It was discussed a couple of weeks ago: AFV Interiors website shutting down.
Some of the more web savvy guys also mentioned a way to download the site onto CDs and browse.

Hi

If you are a Mac user, here's the solution:
If you have Acrobat (the full version), you can go to the File menu, and select open web page.
Then type in:http://www.kithobbyist.com/AFVInteriors/

Click Download, and wait a while (I'm on a network, so I left it downloading overnight, I have no idea how long it took). I ended up with a file that is almost 500 MB, but it's very fast for navigation. I just had to save as a pdf when the download was complete.

I'm not sure about the other options suggested.

Cheers
Andy

... or you can download Httrack (it's a free offline browser) and download the site for later browsing with IE, Netscape, etc...

Ironically, these site downloader programs like Httrack, Offline Explorer etc., are the reason that sites disappear. They cause so much of a bandwidth drain and therefore cost for the webmasters that they can not afford to keep their sites running. I would bet too that Armorama suffers from them.

Paul, in principle can I agree with you, but I think that in this case the situation is a bit different. As far as I know AFV Interiors is apparently shutting down because the site hosting it is closing operations and the webmaster is not in a position to afford to move to a commercial (pay) server. AFV Interiors it's a very invaluable resource for a lot of us and I justify the people who wants to have a copy of the site if it's going to close. On the other hand, I've own a site on the Italian Cavalry. I'm in a lucky position, because I've got my own HDSL (2 mbits) that I already use for work, so I have not extra costs but the domain registration. I personally limit the bandwith available for the robots who want to downolad the site to 128 kb, just to have enough bandwidth to run my own business and to be sure that there is a bit of capacity left for the other surfers. Who doesn't want "robots" to download their sites can use freeware sw to prevent it.
Ciao

Hi Paul

The home page for AFVInteriors basically says download stuff while you can!

I can see how having a lot of folks do that to a site like TL or Armorama would be a problem, but you guys aren't closing!

Hey Fabio, does Httrack work on a Mac?

Andy

From the phone call I had with Jeff Barringer, the owner of the website, the "Kithobbyist" portion was just a way for him to write off his own modeling expenses. His big interest is in reptiles and his main site is www.kingsnake.com. He hosted several sites as a way to draw users to the Kithobbyist site, but the hosted sites like AFV Interiors and some of the modeling group sites became bigger than his own site and were also competition as well.

He couldn't see the benefit of spending his money to host other sites that were in competition to his own site. He also wasn't getting the advertisers either.

Yes - and not just Track Link or Armorama...

Gunnie

I'm not too web smart, but what this mean? Am I correct in assuming that the bandwith draw costs the site money?

Yes - if the bandwidth draw is over and above the agreed upon terms in the contract. The charge comes data transfer per month (bandwidth) and measured in 1 GB for mine. Currently, anything over 20 GB draw in a month results in an additional fee.

Gunnie

Aaargh,

I am not in the habit of ripping websites but this is one site I hate to see gone

So I copied the site to my HD (a whopping 450 MB) with Httrack (tnx Fabio).
But keeping 450 MB on my system is not a good idea so I decided to put it on a Disk, well easier said then done.

I tried Nero Burning Rom v. 5 but got an error - ''could not write end-file 72% completed" Then I tried CD-Mate v2.2.8.1, Writing error (13% completed)

In total I ruined 5 Cd's to back this up it is not meant to be

Hello all.........

It seems I opened up a can of worms when I mentioned the offline download programs to use in order to copy the afv interiers site.......

I'll just say this much. I'm pretty web savy and I know what is out there. Also I know all about the bandwith limits placed on sites.

but when I heard that the AFV interiers site was closeing and the page basicly said download what you can, I download backstreet.. used it to download the site because In the past I have found a lot of unique and useful information there, and I wanted to keep it.

So I downloaded the site........ and now I hope I never have to use it again...... esp since my 15 day free trial is over and the program won't work anymore........



I say support the sites by clicking on their advertizers and other ways and respect their bandwith....... otherwise we might lose other great sites.




and thats just my 2 cents worth......

Delbert.

Delbert,

You are right we need to support the sites we love and this is a site I love, I also have found some nice inf there, but the decision to close the site is been made. And I for one hope that he can find someone who is willing to host the site. But in the unlikely event that that would not happen then I wanted this as personal reference material.

It took me a while before I decided that I would copy the site, but I did, I also already removed that program, because (for me) it out lived it purpose.

So I am also not a favorite of copying other peoples sites because building and maintaining a website is hard work, we need to respect it, but this is a one time deal for most of us and the webmaster of AFV Interiors himself gave the go ahead sign.

KEEP SUPPORTING so that other great sites do not end in the same way as this great site has