I am trying to develop a download manager for the .Net platform. It will hook into IE first, and then maybe Firefox and other browsers.
I already have good experience writing apps for the .Net platform. But I have not written code that will download files, pause downloads, resume etc..
There are two motives for this project:
I am sick of all existing ones either because they either have a lot more than what I need or less than what I need. They are not very customizable or come with ads or spyware etc.
Learn something related to networking, downloading, HTTP/FTP, browser integration etc.. as it is one of the areas I have very little knowledge about.
What is a good place to start? Any links? I cannot afford books at the moment :( Articles or free ebooks and such will be of great help.
I really want to learn the core part - the connecting to the server and downloading files. UI, file storage, preferences etc are things I can handle at the moment. But can someone tell me where will be a good place to start learning about the .Net way of downloading files for this project?