Downloading large kits on dialup

[freemo]

Hi everyone, I'm wondering if many people have a dialup connection and have a hard time downloading large files. It can take as long as 8 hours to download a 48 mg file so I try to do it at night. There are so many beautiful kits and freebies and it's hard to decide what to pick..........but I sure have a good time doing it! I live in the country so the only other thing would be satelite but I've heard if it is cloudy your connection is poor.

[Diana]

I live in a rural area also and am on dial-up because nothing else is available with the exception of sattelite and I simply refuse to pay $99 a month for internet service. I am lucky enough to have a cyber cafe a couple of miles away in town. I upload and download all my large files there. Silly me, I tried to upload a 97MB file to "yousendit" last week--it gave an estimated time of 49 hours! I promptly stopped it and went to town.

Our library here in Almont has offered dial-up internet service for years. I just recently found out that they are setting up a wireless system that will encompass a 10 mile radius that my house falls into. I've already signed up--a couple more months and I should be good to go! I can't wait.

[nicats]

Even tho we just got DSL I always wondered if there was a better way. We have a flying j account and use High Speed there with our laptop. The only other option is to have a program that when the download stops or is disconnected it picks back up where it stopped downloading. Pando is cool but most sites don't offer pando for their downloads but I know there are other programs that help with downloading. I could download up to 10 megs in 2 hours but the bigger ones I always had to skip. Even if the designer made their files smaller or turned off the layers in PSP it was still a huge file to get. So I guess if you have a friend who has a fast connection or a place you can take a laptop to is your best bet. BTDT!! Good Luck.

[SophiaDaviesDesigns]

I forget how spoiled I am with a high speed connection. I remember the days of overnight downloads and disconnects. :x Not fun at all. And, I agree, satellite is way over priced!

Here at Digitals, we divide our kits into no more than 30mb zip files and create multiple files if necessary for the benefit of those on dial up. I know even at 30mb it takes a while though. But, with multiple files, you can return to your account within a time period to resume downloading your purchases.

Some of us, who uploaded kits prior to the policy change may still have some larger files in the store, but we're working on getting them "slimmed down" for you.

Most designers will save their backgrounds as .jpgs and compress slightly. This causes no compromise in quality and significantly reduces file sizes. On elements that require transparency though, we do have to save as .png format.

[freemo]

It's nice to hear I'm not the only one still on dial-up! Another thing I've learned to be very careful with is working in PhotoShop on a digital scrap page while connected as more than one time I've either lost my connection or......PhotoShop has quit responding. My computer is 3 years old and works just fine otherwise. So this afternoon after work I will disconnect and work on my layout tasks for the birthday bash. Thanks!

[SMMann]

Our policy here is to break all our files into 30 Mb or smaller chunks so everyone can download theme. We still have a few older files that are larger, but for many months we have kept them smaller to accomodate our customers on dial-up and slower connections.

[SMMann]

Our policy here is to break all our files into 30 Mb or smaller chunks so everyone can download theme. We still have a few older files that are larger, but for many months we have kept them smaller to accomodate our customers on dial-up and slower connections.

[hollyann]

I'm also a dial-upper. I never seem to be where there's a cable connection.

FOR THOSE THAT CREATE KITS: Please, please, please! There is a thumbs file, a pspbrowse file and some other thumbnail log file that gets included in many downloads. Some of these I have found to be 300kb or more and for a DU this is not good. These are not needed in the kit and our software will create it's own thumbnail log files. I've also found a designer who has previews of her kit that are a meg in size (it wasn't a layered image)! Ouch!!

Anyway, I have found to avoid this I use ACDSee or Ulead Photo Explorer. It allows me to create a folder and move my items into it and view it without parking a file there too, since their thumbnail file is saved in it's program file instead - and it only has one. I also use the skip feature when my computer asks me about the thumbs.ds file when I burn CD's. When I clicked on the size of my folders it said it was 680 megs, okay, a full CD, but wait! I had 27 megs in thumbs files alone! That's another kit I could have added to that CD. Oh, and with ACDSee and Ulead, you do have to tweek the settings so it shows all files, not just images. Ulead won't preview gifs for some reason. Picasa is a good one too I've heard.

Oh, DIANA - I'm in Imlay City! I have called around to some internet provider places around Lapeer and have found that most have a cable connection and for a small fee some will allow uploads and downloads from their place of business.