Surfing the Internet is part of the daily life of many users. We can find countless pages available to inform ourselves, communicate, download software, learn … We can also navigate from all types of devices and systems. Of course, sometimes for different reasons a website may not be available or that we do not have a connection to access it. Luckily we can make use of some options to download it and have it always available. In this article we are going to talk about Wget , a Linux function to download a web page on our computer.
Wget, the function to download files in Linux
This tool is completely free and free software. It is available for Linux , so we can use it in distributions like Ubuntu or Linux Mint without problems. It allows you to download files in a simple way. It supports different options such as HTTP, HTTPS or FTP.
It is therefore a very interesting tool if we want to download content of this type in a simple way. It has functions that guarantee the connection, so that there are no cuts and all the files are not downloaded correctly. We can also download large files and modify the bandwidth limit that we want to use so as not to overload the bandwidth.
Download a website with Wget
Although it is not an exclusive tool to download a web page, it is a very interesting function that we can use. On many occasions we may need to have a website on our computer without having to access the Internet. Wget allows us to achieve it in a simple way from Linux .
To download a web page with Wget we have to execute the following command from the Linux terminal:
wget -m -F -p -np -k -erobots=off -U mozilla --limit-rate=50K --wait=2 --html-extension sitioweb
In this chaos we could change different parameters. One of them, the main one, is the website. We can, for example, download the website of this article. In this case, we would have to change “website” to https://www.redeszone.net.
Some of the parameters can also be modified. For example “limit-rate” is to limit the speed when downloading. This is very useful if we have an Internet connection that does not have a high bandwidth and we are constantly downloading files. In this way, it will not greatly affect our connection and we will be able to continue browsing normally.
Regarding the “U” parameter, we can change it to the browser that interests us the most. Basically it allows you to see the page correctly with the browser that we put there. We set the parameter “F” to force you to download the web even if you find a problem. For example, if it found a corrupt file, such as an image or anything that cannot be downloaded correctly, the download would continue the same.
When we have all this stuffed we simply have to give it to execute. It will automatically start downloading the website we have chosen through the Linux terminal . This process can take much more or less depending on how that site is, the download limit that we have set, etc. The more complex the web and the more files it has, the longer it will take.
Later, once the web page has been downloaded, the files will appear in the saved directory, with the name of that web site. In this way we will already have it available to open without the need for Internet.
Why downloading a website is useful
Sometimes we don’t have the Internet . For example, it may happen that we are going to catch a plane and we are going to be without connection for several hours. We can download web pages that we will need to work or read information during that time. This is something that we can prepare in advance and be able to open them without Internet.
It can also be interesting when we need to change or analyze some aspects of a website. We can download it and open it with a different operating system or equipment where we do not have a connection but we do have tools to carry out specific changes.
In short, downloading a website is something that can be very useful for users on certain occasions. We have different tools at our disposal, both for Linux and for other systems such as Windows. However, Wget is a very simple tool to use.