PSA: USE a download accelerator even if you have broadband!!

[archcommus]

Back when I had dial-up download accelerator programs were useful for pausing and resuming downloads. Once I got cable, however, I figured there was no point in using those programs anymore since I didn't need to pause and resume, and I was probably already getting the fastest speed the websites could provide anyway.

Well, I was wrong. Websites definitely cap your download speed and they're definitely capable of providing more. I decided to get LeechGet and the results are amazing. I have Comcast cable at approximately 8 Mbps. I tried downloading the Black & White 2 demo from Yahoo using regular IE, got anywhere between 200-250 KB/sec. Did it again witih LeechGet, got 850-1000 KB/sec consistently throughout the download.

So...USE a download accelerator! I highly recommend LeechGet over something like DAP.

 

[Looney]

I haven't used a download accelerator in about 8 years, and i usually get cap speeds. I only have like 500KB/s though.

 

[archcommus]

Originally posted by: Looney
I haven't used a download accelerator in about 8 years, and i usually get cap speeds. I only have like 500KB/s though.

But on anything that gives you 300, 200, etc., I guarantee you'd get 500 or even a bit more with a good DA. I'm currently pushing about 1.1 MB/sec on some of my HTTP downloads.

 

[archcommus]

Bump.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Sidebar:
Many sites are set to just either auto-reject more than X connections from the same IP, choke the bandwidth (negating the point of a download accelerator) or just outright blacklist the IP or /24.

- M4H

 

[archcommus]

Interesting sidebar. Reason enough NOT to use a DA? Not sure. If a site's being picky you can always just download regularly.

 

[mb]

It definitely helps for me, too. I have Charter cable.. I think they limit the max download speed per connection. IE, I can download 5 seperate files at 100KB/s each at the same time for a total of 500KB/s, but I can never download a single file at over 200KB/s. So using a download accelerator lets me max out the total speed by using multiple connections for the same file.

Now, when I am back at my parents on Comcast, I have no use as I can download at full speed..

 

[mzkhadir]

I use net transport. Works great.

 

[Fenixgoon]

do i really need a download accelerator when i get 4MB/sec from fileplanet?

 

[HighCalibreHooch]

I agree with the original poster for the reasons given.

Personally I've tried all the free DAs out there, (LeechGet, star Downnloader, Fresh Download, net vampire, etc etc) GetRight worked the best by far, enough so that I gave in and bought it.

 

[SunnyD]

Hmm, when I cap out at 1.10MBps on my 7Mbps line downloading from, say, Microsoft, then I'd say a download accelerator is useless.

And yes, notice the capital "B" versus the lower case "b"... which means roughly 9Mbps on a 7Mbps line (for all you apples to apples people).

 

[shortylickens]

You thought wrong.
You should use a download accelerator ESPECIALLY if you have broadband.
Thats when the things actually work.
Dial-Up only gets you 53Kbit MAX. No piece of software can change that.
Download accelerators are least useful on a slow connection. All they can offer you is download managing.
But broadband can get you many speeds depending on what the website feels like giving you.
If the website only wants to upload at 128Kb or 256Kb then it makes sense to open 8 or more links and then you can get the file faster.

I THOUGHT people understood this. I guess not. So it really is a public service announcement then.

(For reference, I still use DAP 5.2. It has minimal ads and no spyware. It works great.)

 

[Bassyhead]

Originally posted by: shortylickens
You thought wrong.
You should use a download accelerator ESPECIALLY if you have broadband.
Thats when the things actually work.
Dial-Up only gets you 53Kbit MAX. No piece of software can change that.
Download accelerators are least useful on a slow connection. All they can offer you is download managing.
But broadband can get you many speeds depending on what the website feels like giving you.
If the website only wants to upload at 128Kb or 256Kb then it makes sense to open 8 or more links and then you can get the file faster.

I THOUGHT people understood this. I guess not. So it really is a public service announcement then.

(For reference, I still use DAP 5.2. It has minimal ads and no spyware. It works great.)

Dial-up users use downloading programs to pause/resume their downloads where they might not be able to finish the download at one time.

 

[archcommus]

The only thing I don't like about LeechGet is I can't find out how to just open the file (by saving to a temp dir) instead of saving it elsewhere.