Do I Need Download Accelerator?

Boy, I feel really dumb asking this question, but here goes. I have Download Accelerator Plus and it seems to have gotten messed up, so I thought I would just remove it and download it again. Then, I got to thinking: Do I really need DAP? Further, what did I use before I got DAP? Any ideas? Thanks.

 

In many circles, DAP is considered to be spyware. There are many more downloaders available that aren't, however the "accelerator" part is up for debate on all of them

 

Agreed. Back a ways I installed the (now) infamous accelerator from Macafee
and found that it did indeed accelerate downloads -- of advertisments from anyone who would fork over the dough to Mcafee. I've tried others but have seen no really WOW type results from them.
Bill

 

I like the downloaders for the resume.
If I have to stop a download for some reason I can restart it from where I left off and not have to start over.
I used to use DAP but when I found it had spy ware I went to Download Express found here. http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=449

 

I've used Fresh Download for a while now. No problems and seems to be very efficient.http://www.majorgeeks.com/download632.html

 

Check out previous posts (scroll down to the bottom of this post) and this one as well

http://www.majorgeeks.com/vb/showthread.php?t=29622

Download Accelerator Plus loaded 130 instances or spyware/adware when I loaded it. Enough said.

A recent PC magazine ( to which I subscribe and trust) reviewed downloaders and the winner was Leechget available from MG. http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=1821

I installed this 3 days ago and it improves my dialup speed by around 30% from 3's to 4's (kb/sec) even with poor dialup connection.

BTW Fresh Download came in second in the review Baz

 

Thanks to all who responded. I decided to give freshdownload a shot.

 

Let us know how it works for you Frybo.

 

The first thing I noticed about freshdownload is that the instructions are a bit difficult for me (I'm not even a Minor Geek) to follow. Of course, I haven't downloaded anything with it yet, so all may be quite clear once I do. The second thing I noticed is that I can't find "Resume." Anyone know if it has Resume?

 

MA, The review was between Download Accelerator, Alligator, Fresh Download, Download Express, IOpus, NetSpider, Net Transport, Star Downloader and Leechget.

Leechget happened to be faster, on my laptop, than no downloader at all. I did not test Fresh Download for comparison. Sorry I did not mean to give that impression. I have tried various others in the past and never really noticed any improvement.

Fresh Download may have come out the same on my PC. May I suggest that both be on the MG site and let users test them for themselves. Dialups do not benefit much from downloaders. The biggest benefits are gained by the fastest connections and the bigger size of the downloads.

Review was carried out by Gareth Powell, Australia's Internet Directory monthly PC Magazine, pp11-13, May edition. Baz

 

Dial ups do benefit from downloaders.
We take so long to download and sometimes get disconnected or have to leave then the resume option comes in really handy

 

It automatically resumes unless you cancel. If you look in options/connections you can change your settings there, eg simultaneous connections, maximum downloads, re-trys etc

 

Vonnie, I agree with you, downloaders on dialups are great for broken downloads but offer little increase in speed. Certainly not the " 300%" quoted in some advertising. As per my earlier post I got an increase in speed over my currently crappy connection. Since AOL was taken over by Primus here in OZ and primus introduced a national call number instead of individual location phone numbers my connect speed and ability to connect is crap, more often than not. Baz

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{QUOTE=Vonnie]Dial ups do benefit from downloaders.
We take so long to download and sometimes get disconnected or have to leave then the resume option comes in really handy [/QUOTE]