Downloads and Three

Hi all.

Is anyone having problems downloading files to their mobile using the
Three network?

For the past week i've had no luck downloading playlists from
myorb.com to my Nokia 6630 - each download fails with an error
message:

'Don't know how to handle request in ext:' followed by the playlist
URL.

That's using Opera Mini - the built in browser is no good for Orb as
Three block Orb and it's sub-domains for us PAYG users.
Opera Mini works through it's own proxy server so beats the Three
block ;-)

Today i got around to reinstalling Orb on my PC hoping it'd fix things
but the problem persists.

Also tried downloading other non Orb files from some webspace i have
and they failed too with the same error message.

So i tried a bit of Googling and found the same error reported a few
times on the Opera Mini forum:

http://my.opera.com/community/forums...comment2789299

(http://preview.tinyurl.com/5geex2)

Also noticed that some of the Opera Mini users complaining of the
error were on the Three network.
So i'm wondering if the problem is with Opera Mini or - as now seems
possible - with the Three network.

I noticed a few weeks back that (other) downloads using the 6630 built
in browser were displaying a Three page with a link to the download
rather than simply starting the download.

Anyone got any ideas?

Martin.

Martin <warwound@gmail.com> wrote:
> Is anyone having problems downloading files to their mobile using the
> Three network?
>
> For the past week i've had no luck downloading playlists from
> myorb.com to my Nokia 6630 - each download fails with an error
> message:
>
> 'Don't know how to handle request in ext:' followed by the playlist
> URL.
>
> That's using Opera Mini - the built in browser is no good for Orb as
> Three block Orb and it's sub-domains for us PAYG users.
> Opera Mini works through it's own proxy server so beats the Three
> block ;-)

On my N70 Opera Mini (fairly recent version, but probably not the latest)
doesn't do downloads. It hands them over to the phone's native browser
which downloads the file.

Opera Mini do preprocessing on the HTML, but they don't preprocess the
download. So, while most of the time your connection will be to Opera's
servers in Norway, when it downloads files it'll download direct from the
site. If Three block that site then it won't work. I assume that if your
download requires cookies from your Opera session then it won't work either.

But that doesn't explain the error above. Is the playlist URL https:// or
ftp:// or something strange?

> Also tried downloading other non Orb files from some webspace i have
> and they failed too with the same error message.

Ah, so it's not just a problem of Orb being blocked. The N70 is similar
firmware to the 6630 and there downloads do work OK - I've done Zip, PDF,
Doc and SIS downloads just fine on Three.

Did you try downloading them by typing the address directly into the phone
browser?

> I noticed a few weeks back that (other) downloads using the 6630 built
> in browser were displaying a Three page with a link to the download
> rather than simply starting the download.

Try installing a program like SmartGET - that's another download manager,
which will see if it's a network problem or a phone problem.
(Bonus points if anyone can tell me how to get Opera to call SmartGET to
download something rather than the phone's own browser)

I think the phone's own browser does display a 'did you really want to
download this?' screen before starting a download, but that's not a Three
screen.

Puzzled...
Theo

On 10 Nov, 13:18, Theo Markettos <theom+n...@chiark.greenend.org.uk>
wrote:
> Martin <warwo...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Is anyone having problems downloading files to their mobile using the
> > Three network?
>
> > For the past week i've had no luck downloading playlists from
> > myorb.com to my Nokia 6630 - each download fails with an error
> > message:
>
> > 'Don't know how to handle request in ext:' followed by the playlist
> > URL.
>
> > That's using Opera Mini - the built in browser is no good for Orb as
> > Three block Orb and it's sub-domains for us PAYG users.
> > Opera Mini works through it's own proxy server so beats the Three
> > block ;-)
>
> On my N70 Opera Mini (fairly recent version, but probably not the latest)
> doesn't do downloads. It hands them over to the phone's native browser
> which downloads the file.
>

I think Opera Mini improved it's download handling with the latest
version - or was it the version before that..?

I connect to Orb running on my PC with Opera Mini, choose a media file
to play on my 6630 and the latest Opera Mini gives me two options:

1) Save file.

I have to grant Opera Mini permission to read my 6630's file system,
browse to where i want to save the download and then finally grant
permission to write to the file system to save the download.

2) Open file.

This option passes the download to the built in 6630 browser - no
hassles granting file permissions but the limited memory of my 6630
struggles to run Opera Mini, the built in browser and finally Real
Player to open the downloaded playlist (talking now about when
playlists used to successfully download).

Both options save a file - the downloaded/saved filename is the
requested file but upon opening the file it opens as a text file.

A typical failed playlist download displays:

Don't know how to handle request in ext:
/hr04-03/ujxh78wyck1d50a91x12083zqpx1gd9vmsaz3nk1qfuatjmgs/1/
mycast.orb.com/stream.sdp


> Opera Mini do preprocessing on the HTML, but they don't preprocess the
> download. So, while most of the time your connection will be to Opera's
> servers in Norway, when it downloads files it'll download direct from the
> site. If Three block that site then it won't work. I assume that if your
> download requires cookies from your Opera session then it won't work either.
>
> But that doesn't explain the error above. Is the playlist URL https:// or
> ftp:// or something strange?
>

It's definitely not an FTP URL, i have to login to myorb.com so it
could be HTTPS but i can't be sure - the complete download URL isn't
displayed anywhere in the process.


> > Also tried downloading other non Orb files from some webspace i have
> > and they failed too with the same error message.
>
> Ah, so it's not just a problem of Orb being blocked. The N70 is similar
> firmware to the 6630 and there downloads do work OK - I've done Zip, PDF,
> Doc and SIS downloads just fine on Three.
>
> Did you try downloading them by typing the address directly into the phone
> browser?
>

I suspected that the problem might be with download URLs that have
query data in the URL.
So uploaded a simple small ZIP file to my webspace and used Opera Mini
to type in manually the URL to download.
Again, instead of downloading that small ZIP file to my 6630 i got a
file with the same name as the ZIP file but when i try to open it i
got the 'Don't know how to handle request in ext:' error message - the
failed download opening as a text file displaying that message.

Trying to download a simple text file from the same webspace with the
6630 built in browser fails - no error message, the browser screen
just displays a simple graphic in the corner of the screen.

> > I noticed a few weeks back that (other) downloads using the 6630 built
> > in browser were displaying a Three page with a link to the download
> > rather than simply starting the download.
>
> Try installing a program like SmartGET - that's another download manager,
> which will see if it's a network problem or a phone problem.
> (Bonus points if anyone can tell me how to get Opera to call SmartGET to
> download something rather than the phone's own browser)
>

I'll Google for info on SmartGET next - i suspect that it'd be a
tricky task to modify the 6630 or any other mobile to make a download
manager the default target for HTTP downloads though.


> I think the phone's own browser does display a 'did you really want to
> download this?' screen before starting a download, but that's not a Three
> screen.
>
> Puzzled...
> Theo

I'm using Three's Internet Monthly btw.

And Orb has worked pretty well for the past couple of months - it's a
hassle having to start Opera Mini, find a file to play, download the
playlist, close Opera Mini (and built in browser if that's how i
downloaded the playlist) and finally open the playlist in RealPlayer.
But i'd like to still be able to do so...

Martin.