Shoutbox

Ok, here's the deal:

I go (well I actually used to go, but that's not a big deal ) to an internet cafe that has a valve cyber cafe account, and I use that service to play Counter Strike: Source.
That's fine, but the problem is, that, before I play, I have to download the required files to play, which are a couple of GBs. They have made a program to do that automatically, but you need to wait 10-15mins before you can play.
The program copies the files from a network computer. I have traced down the location from which the files get copied.
So, I was wondering, is it somehow possible to make "fake" files, which once accessed, they will return the data of an actual file that I have selected?
By this way, I can make files that will point to the original files, and by that way, I won't need to wait for the files to get copied!

I know that, if I manage to do that, the game will run a little slower, but, I think that it's worth the try...


Thanks.....

I'm not sure if Windows has named FIFOs but that would be my bet. You might be able to write a short Python script to get data from those files and pass them straight back out.

Even better would be you running those files straight from CD/DVD, if the terminals have their own CD drives.

But wouldn't a Python script require the file to be fully downloaded? (which I don't want to happen, because the file is about 2-3 GBs and downloading this file costs minutes )


And, no, the computers do not have a CD/DVD drive.

I think I need something similar to Linux's symlink command. I found that I can do this on Windows Vista using the mklink command, but this doesn't really help me since their computers are using Windows XP SP2.

quote:

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Originally posted by Mike
I think I need something similar to Linux's symlink command. I found that I can do this on Windows Vista using the mklink command, but this doesn't really help me since their computers are using Windows XP SP2.

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http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/Fil...Disk/Junction.mspx

NTFS supports hard links and junctions, but apparently you can only link to volumes on the same computer, not shared volumes on a network...

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=341355

http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-6346_11-5388706.html

quote:

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It's important to keep in mind that NTFS junction points are designed to work only on local hard disks. They don't work across a network. In other words, you can't create a junction point on an NTFS drive that points to a network drive.

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Too bad...

Thanks anyway

Let's hope that there is a program with network support that allows me to do that

quote:

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Originally posted by Mike
But wouldn't a Python script require the file to be fully downloaded? (which I don't want to happen, because the file is about 2-3 GBs and downloading this file costs minutes )


And, no, the computers do not have a CD/DVD drive.

I think I need something similar to Linux's symlink command. I found that I can do this on Windows Vista using the mklink command, but this doesn't really help me since their computers are using Windows XP SP2.

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The data will probably still need to go through your computer, yes. Essentially, if you're going to run a program on your computer, you need to get it into memory somehow. The thing about doing it with Python FIFOs would be that you wouldn't have to download all the files, only the ones that were being used at the time [because they would only load when called].

Still, it's unlikely to work. XP should have a working POSIX environment, but if it hasn't got symbolic links, it's unlikely to support fifos either.