I am getting an error when trying to do this.

magala@ORCLUS41 ~/COIN/coin-Decomp/Decomp/examples/ExternalSolvers/Graph

$ wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/boost/boost/1.40.0/boost_1_40_0
.tar.bz2
--2009-09-23 01:10:27--  http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/boost/boost/1.

40.0/boost_1_40_0.tar.bz2
Resolving downloads.sourceforge.net... 216.34.181.59
Connecting to downloads.sourceforge.net|216.34.181.59|:80... failed: Connection
refused.


Not really related to boost.

Anyway: The commandline you have given tries to download a directory, and it's not the commandline given to you by Christoph. Try do download an actual file. It can also be that you have to work at some direct link, like http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/boost/boost/1.40.0/boost_1_40_0.tar.gz?use_mirror=kent