Download Websites With FireMirror

Martin Brinkmann
Mar 31, 2010
Updated • Jul 28, 2016
Firefox, Firefox add-ons
|
10

FireMirror is a Firefox add-on that adds functionality to the web browser to download entire websites to the local hard drive.

Internet users sometimes come upon information on websites that they want to preserve for the future.

They might consider bookmarking the page but that is only useful for as long as the page exists in its current form. If the author decides to edit it, remove information from it or replace content, delete the page or take the whole site down, then you won't be able to access the resource anymore even though you have bookmarked it.

Another option that you have is to print the information on the page, or save that page to your local computer system to preserve it.

The Firefox extension FireMirror uses a similar technique to download websites to the local hard drive.

FireMirror

It basically is a website mirroring software that downloads a website automatically based on parameters that you define during setup.

The default setting downloads the active page plus every page that is linked from that page for instance.

The depth, which is the parameter that defines how many link levels the extension will follow can be set to a value between 0 and 10 with 0 indicating that no links are followed and 10 that all links on the originating page are followed up to a depth of 10 different resources.

Additional options include configuring a duration for timeouts, disabling link replacements, enabling reports or configuring filters to include urls with a specific string. The configuration can be saved as a profile to speed up future download runs as you can load profiles again whenever needed.

A basic browser is provided in another tab that you can use to browse the website that is being downloaded, but it is usually a better idea to load the downloaded pages instead from the hard drive (the browser will retrieve pages that have not been downloaded).

The local pages use relative paths so that the downloaded website and pages can be moved around without breaking the navigation.

The extension is provided in an early version. There is for instance no stop or cancel button which means the process can only be stopped by clicking on the x button on the extension window. The report is also not working at this time.

FireMirror could become an interesting alternative to desktop software like HTTrack. The add-on is compatible with Firefox 3.6+ and can be downloaded from the Mozilla website.

Update: The Fire Mirror extension is no longer available. We suggest to use HTTrack which is linked above to download entire websites.

Summary
software image
Author Rating
1star1star1star1stargray
3.5 based on 6 votes
Software Name
FireMirror
Software Category
Browser
Advertisement

Tutorials & Tips


Previous Post: «
Next Post: «

Comments

  1. asr said on November 19, 2010 at 10:51 pm
    Reply

    What’s the depth? I went with the maximum permissible level of 10.. Is it to do with the hierarchy in the webpage?

  2. Gl said on April 2, 2010 at 5:36 am
    Reply

    Thanks. I’m going to give it a try.
    This looks like a handy add-ons.

  3. AridonPC said on March 31, 2010 at 8:52 pm
    Reply

    That is truly a smart bookmarking technology :)

  4. phil said on March 31, 2010 at 6:55 pm
    Reply

    Thanks for the tip.
    I think I’ll stay with ScrapBook Plus though.

    1. zorro said on April 28, 2010 at 7:34 am
      Reply

      even i use scrapbook, but you always have to remember to backup the folder whenever you do an OS reinstall or something, which is located deep inside app data folders…painstaking :(

  5. BalaC said on March 31, 2010 at 6:01 pm
    Reply

    I still use HTTrack. When i see failure in that one then i think of switching to this alternative.

Leave a Reply

Check the box to consent to your data being stored in line with the guidelines set out in our privacy policy

We love comments and welcome thoughtful and civilized discussion. Rudeness and personal attacks will not be tolerated. Please stay on-topic.
Please note that your comment may not appear immediately after you post it.