Some of the downloads just bring up an error page, is that right?

Actually it's not an error page.
Let it load and actually look at it.
It will say the following:

Tripod Hello! This file is hosted by Tripod, a Lycos® Network site, providing the best personal and commercial publishing tools available on the Net. For premier homepages and lively community interaction, visit Tripod often.

Please click on
http://subdomain.tripod.com/filename.zip
to download this file.

You have to click on the link to start the download.