What's your favorite program to rip or mirror a website? Especially one free to download and use.

Thanks!

Louis

You can try teleport pro. It's not totally free but it does the job. You can also use wget with the -m switch if you wish too. Just 'man wget' on a linux box.

HTTrack is a good one....I have used it many times to get my sites off of crappy hosts when ftp was not working. The only bad thing is that it marks the html pages with it's own info.

Doesn't MSIE do that?

Black widow is actually one of the best site ripper programs I have ever used in my entire life.

Here is a link:

http://www.tucows.com/preview/193802.html

Hi,

Look at Offline Explorer (http://www.metaproducts.com/mpOE-AY.html). It's my favorite.

you want to rip another hosts' design? :angry:

http://www.webreaper.net/

free for non-commercial

wombat

Originally posted by bitserve
Doesn't MSIE do that?
Yes, it does, you can set how many site levels do you want to storage to browse off-line.

Originally posted by roly
you want to rip another hosts' design? :angry:
You don't need a site ripper for that.
This will save all the files needed to view the website on a different server(mirror) or on your own computer(for offline viewing)

Hi roly,

No, I do NOT want to rip off anyone else's site design. Any site design I would put up would have quite a lot of thought put into usability; hence I would create it myself -- not copy someone else's design. Plus, I'm much more interested in the back end (i.e. server administration) of things rather than the "front end" of design anyway.

Just to share, I'm a senior programmer/analyst who very much respects others intellectual property. I do NOT pirate software nor steal other folk's designs. Heck, I won't even use a .gif due to patent issues.

I want a good tool to rip/mirror a site I own/control/manage from one hosting account/machine to another for both back up purposes and for migration to another machine.

I know you don't know me, but please accept that my useage is both legal and honorable.

Moreover, I would like a site ripper/mirror that does NOT modify what it rips/mirrors with any of it's own code or control information. I would like the ripped/mirror image to be just that -- an exact image of what I ripped/mirrored.

I think the term "ripper" does have bad connotations. When I told my wife I wanted to "rip" her site, she said it sounded like something Freddie Kruger would do! I had to laugh.

Anyway, thanks a lot for sharing!


Take care,

Louis

Originally posted by teck
You can try teleport pro. It's not totally free but it does the job.For limited use it's free. The unregistered version is limited to only downloading 500 files per site, and can be used 40 times. So that may be all Louis needs. It's also very configurable about what to download, etc., and can be set to make no changes to the files.

I use it to mirror client sites, with permission, for search engine optimization projects and it does everything I'd want it to.

I want a good tool to rip/mirror a site I own/control/manage from one hosting account/machine to another for both back up purposes and for migration to another machine.


Why not just post the copy from the original or backups? You DO keep a copy on your own machine don't you?;)

Hi NyteOwl,

Yes, I do keep original/backup copies as I should.

The problem is my other family members don't backup like they should and keep stuff as organized as they could.

And, I do site related work for them on their personal sites. I guess you could say I'm the family "IT department".

So, it's nice to be able to rip/mirror their sites to my box at home, do whatever I'm going to do for them, then, after their OK, upload the changes -- or just burn a CD backup for them periodically.

My dad, for instance doesn't even have a CD burner -- nor an easy way to back up his stuff. And, since he lives a fair distance from me, it's nice to be able to work remotely on his stuff for him.

So, in my case, you can see how nice it is to have the utility of a good site ripper.


Take care,

Louis

Have you considered just zipping up the site and then unzipping it on your machine at home?

Just another option.

you probably won't get much 'back end' stuff from a site copier, as they'll be copying the html results of scripting, not the script itself. In additon most (if not all), won't follow back to the cgi-bin, or database. For a vanilla html site they'll work just fine. WebCopier is the one I use and find it fine for the task.

Incidently from a designers point of view, I agree that 'site ripping' is a dirty business. Beyond stealing people's property, it can also cause a nice drain on an accounts transfer if they nab a large site. However, when building a site for someone using their current sites content (written copy, image collections) it a fast way to get that downloaded locally if they have to dig around to find their account login details for more than a day or two.

It's often a case of software built for a legitmate purpose getting used for things the author never intended.

Greg Moore

Hi!
wget is a wonderful way to store your site..

Another suggestion. If you look after a lot of websites why not setup a cvs or webDav
It would really ease your work... : )

Have a great day

regards
Amar