Do Download Accelerators really work?

[Chris Thomas]

I have tried many download managers and they promise something like a double speed improvement and stuff like that.

I was wondering if it really works

For example :

DAP

http://www.speedbit.com/

What do you think? Which download Manager do you use?

[Asyn]

1. I was wondering if it really works
2. What do you think?
3. Which download Manager do you use?

1. Seldom.
2. Wouldn't use it/them.
3. None.

[Chris Thomas]

1. I was wondering if it really works
2. What do you think?
3. Which download Manager do you use?

1. Seldom.
2. Wouldn't use it/them.
3. None.

Yes, but I need them if I have to download things like an ubuntu iso or Windows 8 Cp iso since i can resume the download. Thats only why I use them.

All these talk that they make about speed improvements are dud I guess.

[RejZoR]

Actually download accelerators work and they work very well in general. But you have to understand that you cannot go beyond physical speed of your internet connection. So if you have 10Mbit connection, you cannot exceed that. It will however help greatly when downloads are way slower than your physical connection.
In such situations, download accelerators open several connections for different parts of the file, resulting in usually maxed out connection.
Some even support mirrors lookup so they can download from actual different sources that might be faster than original page you wanted to download from.

Personally i prefer Download Express since it's really a stand alone one (most others want to run in the traybar). And has good integration inside Firefox compared to most others.

[bob3160]

When I need the use of a download manager, I've always used Gigaget and never had any problems with using it.

[Shiw Liang]

I am using free download manager here

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Internet/Download-Managers/Free-Download-Manager.shtml

[cinchez]

Downthemall addon for firefox. Never failed me

[jadinolf]

I am using free download manager here

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Internet/Download-Managers/Free-Download-Manager.shtml

And what does it do for you? Just curious.

[Dch48]

I haven't used one since my dial-up days. They used to work back then but I don't think they make much difference now with broadband connections.

[MikeBCda]

I use FDM too, and as someone else noted, it works by splitting the file into a number of sections and downloading the sections more or less simultaneously (more like time-sharing, actually) which is a huge help with large files.  I've set mine to 12 sections max., and if the server at the other end is reasonably fast (and supports resuming, essential for using extra sections), I can get around 300-350 KB/sec, or about a meg every 3 seconds.

Without FDM (e.g., using the browser's built-in downloader) the best I can hope for is around 25-30 KB/sec.

[akama1]

if you have slow internet.. e.g. 368kbps... then yes it works well i mean like downloading at an average-high constant speed rather then unstable speeds like when on chrome mine downloads 6.8kbps... when u have fast internet... nah you won't feel any difference

[Phenoman]

I Can say from personal use yes i use Internet Download Manager good for fast downloads and other things like downloading a youtube video by playing it

[Shiw Liang]

I am using free download manager here

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Internet/Download-Managers/Free-Download-Manager.shtml

And what does it do for you? Just curious.

It can continue downloading something when I pause the download, shutdown the computer
In some website where my downloading speed is around 30kb/s, it can maximize it to around 117-118 kb/s by making several connections for the download

[Chris Thomas]

I am trying to download Windows 8 iso with Internet Download Manager and every time I complete the download, the hash doesn't match. Any idea why is that?

http://www.internetdownloadmanager.com/

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/iso

[DavidR]

Do you know for sure that the hash is correct for the source, as there is a possibility that it may have been updated.

Check the source hash and the file size reported, if what is reported as the file size doesn't match neither will the hash.

Presumably the downloaded file would have a build number, etc. that can be compared against that given on the source location. It may even be digitally signed.