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BigPond Settings

Help & Assistance

Downloads & Updates

Learning Centre

FILE LIBRARY FAQs

Questions

My download is corrupt! What can I do? My download won't start properly! I got a "File Not Found" (404) error! Do I need to change my firewall settings to download? It says I'm not allowed to download files - how come? There is a file I'd like to get but you don't have it! Who can use the BigPond Files Service? Do downloads count towards to my monthly limit? What is an md5sum? Why do files expire from the Files Library? Why can't some files, such as Microsoft files, be mirrored? BigPond Files doesn't seem to work properly with Google Web Accelerator/proxy servers? Why can't I download this really large file? My download is corrupt! What can I do? This problem generally occurs when a transfer from the file server is incomplete, or something corrupts the file while or during download. Most often, it is an incomplete file and it can be fixed by simply downloading the file again. To check to make sure the file is complete, you will need to check the file size. Right click on the file using Explorer and check the size - you'll need to look at the number in brackets where it is listed in bytes. Then, check the download page on the website where you got the file from. If these two numbers are not exactly the same, then the file is almost certainly corrupt. You can try to resume the download using a download manager or simply download the file again to fix it. My download won't start properly! The download server used implements some restrictions which prevents single users from "hogging" many of the available connections. Several download manager packages try to grab as many connections as possible in order to speed up the download. However, this results in one user using many connections, which can mean the file server will quickly reach its capacity. In order to prevent this from happening, we have placed restrictions on the number of files that can be downloaded at any one time. This might mean slightly slower downloads, but in the end it is a fairer system as it allows more people to access the server at once. I got a "File Not Found" (404) error! Occasionally, our files database might not match correctly with the files on the actual file server. This is very rare, but it if happens please contact us and we will endeavour to fix it as soon as possible. Do I need to change my firewall settings to download? The file server operates on a non-standard port, so you may need to alter your firewall settings in order to get downloads to work properly. The port number is 3030. We cannot support firewall problems; please consult your firewall documentation or network administrator if you are having firewall-related problems downloading from this service. It says I'm not allowed to download files - how come? This service is only for members of Telstra BigPond broadband. If you are not a member of Telstra BigPond broadband ADSL or Cable, then you will be able to browse this website, but you will not be able to download any of the files that are on offer. Please note that it is specifically BigPond broadband ADSL or Cable - for example, if you are a Telstra BigPond home (dial-up) or BigPond Satellite user you will not be able to download files from this service. There is a file I'd like to get but you don't have it! In order to provide the best service possible, we make available a system through which users can request files for mirroring. This system is partially automated and requires fairly accurate requests to be lodged - please ensure you read the instructions carefully before lodging a request. You can request a file here, or by clicking on the File Request button on the menu to the left of the page. Who can use the BigPond Files Service? At this point in time, only subscribers to the following plans can use the service: - BigPond broadband ADSL - BigPond broadband Cable - BigPond Wireless Mobile Do downloads count towards to my monthly limit? If you are a Telstra BigPond broadband ADSL or cable customer, downloads from the BigPond Files service do not count towards your monthly usage. Please note that this is currently limited exclusively to BigPond broadband customers on ADSL and cable. If you are using another service (for example, satellite, dial-up, or ISDN), use of this service will count towards your monthly usage. BigPond Wireless Mobile customers also have unmetered usage on the BigPond unmetered sites. Please note however that hourly plans do not 'stop the clock' on unmetered sites - BigPond Wireless Broadband hourly plans are not megabyte dependant, so Members will continue to record time when using these sites. You need to be careful if you're running a download manager or other utility that can automatically redirect download requests to sites outside the Unmetered Sites list without your knowledge. If your download is sourced from outside the Unmetered Sites list, the usage will be added to your monthly total. What is an md5sum? An md5sum is a value that is calculated from the contents of a given file. Each different file has its own, unique md5sum. They are often used to verify that the file you had is the same as the file you downloaded, or to ensure that the file you have is the official version of the file. We keep a record of the md5sums of each file we store in the Files Library. These are automatically calculated every morning. If you have a problem with a file, you can verify it is the same version as the one in the Files Library by calculating the md5sum of the file you downloaded with the md5sum in our database. There are several free tools to calculate md5sums, including this one called WinMd5sum. If the md5sum for the file you downloaded matches the one in our database, then the file you have is the exact same file as the one on our server. If the md5sums differ, then it may indicate a problem - the file that you downloaded may be corrupt. Where possible, you should check the official site for whatever file you are downloading to verify that the file you have downloaded from BigPond Files matches the official file. If you ever notice a discrepancy, please contact us and we'll investigate. Why do files expire from the Files Library? With the massive amount of new files released daily in the gaming world, it is simply impossible to store these files permanently. BigPond Files has limited facilities to store files, and while we maintain a massive collection of thousands of files, it is nevertheless necessary to ensure that old files are removed occasionally to make way for new ones. In order to facilitate this, many files have an expiration time, after which they're removed from the Files Library and marked as disabled in the database, and thus are no longer available for download. The expiration time is listed on the details page for each file. A list of files that are about to expire is also maintained under the Files branch on the left hand side menu (or simply click here), allowing users to see which files are about to expire and download them before they do. Why can't some files, such as Microsoft files, be mirrored? Many content publishers wish to only distribute files from certain authorised sources - usually their own websites. This is so that they can ensure users of their software are getting legimitate, official files. To enforce this, these sites usually have a legal policy on their website that basically says no other sites are allowed to reproduce or redistribute their software or content. Whenever we come across a File Request that is from a site with one of these "no redistribution" polices, we are unfortunately unable to mirror the file. Some common files that are requested that we are forced to reject are files from Microsoft, (unless they're specifically called 'redistributable'), Apple, and Adobe. We have attempted to contact most of these sites to try and obtain explicit permission to make these files available but to date we have either be informed that it is not possible or have received no reply. BigPond Files doesn't seem to work properly with Google Web Accelerator/proxy servers? If you're using the Google Web Accelerator to view pages, please be aware that it will almost certainly impact your ability to use the BigPond Files service. It works similar to a proxy server, so that requests made to the BigPond Files site don't appear to come from your IP address, but instead the IP address of the proxy server. As access to BigPond Files is limited by IP address, if you're using a proxy or the Google Web Accelerator, you will probably appear to be coming from a non-BigPond Broadband IP address, and as such you will probably be denied access to the service. Please note that using a proxy server or the Google Web Accelerator may also impact your usage - as the data transferred from the BigPond Files website is no longer coming directly from the website, but instead via the proxy server, which means it will be metered traffic. Why can't I download this really large file? Files larger than approximately 2.14 gigabytes in size are considered "Large Files", which means they exceed the size that some downloading applications - including Internet Explorer - are able to handle. To download these files, you'll need to use a browser or downloading application that supports Large Files. We generally recommend using the web browser Firefox (http://www.mozilla.com/products/firefox), an open source, free browser replacement available for Windows, Linux and Macintosh OS X. BigPond broadband users can download Firefox from the BigPond Files. If you do not wish to download Firefox, there are a wide variety of other download managers available that might better suit your needs - please check your favourite search engine for more information! However, you need to be careful if you're running a download manager or other utility that can automatically redirect download requests to sites outside the Unmetered Sites list without your knowledge. If your download is sourced from outside the Unmetered Sites list, the usage will be added to your monthly total.