Saturday, February 16,2008 @ 1:30pm
First Look: Speed Download 5, download manager
Nothing is more frustrating than finding a file on the Internet and then having trouble downloading it to your computer. Sometimes downloading slows to a crawl and other times a web server may be down, forcing you to return repeatedly to a web site to download a file again. Fortunately, Speed Download 5 overcomes these problems by offering multiple file transferring features in an easy to use interface.
The main focus of Speed Download 5 is its upload/download capabilities. First, the program optimizes file transfers no matter what type of Internet connection you may have. Whether you use dial-up access, a cable or DSL modem, or a T1 line, Speed Download 5 can speed up your upload/download time. Of course, the program can’t make a cable modem or dial-up line run faster than its physical capabilities, but Speed Download 5 can make your Internet connection as efficient as possible. As a general rule, the faster your Internet connection, the greater the speed difference. Dial-up access users may notice a slight speed increase while cable or DSL modem users will notice a substantially larger speed increase.
Second, transferring a large file can be especially frustrating if your Internet connection gets cut off and you have to start transferring a file all over again. To prevent this problem, Speed Download 5 offers an auto-resume feature that starts the file transfer at the point where you got cut off. Now if you download 98 percent of a file, you can just finish downloading the remaining 2 percent rather than starting from scratch.
Transferring a particularly large file can take an hour or more. If you’d rather not wait for a file transfer to finish, Speed Download 5 offers a scheduler that lets you specify the file you want to transfer, the location to find the file and where to store the file, and the day and time to start the file transfer. Now you can schedule a file transfer to start in the middle of the night while you’re asleep and Speed Download 5 can have the file transfer complete when you wake up the next morning. If anything happens during this file transfer, the program kicks its auto-resume feature into action and keeps trying to transfer your file until it finally succeeds.
If you want to share files with other Speed Download 5 users, the program lets you connect directly with another user and share files using encryption. Such encryption protects your privacy so nobody else can see what type of files you’re passing back and forth.
In case you need to transfer files regularly, such as updating a web site, Speed Download 5 also acts as a full featured FTP client. The program can import FTP bookmarks from other programs and remember passwords to give you one-click access to your favorite FTP sites for transferring files. For .Mac subscribers, Speed Download 5 can connect to your iDisk as well.
For anyone who must transfer files regularly, Speed Download 5 can make your life a whole lot easier. The program integrates with all popular browsers including Safari, Firefox, and Camino and offers a free 21 day trial version. For $25, you may find Speed Download 5 a handy utility that you’ll come to rely on.