Download manager

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Definition

“A download manager is a computer program designed to download files from the Internet, unlike a web browser, which is mainly intended to browse webpages on the World Wide Web (with file downloading being of secondary importance).” (Wikipedia, retrieved 12:57, 4 June 2007 (MEST)).

Typically, a download manager can handle several different protocols, either natively or by providing an interface to external programs. In addition, it may provide other functionalities like:

  • resume broken or paused downloads
  • mirroring (follow links in a website and download lots of files)
  • get files from mirror sites or file-sharing peer-to-peer services such as BitTorrent.

Functionalities

Various download managers provides various functionalities. Daniel K. Schneider isn't aware of a tool that "can do all".

Protocol support

  • HTTP
  • HTTPS
  • FTP
  • MMS
  • RTSP
  • BitTorrent
  • Metalink
  • Podcast
  • Flash
  • Video
  • eMule

Software

Mirroring web sites
  • Wget is a popular mirroring tool for websites (Http and Ftp). Command line tool.
  • DownThemAll, a Mozilla Firefox extension with less functionality, but easy to use.
Multi protocol downloader
  • Flashget (Wikipedia article) is a popular Windows tool
  • Flashgot, a popular Mozilla/Firefox extension meant to handle single and massive ("all" and "selection") downloads with several external download managers.

Links