File Download Utilities: What do you like?

[oz]

Hey guys, I've been playing around with aria2 and have found that I really do like it:

aria2 project

It can handle HTTP/HTTPS, FTP, BitTorrent and Metalink downloads, so it's very versatile. It's also very lightweight but one drawback for some is that it's a command line tool. Any of you looking for something like that might want to check it out.

What utilities are the rest of you using for your downloads?

[arinlares]

Honestly, I just use the download system for whatever browser I'm in (mostly Firefox), or Transmission. I don't do much beyond HTTP transfers, however.

[oz]

Quite often, I'll use the download tool in whatever I'm working in as well, especially if it's a small file.

However, I did a test on a bigger file by downloading it first with Firefox, then downloading it again with aria2. The Firefox download took just over 4 hours because of the slow server the file came from, and then the aria2 download from the same server took only 22 minutes. That's a pretty big savings in time, so I'm going to continue playing around with aria2 for a while, and see what else it can do.

[MikeTbob]

I'm addicted to wget, it just to gosh darn simple.

[bigtomrodney]

I must check this out. If I'm using torrents I use Ktorrent...I'd been using Transmission but it didn't support DHT. Anything else I use the Firefox downloader if it's tiny or wget if it's anything more significant.

This looks like it might be fun though.

[techieMoe]

The only files I really download that take a significant amount of time are ISOs for Linux distributions, and for that I like BitTorrent. The actual BitTorrent client in Windows, and Transmission in Linux.

[Jonathan183]

I tend to use firefox download tool, when I was on dial-up I used d4x due to downloading across several sessions. I have used d4x for a couple of iso images on broadband ...

The Firefox download took just over 4 hours because of the slow server the file came from, and then the aria2 download from the same server took only 22 minutes.

You just got me interested in download utilities again

[reed9]

I use aria2 with the Arch package manager, pacman. (Actually, I use powerpill, a pacman wrapper, specifically.) It's definitely nice when a big update comes down the pipe, like openoffice.

[oz]

I use aria2 with the Arch package manager, pacman. (Actually, I use powerpill, a pacman wrapper, specifically.) It's definitely nice when a big update comes down the pipe, like openoffice.

I'm not a powerpill user but am aware of it. In fact, it was the inclusion of aria2 in powerpill that got me interested in checking it out.

[Rubberman]

I use ktorrent for bittorrent sets, and kget for general download tasks.