Recommendation For Download Accelerator

[localexpat]

Hi

Does any one know

Do download accelerators really work on file transfers etc.

I have adsl maxnet and am looking for a accelerator for bit torrent, ftp transfers that kind of thing

if you have good experience with one please advise name of program etc

thanks in advance

[Florin]

FlashGet ( www.flashget.com ) ...an excellent program, now also with BitTorrent and eMule support (though uTorrent is a better BitTorrent client), it maxes out my LAN connection and works well with TRUE as well (getting an average of 4.8 out of the 5Mbit subscription, which I reckon is quite decent)

[Tywais]

FlashGet ( www.flashget.com ) ...an excellent program

Totally agree with that. Been using FlashGet for several years now and is one of my 'essential - must have' tools. The new version now with built in Torrent capability. And if you have Firefox then download FlashGot also which hooks into Firefox linking it to FlashGet making downloads a breeze.

[withnail]

Third vote for flashget with the flashgot plugin. It's the first thing I notice missing if I'm on someone elses pc or if I've just formatted.

[waldwolf]

localexpat - Are you asking about a Download Accelerator or Download Manager?

If Accelerator, they don't work and may actually slowdown your download.

If Manager, FlashGet or GetRight would be good choices

waldwolf

[Tywais]

localexpat - Are you asking about a Download Accelerator or Download Manager?

Good point waldwolf, I missed that and misinterpreted his request, and you are right on both counts.

[localexpat]

HI

I was actually refering to a download accelerator

So thats for the info

Also thanks for the recommendations re download manager

Cheers

[Florin]

Actually FlashGet does work as a download accelerator as well...by my understanding, a download manager is anything that will allow you to queue up, pause & resume downloads (like the built-in manager in Firefox), whereas programs like FlashGet or GetRight also accelerate the download by creating multiple connections for the same file...the difference is very significant if you download something with just 1 connection as opposed to splitting it up in 5 or 10.

[waldwolf]

Suggested reading: Download Accelerators 101.

This subject (Accelerators vs. Managers) is really becoming academic, as more and more download servers are limiting the number of connections from a specific IP address. Many OEM servers, such as Microsoft and Adobe, limit download connections, by requiring you use their "Managers", when downloading trial software, large updates, and the like.

waldwolf

[Florin]

Oh come on now...what that article says applies to things like a web server hosted in someone's house, where of course hammering the connection is not nice. You're telling me that getting the latest version of iTunes with 10 simultaneous connections instead of 1 will cause problems to Apple's web servers??

Also, the limits/IP are often not 1 connection/file, but more like 3 connections/file...which is still faster than downloading it with 1 connection. You're telling me you set the "Threads from main site" in FlashGet to 1? By default it's 5...setting it to 1 would make a significant dent in the download speed.

[nikster]

localexpat - Are you asking about a Download Accelerator or Download Manager?

Good point waldwolf, I missed that and misinterpreted his request, and you are right on both counts.

um, well, except that Flashget speeds up my downloads to 80 ~ 100KB / s, e.g. it totally maxes out my 1024Kbit DSL, whereas when I download normally using Firefox or whatever, I only get 30KB/s.

Flashget opens multiple download streams for each files, which is apparently good enough to get around the TOT bandwidth shaping. Or something. In any case, it's a lot faster, so calling it an accelerator wouldn't be all wrong.

Gonna get Flashgot now