Web TechJunkeez.com

The Truth About Download Managers

By Mohammad Yousef | June 2004

"Speed up your downloads up to 300%." This would make quite a grabby banner, especially if you're (like me) stuck with a slow dial-up Internet connection. Hold it right there! Don't give it a click yet. Chances are it's a hoax.

Many managers aren't worth using because they're unable to track downloads. What I mean is you'll have to copy the URL of your file to the program to start downloading it. If you just click on the download link in a Web page, a normal download will take place. No way I'm using one of these.

A host of spyware and adware is usually installed along with most of these programs too. Even Download Accelerator Plus, one of the most famous download managers, is infamous for its spyware / adware. You could also buy ad-free versions of download managers if you like.

Now let's get to the important point, do they speed up downloads?

Dial-up

Among the ones I tried, none sped up the download except for LeechGet. All the other download managers slowed up the process! My average download speed is 3.2KB/second. Download managers got the speed down to 2.5KB/second. LeechGet, which impressed me, increased the speed but slightly. What's great about LeechGet is the fact that it's absolutely free and it doesn't come with any malware. To sum up, dial-up users can't benefit much from download managers speed-wise; however, the ability to resume the download (even if the line is disconnected) is good for downloading large files in more than one session.

High speed connections (Broadband/DSL)

Because I haven't got a high speed connection, I searched the net. Reliable sources  mentioned that download managers do increase download speed for fast Internet connections. Download managers also have more effect on speeding up the download of large files than they do on small files. So if you're on a high speed connection and still hungry for speed, using a download manager like LeechGet should do the trick.