DL Managers and another ?

[tyler]

Can anyone recommend a Download Manager? I use DAP7 at the moment and just wondered if there are better ones out there. Do any offer useful features or are they much of a muchness?

The one I have calls its self an "Acelerator" but makes no difference at all. Do any?

My other query is are there any options within windows to let you know if you pc is being accessed by any other systems? (like the proccesses window I suppose) Or any programs that let you do this? I seem to remember Marcus saying something about opening something from the the cmd prompt but have searched and can't find anything.

I ask this as I recently started using dc++, soulseek and kazaa. Now with Soulseek and Kazaa you have the option to disconnect but dc++ seems not to have the option (I presume it disconnects when I close it, but can't be sure). And when I've run dc++ I always get Windows ending something on its own when I disconnect properly from the web. (The end box thingy with blue bars, technical I know)

If any of you can make sense of that lot...

[mid]

The one I have calls its self an "Acelerator" but makes no difference at all. Do any?

I can't help with the rest, but on this point, here is what is going on. The point of download managers is that they use the resume function to continue a download from where it left off, rather than starting from scratch each time. Ones that call themselves accellerators also 'cheat' and open up multiple streams to the file to download in parallel. You can't see it making any difference because the weakest link in the download is your home to isp pipe. If, on the other hand, the problem was that the server was maxed out, you would be downloading faster than otherwise because the server thinks you are two, three, maybe even 10 or more people at once, and so you get a bigger slice of the server bandwidth, at the expense of everyone else. You cheeky sod

[tyler]

The server thinks you are two, three, maybe even 10 or more people at once, and so you get a bigger slice of the server bandwidth, at the expense of everyone else. You cheeky sod

Wondered what the 4 streams were
I'll shut up then

[Chief H]

Personally I've always been a fan of getright for straight downloads - features such as scheduled connections or disconnections (and even reconnections and redials for nb users), download prioritising, etc. making setting up an overnight sesh a doddle as I sleep. A little less useful now I'm on broadband but a godsend for dial-up users.

[Crisp_Rapper]

i used to use gozilla... mainly went on the name and the fact it made a really ****ing load roaring whenever it finished a download (sound effect was from jurassic park, the t-rex roaring).

kick ass.

[Chief H]

That thing used to scare the **** out of me at the most inappropriate moments

[Commander Marklar]

Download Express isn't bad, nice and simple really. edit: It has a small footprint and nothing obstrusive, except for a banner on the main dialog. Try it, it's good.

[mid]

That thing used to scare the **** out of me at the most inappropriate moments

Me too, now you mention it.

Actually, are there any decent ones that aren't full of crap spyware, adverts or cost money these days? I didn't see any last time (mind you, on broadband its less useful).

[Shez]

I use dap. Does the job as well as any other, so much so that I registered it

[Ciaran]

I use FlashGet and I've had no problems with it. No Spyware, no popup ads and only one banner at the top.

Even has a little window that sits on top of everything else and you can move around,it has the percentage downloaded and a speed graph in it.

[MO2J]

I use Internet Download manager.

I have used every download program under the sun and this is the one that has given me the best results.

You can get it here: www.internetdownloadmanager.com/

This is a great place for downloading freeware utilities: http://www.onlythebestfreeware.com/
The program they recommend is Star Downloader which is also quite good.

[yashiro]

Flashget is very good. www.flashget.com

[?pint]

Nobody has mentioned GetRight yet. Probably one of the best download managers, but only shareware.

[angel_fear]

I use FreshDownload, it's freeware for home users.

[SonicMarmite]

Getright above all tbh. Invaluable for stripping the largest motorsport sites of hundreds of thousands of pictures so they have bandwidth issues and have to close down for a week or 2. ^_^