Download manager

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## Contents

* 1 Definition
* 2 Functionalities
* 2.1 Protocol support
* 3 Software
* 4 Links

## Definition[edit | edit source]

"A download manager is a computer program designed to download files from the Internet, unlike a web browser, which is mainly intended to browse webpages on the World Wide Web (with file downloading being of secondary importance)." (Wikipedia, retrieved 12:57, 4 June 2007 (MEST)).

Typically, a download manager can handle several different protocols, either natively or by providing an interface to external programs. In addition, it may provide other functionalities like:

* resume broken or paused downloads
* mirroring (follow links in a website and download lots of files)
* get files from mirror sites or file-sharing peer-to-peer services such as BitTorrent.

## Functionalities[edit | edit source]

Various download managers provides various functionalities. Daniel K. Schneider isn't aware of a tool that "can do all".

### Protocol support[edit | edit source]

* HTTP
* HTTPS
* FTP
* MMS
* RTSP
* BitTorrent
* Metalink
* Podcast
* Flash
* Video
* eMule

## Software[edit | edit source]

Mirroring web sites

* Wget is a popular mirroring tool for websites (Http and Ftp). Command line tool.
* DownThemAll, a Mozilla Firefox extension with less functionality, but easy to use.

Multi protocol downloader

* Flashget (Wikipedia article) is a popular Windows tool
* Flashgot, a popular Mozilla/Firefox extension meant to handle single and massive ("all" and "selection") downloads with several external download managers.

## Links[edit | edit source]

* Download manager (Wikipedia)

* Comparison of download managers (Wikipedia)

* List of download managers (Wikipedia)