How to download large file quickly

Several users who tried to download the excellent Tech Toolkit I reviewed yesterday for example have reported that downloads of the 1. It can be quite frustrating if that happens regularly, especially if your computer's Internet connection is not super fast. If you download with 50 Mbit or more, you may not mind if you have to repeat the download, but if you are on a slower connection, you may very well do.

As far as solutions are concerned, there is only one that is suitable and that is to use download managers. The main benefit of download managers is that they support resume.

While the server the file is hosted on needs to support it as well, it ensures that the download will continue after it was interrupted previously. Instead of having to download the large file over and over again from the beginning, downloads would restart from where the previous download stopped with a little overhead.

Download managers may support additional features such as download acceleration, scheduling, or grabbing of media. The following selection lists several download managers that you can use to download files of any size to your local system. Some integrate into web browsers while others may need to be started manually instead to pick up the downloads. Available as a full and lite version lite ships without Bittorrent support, video conversion plugin and languages , it offers to add plugins to Firefox or Chrome.

These plugins are not required but they make things easier for users of supported browsers. A right-click on a file and the selection of "download with Free Download Manager" sends the download to the application where it will be processed. The program supports a variety of features such as scheduling downloads, adding it to groups or authentication. The download manager splits files into segments which it downloads separately from each other to improve the download speed.

In addition to that, it supports resume so that interrupted downloads can be restarted where they stopped. FlashGet does not ship with browser extensions but it monitors the Windows clipboard for file links and will pick those up automatically so that it is easy to add downloads to the application. It highlights the size of the file that will be downloaded to the local system, and supports multiple download threads, authentication and options to categorize downloads.

The download manager supports resume so that broken downloads are a thing of the past, provided that the server is also supporting resume. The EagleGet download manager is available as a portable version and installer. That's however not necessary to add downloads to it. Since it monitors the clipboard, all you have to do is copy links pointing to files to the clipboard so that they are picked up automatically by the software.

EagleGet ships with a truckload of features such as download scheduling, batch downloads, download acceleration using threading, a speed limiter or options to resume broken downloads. The Linux download manager is also available as a Windows build. It supports clipboard monitoring to pick up files automatically if they have a matching file extension.

The download dialog that opens prior to that enables you to make modifications to the process. Here you can add authentication information, select the number of retries and the delay between retries, change the number of connections per server, or limit the download speed.

The download manager ships with a browser built-in which makes it feel bloated, especially if you don't require that. It does monitor clipboard events though and will pick up downloads automatically. The programs listed in this category have been designed specifically for so-called file hosting services.

They download files from sites such as Mediafire or Mega. Note : Programs listed in this category may contain offers adware when you install them. It is highly recommended to pay attention to the installation dialog and select custom when possible to stay in control. Free Rapid Downloader - The program requires Java to run. It supports more than sites according to the feature list on the developer website.

JDownloader - The program supports hundreds of file hosting services but requires Java to run. It monitors the clipboard and will add downloads automatically to its queue if they are hosted on a supported server.

The cross-platform program supports many extra features such as support for premium accounts, browser integration, OCR modules or the automatic extraction of password protected archives. MiPony - The program supports hundreds of file hosting services and extra features just like JDownloader does. PyLoad - The program does not support as many hosters as JDownloader or MiPony, but it may make up for it in other ways. It has been designed with low hardware requirements in mind, and while it makes sure of that, it does not sacrifice core functionality for it.

With that said, it is difficult to set up as you need to run a configuration script first on the command line and run a core program first before you can connect clients to it.

There is no definitive answer to that question. It depends on what you require more than anything else. Do you want integration into web browsers or is clipboard monitoring or manual pasting of download links sufficient? Do you require features such as support for authentication or proxy servers, scheduling or support for protocols such as Bittorrent or ftp?

Commercial Alternative : Internet Download Manager. I miss GNU Wget from the list. I would also like to request that you take a look at Download Ninja and compare it to others. Please let me know if you would like any information or have any comments :. I have been using Freedownloadmanager for more than a decade now and I firmly recommend it too. From within the telnet session, download your file to your provider's server.

Following is a "screen shout" of a sample file transfer on an UNIX compatible server. Once the file is download to the server, the next step is to divide the file into smaller pieces so that you will not waste too much time downloading should your Internet dial-up connection go down.

You're almost there! Now simply log off from your telnet session and start downloading from your provider's server to your computer smaller files not the bigfile. Once you have all the files, simply merge them and you got a good copy of the original bigfile. Another free download manager is Internet Download Accelerator IDA , which can integrate a toolbar with Firefox to make downloading files really easy. IDA has a live monitor for other browsers so files can be downloaded with IDA and placed in proper file categories for easy organization.

Internet Download Accelerator can grab a group of downloads via URL variables, automatically scan for viruses, use hotkeys, change the user-agent information, and auto-download files with certain file extensions of your choosing. There are a few plugins available for download that expand the functionality of the entire IDA program. An advanced scheduling function is one particularly useful example. IDA runs on Windows computers only.

Browser, and Vivaldi. Probably the coolest feature in JDownloader is its remote management ability. Use either the mobile app or the My JDownloader website to start, stop, and monitor your downloads from anywhere.

The LinkGrabber in JDownloader adds any download link from the clipboard directly into the program so you can start a download nearly immediately after copying the link. This download manager can also save a list of download links as a password protected encrypted file so you can easily import them again later.

A play , pause , and stop button are at the top of the program, which makes controlling all pending downloads really simple. It's also really easy to control the download speed and maximum number of simultaneous connections and downloads from the bottom of the JDownloader program at any time. This program might download inside a RAR archive, in which case a program like 7-Zip is needed in order to open it.

Also, look out for other install offers within the setup that don't pertain to JDownloader — feel free to skip them if you want. GetGo Download Manager supports batch downloads as well as a floating drop box for quickly downloading files via drag and drop. You can paste links directly into the program or import a LST file containing all the download links.

Defining categories for where to place downloads is really easy because you can specify the exact file extensions that should be considered a particular category. GetGo Download Manager can store login credentials for downloading files from password protected websites. It can also preview image files before downloading them, run downloads on a schedule, and capture videos from video-streaming websites.

Windows is the only operating system that GetGo Download Manager works on. It can be integrated with Firefox, Chrome, and Internet Explorer. EagleGet has a really clean interface that can be used in your web browser to grab downloads by automatically importing them directly into the program.

Scheduling downloads, adding URLs in batch, downloading from torrents, scanning for viruses, and shutting down the computer when EagleGet is finished downloading, are just some of the included features. Others include pausing and resuming downloads, importing and backing up download tasks, monitoring streaming videos, and auto-categorizing downloaded files with advanced filtering settings.

EagleGet can also disable the sleep and hibernation mode in Windows while files are being downloaded, to not interrupt them.

There's also a small floating window called TaskMonitor that shows how many files are currently being downloaded and at what speed. It also makes it easy to add new downloads and start or pause current ones without opening the full program. Some features are limited because there's also an Ultimate version of the same software.

Like some of these other download managers, DAM has a Drop Target button that hovers on your screen to make it easier to start file downloads.

Download Accelerator Manager also supports batch downloads, a scheduler, virus checker, confirmation sounds, and stored credentials.