India Broadband Forum

meetdilip

Hi,

With more no of connections and simultaneously downloading small files, download managers are known to increasing the download speed. How does it work ? Even when we download multiple files at the same time, won't the download speed be the same. In that case how can we say it is increasing the speed with higher no of connection.

Noticed in Rapidshare that they give only one connection for free users and the speed is slow. Can a single connection give maximum speed ?

Archer

Most servers restrict the transfer speeds for each connections. Imagine that a server is limiting the transfer speed to 32 KBps. So the normal (using browser) download speed would be 32 KBps or less, even if your connection speed is 256 KBps. A Download Manager will downloads parts of the file using separate connections (each connection at 32 KBps speed) to get maximum speed. Once all the parts of the file is downloaded, the download manager will join/restore them again.

In other words,

Normal Downloading Speed = allowed transfer speed by the server - your connection speed

Speed when using Download Manager = allowed transfer speed by the server x number of connections - your connection speed

Download Managers will only be useful if the server allows multiple connections from an IP Address. Rapidshare for free users only allows one connection to be made from an IP Address. Selecting a better mirror/server might increase the download speed a little bit.

meetdilip

Thanks Archer.

Simple presentation. Easy to understand.

alb_d

actually download managers are workarounds.they overload the servers and so some sites like rapidshare only allow one connection.besides many download managers come with limit on no. of simultaneous connections or the default is set to a low no. to avoid overloading the servers. Firefox has a similar feature for browsing which is called pipelining which is set off by default but you can change it in about:config.

meetdilip

Thanks for sharing

newprouser

Another fact is that many websites have servers in different parts of the world (called mirrors). And software like DAP search for the ones with shortest ping/distance and download from them.

linusr

use torrent, its effective and had never seen files getting corrupted(failed md5)

and downloads at the maximum speed, provided enough seeds

mandar

What i think is DAP etcs~! ARE JUST FAKE!!! worth useless .. only thing they provide is resume support ... Eg. with 256 Kbps net u can 32 KB speed .. even if u use DAP or don't it won't matter it would take the same time (appx. 32 seconds if u get constant speed ) to download ... and one more thing DAP etcs~! are master in corrupting ur files so personally what i think is better not to use it~!

kirankumargb

Download managers are not fake. They actually work good but no download manager or any other method can give you more speed that your bandwidth.

Example : You are having a bore-well in which max 1 barrel water will come out per min. Now you are attaching a motor to it and asking to get 2 barrel in 1 min which is not at all possible, your bore itself has the width that 1 barrel can come so cant expect 2 barrels even if you attach 10 motors,

Download managers work effectively in getting max bandwidth thats all not getting extra bandwidth

ShAdOwCoN

DAP even shows you the number of connections it makes with the server and the speed in each