I am in a FIX :P Help ^^
 

I have a very wierd problem.

I have a series of files I want to download off a site. One gb each, about.

The problem is that I'm on a mac which is owned by the parents. They don;t want me to download these files, because with our 512 kbps connection, they then won't be able to download their own stuff.
I've tried explaining that they would still be able too, just that the download speeds of both downloads will be diminished when both are simultaneously downloading.

So I though of creating a second user account, and starting the downloads there one at a time. But this isn't a good idea, since there is only supposed to be one account, and when the computer is shut down, if my secret account is logged in, the computer will refuse to shut down and a little sign saying "other users are logged in" will betray me.

Any ideas for getting around this problem? And no, talking to the parents is not an option :P Been there, done that, failed.

Are there any apps which could download invisibly in the background? I though of using Parallels Desktop and a virtual XP machine, but having that open constantly just slows the computer down SO much.

Hope you guys and girls can help :P

If their only argument is that it hogs the bandwidth just do the download overnight.

However, if that's their way of saying "No, you can't download questionable software" then you're stuck. Any hidden download process will still consume bandwidth so all you'd get is a slow download and angry parents.

That's not a "weird" problem. I have talks with my parents on Mac stuff too. Why don't you download the files on a hspd connection (say, at a friend's)?

Given the way ISP's have instituted bandwidth caps, there may be other ramifications to this as well, depending on the number of files.

If it's their machine, and they say no, the smart move is to not do it.

Who / where / how much?? Not happening where I live. (40Mbit unrestricted fibre - Nyah Nyah :)

Good, then you can let JadeWolf use your Mac. :D

Sure, if he can explain the airfare to Tokyo to the parents. Latency might be rather high too.

I'm looking into the possibility of using a friend's connection atm, but school holidays and living in the countryside slow that down.

Overnight won't work ... guess why ... my dad usually has his own downloads going overnight.

I think a hidden process would do the trick, cos our connection has enough ups and downs relating to various things that a slow download speed for a few days would go pretty much unnoticed.
Another element I didn't mention is the fact that my parents seem to think I take up enough space on the hard drive already, and will object to the sheer size of the downloads. (which aren't THAT big, really... not as if I wanted to download 50 GB)

Is it possible to have say a browser running, yet NOT appearing in the dock? Never heard of this done, but is it possible?

@renaultssoftware
What's an hspd connection? How does one set one up?

hspd = high speed connection (faster/wider than your own 512 Kb connection)

How about coming to some agreement with your dad? If the files are legal downloads, maybe you can justify that as needing them for a school project? You should be able to come up with a plan that can give you some time to download those files... Maybe you can set a schedule for your own downloads... sharing is a Good Thing™
Countryside, eh? What type of connection do you have? Satellite?
Get a job - buy your own dish, eh?

If I spent so much time downloading as many gbs, I would need to have a pretty convincing fake to pass them off as - my dad would be bound to want to see what these amazingly large files were. And I can't really think of anything that large that could be a school project. (The files total to around 6 or 7 GB)

We have an ADSL connection. 512 is the fastest we can get, due to ancient phone wires.

I repeat the question: are those files necessary? Are they pirated TV shows?

I know of some stuff like cURL, which is a Unix tool. I know very little about it.

curl and wget are very definitely worth studying. Downloads, uploads, partial transfers, interrupted transfers, sequential downloads (file01 -> file85) .....

not in dock
 

JadeWolf - you should offer us a few hints of at least creative and entertaining mentation re the nature of the files as we try to help you.

UNIX processes such as those mentioned above will not show up in the dock, but GUI and command line tools such as ActivityMonitor.app and top will show them as running threads.

Please don't ask us how to put a root shell on your parents' computer.

I agree with Sum… how do you spell that? :D Sumleilmus. Please tell us about these files before you ask. If they are of illegal nature, don't even ask.

I know you say you've tried talking this through with your parents, but to be honest, I think trying to (again) explain the situation to them is the only option. Any option we suggest that allows you to download these files covertly is going to be very dangerous for your computer. Beyond that, they will all require administrator access to the account. Do you even have the admin password for the computer?

Explaining difficult concepts to the non-computer savvy may be difficult, but sometimes its the only option you have.

What program are you using to do the downloads? Maybe if we knew what the program is we could help to put together an explanation for you, that way your parents might be a bit more understanding.

@renaultsoftware -- innocent until proven guilty, sir. While the situation is certainly suspect, we don't have any real evidence that he's pirating anything. Though, according to the forum rules at very least, if he is pirating we can't help him.

Duh, I'm not a lawyer :p. He hasn't answered, so I don't know what's up.

You're being very demanding for a none lawyer type, one might thing you were assuming things :D.

Well he's kept it secret for… 2 days. I just want to know what these files are. That's all I ask.

The files are a whole load of various things, a collection in .rar, but they are in no way illegal. My older brother (who studies in a different country) went off with a hard drive full of stuff, some of which was mine, he isn't coming home to visit again for a year. He didn't know that I didn't have a copy of all that data.

Don't blame you for thinking they're illegal, though :P

He uploaded some of them of mediafire, and some on some sharing site called fileserve.
So I'm no sure if cURL will work... unless there's a way to get the actual URL of a file on one of those sharing sites (doubt it - there's a captcha service on fileserve, might work on mediafire though).

I have the admin password, yeah. Only one account on the computer. (If I had my own, then it's be easy to get the files :P But I don't.)

While these files aren't necessary to my survival, it would be great to have them for free, without having to get my (impoverished student) brother send them over on DVDs, or even worse waiting for him to visit again. Which is what my parents told me to do.

EDIT: Upon checking, the files are actually a SPLIT rar. How unhelpful. So even if I can get the mediafire ones with cURL, I won't be able to open them. -.-

Pass!
 

OK, I say JadeWolf at least passes the creative mentation / entertainment test.

JW, some of the best crackers are social engineers. Forget curl and the command line. Put a value, in euros, GBP, USD, whatever, on the movement of this data. Now, find a friend who has bandwidth, a computer (ha ha) and a spontaneous, traduced, or purchased willingness to help you. Furnish your friend with a USB thumb drive, a handful of DVD-R media, and use your dulcet coo to persuade your friend to get the files for you and give them to you.

Where I live, the equivalent of 15 euros will buy a generic DVD burner should your friend lack that tool, of if that is the cheapest path to file transfer.

Or, wait for your brother to return.

OK, good. *phew* Do ask a friend!

I've joined split rar files on my Mac. As for the downloading, I think it could be fairly simple. If your family is used to computer slowdowns, then can you get up after they've gone to sleep, start downloading one of your files, go back to sleep, wake up before they get up and hide the downloaded file?

Split rars can be done with Rucksack (rucksackapp.com).

RAR files are ugly. Created by someone who then turned around and sold a not-free piece of software to use those files.

Can someone tell me how such a file format became a de-facto standard? Ugh.

To reach where the computer is from my room, I have to go through the parents rooms. (Ofc I could try climbing out the window :P)

Then it would seem that you need to purchase your own computer!
Hang a satellite dish out your room window, so you don't take on your parent's bandwidth.

I still am curious about 6 or 7 GB download that your parents don't seem to want you to have access to. That sounds a little less innocent than you let on.

Wow. This is really not simple.

This is getting complicated, isn't it? Okay. How about finding a friend who has a computer you can use, then arranging to spend a couple of nights at his/her place. Set up your home computer's power settings to automatically turn on in the middle of the night if needed. Then access your home computer from your friend's house?

Dude, you should get me a job in Tokyo. That would be awesome and I want that connection speed. I read that they wire whole high rises with fiber and then run them to every apartment....awesome!

My suggestion would be to use a router's firmware to handle bandwidth allocations. You could use a consumer router with flashed third party firmware and set a quality of service for a certain connection type and limit the bandwidth. It has kind of a higher learning curve.

If you use torrents you can always throttle torrent speed with in the torrent client.