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Top 3 Free Internet Download Accelerators

by | Friday, 21st Dec 2007 | 44 Comments | Share

Many users download numerous amounts of files such as MP3, videos, softwares everyday. By default many browsers come with their own download managers but they are not optimal as they do not provide you with advanced functions such as resuming downloads, segregating downloads, finding multiple sources etc.

Many a times your Internet connection may stop while you are downloading huge files and in such cases you will have to start downloading the file from start. Imagine cases where you have already downloaded 95% of the file you downloading and you face a Internet connection breakdown. Instead of starting over from 95% you will have start downloading the whole file again.

Download Managers are tools that allow you to resume downloads, pause them, segregate them into different folders and automatically look for multiple sources of the same file. If you look back at the above scenario if you would have used a download manager to download your file the download would start from 95% again.

In addition to that they even boost the speed of your downloads as they download the files as different packets and then rejoin them on the PC making the download faster.

Today we will look at the top 3 download managers that allow you to manage your downloads and are free.

Free Download Manager

free-download-manager-logo Free Download Manager (FDM) is another powerful tool which allows you to manage your downloads. Opposed to the other softwares FDM is completely free and a Open Source software. So every version of FDM has the same features and you do not have to buy the softwares to unlock advanced features.

FDM allows you to download files using the BitTorrent protocol in addition to the regular HTTP and FTP protocol downloads. They also support downloading FLV files from sites like YouTube, Google etc.

FDM comes completely free under a General Public License (GPL) so you are not tied on any of the features they provide with the software.

Free Download Manager also allows you to adjust traffic usage so that you are not using a major chunk of it for the downloads. Likewise you can easily resume and pause downloads in addition to organizing and scheduling them.

If you want to download a whole website you can easily do that with their tool called HTML Spider. So if you are looking at a site that shows you recipes and want it as reference even when you are not online you can easily do that with FDM.

When you are downloading zip files and do not want to download the entire files you can easily do that with FDM. They also provide you with a Upload Manager using which you can easily upload and share your files with family and friends.

The best feature which I liked was that you can control the downloads remotely from another PC, so if you are at office and want to use the downloaded files at home you can easily schedule it a home using this feature.

There are tons of other features which makes Free Download Manager a must have software for you.

Download: Free Download Manager

Download Accelerator Plus

download-accelerator-plus Download Accelerator Plus (DAP) is one of my favorite softwares and is one of the best download managers I have ever used. DAP allows you to easily manage your downloads, resume them, pause them and also segregate them into different folders based on the file you are downloading.

You can also easily integrate DAP into Internet Explorer and Firefox so that whenever you are downloading a file DAP will automatically discover and show you the download options.

DAP optimizes your download speed by up to 400% and also allows you to schedule automatically put your PC into standby mode or hibernate it or even completely shut it down after a download has completed.

DAP will also automatically search for the best mirrors available for download of the file and show you the speed the servers provide you for downloads. You can easily choose the best mirror which provides you with better speed so your download completes faster.

Download: Download Accelerator Plus

Internet Download Manager

internet-download-manager Another powerful download manager which allows you to manage your downloads. Internet Download Manager (IDM) easily integrates into various browsers and monitors files that need to be downloaded.

IDM boosts your download speed by up to 5 times your regular browser speed. It also provides you with a YouTube FLV file grabber which allows you to download and resume FLV files.

You can also schedule downloads and categorize them with IDM. In addition to can also drag and drop a link into IDM and it will automatically start downloading the file.

Download: Internet Download Manager

Which download manager do you use to download files from the Internet? Do let me know through your valuable comments. I would also love to know which one of these you would prefer to use. I used DAP for a long time but found the features of IDM too hard to resist. What about You?

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I am the editor-in-chief and owner of Techie Buzz. I love coding and have contributed to several open source projects in the past. You can know more about me and my projects by visiting my Personal Website.I am also a social networking enthusiast and can be found active on twitter, you can follow Keith on twitter @keithdsouza. You can click on my name to visit my Google+ profile.

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  1. Brown Baron on December 21st, 2007 at 11:28 am #

    I think I’ll give them a try. I’ve actually been thinking of which ones are good. Thanks for helping me out buddy :)

    • Keith Dsouza on December 22nd, 2007 at 12:56 pm #

      Aha Brown Glad I could assist you in finding something :-)

  2. Kyle Eslick on December 21st, 2007 at 3:43 pm #

    I use free download manager :D

  3. Madhur Kapoor on December 21st, 2007 at 5:00 pm #

    I think Flashget should also be in this list. It is great

    • Keith Dsouza on December 22nd, 2007 at 12:30 pm #

      Madhur I have not used Flashget but now that you mentioned it will definitely give it a spin.

  4. Haris on December 22nd, 2007 at 9:43 am #

    IDM is the best from the list above, but it’s not free. You get a trial version for 30 days :( and have to buy it after that.

    • Keith Dsouza on December 22nd, 2007 at 12:28 pm #

      Haris that is why I prefer Free Download Manager as it provides lot of features for free.

  5. herroen on December 22nd, 2007 at 10:14 am #

    idm sucks!

    my download stopped & idm wont resume it

    • Keith Dsouza on December 22nd, 2007 at 12:27 pm #

      Hey herroen why not try our Free Download Manager it is one of the best.

    • Pavan on January 2nd, 2010 at 10:36 am #

      hey i think u must have tried to resume unresumable links like of rapidshare ,hotfile, megashare etc…
      otherwise IDM rokkxx man…

  6. Silki on December 22nd, 2007 at 12:55 pm #

    I vote for FDM.

  7. Manav on December 22nd, 2007 at 1:44 pm #

    Great Post!!!
    I use FDM but i wud now certainly try DAP and IDM as well.

  8. herroen on December 22nd, 2007 at 9:38 pm #

    fdm?
    i think its too slow. a cant expect much for fdm by its speed

  9. Jalaj on December 24th, 2007 at 4:25 am #

    I always used DAP, but I think Free (that too GPL) Download Manager should be given a try.

  10. Clarke Blakes on June 25th, 2009 at 1:36 pm #

    you guys should try using orbit download manager. it’s free, fast, and easy to use. i’ve also tried falshget before. and its fine for me. but orbit have better download speed than flashget.

  11. boscharun on August 2nd, 2009 at 1:12 pm #

    Try skdownloader. It is fast, easy to use and free. It has Internet explorer and Firefox integration as well.

    It is also multiplatform with installers for Linux and Windows.

    http://www.toolsbysk.com/skdownloader

  12. Pavan on January 2nd, 2010 at 10:22 am #

    i'd used DAP b4 i didnot find it gud enuff..
    now i'm using IDM obviously cracked :P..
    but as per ur reviews now i'm thinking to swtich to FDM :)..

    • Arham on February 14th, 2010 at 2:45 am #

      by far IDM is d best……………i hav dFULL VERSIOn of it n dap bt i prefa IDm…….d speed is waaayyy better

      n thn i hav tried crackd dap as well……BTidm is better

      n FDM is nt as fast as IDM

  13. sdasdasd on January 8th, 2010 at 10:49 pm #

    Internet Download Manager is best

  14. Anonymous on January 15th, 2010 at 12:42 am #

    i use FDM for almost 2 years…and now ill use DAP..

    because FDM is too slow in downloading rather than DAP..

    the best thing about FDM is that I like it by its appearance rather than DAP..thats all.

  15. Timin on January 17th, 2010 at 4:22 am #

    Well its true tat orbit is a good one..but its interface is not tat better comparing wit dap. But again the idm is better than dap, since the idm has got much more pieces of downloads than dap. I haven't ever tried tis FDM.

  16. Omar on February 8th, 2010 at 4:37 pm #

    i really hate DAP it made my downloads ALOT slower like from 100kbs to 1.4kbs :( FDM worked the best for me :)

  17. Gaurav on February 13th, 2010 at 11:22 pm #

    I tried FDM ,Mass Downloader, Flashget,DAP,Supersonic Downloader , Internet download manager .

    I found IDM as the best. FDM has a nice feature of downloading torrents but it is vey-very slow as compared to others.

  18. Anonymous on March 14th, 2010 at 6:17 am #

    IDM is the best download manager. First it allows upto 16 multiple connections thereby boosting speed. It also allows you to get the actual speed given to you by your ISP which normal firefox, IE or any browser do not and for slow PCs, sometimes it allows you to get over your ISP speed limit for about 5 seconds after a state where your PC stops functioning for some time as tested by me.

  19. jai on April 30th, 2010 at 8:19 am #

    I'm using ORBIT downloader so far this is the best for me. You should try this one guyz…much faster than DAP and much reliable than IDM…very simple software….and its free!!!!

  20. blueshell on June 14th, 2010 at 3:38 am #

    Good tools to accelerate the Internet downloading speed! Good post!

  21. Cindy on July 13th, 2010 at 9:36 pm #

    I use IDM…
    One day, there are an alert to update it to newest edition, so i update it, and after that i can't use IDM for free again T^T

    must register and pay to use it again

  22. Anonymous on November 11th, 2010 at 5:44 pm #

    Mass Downloader, very powerful, but it is not free, you need to buy it.
    though there are cracks all around.

  23. Wills Online on March 17th, 2011 at 7:28 am #

    I use Orbit, it works a treat for me.

  24. Jawad on March 24th, 2011 at 1:36 am #

    I think the title is misleading, these are not free.

    • Keith Dsouza on March 25th, 2011 at 12:04 am #

      @Jawad – These software were free when the article was written

    • rahul on April 15th, 2011 at 3:36 pm #

      hey everybody i have used dap and idm
      but from a long time i have been using idm it is the best downloader in the web.
      it is easy to use and u can’t resist it

  25. blankb92 on May 10th, 2011 at 5:14 am #

    we need an ultimate downlaod manager that can download file fastly and doesnot stop downlaoding before it is compleated…

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