Automatically Download File?

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Automatically Download File?

Postby >-) » Sun Jun 10, 2012 2:11 am UTC

Hello, i want to obtain a file from the internet which updates every 24 hours. Because i might not always remember or be able to have my computer on, is there anyway i could automatically download it to 'somewhere' once every 24 hours, so that when i have a chance, i could get the files onto my computer and use them for whatever?
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Re: Automatically Download File?

Postby Steax » Mon Jun 11, 2012 4:06 am UTC

There are probably a plethora of ways and specific programs for this. What OS are you on, and how comfortable with scripting are you?

The basic solution would probably to just run a script that invokes wget every 24 hours via cron (or your OS's equivalent).
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Re: Automatically Download File?

Postby >-) » Mon Jun 11, 2012 7:06 pm UTC

I use windows 7 and i can do some simple scripting, but i can always learn.

If i ran a script, it would stop working if my computer turned off? I need a way to acquire the file even if i might be on vacation or away from any computer. Is that possible?
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Re: Automatically Download File?

Postby freakish777 » Mon Jun 11, 2012 8:21 pm UTC

>-) wrote:I use windows 7 and i can do some simple scripting, but i can always learn.

If i ran a script, it would stop working if my computer turned off? I need a way to acquire the file even if i might be on vacation or away from any computer. Is that possible?


Yes. After you've created your script, have it called by a Scheduled Task:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... ule-a-task
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Re: Automatically Download File?

Postby EvanED » Mon Jun 11, 2012 9:47 pm UTC

Just to be clear, scheduled tasks won't run if the computer is off.

Some motherboards I think can start the computer at a certain time though, so you could have it turn the computer on a bit before that time, then have your script turn it back off after.
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Re: Automatically Download File?

Postby Steax » Tue Jun 12, 2012 1:58 am UTC

So how do you plan on getting the file if your computer is off? There are some (somewhat esoteric) ways to get your computer to go on by itself, but I don't like the thought of that. I'd personally have the script run on some cheap hosting service (preferably a pay-as-you-use one) and fetch the files there.
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