Best Free Download Manager

[ocdave67]

Originally Posted by Jojoyee

Welcome to the forum, Ocdave67. Give Gigaget a try and see if it is faster, and just for testing, try to download a few more files in bigger size say about 10 to 50 Mb or so and see which completes the download in the shortest time. Would love to have your feedback.

Actually I think I will test some of these programs out and let the forum know my results. I will start will a comparison between DAP (free) and the standard download element in Firefox 3.0.10. I will test only files larger than 100MB. I will try to test all the programs in your poll and maybe a couple in the review section as well.
I also used improper syntax in my last post. I should have said I have a 7Mb connection not a 7MB connection. My bad !!

[Jojoyee]

Thanks a lot Ocdave67. It would be good to know your test results and some basic test methods.

Given a certain connection speed, there're quite a few other factors which will can affect the actual download speed and time in downloading a file.

To name a few:
1. Number of concurrent downloads (maybe for testing, we can limit it to just one download at any one time.)
2. Number of parts to split a download file (some download managers allow setting of this)
3. Number of available resources (some files have more than one resource for download, and certain download manager can download a file from various resources simultaneously. This greatly speeds up download. For this, we'd need to test more files to reduce the variance.)
4. Actual connection speed (the actual connection speed varies depending on the congestion of the ISP's network during download time.)
5. Condition of a download resource (number of users downloading the same file from the same server, etc.)

As some of these are uncertain or volatile, it's still good to know the test results 'in general' or 'in most cases' by using different download managers to test a download one at a time and with more files tested.

These are just my 2 cents worth. Hope there're more views from others.

[debtboy]

I have a suggestion for downloading...
Jigdo or Jigsaw Download
http://atterer.net/jigdo/

I recently downloaded the full Debian Release (Linux)
about 23 gigs. (yes 23 GIGABYTES) 5 DVDs

Jigdo increased my download speed by a factor of about 7.
Not only did it download the ISO image in pieces but did a
verification and checksum while rebuilding.

Another factor to consider when downloading HUGE files
is your source or mirror will most likely impose bandwidth
restrictions on you as your download uses too much bandwidth.
When this happens, we normally see our download slow down
and level off at a reduced speed. (not so with Jigdo)

Still kind of obscure, but has great potential for ISO images and such.

[malikor]

There is an addon for Firefox, similar to DownThemAll! that works very well. It is lacking in features at the moment but when I contacted the developer, he said more were coming soon. The addon is called FireDownload. Currently, it adds a checkbox to the Save As... window when downloading files. It will accelerate the download for you. Unfortunately, you cannot rename the file prior to download or specify where to save it. Those features, along with many more, are in the works. At least, that is what the developer has told me.

[WhenTheySpy]

I hate to burst anyone's bubble about FreshDownload, which I used for years until now, but I found that it had spyware and that was according to a security program I ran. I would always get that message regarding Fresh, and then I would quarantine it. But after that the files to make Fresh work were gone and it didn't work. So I stopped using it. I came to this forum to find another one. I don't recall Fresh saying that it is spyware free, though. Now, granted this is my experience, and I can't speak for everyone that uses Fresh. So I am looking for another download manager.

WhenTheySpy

[Anupam]

I have used FreshDownload in the past. I use Avast, and it did not show any problem with FreshDownload. The downloader is decent. I was not much pleased with the interface though.

As you can see, there are other downloaders here, which you can try. At present I am using Orbit Downloader, and I must say am very pleased with it. I have used Free Download Manager in the past, and it did a good job too. But, after Orbit came, I was drawn away by it . You can try the either of the two.

[js960]

Im not a download manager person but can have use for one from time to time. Find most annoying but can live with VisualWget http://www.khomsanph.net/visualwget/ since tiny and true 64bit which is very important Has no spectacular features I guess.

Does require .net 2.0 though.

[MidnightCowboy]

Worth mentioning too that it doesn't support Vista.

[js960]

That is minimum requirements, dont think Ive ever tried it on XP, only Vista.

[Anupam]

The download sites showed a new version of Free Download Manager is out, couple of days ago. The main site of FDM does not updates the version available to the new one i.e. 3.0.870. The FDM forums show the latest version to be 3.0.870. Many people have been asking for the version to be udpated on the main download page. I myself requested in the forum. The developers haven't replied to these posts yet. That's not very impressive.