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76 Comments
- IAmAI, on 10/12/2007, -2/+25People seem to be a bit confused about what these download accelerator utilities are supposed to do. People are right when they say that they can't increase your 3mb connection to 6mb. They are better described as they increase the utilisation of your Internet connection when the server you are downloading from is transferring data to you at a speed less than your connection speed by making multiple connections.
For example, if your maximum download speed is 200MB/s and server is only willing to transfer a file to you at 100MB/s, you are receiving the file 100MB/s short of what you could be. What these download accelerator utilities do is open a second connection with the server and start downloading a different section of the file, in this case, at 100MB/s thus resulting in a total transfer rate of 200MB/s and thus utilising the maximum potential of your Internet connection.
Whether or not a server transfers to you at a rate less than your Internet connection is dependent entirely on the server you are download from (this is excluding the possibility of other programs on your computer or other users sharing your connection downloading at the same). Often a server will offer to transfer data to you beyond your connection speed so in such case a download accelerator would provide no benefit, accept that if you're downloading from multiple, different servers, you are reducing the load of the servers, if you consider that a benefit. - Aewheros, on 10/12/2007, -14/+28How does a program running under Linux have nothing to do with Linux? Maybe hamburgers got nothing to do with McDonald's, all hamburger restaurants sell them!
- tenderstorm, on 10/12/2007, -11/+23This download thingy got nothing to do with Linux- all *NIX systems use those programs.
- mezoko, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11Dude first do you run Linux?
I'm 15 and I'm in love with the command line! Lets see, just the other day I used the command line to do a loop to convert all my mpeg's to avi's. Now if I was to attempt to do that through a gui file manager it would have taken me days. Being able to type in "apt-get install gaim" is amazing. With one command it will download gaim and install gaim for you! Now take a gui package manager or something to the effect. More than likely I would have to hit the search button, type in gaim, mark gaim for download and installation, hit install. Oh by the way I used the command line on windows to copy a wallpaper to the windows folder. It saved me about 20 - 30 minutes than opening up my H: and copying to the windows folder considering I had to do this on 20 machines. - JoeSlingo, on 10/12/2007, -3/+12I am suspicious of the article as they mention transferring files from sites with capped per-login bandwidth caps. Basically, all this program must do is open up more than one connection to the site and get around the bandwidth limitation. You are *still* limited by your original bandwidth connections. Don't expect to get 8.0k/s downloads with a 56k modem using this stuff.
- angulion, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10If you would have read the article, you would have seen that it was about downloads where the server limits the speed.
- linuts, on 10/12/2007, -4/+12"your download speed is determined by your internet connection and your ISP..."
Not true, they are factors yes, but they do not determine the download speed by themselves alone. For example, you can be limited by the server you are downloading from - and this is very common. It is this that the some download accelerators exploit by opening up multiple connections and getting the limitation multiplied by the number of connections.
Read the article, try it for yourself, you'll see that it works. Not necessarily in every case, but you won't lose by trying. - joelito, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Also remember that as traffic goes down from your "applications layer" to your lower layers in the TCP/IP stack, data is added that affects the amount of bandwith you're actually using from your internet connection. The amount of data depends on the machine and operating system you, your ISP and the remote server are yousing.
Go read any data communications book for more reference. - scheper, on 10/12/2007, -5/+12There are plenty available for Windows too.
Often sites stop allowing more than one connection (by disabling resuming of downloads) because download accelerators kill sites; and the slower a site becomes, the more people will use download accelerators, adding fuel to the fire.
Although they can be useful, don't use it on every site or FTP unless you're sure it can handle it. - angulion, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Problem with these multiple-login-transfers to bypass caps is that the caps are most likely there for a reason. If everyone starts to use axel etc., it will quickly start to resemble a DOS.
Enter a net where everything requires a personal login&password with account limits. - mapkinase, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9People who make dumb comments about OS and "inreasing speed of internet connection": read the article, idiots! The part that says "./configure" for the idiots with the former statement, and the part that says "multiple connections avoiding server-side restrictions on speed" for the latter idiots.
- angulion, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Yes you are, but both web- and ftp-servers have a maximum slots limit and by using download accellerators you might very well be denying others access by taking more slots.
That's why I said that it will lead to a login&password personal account for everything as to counter multiple connections. - mdarby, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5wget http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.17.11.tar.bz2
--09:39:27-- http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.17.11.tar.bz2
09:41:26 (340.08 KB/s) - `linux-2.6.17.11.tar.bz2' saved [41288067/41288067]
axel http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.17.11.tar.bz2
Downloaded 39.4 megabytes in 2:00 seconds. (333.79 KB/s) - linuts, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Its not a drop in replacement. wget has a shed load of options for controlling logins, cookies, recursive downloading etc, axel does not.
For the simple "wget url" it can be replaced though. - mezoko, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6OK, I've got a 6Mbit connection (620Kb down about) and I used both wget and axel the two programs the article mentions and within comparing the two in downloading a kernel tar.bz2
axel = 1 min 5 sec
wget = 1 min 6 sec
So at least for me there was no difference at all! - silenceHR, on 10/12/2007, -10/+14can you please tell me how to make my 3Mbit Dl work like 6 Mbit? this Linux things is really great i must try it!!!!!!11111
/sarcasm
i didnt notice _ANY_ difference between XP and SuSe 10.1 when it comes to DLing. only thing that limits them is my connection and until i can get faster conn, there is nothing to be done. this was prolly dugg only cause it has Linux in title. stupid and marked as inaccurate. - holdemcharts, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7There is a graphical KDE-based front-end for Axel called axel-kapt. A
desktop file is included as well, in case you like drag-and-drop. - mezoko, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6No I'm not an idiot and I probably didn't save that much time. I was just trying to get my point across. It would have probably taken me about 30 sec to use a explore so that'd be it saved me 10 minutes considering I had to do this on 20 machines. Plus I had to but the wallpaper in C:WINDOWS because it was also the default login screen wallpaper and it was easier to type in C:Windowswallpaper.bmp then C:Document + Settingsstudentwallpaper.bmp
- Stalks, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4If the connection between you and the server you are downloading from is already capable of getting you the full speed then your tests are obviously going to give the same figure. In fact the "accelerator" will probably slow you down because of the extra TCP overhead for multiple connections. A machine with 1gbit fibre can show you a real difference:
[stalks@tsunami(~)> wget ftp://mirror.ac.uk/sites/fedora.redhat.com/5/i386/iso/FC-5-i386-disc1.iso
[...]
14:51:47 (7.06 MB/s) - `FC-5-i386-disc1.iso' saved [687235072]
[stalks@tsunami(~)> axel -a -n 10 ftp://mirror.ac.uk/sites/fedora.redhat.com/5/i386/iso/FC-5-i386-disc1.iso
[...]
Downloaded 655.4 megabytes in 25 seconds. (25927.99 KB/s) - Stalks, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4From the article:
"One of the drawback of axel is you can not specify ftp username and password."
The truth:
"axel -a -n 10 ftp://username:password@some.host/myfile.rar"
Another great thing about axel that wasn't mentioned in the article, is an option in the config file.
"interfaces = [space delimited list of ip addresses]"
Adding a line like this in /etc/axelrc or ~/.axelrc can greatly increase downloads from hosts who throttle based on IP. If your using linux on a production box, the chances are it has multiple IP's, therefore entering the IP's here allows axel to connect to the host from multiple source addresses. - webcrumb, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5You could remove wget then create a symlink /usr/bin/wget to the program of your choice. Whether it's command-compatible, though...
- hypercube33, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3My $0.02 is to still use these if they allow you to download from MULTIPLE MIRRORS of the same file, this way you bypass all of the restrictions, limitations and dont hog up servers.
- neko, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4All these "Download accelerators" do is hammer the site twice (or more times) hoping to bypass any throttling of speeds that the server is doing.
- Most of the time I find my downloads go at the full 150kilobyte/s our ADSL connection allows, or near enough to it. Using one of these "accelerators" on these links is a waste and also being a bit of an *****.
- Sites that give me less are probably slower because thier own upload link is congested, not because of any per-connection throttle. Using the "accelerator" on these links will also get you nothing and make you an even bigger *****.
- Some sites may be giving me a slower download on purpose by throttling per-connection upload speeds. Big deal. If it's a small file, I WAIT. If it's a large file, I find some better site to download it.
- I would think that most of the SMART sites that want to throttle their traffic, however, do it not on a per-connection basis but on a per-ip basis. Your fancy download manager will attempt to double their 20Kb/s upload limit but only get two 10KB/s (or worse) connections in return. Congratulations, you just lowered your download speed with your "accelerator". - mapkinase, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5This is obvious for anyone who cared to read the article.
- baalzebub, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5its a gimmick, your download speed is determined by your ISP, these things may open more channels but if you look at the speed of each channel they are throttled back makeing the total speed of all channels the same as if one channel was running at full speed...
smoke & mirrors... - blincoln, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Exactly.
I watch the server logs for the sites I manage, and anyone who makes a habit out of using tools like this gets permanently banned. - aroedl, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7DO NOT use tools like this. Bad enough that there are tons of Windows tools out there with the same functionality: open more than one HTTP connection to a server. This is highly egoistic, because the slots on a webserver are limited! Your own bandwidth is limited anyways and in a worst case scenario, you open up ten connections to a webserver each with a tenth of your download bandwidth. Result: nine other clients are waiting in the webserver queue and your download isn't really faster.
Very EGOISTIC.
For more info, google Apache MAX_CLIENTS. - Eric.S.Smith, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4When it comes to multiple files at once, the shell is your friend:
for FILE in $LIST_OF_FILES_TO_DOWNLOAD; do
wget $OPTIONS $FILE &
done
LIST_OF_FILES_TO_DOWNLOAD can be replaced by `cat files-to-dl.txt` if you like. - AhronZombi, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4wander if i can get apt to use this instead of wget. its definitly faster than wget
- freddo, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4It's included in the axel package... :-)
- cynicist, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3@silenceHR
Actually linux does increase your download speeds, by a small margin, because windows uses rather conservative rwin values. - frontbrain, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3OK someone has to say it: 1999 called and they want their download managers back.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3give ftp details i'll fill it
- MrEcho, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Its not even in portage, no digg.
- Eising, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4He does have a point though, although a small one. Your speed is limited by your isp, the overhead of ATM, if your isp uses that for transport, which most isps do, the overhead of the tcp protocol and a myriad of other things, where some can be influenced and some cannot. For instance, people on DSL lines often fail to think about the quality of their copper, on both sides of the wall, as well as noice or low SNR.
- FrogRacer, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6this category is linux/UNIX, good work echimu, ive been using for nearly a month now, good work
- LogicX, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I've always used lftp for these purposes. In my quick and dirty test, it seems superior:
Downloaded 39.4 megabytes in 15 seconds. (2673.72 KB/s)
lftp :~> pget http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.17.11.tar.bz2
41292428 bytes transferred in 13 seconds (3.00M/s)
Downloaded 39.4 megabytes in 16 seconds. (2376.57 KB/s)
lftp :~> pget http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.17.11.tar.bz2
41295932 bytes transferred in 13 seconds (3.06M/s)
lftp :~> - hypercube33, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2You're a moron.
- jwiz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2There is also a fundamental limit on how fast a TCP connection can go, given latency. If I (in San Francisco) try to download from Germany (grml, for example), it will be way slower for a single tcp connection, vs. multiple connections.
Each one can only have so many packets "in flight" (i.e., unacknowledged)...if the latency is high, then there is an intrinsic speed-limit, even if the server doesn't set a limit.
Download accelerators do help, for legitimate reasons. - edzieba, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Basic law of download acceleration: As available bandwidth increases, proportional overhead decreases, thus passive accelerators have a diminishing effect.
- freddo, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4I've wondered for years why this wasn't ever implemented in wget. Or, while this differs, at least a way download multiple files in parallel?
- CeeJayDK, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2In my experience download accelerators work only with sites that will not throttle your single connection to the max , so I only use mine ( I use the DownThemAll extention for Firefox) when I suspect that the site is badly configured.
The only thing I have ever seen improve a connection is MTU/MSS optimizations (this works well on modems .. but yields only little improvement with broadband connections) and traffic shaping.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_shaping
A few routers can do traffic shaping and for thoose whose routers can't (like mine can't) I suggest using traffic shaping software. I use cFosSpeed myself and it works fine. - tmahmood, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I think d4x does the same thing... and its also have a GUI :D
- felderado, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2help! i can't download faster than 1.2MB/s on my synchronous 10mbit fiber connection!
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2omfg it's have the word linux lets digg !!!!!!!!!!!!!1111111
- sixdays, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Yeah, don't use your brain.
Stupid. - hypercube33, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1My comment to Stalks is that firefox isnt the fastest downloader ;)
Dumbass. - Stalks, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Where in the world did I deserve that comment?
Oh yes, of course, this is the internet. Where people insult other people to satisfy their own insecurity. - Stalks, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Not true in my case. I download using Firefox, single connection, and I regularly will get 100-150kbyte/s. My line is capable of ~500kbyte/s. I put the same URL into Reget and it will download at full speed.
Many web services are throttled per connection, and many ISP's, like mine, also throttle per connection. Using download managers is a selfish tool to get around these systems. Of course its just as possible that speeds are limited on IP, but if your lucky enough to have more than one IP, axel can connect and manage using multiple connections from multiple IPs. - Stalks, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Okay, downloading from mirror.ac.uk using Firefox, IE, Reget with single connection, wget and lynx all yield me ~270kbyte/sec
Using Reget or axel I get 510kbyte/sec.
Dumbass? Whatever. -
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