> So my question: How alive is a software project with
> its last working release ~6 years old?

I believe that all releases over the past 6 years would be considered
"working" releases.  "Working" does not equate to bug-free.  (Good news for
Microsoft.)

Obviously you've encountered and are still experiencing some bug that either
hasn't ben fixed or you are not using the correct settings the program needs
to work properly.

I'm not really sure what to tell you.  Is it a MIME setting you've
missed?http://httrack.kauler.com/help/MIME_types
Are there clues in the debug or extended log?  Or maybe you need to activate
debugging mode...?
Just because you've found a work-around of going back to an older version does
NOT mean that there is no "fix" in the current version(s).  It just means
that's the only way YOU have found to get it to work for your circumstance.

I may be wrong, but it seems that most of these kinds of problems are caused
by misconfigured servers, not by HTT.  And just because a browser can
understand a buggy server doesn't mean HTT can.  (Agreed that it would be
nice, though.)

>
> Unfortunatedly recent versions are unable to make
> reliable downloads of web contents.
>

This just isn't true.  In general.  For some sites/servers/etc, it is
possible.  But more information would be needed to find out if it is a user
error, a bug which could be corrected, or a server problem for which HTT could
be updated to understand.

HTH,
~b