Does Download Accelerator actually work?

[StrangeRanger]

I know this may be a dumb ass question...but I live where there is no high speed net available and i'll try anything to squeeze what i can out of my dial up. But i don't wanna bother with it if it doesn't really work and is just gonna install a bunch of crap on my machine. Thanks,
j

 

[VicodiN]

I used it in the past, and it did increase download speed ALTHOUGH when using it with certain files, there has been a tendancy for those files to become currupted. Hence why I dont bother with it anymore.

 

[IanthePez]

with broadband it can make huge differences...wish dialup? It's just luck if it does or not. I wouldn't bother.

 

[BoomAM]

I used it with my 56k modem, and it increased my average DL speed from 4kb/s to 6kb/s.
I dont use it any more though, cos i use the DL thing in Opera.

 

[xSauronx]

it can make a difference on dialup if there are mirrors for the file you want. sometimes using it and not using it on one file makes no difference, sometimes it may double it from 3 -4 kb/s to 6 or 7

i mostly liked it because of the resume feature when i was downloading large files over dialup

that and queing is what i used to use it for mainly

now i have cable internet; i dont need a que w00t

 

[Mitzi]

Originally posted by: xSauronx
now i have cable internet; i dont need a que w00t

I also have broadband and have never needed download manager more

 

[igowerf]

I found that download managers are good for 56Ker's because they help resume broken downloads. They're good for broadband users because they help us download as fast as possible. If a site is only capable of sending a file to me at 100K/sec, I'll download from multiple mirrors to make sure that I'm getting the file at 300K/sec.

 

[BoomAM]

Originally posted by: igowerf
If a site is only capable of sending a file to me at 100K/sec, I'll download from multiple mirrors to make sure that I'm getting the file at 300K/sec.

Its a hard life transfering at 100+Kb/s !!!
I`d be over the moon if i transfered at 100Kb/s. The best i`ve seen is 59Kb/s, about 1Kb/s short of what my line can do(512/256 ADSL).
Does anyone know if its possible to disable the DL thing in Opera, and use DAP instead? Not too fussed if not, but every little bit helps!

 

[Davegod]

I have 64k ISDN, and use FlashGet.

Very useful. Not really for download speeds - no difference noticed here, actually is better to make it use a single stream' multi steams afaik are for broadbander's to get around fileserver's rate limitations.

The best thing though, by far, is the ability to resume downloading. Even if your original host dies or whatever, you can usually find another one and flashget will detect it as a mirror and resume it from there. Another thing i like about flashget is it seems to give itself low priority over your bandwidth - if i open a webpage while DLing the page opens slower than normal but waay quicker than normal whilst downloading. Further, flashget has options to redial + resume if the line drops, disconnect (even shutdown the pc) once the download is done...

Very useful programs if you download anything big. I've got several fairly large D3/HL2 movie clips with it, and even the 100mb Enemy Territory Test and sometime after that, the 200mb Enemy Territory full game with it. With the latter two I started it downloading then returned the next day and it was done, flashget redialled every 2 hours when my ISP disconected me, shutdown the PC and everthing when downloading huge files in this way its strongly advised to point flashget at a couple of mirrors to resume from should your original one have some issue or whatever.