Download Manager / Accelerator Recommendations

[animeloon]

Are download managers good? What are their disadvantages and advantages.
If can, kindly recommend some good download managers

[Danj]

Originally Posted by animeloon

Are download managers good? What are their disadvantages and advantages.
If can, kindly recommend some good download managers

These days, download managers are only necessary if a. you are on a dial-up or other unreliable type of internet connection and/or b. the server you are downloading from is slow or unreliable. Most modern browsers (including Firefox and Opera) already have a download manager built in, but standalone download manager apps tend to be more flexible. One thing to note is that certain download managers do contain spyware/adware, so do be careful when choosing. I would suggest using something like Free Download Manager which I have tried myself and does not contain any ads or spyware.

[animeloon]

another question, does download manager make my download speed faster?

[bayoab]

Originally Posted by animeloon

another question, does download manager make my download speed faster?

No, not by default. Many of them contain the option to. The way the download managers "claim" to make your speed faster is that they open multiple threads on the download (i.e. more than 1 connection on the download) and therefore are downloading the file multiple times simultaneously from different points. Most websites ban for this now or will be not be limited per active connection so it will not help at all. There are still a few places on the web where it will help but they are few and far between. By default, a download manager does not make your download faster as it does not do anything special.

[AnimeOni]

Download managers can also download from multiple sources. ie. If source A has 1Mbit (T1) and another is also T1 and you have 6Mbit Cable, you are able to aggregate your overall download up to 2Mbit.

[Ending]

If you use only IE, which is basically prehistoric, you definitely could use a download manager to help with big files. Other browsers have the necessary tools build-in and if you have even tighter requirments, BT can do the rest.

When I still used those managers, FlashGet seemed to be pretty good after you got rid of the ads (it's shareware).

[Tiberium Wolf]

Always use download manager coz you can resume when the connection fails.

Currently I am using free download manager.

[Danj]

Originally Posted by Tiberium Wolf

Always use download manager coz you can resume when the connection fails.

While it's true that download managers let you resume if the connection fails, the incidence of connection failure is usually pretty small unless you're on dialup or the server is a long way away or is unreliable in some way. Also, modern browsers such as Firefox or Opera have basic download management capabilities built in, so you can resume from within the browser without any extra plugins or extensions.

[RaistlinMajere]

I used to use DLExpert a lot, but I haven't used one for a while now and it's been fine.

[Tiberium Wolf]

Originally Posted by Danj

While it's true that download managers let you resume if the connection fails, the incidence of connection failure is usually pretty small unless you're on dialup or the server is a long way away or is unreliable in some way. Also, modern browsers such as Firefox or Opera have basic download management capabilities built in, so you can resume from within the browser without any extra plugins or extensions.

Firefox > Dont always resume.

I think I shouldn't have said connection failure. There's all type of problems... Like browser process crashing, Blue screens of death, router resetting, power failure, etc. Tons of situations where you can't afford not to use a realiable download manager. Specially when you are downloading large files.

[DaFool]

I used to use Getright, but had to configure it first to use only one active connection per download, as well as to automatically redial upon disconnection, and automatically resume upon reconnection. But recently I just have a startup mirc script that does the reget from server automatically.

[toru310]

Hi, after getting pissed of with some download accelerators I finally gave up to that and decided to find a new one any recommendation? Hope there's a download accelerator does not hug the computer's system.. (looking for a download accelerator that can continue what was paused) or anything will do just give me recommendations...thanks

[theDarkHorse]

If you're using any Mozilla-based browser (Firefox, Flock, etc) then the DownThemAll! (link here) extension is one of the best solutions I've seen. Oh, and it's obviously free ^_^

[toru310]

IS it a download accelerator? like it speeds up the download even a little?


Edit:this program is kickass even just by lookin at it yeah thanks! but I still need recommendations because for somereason I need to use the internet explorer.

[SeijiSensei]

Download "accelerators" always seemed like snake oil to me. No software can push bits through your line faster than it's maximum bandwidth allows. In addition, most large files are distributed in compressed formats (zip, gzip, compressed video formats, etc.) so there's little to be gained by compressing them further. In fact, compressing them again actually reduces performance since the compressor still needs to work on the file for essentially no gain.

Plain-text files (like HTML) do gain a lot from compression; typically something like 4:1 improvements, but most web pages or other plain-text files aren't that large to begin with. In addition, modern web servers like Apache can negotiate with current browsers to compress these files on-the-fly using gzip already. Using a download "accelerator" won't help much there, either.

Oh, and the download function in Firefox already knows how to complete a paused or cancelled download. I've never understood why we need products like the Adobe Download Manager either.

[KNETTER2000]

I use Flashget whenever I need to massdownload stuff from sites.

http://www.flashget.com/en/download.htm
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Interne...FlashGet.shtml

freeware

[KNETTER2000]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

Download "accelerators" always seemed like snake oil to me. No software can push bits through your line faster than it's maximum bandwidth allows. In addition, most large files are distributed in compressed formats (zip, gzip, compressed video formats, etc.) so there's little to be gained by compressing them further. In fact, compressing them again actually reduces performance since the compressor still needs to work on the file for essentially no gain.

Plain-text files (like HTML) do gain a lot from compression; typically something like 4:1 improvements, but most web pages or other plain-text files aren't that large to begin with. In additionl, modern web servers like Apache can negotiate with current browsers to compress these files on-the-fly using gzip already. Using a download "accelerator" won't help much there, either.

I agree on the "maximum linespeed" bit. you can't speed up anything if you are maxing out your line already.

But: Sometimes servers cap downloadspeeds. I see that often.
My max download speed at home is 2.5MB/s. Mostly whenever I download stuff from fast HTTP servers, I only get 1.3MB/s on one thread.. often when I open a second thread it fills my max DLspeed. if a server caps a download on 5K/s on threads and it alows multiple connections, you can theoretically speed the download up by 5K x <amount of threads> ( keepiong in mind the max of you own line ofcourse)

Ofcourse if a server only allows one connection from one IP, it won't help a bit, but in cases where you can have more connections it will.

[toru310]

But sometime when your internet sucks this will be usefull...and yeah thanks for the info...I'll try flashget because you say it's good and since this is free. Got tired with Download accelerator plus because It hugs my system alot..in startups and even disconnects to the server...I think..


Edit: Does flashget can choose any browser even not default?

[Kai1]

i recommend "Internet Download Manager" aka idm.

[KNETTER2000]

Originally Posted by Migufuchi Fusutsu

But sometime when your internet sucks this will be usefull...and yeah thanks for the info...I'll try flashget because you say it's good and since this is free. Got tired with Download accelerator plus because It hugs my system alot..in startups and even disconnects to the server...I think..


Edit: Does flashget can choose any browser even not default?

I use IE and have never really taken the time to find out what other browsers it supports. sorry
I'm happy with IE and see no need for anything else..

But I've taken a look and it supports more browsers besides IE..
Opera, mozilla, firefox, netscape..
http://www.flashget.com/en/browser.htm

I hope it helps.