Giveaway of the Day Forums

1. 

   bdh1975
   Member

   Hello:

   I have over the past 2-3 years really enjoyed GOTD's software offerings. I tend to treat the software I do download as trialware, then if I like it I start recommending it forward. Since I have an IT degree, most of my family and friends, not to mention at work, come to me and take my advice on all things technology, so I like knowing what to be able to recommend people use for various situations.

   The past few months however, no matter what device or browser is being used, I have been unable to get anything to download. Today for instance it is Togethershare Data Recovery Pro - a category of software I routinely get asked about and is rife with software that makes big claims but delivers little, so I really like to try titles out so I know what to tell people to use. Doesn't matter if I go the Post to Facebook route or get a link via email route. When I click that last click which should start it downloading ("Click the link to download"), I get a 404 page not found error. The text on the page says:

   "404 Oooops!
   Sorry, the page you're looking for isn't here.
   Maybe you've clicked on an obsolete link or mistyped the URL, or maybe it's just us.

   Don't fret!
   Just go to our home page and proceed from there."

   And it from there is an endless circle; I have not been able to actually get anything to download now for months. ISP is AT&T Fixed Wireless -- we live way out in a very rural area, this is our only option other than satellite (which I absolutely refuse to use because of their ridiculous data caps). I read through the post from about a year ago re: 503 errors, like the OP there, my problem is only with the GOTD site, and only when actually trying to initiate the download. Have tried vis several laptops and my desktop, using Edge, the new Edge, Chrome, Internet Explorer, have tried after a clean install of Windows so no cache or cookies to clear, extensions and all settings at Window's default, etc.

   Any ideas? I'd sure hate to not have access anymore. One can read all s/he wants about software and its capabilities, but nothing compares to actually using it to know what it really can and can't do, so I am hoping to figure this out.

   Thanks!

   Posted 3 years ago #
2. 

   mikiem2
   Moderator

   Security software? Windows security settings? Browser cache? DNS?

   The page I get for today's GOTD is: giveawayoftheday[.]com/download/?c=0be46f1532233221acf55fd705b14323 . Clicking the download link triggers a javascript routine that provides a link to the download on files2.giveawayoftheday[.]com . If you plug that files2.giveawayoftheday[.]com into a browser you get your 404. So maybe something's making that javascript not work correctly? Or maybe something's preventing the GOTD server(s) from recognizing it as a valid request, e.g. not receiving the expected output from the javascript?

   If you rule out everything that resides on the PC or laptop or whatever device, which you seem to have done, then logic suggests that the request for the download URL is getting changed or not making it all the way through the process intact. Given that you're limited to your current ISP, the only things I can think of that you can change is the routing, by using a VPN, or more painlessly, though with less odds of success, by changing the default DNS server.

   It might be that ATT is doing something not quite spec, forwarding the request for the download URL, or they might have some sort of filtering in place. *Hopefully* one or both of those changes, VPN or DNS, might bypass that.

   Posted 3 years ago #

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