Advice on download manager

Hi

Does anyone here use a download manager? Like the one recommended on the Wilders free software page- DLExpert. Are they generally newbie friendly? Does it really speed up your downloads? I have 56k dialup, and was wondering how much of a speed up i may see when downloading files? Thanks for any help.

 

I have used several download managers when I was on dial up. I never actually noticed faster downloads but most dl managers can download from several sites or mirrors at once. What the multiple connections will do is it will allow it to keep downloading on the other sites or mirrors that it is connected to if it looses a connection on one of the connections it is useing. Which will allow it to complete the download with out having to reconnect and start over. That alone is a good thing to have if you are on dial up and are getting fairly large files.

 

Hi MobileForces...

Generally, you will not detect any differences speed wise using dial up...

What normally happens with DL managers, it they collect pieces of the file from various sites, dl all same time and put them together at the end.

Using dialup, this is virtually no gain at all.

The only thing a DLManger [in my experience] can do for you on dial-up, is if a connection is lost, or you need to stop, you can resume the dl at a later date and not have to dl the whole file again.

Been there, done that. on 56K Modem..

Generally the maximum is like 52K sec. [depends on each country's law].

TAS

edit: bigc beat me.... same reply though

 

With a 56kbs dialup connection you can expect, at best, a 5KB/s download (note the change from kb=kilobit to KB=kilobyte). The main benefit on dialup of a download manager is the ability to resume interrupted downloads as stated previously.

Be careful with downloaders offering multiple connections. This can be useful if the limiting factor is the server (which is highly unlikely on dialup) and if the file is mirrored elsewhere. Otherwise it can actually slow things down (each network connection carries a protocol overhead) and some servers will ban your IP address (e.g. the Underdogs abandonware site) since multiple connections take up more server resources.

 

What Tassie_Devils and bigc73542 have said is true you will see very little to no increase in speed using a download manager.

As for being user friendly the only way to tell which one will suit your needs is to try them out. There are a lot of them out there.

I have been using one for years now but then I am a download freak. I will usually queue up a goodly list of downloads and then download them while I am asleep or at work with option to disconnect and shutdown computer after it is done. It will also sort downloaded files depending on which extension they are to different folders. It will also autimatically login to sites that require login before you can download.

Yeesh, it sounds like I am trying to sell you a download manager.:lol

Seriously though if you download a lot of files like I do and are on a 56k modem like I am then having a download manager is a good tool to have imho.

If you do decide to use one take a look at the version history and see if they are updating thier product fairly frequently. There are sites that want cookies and referrers to download.

A site with a good list freeware and shareware.

http://fileforum.betanews.com/browse/WWW&Internet/DownloadEnhancements

Good luck.

 

hi MobileForces

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