many files into KGet and leave to do some other work. KGet will download files and when it can't connect, it will continue without asking. Otherwise KGet would wait for you to confirm each error and couldn't start other transfers.

It could be useful to use expert mode together with auto-disconnect / auto-shutdown mode. Drag files into KGet, turn on the expert mode, turn on auto-disconnect / auto-shutdown mode and leave.
 

3.4 KGet Key Bindings

KGet honors the following key bindings.

Ctrl-o
Open a new transfer
Ctrl-v
Paste in URL for transfer
Ctrl-q
Exit program.

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