Linux Download Password Protected Large ISO Images [ Authentication Credentials ]

I'm trying to download an ISO image for Enterprise Linux from RHN or Novell Suse. Both providers have placed ISO images behind paywall. I need to provide authentication credentials before downloading all files. How do I download ISO files using the wget command with user name and password?

You can use the Linux wget command to download large ISO files. The wget can provide user name and password for HTTP/401 Unauthorized headers using the following syntax:

 
wget --http-user=RHNUserName --http-password=RHNPassword 'https://content-web.rhn.redhat.com/rhn/isos/....'
 

OR

 
wget --http-user=NovellUserName --http-password=NovellPassword 'http://download.novell.com/sendredirect....'
 

In this example, I'm downloading SLES 11 SP1 AMD64 workstation from my personal account, enter:

 
wget --http-user=MyUSERID --http-password='SecretPassword' 'http://download.novell.com/sendredirect?target=%2Fprot%2Fx4q3cbksW7Q%7E%2FSLES-11-SP1-DVD-x86_64-GM-DVD2.iso&buildid=x4q3cbksW7Q~&fileid=X4FjnhU0Qk4~&mirror=AkamaiHost&nohost=false'
 

Sample outputs:

Resolving download.novell.com... 130.57.4.44
Connecting to download.novell.com|130.57.4.44|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 302 Moved Temporarily
Location: http://cdn.novell.com/prot/x4q3cbksW7Q~/SLES-11-SP1-DVD-x86_64-GM-DVD2.iso [following]
--2011-07-28 07:35:00--  http://cdn.novell.com/prot/x4q3cbksW7Q~/SLES-11-SP1-DVD-x86_64-GM-DVD2.iso
Resolving cdn.novell.com... 64.208.241.56, 64.208.241.42
Connecting to cdn.novell.com|64.208.241.56|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 401 Unauthorized
Reusing existing connection to cdn.novell.com:80.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 4605421568 (4.3G) [application/octet-stream]
Saving to: `SLES-11-SP1-DVD-x86_64-GM-DVD2.iso.1'
45% [=============================================>                                                       ] 2,09,79,89,128  527K/s  eta 23m 36s

Please note that user name and password may be intercepted by a third-party while in transit. So make sure you use https version for downloading files.