One of Mega's unique features is that it's a Chrome-only website. Mega explained that some of the more advanced web technologies it uses aren't supported or don't work well in other browsers.
Starting today, however, Firefox users will also be able to properly operate the website with an official add-on. The add-on from Firefox and you will find it if you search for it as Mega extension.
The addon will allow users to download files of any size.
The add-on completely bypasses the Firefox download process, even saving the files to a default download folder rather than the one you have set in the browser.
This is because Firefox does not support writing files with JavaScript. However, Mega requires it as files stored in the cloud are encrypted and can only be decrypted locally.
Since the encryption and decryption method is done exclusively with JavaScript, the website should be able to convert local files using JavaScript.
Internet Explorer 10 uses JavaScript, however, it only does so for files stored in RAM and not for files located on disk.
This means that the encrypted file must be “downloaded” to RAM and then decrypted there. However, RAM must be twice the size of the file, so a large file, say a DVD, would require more than 8 GB of RAM to decrypt, which is very difficult for ordinary computers.
The Firefox add-on solves this problem. It saves the encrypted file locally and then decrypts it when the transfer is complete.
Note, however, that you can use Mega without the extension. Downloads will just be slower and you will only be able to download one file at a time.
