We encounter the words "Download Managers" and "Download Accelerators" quite often. But most of us do not know exactly what both of them do. Most people believe in a hoax that specific download accelerators would actually increase the speed of their dowloads while others do not. Let us first understand the major bottlenecks in 'good' downloading.
Major bottlenecks in 'good' downloading
* OS (Operating system) and network arc will not let your web browser (or any other program) utilize whole of the available bandwidth (speed) over a single connection. Download sites sometimes also restrict the download speed for a single connection.
* If a download server (download location) is heavily choked with users, its own network transaction speed with slow down and the downloading speed would be eventually decreased.
* Imagine yourself downloading a 300Mb program using a normal web application. Say, while you downloaded 95% of it, your internet connection temporarily fails or trips. 95% of the file will not make any sense to your computer and you will have to download it all again from starting, wasting the same time again.
What does a Download accelerator/manager do?
Download manager is a program that provides advanced features for downloading eg. Scheduling, Queuing, resuming and repairing of downloads etc. To generalize it, a download accelerator would be a part of a download manager program. A download accelerator may not actually 'accelerate' your downloads. Rather it will optimize the connections to provide you better downloading speed.
How does a download accelerator 'accelerate' a download?
A download accelerator will open multiple connections to a download server by requesting for different chunks (splits) of data, resulting in better download speed. It then would join all the chunks to give you the final downloaded file. Advanced download accelerators can also re-allocate the bandwidth for even better performance.
How does a download manager resume the download?
Referring to the above example, your download of 300Mb program stopped at 298844160th byte (say), while using a download manager with resume support. Now when you will use the 'Resume' feature, the download manager will request for the remaining chunk (or chunks) of data after 298844160 bytes hence maintaining the continuity of the data.
Acceleration and resuming may not work for all sites!
Many download sites do not provide multi-split downloading and resuming service because of their own authentication or performance strategy. Eg. Rapidshare like sites will provide download acceleration and resume support only to their permium users (who pay them).
Always resume support
Some premium programs like Download Accelerator Plus (DAP) offer 'Always resume support' for the sites which do not provide resuming and acceleration otherwise. You will have to pay for this service. Working of this service is conceptually very simple:
1. You request for AlwaysResume service for a download.
2. DAP software on your computer will contact their mother servers with necessary browser and session details (needed for authentication)
3. It will then find the nearest DAP leecher (downloader) from the download site.
4. DAP leecher will download the requested file on itself using a very fast connection.
5. Finally, your DAP software will then receive the file from DAP leecher instead of actual download site, providing you exclusive resuming and acceleration.
Major bottlenecks in 'good' downloading
* OS (Operating system) and network arc will not let your web browser (or any other program) utilize whole of the available bandwidth (speed) over a single connection. Download sites sometimes also restrict the download speed for a single connection.
* If a download server (download location) is heavily choked with users, its own network transaction speed with slow down and the downloading speed would be eventually decreased.
* Imagine yourself downloading a 300Mb program using a normal web application. Say, while you downloaded 95% of it, your internet connection temporarily fails or trips. 95% of the file will not make any sense to your computer and you will have to download it all again from starting, wasting the same time again.
What does a Download accelerator/manager do?
Download manager is a program that provides advanced features for downloading eg. Scheduling, Queuing, resuming and repairing of downloads etc. To generalize it, a download accelerator would be a part of a download manager program. A download accelerator may not actually 'accelerate' your downloads. Rather it will optimize the connections to provide you better downloading speed.
How does a download accelerator 'accelerate' a download?
A download accelerator will open multiple connections to a download server by requesting for different chunks (splits) of data, resulting in better download speed. It then would join all the chunks to give you the final downloaded file. Advanced download accelerators can also re-allocate the bandwidth for even better performance.
How does a download manager resume the download?
Referring to the above example, your download of 300Mb program stopped at 298844160th byte (say), while using a download manager with resume support. Now when you will use the 'Resume' feature, the download manager will request for the remaining chunk (or chunks) of data after 298844160 bytes hence maintaining the continuity of the data.
Acceleration and resuming may not work for all sites!
Many download sites do not provide multi-split downloading and resuming service because of their own authentication or performance strategy. Eg. Rapidshare like sites will provide download acceleration and resume support only to their permium users (who pay them).
Always resume support
Some premium programs like Download Accelerator Plus (DAP) offer 'Always resume support' for the sites which do not provide resuming and acceleration otherwise. You will have to pay for this service. Working of this service is conceptually very simple:
1. You request for AlwaysResume service for a download.
2. DAP software on your computer will contact their mother servers with necessary browser and session details (needed for authentication)
3. It will then find the nearest DAP leecher (downloader) from the download site.
4. DAP leecher will download the requested file on itself using a very fast connection.
5. Finally, your DAP software will then receive the file from DAP leecher instead of actual download site, providing you exclusive resuming and acceleration.
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