Skip to content

Setup HTTP DirectDownload

Jump to bottom
devgianlu edited this page Sep 16, 2020 · 2 revisions

DirectDownload allows to download files from an HTTP server.

This guide will discuss two ways to do this:

Server-side setup

In order to make DirectDownload work we need to setup a service that provides direct access to the files that are being downloaded by aria2. Below is explained one of the many ways to do it. For this method you need Python installed.

With Python

Python installation

  • Linux: Python on Linux can be installed with apt: sudo apt-get install python or sudo apt-get install python3. If your system doesn't have apt you can use any other package manager, they should all provide python.
  • Windows: Python for Windows can be downloaded here. Any version should do it.
  • Mac OS X: Python for Mac OS X can be downloaded here. Any version should do it.

Running the script

Running the script is as simple as typing a single command in the aria2 download directory (specified by the --dir option): for Python < 3 type python -m SimpleHTTPServer [port number] and for Python > 3 type python -m http.server [port number].

Note for Linux: you may need to run the command as root with sudo.

Note for Windows: a Windows Firewall alert may appear on the screen asking for access to the external network. In order to make the script work you need to grant the access.

Note: if you're going to connect to the server from an external network, you need to open the desired port on you router.

Advanced server-side setup

DirectDownload supports both authentication with Authorization header and download resuming with the Range header.

Python script

I have created a Python script to do all the job for you. This script supports all the features provided by DirectDownload. You can find the script here. To download it use wget or your browser.

Note: Python > 3.7 is required

Example: To download with wget just type wget https://gist.githubusercontent.com/devgianlu/018b299f8817bf92350bf7bf70214e4d/raw/4ebe6b4a6899fd297683810d1ea0ade4d2bfb92e/serve_http.py

Once you downloaded the file execute it with the python like so: python ./serve_http.py

Note for Linux: you may need to run the command as root with sudo.

Note for Windows: a Windows Firewall alert may appear on the screen asking for access to the external network. In order to make the script work you need to grant the access.

Note: if you're going to connect to the server from an external network, you need to open the desired port on you router.

Authentication

You can also set an username and password to access the files, that can be done by editing line 247-248 like so:

USERNAME = "username123"
PASSWORD = "password456"

With Apache

Installing Apache

Configuration

The setup is pretty simple:

  • Create a configuration file inside the sites-enabled folder (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled on Linux) named something you can relate to aria2, the filename should end with .conf.
  • Inside this file copy the following text, editing it as mentioned below:
Listen [PORT]
<VirtualHost *:[PORT]>
        DocumentRoot [DIR]
        <Directory [DIR]>
                Options +Indexes
                Order allow,deny
                Allow from all
                Require all granted
                DirectoryIndex disabled
        </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Replace [PORT] with the desired port number (avoid small numbers, but less than 65536) and [DIR] with the full path to your downloads folder.

  • Restart Apache: sudo systemctl restart apache2 or the equivalent for your system.

Note: if you encounter permission problems (403) check your folder permissions, you main need to chown -R www-data:www-data [DIR] or chmod -R o+r [DIR].

Authentication

To enable authentication you can follow this guide from the Apache website.

Aria2App setup

Once your script is running, you need to gather the IP address of the machine. When you have it you can select the WEB mode and type in the address field the full address pointing to the directory listing.

Example: If the address is 192.168.1.8 and the port is 801, then the full address is http://192.168.1.8:801/.

Note: HTTPS is also supported.

Clone this wiki locally