Best free download manager?

[mroek]

What's the best free download manager for MSIE/WinXP?
Small and fast are good keywords. Spyware is unacceptable.

Sooo... Which one is the best in YOUR opinion?

Regards
-Øyvind

[Millionframe]

Well... there is one I occassionaly use aside from Kazza and WinMX. It's called Soulseek. Nothing of the spyware sort comes with it.

[Brian]

I've had good luck with download accelarator plus.
You can get it at cnet.com (http://cnet.com)

[NightG1]

Speed Download 2 (http://www.yazsoft.com)...oops, Sorry. Nevermind ;)

[Sindai]

Originally posted by mroek
What's the best free download manager for MSIE/WinXP?

Firefox? ;) It even comes with a free browser attached!

I used to use Download Accelerator back when I used IE. It worked quite well, except for websites that kicked you for establishing multiple connections.

[evildave]

WGET (http://www.gnu.org/software/wget/wget.html)

It's a pretty darned cool command line tool. Tell it where to start, and it will download everything recursively with resume and all. Or something specific. Just tell it what you want, and let it scroll junk in a background window.

To download project Gutenberg, excluding certain folders, and only taking zip,htm/html files...

wget -m -X/pub/etext/1 -X/pub/etext/cdimages -A zip,htm,html ftp://ftp.archive.org/pub/etext/

If you run this same command again, it will only get the newer or differently sized files.

[mroek]

Thanks for your suggestions.

I'm now downloading with wget. It was just too simple to pass upon. No installation, no nags, small and fast.

I've been told that Download Accelerator contains spyware, BTW. Don't know if it's true. Someone else recommended GetRight, but since wget seems to fit the bill nicely I'm using that. I only need it if server connections are reset during large files, and I suppose wget will resume nicely in these occations. I haven't read the documentation yet. For small files I just download with MSIE as usual.

-Øyvind

[Wudang]

Stroll on evildave! You've made my day.

I once told a Mac user that not having a command line was like having a kitchen full of food processors and microwaves and stuff and not 1 decent sharp knife. He eventually agreed after doing java on unix .

[evildave]

wget -m ftp://username : password@ftp.domain.com/folder/

Though no spaces around the ':', because it turned my sample link into a :p smiley.

There's also this handy syntax for ftp sites you frequently get from. Basically, it's part of the standard ftp url and other ftp clients accept it. You can specify the username and password on the command line, and just save the whole thing in a batch/script.

I'm just one of those people who finds batching tedius/repetitive things up and leaving the computer to do it is the way to go.

Though both of my wget examples are ftp, it will do http downloads as well. Just copy the link location and paste it onto the end of a wget command on the command line, and away it goes.

[De_Bunk]

A lot of websites nowadays are booting people for using accelerators

I wouldnt use one...

But...if you want to use an accelerator, then run a spyware check after downloading it.....BUT then again some progs stop working if you remove the spyware / adware

Its a jungle out there...

Ive always used KazaaLite for my downloads...just re-connect and the download continues...

There was a browser called NeoPlanet...that, on the look / feel of it, done wonders...It had all the bits you would want...it had hundreds of different skins and it blended right in with IE.

That had a "Download Manager"...which worked just fine..

BUT...It started cropping up on the "Spyware" sites...

I cant remember much about what it contained..I got rid of it years ago...but i recall people stopped using it...

Im wondering if modern Anti-Spyware progs could remove the garbage and still leave it functional...

If it could..i'd probably use it again..

When i get drunk again, i'll download it and see whats really happening inside...

DB

PS...Dont forget a whole sh*tload of ISP's are watching individuals bandwidth usage...especially on the cheaper Broadband, no frills services.