 | |  | Download FlashGet | | | | Soft32.com  Windows Internet Download Managers | FlashGet 1.9.6 Download and manage files(such as movies mp3)
| | | | | Editor's Review - FlashGet | | |
Features
Stability
Usability
Interface
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| | FlashGet is a powerful download manager that will solve two of the most annoying problems concerning Internet downloads: the speed and the management (finding mirrors, multithread downloading, pause/resume, etc.).
This is one of my favorite download manager and I like it even more since version 1.72. Since that version it has become free with no add supported like it was before.
It's engine has the support for up to 10 downloading threads. If the download link is active all the time, you will be always able to resume it. Another thing that I like is the support for infinite retrying if the download source or the ISP has some issues with the connectivity.
The program can be set up very easily. In the 'Default download properties' you can set up the number of maximum download threads, the default download location, the download category and one of the download modes: manual, immediately or scheduled.
The scheduler is very easy to set up and your scheduled downloads will be active only in the schedule time interval. This is very useful if you need your Internet bandwidth for other activities in certain time intervals.
The number of active downloads can be modified from the default 3, up to 8 active downloads. This is enough for most of the download activities since 8 active downloads with 10 download threads means 80 download threads globally. I say this is enough, because since Windows XP with Service Pack 2, the number of outgoing TCP connections is limited by the TCP/IP stack to maximum 10, from the number of 65535 which was the number of outgoing connections allowed in the previous versions of Windows.
There are a lot of protocols that this manager can use: HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, MMS, MMST, RTSP. You can set options for everyone very easily in the 'Options' area.
The proxy server support for this download manager is very good. It has support for HTTP, SOCKS 4 and SOCKS 5 proxies. You can set up a profile for every type of proxy server and, when downloading, you may choose which profile should be used or if the download should be done with direct connection to the hosting server.
The shell integration is very good with Internet Explorer. It is adding in Internet Explorer's contextual menu the options: 'Download using FlashGet' and 'Download all with FlashGet'. When using the 'download all' option, FlashGet is grabbing all the downloadable items from that web page and it's giving you the opportunity to choose which one should be downloaded. It can be integrated with Firefox too by using the FlashGot extension.
Site Explorer is a tool that you won't find in every download manager. You can use this tool in order to connect to a site and get all it's downloadable items. You may download very easily lots of files without using the sites web interface if you know where the usual download directory is and the manager has access rights to it. You may set up the authentication options in the download window, the username and the password, required if the host has HTTP or FTP authentication.
The program has a service named URL Share Service. Some people complained that this software is spyware. Well, it isn't. This is a simple helpful service that you can easily disable from the 'Preferences' panel. I forget to mention it because of two reasons: I am not using it in my daily download activities and I forget about it when I wrote this review. I am just a human, like you, this can happen. For more details check below my reply about this service.
Pluses: it is free for all users, it is a powerful download tool, it has very good shell integration with the supported browsers, it has the support for a lot of network protocols, it has a very good proxy servers support, it has a great download management, it has built in the Site Explorer tool which can be very useful, it has the support for lots of operating systems, it has never corrupted any of my downloads and the application is very stable.
Drawbacks / flaws: it is a little slow when adding large files to the download queue when it is allocating hard drive space (300 MB or above) or when it is removing such large files, it doesn't support md5 hash file check.
In conclusion: a great download tool that can become your default download manager from now on. It can do amazing things for a free application.
version reviewed: 1.73
FlashGet Publisher's Description FlashGet is specifically designed to address two of the biggest problems when downloading files: Speed and management of downloaded files. If you've ever waited forever for your files to download from a slow connection, or been cut off mid-way through a download - or just can't keep track of your ever-growing downloads - FlashGet is for you. FlashGet supports HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, BT, MMS, MMST, RTSP, ed2k protocol. What's new Minor update | | | |
Download FlashGet | Screenshots
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Latest user reviews
| | Reviewer: frednerk33
Date: 09/29/2006
Version: 1.73
see all my reviews (1)
Overall rating: 3.3
Features: 4
Stability: 1
Ease of use: 4
Interface: 4
| flashget
Check your firewall log - Not at first, but after downloading a few files it suddenly DOES start talking to a site in China - 219.238.234.148 ... after every download, and having no reasonable reason to do so. Soft32, you've slipped up by classifying this one as safe and as a pick ? Anyone know what the site with that IP is ?
read 3 replies | » reply to this review
was this review helpful?   - report abuse | | Reviewer: Saltwater
Date: 11/02/2006
Version: 1.73
see all my reviews (1)
Overall rating: 4.5
Features: 5
Stability: 5
Ease of use: 4
Interface: 4
| This software is NOT spyware
I forgot to add one thing to the reply I gave to the guy who was thinking FlashGet IS spyware. I forget to tell him about the FlashGet service named URL Share. Usually I am disabling it and I don't think it worths making such a great fuss for a service that can be disabled or simply blocked from the firewall if you don't like to search for the disable button.
Quote:
"
FlashGet File Mirrors is an anonymous URL sharing service for users of FlashGet. If another FlashGet user downloaded the same file before you, but found a different mirror for the file and shared that information, this lets you find the mirror they used. And if you share the information, any people downloading the file after you can then find the mirror you found too. And if you're the 100th or 1000th person downloading the file, you may get many mirrors.
Many sites list a number of locations where you can download a file (sometimes buried a few pages deep). Different users will click or find different ones. As different users share the one URL they clicked on, the FlashGet File Mirrors database will add them as possible mirrors for a file with a specific name and size. With enough users sharing, this will let everyone find more mirrors for downloading files!
Sharing the URL when using this service is optional. The more people who do share, the better the database will be and the more mirrors everyone can find. Even when this sharing is enabled, this service is not intended for use with all files:
FlashGet will only use this service for EXE or Compressed file types--EXE, ZIP, RAR, etc. No images, web pages, etc.
FlashGet will only use this service for downloads that do not use a username/password.
FlashGet will only use this for files at least 100K in size.
If have "personal" or "private" or "members" or "secret" anywhere in the URL. So http://your.server.com/private / file . exewould not be included.
PRIVACY: When searching with this service, FlashGet will send at least the file Name and Size. You may optionally also include the URL so it can be added to the FlashGet File Mirrors database and help others searching for the same file. With any Internet connection, your IP address is available to the server you connect to; but no other personally identifying information is sent. If you do not want to use this service, make sure the item is unchecked.
".
I guess this said it all. The pick and the "clean" certification stays.
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