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What download manager do you use?
- Thread starter Antowns
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I'm curious to know why people use download managers at all. I've never used one, so pardon my ignorance on the topic. If I want to download something, I just download it. What's the benefit?
What kind of things do people download that requires such management? Most things I download take anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes. Are you on a dial-up connection?
While I don't disagree with you, there are things that need a significant amount of time to download. One tool I use daily gets updated about every other month. The download is about 4GB in size. It is nice to schedule it for off hours. But generally I just leave the computer on for a few hours and it's there. But other people do this type of downloads all the time for, "other" reasons. I guess this is why.
Also, many places also have more restrictions on their internet usage.
Unfortunately, I'm in the same boat you are. I haven't used a download manager in 10 to 15 years; I have no experience with any modern one. Thus can't give any further advice.
Wiki has a Comparison Chart for Download Managers, if you are looking for a certain feature or protocol support. At home, last time I used a Download Manager was when I was still on dial-up.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_download_managers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_download_managers
IBM was pushing their "new" office suite, Symphony, a year or two ago. Before you could download the application, you had to download and install their download manager. I never could figure out what the IBM download manager actually did ....
Not surprisingly, IBM has abandoned the project.
Luckily - I'm one of those who don't need a download manager.
Not surprisingly, IBM has abandoned the project.
Luckily - I'm one of those who don't need a download manager.
Some things are small-ish, some are larger. Downloading a full Reason install from the official site is 2-2.5GB, MacTex latex install dmg is around 1.5GB. Games purchased digitally can be anywhere from a few MB to to many GB.
I'm on a 3G connection at home. While its speed is ok ("up to" 32Mb/s, so anywhere between 6-24Mb/s) and quite stable nowadays, interrupted downloads of the large variety can be frustrating and still counts towards my monthly 70GB allowance (Sweden, btw) so I want to be on the safe side. Resume helps there.
Frankly I'd probably use a download manager for larger files (say 1GB+) regardless of connection because of resume possibilities. Steam has its own client with resume, though. There are also possible speed gains.
Anyway why don't we try giving the OP some actual advice rather than bickering over people's individual needs.
There is Progressive Downloader which is free. Works ok. I just got DBox but I frankly don't know whether that's an original app or just a new costume for an existing "core" (I've seen this on numerous iOS download managers, that's why I mention it). MDM was nice in beta but its future is uncertain.
Thanks for the explanation, but I see no bickering going on; just a sincere quest for understanding the benefits of these apps.
Sounds like a fight between clueless product managers who want a "download manager" to make it easier for stupid users to download their product, and clued-up developers who say that all you need is a link to a .dmg file on your website, and if a user is so stupid that they can't figure out how to drag an app from a .dmg to the application folder, then you could just replace their Mac with an etch-a-sketch, and they probably won't notice.
When I need to download numerous files that need to be combined, such as a multi-part compressed file, or a series of scanned pages, I use DownThemAll, a plugin for Firefox. Provided the files are all in one folder and they're sequenced (eg, abc001, abc002, etc.), you can set a simple batch command, and boom.
I use these for page scan downloading as part of my work.
I use these for page scan downloading as part of my work.
I'm right there with you. Apart from torrent clients, I've never seen any reason to use a separate program for downloading. It seems cumbersome enough to copy/paste links into separate program just to be able to download something. Most files take under 10-15min to download; plus as far as pausing/resuming, and even batch downloading, it works like a charm in Chrome (my browser of choice).
The built-in downloader for manual single or multi file download and Download Master extension for batch downloading.
Apologies. I guess I wondered the same thing a few years ago and when I went wireless 24/7 the positives for my user scenario became apparent. Again, this is for the occasional larger download and more as a safety measure in my case. Renting a HD movie on iTunes or buying a game on Steam already has this covered via their own download/streaming systems.
Works ok so far. Couldn't advice you on the more advanced features since I don't use them but there is proxy support and it seems there is some integration with file hosts etc. It's a free app so no money lost in trying it out.