What is your preferred Download Manager?

[Zeus_Hunt]

Modified The last Poll on Download Managers.

Updated the Ones Relevant in Todays Date.

I am very impressed with Orbit Downloader because of its speed. For some reason it provides the highest download speeds in office.

Actually it gives me almost twice the download speeds of other download managers including IDM and FDM.

It may be bcoz of its p2p and multi-source downloading technology. More Efficient mirrors selection algorithm and faster download sources.

The later may be common to other download managers but p2p .. is my guess on the good download speed.

The minor issues I have with Orbit are

1. Drop Box should be able to change size. that is increase the Size to show more info about download rate.

2. Show the download Rate in different colors for different rates in Drop Box

3. Queue system is horrible.. it takes forever to right click and move an item up one at a time. One should be able to just drag the file to the desired location.

4. On the main window one should be able to change positions and add/remove options provided (file name, q, size, completed, time left, date created, speed, ...)

5. In Download progress map there should be no scrollbar, entire file map should fit the area, no matter what file size is.

6. Software Update is of no use.. rather a Bloatware... (Renaming the File will do though)

Hence I tried IDM.

Its speed is OK

I performed a Small speed Test..

I tried to download from similar sites so there is not much difference in traffic on particular servers.

The best way would be to download files of different languages.. making sure that the files are different but almost the same size and most probably reside on the same server.

Orbit - 98MB - 45 secs - 2.19MB/s - h_p://normanasa.vo.llnwd.net/o29/public/Norman_Malware_Cleaner.exe

Orbit - 85MB - 50 seconds - 1.7 MB/s - h_p://www.agnitum.com/download/OutpostAntivirusProInstall.exe

Flashget - 98MB - 390 secs - 256KB/s - h_p://download1.emsisoft.com/a2cmd.zip

Flashget - 92MB - 406 secs - 233KB/s - h_p://www.agnitum.com/download/OutpostAntivirusProInstall64.exe

Orbit - 87MB - 49 seconds - 1.78 MB/s - h_p://www.agnitum.com/download/OutpostSecuritySuiteProInstallFr.exe

IDM - 98MB - 377 seconds - 250KB/s - h_p://dl2.agnitum.com/OutpostSecuritySuiteProInstall64.exe

I know that Orbit gives me similar speeds for youtube downloads as well...

Hence my obvious pick is Orbit Downloader. I am amazed at how it gets 7-8 times the average speeds of others...

IDM is better at providing me with easy flv downloads.

[Sl@pSh0ck™]

IDM for me (for now) ... have not tried orbit downloader before ... Zeus_Hunt you got me thinking now :unsure:

[Zeus_Hunt]

I have to cap the download speed of this Monster in office.. else i will eat up office network. :P

I have posted the issues/Feature Request in Orbit Forum.. Hopefully they will do the needful to make it quite perfect. :)

[henz]

IDM provide me better link catching :P

[iXD]

IMD ,it's simple and effective but i dont like idm them no gui changed from ver 5 <_<

[toyo]

Used both Orbit and IDM. I now only use Opera integrated manager, found I never needed a download manager in the first place.

[Zeus_Hunt]

Tried a few more experiments with Orbit

With orbitnet

Orbit - 42MB - 25 secs - 1.68MB/s - h_p://download801.avast.com/iavs4pro/setupjpn.exe

Orbit - 150MB - 87 secs - 1.73MB/s - h_p://download.avg.com/filedir/inst/avg_isct_x86_all_2011_1191a3330.exe

Without orbitnet - Confirmed by checking Task Manager

Orbit - 45MB - 28 secs - 1.63MB/s - h_p://download788.avast.com/iavs4pro/setupger1.exe

Orbit - 146MB - 85 secs - 1.72MB/s - h_p://af-download.avg.com/filedir/inst/avg_free_x86_all_2011_1191a3330.exe

Doesn't seem to make much difference..

[toyo]

Maybe it didn't find any other peers. Try with something.... ummm... less available free on the web.

[Marik]

for me, it's IDM all the way :snack:

[shought]

I manage my own downloads :P

Just Firefox' built-in download manager with the Download Statusbar addon.

[spootnack]

IDM looks awful... Don't know why so many people use it....

Free Download Manager is cool, nice GUI, powerfull, 3-modes to manage downlaod speed (This is really cool !!!) but since few versions, there is one update every..... 8-12 months ?

I'm testing again Orbit, version 4. Seems great. Between, this is this crap which installed ask bar, set my homepage ask.com ???

++

[HX1]

Yeah, I hate installers.. sometimes if its mis-configured.. it will install crap anyway... Orbit is the one I keep just in case but its not installed.. or used currently...

[DKT27]

I did try the previous major version of Orbit, somehow never felt comfortable or got hold of it. My download manager's journey started from Go!Zilla years ago, then to DAP, to Orbit, to Free Download Manager and now Internet Download Manager. And IDM gives me the best speed my connection has to offer.

Basically, what I found is that most of them offer almost equal speed, but I need something I should be comfortable with. IDM's GUI hasn't changed, but overall I like it.

But, will try Orbit soon. :)

@shought: Firefox's download manager sucks IMO. Utilizes only half of my connection.

[SacredCultivator]

I might give Orbit another shot later on, as I was an avid user of it when it first debuted.

But there was so much hype with IDM that I tried it and never looked back.

[HX1]

@shought: Firefox's download manager sucks IMO. Utilizes only half of my connection.

You should try the DownThemAll! extension and AntiContainer .. ( DTA ).. Takes care of most things.. some few small problems when it comes to some sites.. BUT for the most part it is perfect to replace the normal DM in FF.. but you have to have for a few things...

One of my only things that I seen the need to get a DM for was traffic shaping.. BUT I wish I had something I could just plug things into and go.. I just I know with all of the hosts around though its just not that easy... Even If I have/had accounts with them all..

[Thugsta]

IDM FTW!

[BlueNoceros]

I use DownThemAll firefox plug-in....does everything I need it to do.

[Zeus_Hunt]

I am using version 3.0.5

The size increased from 2.47MB for version 3.0.5 to 3.80MB in version 4.0.1

Changes between 3.05 to 4.0.5

* Fix: Crash when cleaning history.

* Fix: "No Tag" string become blank.

* Fix: Crash when exit Orbit Downloader.

* Fix: Number of software installed not correct in left panel when updating

- Improve: Update your software more accuratly

- Fix: error of Orbit addon for Firefox

* Fix: Can't use Orbit to download on Firefox sometimes

* Improve: The veracity of Software Updater

* Fix: Can't use Orbit to download on Firefox sometimes

* Improve: The veracity of Software Updater

* Added: The function of software updater. It helps you to update your software easier, quicker and more convenience when the software updater and orbit downloader melt together. It also can help you to discover, learn, and share knowledge about your favorite software in a social way, through the online community of recipester.org.

Most of the bugs were introduced in 4.0.1

The changes are for Firefox.. which I dont use and Software Updater.. not using it too.

What I miss is better link catching... with Chrome. for videos

[DaBrain]

IDM, althought there's not a huge difference between download managers.

[Dodel]

Freerapid for filehosts, and Downthemall inside firefox for everything else.

I did use flashget, IDM, download studio, but I'm a minimalist and i've not missed having these installed since switching to the above.

[Olexijl]

Internet Download Manager original licensed...

IDM is awful? Well, take a look at my attachment...

[*dcs18]

Internet Download Manager

Glad someone finally took the initiative to upgrade this (otherwise) antic topic. :P

[T0nyB]

IDM here. Plus I like that I can download .flv videos from the browser, saves me a lot of buffer waiting time...

[toyo]

Ugly generic icons on the IDM interface. I hate it when the rich guys go cheap. It would only cost them a few thousand $ to hire a talented designer to do all the interface a lift-up.

[HX1]

Not even that...