Looking for a download manager.

AlmightyCushion

I'm looking for a download manager to download from sites like rapidshare (well mainly rapidshare). I currently use internet download manager which is great. It automatically takes over downloads from my browser, I can highlight a load of links and then select "download with idm" in the context menu.

The only problem is when I download something it maxes out my connection and make browsing the internet at the same time a pain. Is there any download manager that offers the same functionality as idm but allows me to limit the bandwidth it uses so that I can browse the internet without it slowing to a snails pace?

Edit: Preferably free.

Sherifu

I'd recommend free download manager. Used to use IDM myself.
FDM has 3 speed settings which I find really useful.

AlmightyCushion

And how much does this free download manager cost?

Downloading it at the moment to see what it's like.

tman

Flashget is pretty damn nifty, works great with rapidshare as well.
It seems to have a "speed limit mode", but can't say that I've ever tried it...

AlmightyCushion

FDM seems to be what I'm looking for. It took me ages to find out how to add a site login but got it in the end. Cheers.

Sherifu

Ya, site manager isn't that easy to find at first, should have mentioned that.

Sqaull20

rkm wrote: »

FDM has 3 speed settings which I find really useful.

Do they really work?

I have tried a few programs like that, but I still cant download, while one housemate watches youtube the other playing WoW.....

Any tips?

AlmightyCushion

Sqaull20 wrote: »

Do they really work?

I have tried a few programs like that, but I still cant download, while one housemate watches youtube the other playing WoW.....

Any tips?

They work for me. Heavy seems to max out your connection. You can set medium and light to whatever max speeds you like. I have medium set to 150KBps for when I'm browsing and it only goes over it by a few KBs. You could set light up to only use 50KBps and use that when your mates are on-line as well.

Sqaull20

Thanks, have it installed now, any tips to get the site logins for rapidshare, megashares etc to work, it doesnt seem to be downloading the rars just the web page itself...

Edit:Got it working now, nice one.....

Will be lovely when 8mb comes

AlmightyCushion

There'll be a couple of tabs. "Downloads", "Flash videos", "Uploads" etc. One of them is "site manager". Click that then right click anywhere and choose "Add site". Add the url and the login details there.

Sherifu

It's recently gone open source too so it's as good as you could ask for.

the_syco

tman wrote: »

Flashget is pretty damn nifty, works great with rapidshare as well.
It seems to have a "speed limit mode", but can't say that I've ever tried it...

I'd like to second Flashget.

Also, use the "speed limit mode" often enough, so that I can download near the max, but leave 20kb/s bandwidth so that the others in the house can browse the internet.

Oh, and it has a handy "site manager", so that you can add in rapidshare.com, the details (username & password). This allows you to copy the links, Flashget would pop up, you select the folder (or, have a folder already designated for downloads), and click enter (all the details for RS.com been already in the box).

Very handy. Also has a "turn off PC when done", which is handy, so that you can download at night, and the PC will pop off when it's finished downloading.

AlmightyCushion

FDM has a really handy option where you can set it to heavy mode (the one that maxes out your connection) and when it detects browser activity it will automatically drop down to the medium or light option. Pretty sweet but it doesn't seem to work for me. No matter how many times I refresh a page it doesn't drop down to the medium setting.

Sherifu

Never really used that option. It may be dependent on IE or a browser plugin, i'm not sure; The FDM forums are a good place to search for this kind of info.

AlmightyCushion

Meh, it doesn't really bother me that much. I don't lose much by being in medium mode compared to heavy. If I'm leaving the laptop for a while I can just switch over to heavy mode.

Any ways FDM looks the business, I've already un-installed IDM. It does seems to be quite similar to rapget though the_syco but I remember downloading that before and I couldn't get it to work properly.

Zascar

I'm also using "Internet Download Manager" along with FlashGet, it sowrks OK but I'm hoping to find a better one. It cab be a pain in the ass when the link is dead and it asks to remanme to a htm file etc - are there any that recognise a dead link on RS and cancel?

I'd also like somehting that sorts the files into seperate folders etc.
Any recommendatons?
Thanks

miralize

Flashget is the best for rapidshare imo

AlmightyCushion

Zascar wrote: »

I'm also using "Internet Download Manager" along with FlashGet, it sowrks OK but I'm hoping to find a better one. It cab be a pain in the ass when the link is dead and it asks to remanme to a htm file etc - are there any that recognise a dead link on RS and cancel?

I'd also like somehting that sorts the files into seperate folders etc.
Any recommendatons?
Thanks

FDM doesn't even add the files if they are dead. It took me a while to figure this out. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. I'd like to know what files haven't been downloaded.

I think FDM can sort it in to different folders although I've only downloaded rars with it so far.

Sherifu

Zascar wrote: »

are there any that recognise a dead link on RS and cancel?

http://rapidshare.com/en/checkfiles.html

miralize wrote: »

Flashget is the best for rapidshare imo

Used flashget, it was fine. Can't remember why I switched, something must have annoyed me

Capt'n Midnight

www.netleech.com - has three speed settings so you can change the speed when you need to do stuff

yoyo

Free Download Manager and FlashGot firefox addon works great, I reccomend FlashGOT if you use firefox because it seems to work much more efficient than FDMs integrated utility

Nick

BigEejit

I've been using orbit downloader.... dont know though if you can set throttling (20Mb download yay)