Hi! I am sorry if this is a very basic question, but I’m new to this so apologies if my vocabulary is not very technical.
I am using the website “https://oldweb.today/” to access old versions of a file that is regularly updated on a certain website.
When I paste the corresponding url of the file download, and the date I want to access the website too, the file is downloaded to a kind of “server”. Is there a way to download it to my computer directly? Or to send it to my computer somehow?
OldWeb.Today gets its archives from the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine and displays them in virtual machines in your browser. When you download a file within the virtual machine (an emulated operating system that runs in your browser) it will be download to the virtual machine and not your actual computer — which isn’t what you want! That’s why this isn’t working
Even though the page you’re browsing in OldWeb.Today may be from 2017, the Wayback Machine can sort of mix things up from different captures depending on when the most recent one is available. Looking on Internet Archive’s actual site, it seems they’ve downloaded this file only once in 2015. Here’s a link for the file on their site!
I actually was able to download through OldWeb.Today using the option “Ruffle (Flash)” for Browser/Emulator.
Interesting to know that it gets its archives from Archive’s Wayback Machine. I was using that previously but was able to access more files through OldWeb.Today.
The dates are a little bit weird though, I guess it’s related to what you mentioned about when is the most recent capture available.
Do you know if there is an easy way to find out if the URL for the download of the file changed with time? I can also access the site on different dates but when I click on the download it gives me error. So it seems that the only way to actually download it is to get the URL for the download right (which has changed over time).
I actually was able to download through OldWeb.Today using the option “Ruffle (Flash)” for Browser/Emulator.
Ah! That makes sense! I forgot about that one!
Do you know if there is an easy way to find out if the URL for the download of the file changed with time?
I can’t say I’m aware of this, though you’d be better off asking somebody from Internet Archive about it? They would be able to give a better answer than I would.
