Boost Your Download Speeds

Are you tired of slow downloads and feel you are getting less for what you are paying for? I have a useful tool for you which may help boost your download speeds.

When you download a file normally, the file is broken up into pieces and is then downloaded one bit at a time. They are rejoined quickly when all parts are downloaded - this is an automatic process so to us it looks as though one file is being downloaded and stored on the computer.

In recent years, some software developers have created what is known as multi part downloading. As with the normal processing of downloading, the file you are downloading is split into many parts. However, the key difference is that each part is downloaded at the same time simultaneously. This means that you will have several connections to the server you are downloading from. This is because each connection allows one bit of data to flow at a time so in order to download many bits at the same time, you need several different connections to the server.

The main benefit from this is that you can bypass bandwidth limitations - typically the server administrator will apply some bandwidth limitations per connection to the server. If the limitations are per connection, this means you can still have many connections to the server - each of which will be limited to some extent. As a result, you should be able to get download speeds several times as fast as normal downloading.

A second benefit is the fact that if a connection to the server fails, only part of the download has failed and only that part needs to be re-downloaded - the download manager is likely to automatically reconnect to the server and download that part for you.

One downside is that some, if not many, servers protect themselves from multi part downloading - obviously as it reduces their bandwidth and potentially slows their servers down. Also, some servers limit the number of connections, if they do support it.

Internet Download Manager (IDM) is my favourite tool for multi part downloading and it can be easily integrated into your browser - I use a Mozilla FireFox plug-in called "FlashGot" to link IDM to my browser, but you can use the inbuilt one if you like.

You are able to choose the number of connections you want to have to the server from within the Options panel of IDM. For fast servers, it's recommended to choose a lower number.

One point to mention is that services like Rapidshare, Megashare and other ticket associated storage hosts do not support multi-part downloading for the free versions. If you have a premium account for these, then you should be able to use IDM fine.

Update: Video demonstration unavailable currently.

You can download a 30 day free trial of IDM from: http://www.internetdownloadmanager.com/download.html

There are many other download managers around that do similar things for free. Check out FlashGet:
http://www.flashget.com/en/download.htm