Compressed archives such as ZIP, RAR and 7z is very useful in distributing multiple files in a single package that is also smaller in size because of compression. This would probably limit most people to download the whole package in order to get some of the files inside the compressed file. If you know how a ZIP format works, you can actually code a tool that previews the contents of the ZIP files and selectively download the file without downloading the whole ZIP file. There are such programs but most of them are shareware and is a part of download manager software.
Fortunately I have just found WOBZIP, a free online service where it can either download the compressed file from the URL that you specify or files that is uploaded from your computer, then WOBZIP extracts the archive on its server and finally output a list of files that are available for you to download. The best part is WOBZIP supports a huge list of compressed archive formats such as 7z, XZ, BZIP2, GZ, TAR, ZIP, WIM, ARJ, CAB, CHM, CPIO, CramFS, DEB, DMG, FAT, HFS, ISO, LZH, LZMA, MBR, MSI, NSIS, NTFS, RAR, RPM, SquashFS, UDF, VHD, WIM and XAR, thanks to 7-zip library!
If you know the direct download link to the compressed file, then paste the URL to the URL box and click the Uncompress button. If not, the you will need to download the file to your computer first and then upload it by clicking the Browse from computer button. You also have the option to enter the password if the archive is password protected. WOBZIP is limited to only 100MB file size so make sure that the compressed file is smaller than 100MB.
Once WOBZIP has finished extracting the files, you will need to click on the filename to expand the list of files. The files will only be kept for 3 days and then automatically deleted. You also have the option to delete the uploaded files.
It is mentioned on WOBZIP FAQ page that they are using Bitdefender to scan files that are uploaded to their server but I tried uploading a virus sample that is already detected by Bitdefender as Dropped:Trojan.Generic.KDV.512550, but WOBZIP doesn’t seem to block the file nor warn that the file is infected.
WOBZIP is truly a great and useful service. I hope this website will continue to exist and also remain as free. If you find WOBZIP slow, that is because they are currently hosted at HostMonster which I think is pretty risky in getting their account suspended if they overuse the CPU or memory usage on the shared server hosting.