ImageShack Torrent Hack : Get Download Resuming In a Roundabout Way
A bit of background : when ImageShack added their new torrent download service (beta) a few months ago I didn’t pay it much attention. However, the wealth of available torrents was just too tempting (and my connection just too crappy to download them myself), so I I figured I’d give the ImageShack service a try, legal risks be damned (I’m not from USA anyway 
).
The Problem
After a few minutes fighting the buggy interface that kept telling me I’m not logged in (though I obviously was) I managed to get ImageShack to download a 3.5 GB torrent for me. However, it turned out the HTTP download links it generates for the downloaded files
- Can only be accessed by logged-in users.
- Don’t support download resuming.
Given my unreliable connection, downloading several gigabytes in one go is simply impossible. So I had to find a way to get download resuming working, which I’ve described below.
The Roundabout Solution
Download the files to another server (that supports download resuming), then download them to the PC using any download manager. You will need a server with shell access, a fast network connection and admins that don’t mind/notice huge and possibly illegal downloads.
Assuming you have somehow found such a wonder, the rest is easy. First, you need to get the session cookies your browser sends to ImageShack when you are logged in. Use your favorite network sniffer or the Live HTTP headers addon to get them. The cookie looks like this :
myid=11540240; myimages=3fg2e7471aef5fea5zfd982597262a5c; isUSER=someone; PHPSESSID=2348ab036488733311154564d82feabe; imgshck=aea228794abba9c9fe9ac9bab29f9138; un_cookie=1; latest=img66; countrytabs=0; __qca=1648678751-39134354-9534555; __qcb=887515614
Next, find the URL for the file you want to download. In Firefox you would right-click on a file and select “Copy Link Location”. The URL might look similar to this :
http://img125.imageshack.us/tor/browse/?id=5681&rel=Totally_Legit_Download_Isqd%2Fits_linux_I_swear.iso
Now just ssh to your server and use wget to download the file :
wget --header "Cookie: myid=11540240; myimages=3fg2e7471aef5fea5zfd982597262a5c; isUSER=someone; PHPSESSID=2348ab036488733311154564d82feabe; imgshck=aea228794abba9c9fe9ac9bab29f9138; un_cookie=1; latest=img66; countrytabs=0; __qca=1648678751-39134354-9534555; __qcb=887515614" "http://img125.imageshack.us/tor/browse/?id=5681&rel=Totally_Legit_Download_Isqd%2Fits_linux_I_swear.iso"
Finally, move the resulting file to somewhere inside the webroot and download it with FDM or whatever 
Subscribe via RSS
Get Updates by Email
The problem went away a long time ago and I don’t remember the exact solution anymore. I think what I did was log in, then refresh the page a couple times and click around a bit, too, to see if it would stick. Then logout/repeat the process if it didn’t help.
Other ideas :
Edit : Hmm, WordPress is messing with my HTML markup.
OR use Opera browser, i use it and have no problem resuming files
cna you please explain indetail what is “Now just ssh to your server and use wget to download the file ” because i am new to this
As I said, this is a roundabout solution. First, yyou need a *nix-based webserver. Then you log into that server using some kind of remote client (e.g. ssh) and use the wget command to download the file. Google it.
if the torrent is completed you don’t have to worry about resuming, it will resume, but if torrent is not completed, then you can’t resume it.
I’m aware of that. This post is about downloading files from the ImageShack site.