Filed under: Internet, Utilities, Features
Ask Download Squad: What's the best download manager?
Last week, we asked you to tell us whether you actually use widgets. Turns out quite a few of you do, and some of you even use Apple's Dashboard instead of Yahoo's Konfabulator. But it looks like, for most of you, there's still no killer app making widget programss must-run tools. Here's this week's question:If you're reading this, chances are you do a lot of downloading (that's just a lucky guess). And if you download using a browser, chances are you've swapped out its built-in download manager for a replacement, in order to take advantage of features like auto-resume and adjustable thread counts. So, what do you use? The downloader built into your browser? An extension? Or a standalone app? Post your answer in the Comments section below. And, if you'd like to have your question included here, send it to us using this form. We'll post one question each week.
So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do.
Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game.
The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
donely said 9:48AM on 8-05-2005
I'm quite content with the one built into Firefox. Being on very fast connections all the time, a download manager really isn't necessary, at least for me. Firefox's DLM handles even large files, like linux distros.
I used to use GetRight and have also tried FreshDownload. I remember having been quite happy with GetRight - it's simple and focuses on one thing, downloading! But I think they're somewhat obsolete. I don't find all that useful.
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Ted said 9:58AM on 8-05-2005
Opera has an excellent built in download manager.
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Saman said 10:02AM on 8-05-2005
I use Net Transport and Flashget.
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Jason Turgeon said 10:07AM on 8-05-2005
I use firefox with Free Download Manager and the FlashGot extension. FDM is a great little piece of software--perfect for finding all the MP3's on a page, and definitely faster than the built-in client in Firefox.
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Matt Petty said 10:11AM on 8-05-2005
I use Firefox's built-in download tool. It can carry on where you left off, and it's actually downloading while you decide where you want to save the file. You can also run/open the downloaded file directly if you want (with warnings).
No frills, but does all I need.
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Lisa said 10:11AM on 8-05-2005
I use the FF Flashot extension (which supports almost all download managers out there) and forward all my downloads to Net Transport.
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Eric J said 10:29AM on 8-05-2005
I use the built-in Firefox downloader with the Download Manager Tweak extension. I also use Down Them All! for downloading everything linked from a page.
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otakucode said 10:32AM on 8-05-2005
I'd have to agree with the first poster... download managers are obsolete. I don't use them at all any more, and I only know a few instances where they might be warranted. If you had an account with Easynews.com and wanted to download usenet postings through them, that would be a prime candidate for a download manager so you can maximize the throughput.
Mostly, though, large scale downloading is done by me through Azureus (bit torrent client) or Newsleecher (usenet client, used to snatch posts using NZB files from newzbin.com).
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Holt said 10:52AM on 8-05-2005
The one built into Opera works well for me most of the time, if I want to use an external one I like using WackGet, a minimalist download manager based on wget.
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Michael Pate said 11:17AM on 8-05-2005
Download Managers were great back when we were using IE over Dialup. They just seem sort of quaint now.
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Bart said 11:58AM on 8-05-2005
I usually use download manager built into Firefox with Download Manager Tweak extension. Time-to-time I also use Free Download Manager. It's light, has all the things I need, also include site explorer, and drop box. And the best thing - it's really "free", no adware.
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Leon McComish said 12:13PM on 8-05-2005
I use the Firefox extension Download Statusbar for everyday downloading (http://downloadstatusbar.mozdev.org/)
Flashget (www.amazesoft.com/) for large downloads/many files etc
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Russell said 12:50PM on 8-05-2005
Firefox DLM
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chris said 11:48AM on 8-06-2005
Firefox's Flashgot extension + Reget Deluxe.
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Clifford Caoile said 12:41PM on 8-05-2005
I occasionally use GetRight, a shareware FTP/HTTP download tool, for my Windows browsing sessions. I've been using it for more than 3 years, but I don't use it much these days. I like it because it can show you a detailed list of a links only version of a web page, for example, so you can quickly select a bunch of links to download. This is called the "GetRight Browser". This feature alone is worth the price for multiple point-and-click downloading.
I think that these download managers are losing their relevance because web designers are getting smarter at hiding their links and because most any free tools nowadays can do download resuming.
As for other tools, I use curl and wget on a daily basis for my automated uploading, FileZilla for mouse-based file uploading and WinSCP for mouse-based file uploading via SSH. Hope This Helps.
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SUMwon said 10:45PM on 8-08-2005
Free Download Manager using FlashGot on Firefox
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SkullyFM said 3:07PM on 8-05-2005
I'm using Net Transport.
I also have Firefox + Flashgot (which is Net Transport compatible"
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Richard said 5:08PM on 8-05-2005
I use Star Downloader Free:
http://www.stardownloader.com/
http://www.snapfiles.com/opinions/Star_Downloader_Free/Star_Downloader_Free.html
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strayan said 5:01AM on 8-08-2005
I use a the downloadwith firefox extension paired with a command line download manager called wget http://xoomer.virgilio.it/hherold/
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Mike said 8:50PM on 8-05-2005
GetRight (period)
Classic, been using it since a long time. Even when you're using DSL sometimes you just can't leave the computer all the time it needs to download a file so I use GetRight. It also allows me to shut down the computer when finished.
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