Downloader windows are created when you click the Download button on the main ezGroups window. Once it has finished downloading its file(s), its lifespan is complete. Because downloading RARs may take several hours, a Downloader will exist until you click its delete link in the upper-right corner. You can start and stop the Downloader as often as you want. You can shut down ezGroups, and when you start it up again, the Downloader will still be there ready to resume. When the Downloader opens, it will look in the Parts, and Downloads folders to see what files are there. So, don’t move any files out of those folders until the the download is complete. Otherwise, they may be downloaded again.
The top section of the Downloader shows you the filename. You can stretch the window to the right to see long filenames.
The second section from the top shows you the overall progress of the download. The position of the progress bar, and the percentage, reflect the number of posts that have been downloaded. For example, if a file is spread over 50 posts, and 25 have been downloaded, the progress bar will be filled half way, and the percentage will be 50%. If the Downloader is working on more than one file, then the calculations are done on the total number of posts for all the files. When this value reaches 100%, that means that all the posts have been downloaded, though they still need to be assembled and decoded. For large files, you may not see the first chunk of the progress bar get filled-in for a while. If you stretch the window to the right, you will see it sooner.
The third section from the top goes through three phases. First, it shows you the progress of each post as it downloads. Once all the posts are downloaded, it shows you the progress of the assembly process where the Downloader glues all the posts together. After that, it shows the progress as the Downloader decodes the data into the finished file. If the Downloader is working on more than one file, it will go through these three phases for each file. In the left column, the part number it shows is the total for all files combined, if there are more than one.
The fourth section from the top shows some statistics. If the Downloader is working on more than one file, you can see how many files it has completed in the left section. If you are downloading 10 files, and one has finished, you can go into the Downloads folder and open it, move it, etc. You don’t have to wait for the Downloader to finish all of its files unless you are expecting to restart the program before the downloading is complete. The second box from the left shows the total number of megabytes that has been downloaded. The next two boxes show download speed. In the Speed box, you see how fast the current post is being downloaded. The Peak box shows you the fastest speed that has been achieved over the lifespan of the Downloader. The box at the right shows the estimated time remaining while the downloading is in progress. Once the downloading is done, the time changes to show you the total elapsed time.
The fifth section from the top shows you various status messages, which often go by too fast to read. You don’t need to be concerned with anything you see there unless the Downloader stops; then you may see an error message which you can report to us.
The middle of the window shows you the list of files. You can stretch the window to see more of the list, and you can stretch the columns to see long file names, for example.
If you have selected RAR and/or PAR files to download, the bottom of the window will show which files will be used for automatic unPAR and unRAR. If you select the correct files of the RAR set, ezGroups will be able to pick the right files. If it does not fill in the two spots shown in red with filenames, then you may not have selected all the files in the set.
In that case, you can delete the downloader and then try again. If for some reason you only need to download a few files, and not the complete set, you can ignore these two settings. You can change the files selected by clicking the file you want in the list above and then clicking on the red text. In most cases, the first file should be a .par2, and the second should be a .rar. You don’t need to worry too much about these settings. Any PAR file can be used to start the unPARing process, and any RAR file can be used to start the unRARing process, though it will go faster if it is started with the .rar or the .part01.rar file. If no files are set here, you can always start the PAR and RAR processes yourself with the PAR and RAR windows. The two files shown here are mostly for helping newbies make sure they have selected the full RAR set.