Flashget File Download Manager

The question that always comes up when I'm talking about the benefits of download managers is why someone would need to use them at all. This can't be answered in a hurry but my initial response is always the same. First, download managers are great time savers if you download many files from a server that allows only a few connections from the same IP. It's tiresome to wait until one download has finished to start the next.

With download managers you simply add all files to it, define the maximum number of connections and do something else in the meantime. Then we have servers that tend to give timeouts or close connections from time to time. Flashget is a download manager that can resume downloads if the server supports it. You would not want to download a file for hours only to find out that you have to start over because the download was terminated by the server sending it your way.

Most download managers are able to manage file downloads in a better way than browsers for instance. You can download files automatically to categories which helps if you download lots of files at once. You can monitor downloads by looking at server status messages and download progress. Again more information than the normal browser provides.

Flashget is one of those great freeware tools that match their commercial counterparts in many ways and probably excel them in some. I can only recommend this tool if you are looking for a download manager.

Firefox users might want to take a look at the Firefox extension Flashgot which works well with the flashget download manager.

FlashGet has been updated regularly in recent years, and the developer of the program has managed to integrate new features into the download manager without sacrificing the free, fast and clean nature of it. The current iteration of the download manager supports several protocols besides http and ftp, including Bittorrent and emule files, as well as mms and rtsp protocols.

To use Flashget simply install it on your system. If you are using Firefox install the add-on for the browser, but downloads should be picked up automatically as well by the download manager.

You may also want to check out the addons section on the official website as it offers a couple of tools and skins that you can load into the application to extend its functionality or change its default design.

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