Best Free Download Manager

Sun, 08/31/2008 - 07:13 — Jojoyee1108

There comes a time when you are downloading a large file and the download stops part of the way through. If you are using the Windows download applet there is nothing you can do about it; you will just have to start again. A good download manager will allow you to resume the download, picking up where it left off.

Good download managers also allow you to start several concurrent download sessions from available resources for the one file. This works by splitting the file into parts with each part downloaded at the same time from the resources. At the end the file is then re-assembled.

This can result in dramatic improvements in download speed given a transmission speed limited by internet service providers.

Below are a few free download managers short listed for review based on the basic requirements including:

Speed, or lapsed time to download a file
Interface with web browsers and supported protocols
Management of downloaded files
Other features

Gigaget download manager is in general the fastest by far for downloading files. It utilizes cutting-edge Net Grid technology to tap the unused resources of networked PCs and servers to greatly improve your download speed.

Gigaget interfaces well with Internet Explorer and Firefox and has all the features you would need, safe and easy to use.

Among the features, it allows you to easily pause, resume or delete a download, import or export list of downloads, and it has a powerful task manager with data transfer encryption, auto data integrity validation and correction, classfication of downloaded files, etc.

On the negative side, this program in the version under this review will occasionally prompt an 'about:blank' error message. If you click ok, the program clears the message and nevertheless proceeds to work well.

Alternatively Free Download Manager is a good choice for its stability and good integration into Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera.

It offers simultaneous multi-part downloads, easy restarting and recovery, a powerful scheduler and downloading from mirrors.

It also features downloads from RapidShare, BitTorrent support, adjusting traffic usage, flash video download and an upload manager. Management of downloaded files is supported.

Another popular download manager is Orbit Downloader, which is devoted to the new generation web to make downloading any social media easy and fast.

Moreover, Orbit Downloader features Grab Pro to support video download from sites which use anti-leeching technology like YouTube, Pandora, etc. It also supports most streaming media protocols and file-sharing service websites.

Support of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera and Maxthon together with general download management is included.

FlashGet download manager is also worth a try as it is designed for speed and management of downloaded files as well.

It increases the download speed by applying multiserver hyperthread technology and supports HTTP, FTP, BT, eMule and other various protocols.

FlashGet provides download monitoring with Internet Explorer and integrates well with FlashGot extension to Firefox too. It supports unlimited categories for managing downloaded files.

On first running of the program after installation, it comes with a 'recommended message' at the right panel, but this can be disabled easily as an option.

There are other free download managers which are not short listed under this review. They are appended below for comparison:

Download Accelerator Plus (free) is a toned down version of commercial DAP Premium but basic features are available such as multi-connections to download sites, mirror search, etc. It has an active 'information pane' at the right panel which is not allowed to disable.

Star Downloader Free accelerates your downloads by splitting files into parts and downloading them from mirror sites. It is also a toned down version without some of the needed features such as link leecher available to commercial Star Downloader Pro.

Gigaget
Website: http://www.gigaget.com
Download: http://www.gigaget.com/download.htm
Author: Giganology
Current Version: 1.0.0.23
Download File Size: 2.0 MB
License: Freeware
Operating Systems: Windows 95-Vista
Additional Software Required: None
Languages: English only

Free Download Manager
Website: http://www.freedownloadmanager.org
Download: http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/download.htm
Author: FreeDownloadManager
Current Version: 2.5
Download File Size: 5.62 MB
License: Freeware
Operating Systems: Windows 95-Vista
Additional Software Required: None
Languages: English and many others

Orbit Downloader
Website: http://www.orbitdownloader.com
Download: http://www.orbitdownloader.com/download.htm
Author: Orbitdownloader
Current Version: 2.7.8
Download File Size: 2.06 MB
License: Freeware
Operating Systems: Windows NT-Vista
Additional Software Required: None
Languages: English and many others

FlashGet
Website: http://www.flashget.com/index_en.htm
Download: http://www.flashget.com/en/download.htm
Author: Trend Media
Current Version: 1.9.6
Download File Size: 4.44 MB
License: Freeware
Operating Systems: Windows 95-Vista
Additional Software Required: None
Languages: English and many others

This software category is maintained by volunteer Jojoyee. Registered site visitors can contact him by clicking here.

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#1Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 11/09/2008 - 14:05.

FDM will not run on my VISTA 64 bit at all .... this disqualifies it being a "best download manager"

#2Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 11/19/2008 - 03:14.

And who even uses Vista 64 bit as their only OS? That is far from a major enough reason to strip down it's title here. There are many other far more important features in it. Also if you even look at the system requirements properly, it states that it works in 32-bit versions only. Although it didn't work for me as well (not because I use 64-bit, some things just don't work on my dated pc), I've gotta disagree with your selfishly needless comment there. Just move on to some of the alternatives (this is why they exist after all), or whatever.

#3Submitted by ekadim on Fri, 11/07/2008 - 07:30.

I have been using Giganet, FreeDownload Manager and Star Downloader Free for a long time. All of them have their own cons and pros. Though StarDownloader seems to be not updated for a long time and not integrated with Flashgot, it is a remarkable download manager.

One thing I like with Star Downloader is when I navigate to the target directory for saving, I can see all the files and subfolders in that directory so that I can check whether I have downloaded it before or not. And when the filename is the same it prompts for your confirmation for overwriting. It is worth to give a try:

http://www.stardownloader.com/downloads.php (you may click one of the links on the right bottom corner of the page)

#4Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 10/23/2008 - 20:53.

Gigaget is my personal favorite. Its very fast, I like that I can integrate a virus scanner, and has a bunch of useful features. and the banner in it blends in well and is a link to gigagets site.

#5Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 10/04/2008 - 18:59.

I just started using Gigaget--the increase in download speed is amazing. It's integrated with the Flashgot plugin for my Firefox browser--I wish I had found this a long time ago.

Thanks Gizmo and crew!

#6Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 10/06/2008 - 06:19.

I try to scan giganet using virustotal.com ...esafe software detected a virus..i dont know if it is a false positive.

#7Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 09/23/2008 - 22:34.

I have a question that I would like answered. Do you need any special rules for optimizing download managers to their full potential when you have a firewall? I'm currently using Gigaget and Commodo.

#8Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 09/08/2008 - 00:31.

I am longtime user of FDM. Have been using only the Lite version ever since two versions have been offered. Not sure why others are having problems with SourceForge, I just right-click and choose "save target as" and I always get the file, not the PHP script... ? Don't know how to help with this...

My only issue with FDM, is it crashes if several dozen IE7 tabs or browser instances are open. When it crashes it takes all the IE7 instances with it. After yet another crash today, I came here to see what else is available.

I used FlashGet years ago when it was freeware, when it became shareware I abandoned it in favor of FDM. I see that it's freeware again, so I tried it (the new version). Like the experience posted above, FlashGet immediately made several outbound connections and transferred quite a bit of data before I could choke it down with a firewall. I don't know what it stole from me. I uninstalled it immediately.

I am trying Orbit right now, it appears to be simple and efficient. I really love FDM, but if Orbit can handle the high number of IE7 tabs and/or instances that I like to use, then I will stay with Orbit.

#9Submitted by Mosaddeq on Sun, 08/24/2008 - 19:13.

Flashget is the best download manager. But not the current version but rather the classic version 1.73. Flasget provides better control over downloads. Be it passing custom referrer or specifying number of concurrent connections etc. All in all its the best imho.

#10Submitted by abhishek on Sat, 08/16/2008 - 14:58.

I have been using Orbit for about 3 years now, It has never let me down. It worked well on my ancient dial-up and works just as well on my broadband.....

-Abhishek
India

#11Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 08/11/2008 - 20:03.

I am using DownThemAll a plugin for Firefox and is incredible how faster downloads are compared to standard Firefox downloads. It also supports resuming interrupted downloads. Regards, Joe

#12Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 07/18/2008 - 10:42.

Tried FlashGet and just after opening it the first time it tried to make 12 connections to different sites, and that's without me adding a download! Disabling updates and most options that could cause unwanted connections, it still tried a few connections at startup. Might be legitimate, but anything that acts like spyware gets uninstalled immediately.

#13Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 07/12/2008 - 23:11.

Silent monitoring doesn't work in Free Download Manager ver. 2.5 build 758.

#14Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 07/11/2008 - 05:18.

Do not let Free Download Manager download the link from sourceforge.net from the first time. Try it on the second time.

#15Submitted by Anupam on Wed, 07/09/2008 - 17:52.

Well... sourceforge.net dont require to turn off the download managers... coz i use getright to download programs from the site and it works well... but not free download manager. It cannot convert the php link to the program link.

#16Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 07/08/2008 - 18:58.

I have been using Free Download Manager from quite some time now and i love it. But, just a downside i noticed is... when i try to download from sourceforge.net , it saves the php page instead of the program. I think i tried Flashget and had the same problem. Any solution for this?

Anupam Shriwatri
India

#17Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 08/05/2008 - 07:37.

For a download manager to work correctly on all sites, it must look *exactly* like your web browser. That means it must be able to get things like user agent, referer and cookies from your web browser, and set the acceleration (i.e. splits or segments) to a permissable number (usually 1 segment or split for sites like you mention). The reason that you're getting the php page instead of the program is that FDM is not using these things in your downloads. Personally, the only download manager that I have found that really mimics you web browser and gives you this control is downloadstudio (www.downloadstudio.com). Its not free though. Hope it helps, Derek.

#18Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 10/17/2008 - 00:11.

I agree, even though its not free this is the all time best manager I have ever found. It seems to be caught up with imitating the latest web redirection, cookies, referals, and user agent...too bad they dont have a free toned down version...they'd definitely be a more popular choice if they did...second to that is flashget combined with the flashgot plugin imho...but unfortunately not on the level of downloadstudio anymore...

#19Submitted by peter on Tue, 07/08/2008 - 19:00.

Some sites require that you disable download managers if you want to download files.

#20Submitted by tony on Tue, 08/05/2008 - 09:12.

You took the words right out of my keyboard Peter. I haven't too much of the problems you have stated in your comments, but on the odd occasion I have resorted to copying the link location; opening up FDM and 'Create New Download'. Just ensure that the download point is the correct location as sometimes it can take you to another website for downloading.

NB: To copy link location rgt click on download point and a menu will appear on it will state 'Copy link location', click and then open up FDM - Download/Create New Download.
Tony

#21Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 10/24/2008 - 11:42.

DAP not on the list?What's your thoughts on it author of the article?

#22Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 11/04/2008 - 09:03.

Yeah, Download Accelerator Plus is not on the list but it's free and has many features.

#23Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/20/2008 - 06:55.

Looks like it is appended in the review.

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