A download manager is a computer program dedicated to the task of downloading (and sometimes uploading) possibly unrelated stand-alone files from (and sometimes to) the Internet for storage. Some download managers can also be used to accelerate download speeds by downloading from multiple sources at once. Although web browsers may have download managers incorporated as a feature, they are differentiated by the fact that they do not prioritize accurate, complete and unbroken downloads of information.
Adware
Download managers, were among the first adware applications displaying a banner ad in the user interface. Adobe Download Manager is now exhibiting this same feature, while installing such software as Adobe Acrobat.
Related applications
Related to download managers are two other breeds of Internet programs, file-sharing peer-to-peer applications (eMule, BitTorrent, Gnutella) and stream recorders (such as StreamBox VCR). While download managers are designed to give users greater control over downloads, some downloaders are created to give that control to content distributors instead. Some software companies, for example Adobe [1], provide such downloaders for downloading software on their own site. Presumably this increases reliability and reduces their technical support costs. A possible reason is increasing the control over redistribution of their software (even when the software is freeware).
Download acceleration
Download acceleration, also known as multipart download, is a term for the method employed by software such as download managers to download a single file by splitting it in segments and using several simultaneous connections to download these segments from a single server.
The reason for doing so is to circumvent server side limitations of bandwidth per connection. Because in normal networking situations all individual connections are treated equally, rather than actual file transfers, multiple connections yields an advantage on saturated links over simple connections, both in terms of total bandwidth allocation and resilience. Many servers, however, implement a maximum number of simultaneous connections per client in order to mitigate this.
This is not to be confused with segmented downloading, which allows a client to download segments of a file simultaneously from multiple servers.
See also
- Perbandingan -- download managers
- Offline browsing
External links
