Need a good software for downloading files from AW!

[david]

Hello everyone,

I use 'Download Accelerator Plus' to download files from AW. As i have a dial up connection it helps in accelerating the speed and resuming the download from where it is stopped. But recently when i resumed the download, instead of resuming from where it is stopped it starts from the beginning. It is very much frustrating to see that 90% of downloaded file starting once again from the beginning. I tried unistalling and reinstalling it. I went through all the options/configurations settings but could not figure out what might be the cause for this.

In a hope that atleast some might be using this software, i want to know why it is not resuming the download from AW.com server properly.
Can anyone suggest a good software(atleast with resume option) for downloading files especially for a dial up connection?
Thanks!

david

[Toejam31]

Downloading Software

I've used Download Accelerator in the past, and fought with it over the years as the versions advanced, and additional features were added (which primarily appeared to make the application become less and less stable.) After using the latest version, I finally gave up when it conflicted with a WinXP theme manager, and the upper-most part of the toolbar would turn dead black, which signified that the program was within a few seconds of crashing. This happened whether I used the default skin or not, and reinstalling the application anew didn't change anything ... same problem.

The program also appeared to resist permanently retaining passwords/user names for protected sites. It would hold the information for a while, and then suddenly lose it, for no particular reason.

Interestingly enough, the app would also lose all previously retained information (including all stored preferences) if I happened to replace my Windows partition with a valid image created with Drive Image 7, for one reason or another. Everything else functioned correctly ... except DA.

Last, but not least, I used it to access my DAPdrive, and if the program lost the user information for the online storage server, putting the information back into the program would cause the company to charge another unscheduled monthly fee from my credit card! The response from Speedbit over the issue was timely, and they allowed the additional purchase(s) to apply toward future months, but had no advice about how to correct the problem, and keep it from happening again. I even cleaned out every single trace of the program from the Registry, reinstalled the program, and hoped for the best.

Ah, no ... that didn't work either.

That was the end of it for me, and I just had to consider the purchase price part of a lesson well-learned. The older versions worked fairly well, but the newer versions simply aren't worth the time and effort to keep them operational, IMHO.

After doing some searching around, and testing a few different programs, I finally settled with Internet Download Manager 4.01, which works beautifully, and is even faster than Download Accelerator, as it can handle more simultaneous connections. It doesn't have quite as many features, but then again, I wasn't that impressed with the addition of uploading to an FTP site, as I already have a dedicated application for that purpose.

IDM is solid as a rock, and I can't praise it enough. No adware or malware, the price includes a year's worth of upgrades, it is easily updated, and works flawlessly with the AW servers. It also integrates extremely well into other browsers, such as Mozilla FireFox 0.9.3, without having to copy a .dll file into a plugins folder and rename it, which is something I disliked about Download Accelerator.

Well, that's my plug.

Toey

[Quartz]

I had the exact same problems as the two people above, see http://www.abbywinters.com/vbulletin...8&postcount=21

I used NetVampire for a little while, but I found it to be too basic. I am now using GetRight, which does what I want. It opens multiple streams (in the case of AW, up to 4 [*] - the download resume option works fine as well), it retains the user/pass information which DA kept losing, and it has nice configurable features overall.

Just another suggestion.

[*] more connections isn't always desirable, because a hanging connection slows things down, and with 10+ connections, chances are greater that one slow connection keeps you waiting for a long time.

[Quartz]

Oh, one other thing that pissed me off about Download Accelerator: its apparent lack of ability to interpret some basic HTML/PHP, possibly even a 302 redirect response code (which is what AW uses on occasion - I believe it's that what's killing DA's ability to download properly from AW). When a link to a file (a zip or an mpg or whatever) actually triggers a bit of code that will initiate the download (like most of the software archives/mirrors use to let you pick the closest mirror site first), DA will not download the file you're after. It wil come up with a dialog telling you that you are actually downloading a web page. NetVampire and GetRight do know what to do with that kind of 'redirect' and follow along to where the file actually is, and then download it. So, by all means, drop DA (however responsive and helpful the Speedbit people are), and go for one of the suggestions above.

One other comment that should be made: NetVampire is a download manager, the other programs mentioned above are download accelerators. A download manager does nothing more than monitor the clipboard and your mouseclicks and make a list of things you're downloading; which will then be downloaded in order. A download accelerator will open up several connections to get pieces of the same file simultaneously. Some sites will limit HTTP/FTP connections to a certain bandwidth (say 32 or 64 KB/s), which is annoying for people who have more bandwidth. Opening more simultaneous connections to get a file in parts will double, triple, quadruple (&c) the overall download speed for that file.

[Quartz]

I just tested Internet Download Accelerator. It has one giant drawback (insurmountable for me): its inability to classify downloads by origin rather than by type (which I find useless). Download Accelerator (DA) can do that, GetRight (GR) can do that, NetVampire (NV) can do that.

All three allow you to choose a default download root directory (in my case, it's c:\down\), the rest of the path will be taken from the URL/server path (if you choose that particular option). IDA only allows download directories for file types, so a model's zip files will go in one directory ('Compressed'), the mpegs in another ('Video'), and there's no relation between the two.

Given today's update (Margaret), the other three will put it in a logical place (NetVampire's solution is a bit convoluted, but it's still logical):

DA: c:\down\abbywinters.com\members\shoot\549\margaret _imgset814.zip
GR: c:\down\abbywinters.com\members\shoot\549\margaret _imgset814.zip
NV: c:\down\http_www_abbywinters_com_80\members\shoot\ 549\margaret_imgset814.zip

Since IDA isn't freeware, GR delivers more bang for the buck, I think.

[Toejam31]

Personally, I don't have any problems using IDM to download my files by type. I prefer creating folders specifically for different types of files, and sort through them afterwards, using WinRAR for extraction, and a Bulk Rename Utility to fit them into my collection. Programs go into a software folder, with subfolders for each, and pictures into a picture folder with multiple subfolders, based on type, and whether of an amateur or a celebrity.

All in all, this just depends entirely on your own preferences.

As for GetRight, I've avoided the program simply because the program has been long suspected of containing spyware, and as far as I'm concerned, avoiding malware and spyware is a major priority.

Example:

Programs that are suspected to be infected with spy-ware

Radiate (Aureate)

Most of the spyware removal programs I use still list GetRight as a possible source.

I still think that IDM's speed and browser compatibility outweigh any lack of features from the more popular, and more well-known applications. Simple is sometimes better, depending on the user.

Toey

[Quartz]

As for GetRight, I've avoided the program simply because the program has been long suspected of containing spyware, and as far as I'm concerned, avoiding malware and spyware is a major priority.

For me as well. I'm using Outpost Firewall (with application layer control), Ad-Watch (checks for spyware, registry modifications and such in the background) and HTTP logging 24 hours a day. Any attempt of any application trying to do something unusual will be noticed. GR hasn't done anything I haven't told it to do (this is a registered v5.1 with zero complaints from Spybot and Ad-Aware). Anyway, tastes and needs differ, so anyone can choose from the alternatives presented here.

[david]

Hi,

Sure it was a frustrating experience for me with DAP for the past few weeks. It doesnot retains username/pasword, and for no particular reason it starts from the beginning when resumed, and also i have seen it getting only one connection from AW and still could not download . So some have been in my shoes before.
Anyways, now i am trying with GetRight unregistered version. So for no problem while resuming the download and it does not asks for username/password while resuming.
And regarding spyware infection, spybot didnot detect any items of getright. I have tried Netvampire before. It has not caused any problems but it is not faster and it does not gives acceleration options ('coz i am on a dial up connection).
Thanks Toejam31 & Quartz.

One more thing -- When i asked speed bit regarding these problems, they replied me that speedbit will review this in its future versions. Definitely i didnot understand this.

david

[Quartz]

I think I was one of the first to alert Speedbit about the password retention problem. They hadn't heard about it, and suggested a total reinstall (wiping registry entries included). That did work for a few weeks, until the next of their updates became available. After installing those updates, the password problem reappeared, and it did not disappear after a total reinstall ever again. I tried after every update (a total of about five or six, I think), until I finally gave up.

In the meantime, more and more useless additions (FTP upload, Media Center, Games, etc.) have been added to DA (not even modularly, so you have to run all of that bloated stuff), making DA as a whole less and less reliable, and certainly slower. They have their priorities all wrong. I have now uninstalled DA completely. Good riddance.

As for spyware: I believe the general crackdown on spyware is beginning to pay off. I try and install a lot of software, and I haven't had an alert from either Spybot or Ad-Aware or my firewall software (all up-to-date) in a long time. It did alert me to IDM phoning home every time it started, and refusing to run if it couldn't (because I prevented it). That sucks.

By the way: when I commented on IDM's inability to create download paths mirroring server/paths, the point I was trying to make was that DA, GR and NV all allow saving downloads by file type as well as saving downloads by server/path. The fact that IDM only allows saving downloads by file type was disappointing, even more because IDM already resembles DA in a lot of ways, and is payware as well. They should have added that basic feature, which does not add more than a few lines of code to interpret the download URL, flip some slashes and create a path structure.

[david]

I have now uninstalled DA completely. Good riddance.

Even here, i dont have any other option than to completely unistall it. Can you suggest me one good registry cleaner. Thanks for those detailed comments.
Regarding GR, does accelerated segmented downloading works well with AW server.

david

[Quartz]

Even here, i dont have any other option than to completely unistall it. Can you suggest me one good registry cleaner.

No, I never use automatic registry cleaners. I just use regedit and look for strings like Accelerator, DonwloadAccelerator and DAP. That will catch most of the DA stuff. Not that DA performs any nasty registry tricks.

Regarding GR, does accelerated segmented downloading works well with AW server.

Yes, I have had no problems with GR. It will only open max 4 streams for single sites, though (depending on file size, it may be less; in case you're downloading from mirror sites (public software archives), more than 4 streams are possible - GR will pick the fastest mirrors, even more than one for different segments).

Like I remarked earlier, getting 10 streams isn't always better. More streams also means more risk of one stream being slower, causing the entire download to be slower than you expected. Note that GR can use existing streams that have finished downloading their segment to download a segment that hasn't completed yet. This reduces the risk of a slow stream locking up the entire download.

[david]

Thanks Quartz. Thats nice explanation. Now iam using GR frequently and have better understanding of its working.
david

[Red~Druid]

I'm a DAP user, and I couldn't agree more with your observations that it had gotten worse over time. The newest version seems hit or miss whether it will use the resume capability (restart where it left off if connection is lost) when connected to AbbyWinters. It used to do this every time, but not its uncertain. But it is marginally faster than before, and now includes a really handy feature called the Leech, that lets you choose the elements of a web page that you want to download, and loads them into the dowload background process. Essentially sucking the good out of a web page without having to open each pic in the browser. Cool tool. Does anyone know if another DM or DA product does that?

Overall I have abysmal download speeds. So any accelorator would be great. I never get much over 5-8 kbs. (Gotta really love Mya to go after that redux set.) I'm a earthlink user... is that it? or is it XP or my modem or my house wiring; maybe a gig of RAM isn't enough... What would a normal, telephone hookup download at, with and without on of these accelorators?

[Quartz]

Well, I'm getting 80+ KB/s (which is basically the max for me) with GetRight, and the resume function never fails. Sometimes it's a bit harder to get all four streams for a download working every time, but three is never a problem (and the fourth usually kicks in after a minute or so) - and you don't really need more for files of 40 MB or less anyway.

As for that Leech thing, I think this is about the same as the built-in GetRight Browser, which will present you with a lay-out of the site you put in the address bar, so you can choose what element of that site to download. Links are presented as folders/directories, and you can browse everything by opening such a folder and finding even more folders. Just pick what you want and download it.

[Quartz]

I never get much over 5-8 kbs. (Gotta really love Mya to go after that redux set.) I'm a earthlink user... is that it? or is it XP or my modem or my house wiring; maybe a gig of RAM isn't enough... What would a normal, telephone hookup download at, with and without on of these accelorators?

I'm sure you mean 5-8 KB/s (which amounts to about 40-60 kbps)? If you're on a 56K modem, about 6 KB/s is pretty average(*). If you're on ISDN, it may be slightly more (about 7). RAM is marginally interesting. I''m getting 80 KB/s (DSL) on only 256 M RAM (XP SP2), which is usually 100% in use. House wiring is very important with 56K modems, because they rely on a compression technology that's directly related to the quality (and distance) of your wiring. Your wiring should a) be kept to an absolute minimum b) not be shared (multiple phones, answering machines, fax machines ...).

(*) Real download speed is usually 10% lower than reported (raw) download speed due to TCP/IP overhead (connection control, error correction, retries, ACK/NOACK's etc.).

[Gerza71]

After one week of trying I came to this conclusion.

I tried out three download managers and I found the one I looking for.

First I tried DAP7. Nice interface and easy to use. If I pause and then resume, I get no problems. But if I get disconnected form the Internet, and I press to resume, it will have problems resume and I lost the whole file and I start again. Also DAP7 clashes with McAfee download program when McAfee want to update my security suit. Also DAP7 is slow.


The next one is Get It Right download manager. I don’t like the interface that much. When I pause and then I tried to resume, it dose not resume have to start all over again

The next one is Net Vampire. I love it. The interface is nothing fancy but it’s easy to use. I pause and I resume no problems it resumes. If I get disconnected form the Internet and I resume, no problems it resumes. It’s quick to. I like that Zip tag when downloading those zip files and the log. NB if you haven’t notice but there is a zip program already built in Windows. It looks like a folder icon with a zip going up and down on the left-hand side. I using Win98+

But I in counted some problem, which I can handle. I was down loading one of your galleries and I press the zip file. No problems with the but when I went to the Zip tag, it started near the end and downloading in reverse order. The gallery I talking about is Ally and Charlie. It started at 119 and went backwards. BTW Abby I tried look for Ally and Charlie in the back stage galleries and I cannot find it. Why? Have I got tunnel vision.

I like to thank Luxman for pointing me at the right direction.

GCG71 living in the sunniest state of Australia.

[Red~Druid]

Thanks, Quartz. Yes it is kb/s. I just finished the Mya download. 56.13 mb. One minute shy of 4 hours. That was single threaded. For whatever reason DAP would do it only that way. Sometimes, but rarely any more, it would allow up to 4 connections at once. Good research Gerza71, I'll head off to find NV, right after I check out miss Mya. [What a smile!]

RD

[Quartz]

Note that NV is a download manager, so it is definitely single-threaded (single stream). Indeed, DAP wouldn't give me more than 1 stream on AW, and resume failed. Only GetRight got me 4 streams plus resume.