Most of you download something everyday from different sources over the web. The files vary in size and format starting from few kilobytes to even few Gigabytes. The conventional method of download using your browser often result in slow speeds, unfinished downloads, no resume support etc. and hence many of you turn to tools called Download Managers.

Today we will talk about one of the best available Download manager i.e. “Internet Download Manager“. It is a shareware which means you need to buy it to keep using it, but if you download often and can afford to pay for the license, every penny is worth what you payed.

Developers Description

Internet Download Manager (IDM) is a tool to increase download speeds by up to 5 times, resume and schedule downloads. Comprehensive error recovery and resume capability will restart broken or interrupted downloads due to lost connections, network problems, computer shutdowns, or unexpected power outages.

Simple graphic user interface makes IDM user friendly and easy to use.Internet Download Manager has a smart download logic accelerator that features intelligent dynamic file segmentation and safe multipart downloading technology to accelerate your downloads.

REVIEW

Browser Integration

We will start with talking about IDM’s browser integration feature which supports all major or minor web browsers like Apple safari, Google chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet explorer,Netscape and Opera. Apart from these browsers, if you are using something different which is not listed, you can add the browser by clicking ” Add Browser” button in options panel. This feature monitors URLs, download links, videos etc which can be downloaded and automatically moves the downloads to IDM.

One feature I wish, it adds in next version that if we cancel the download using IDM (after the browser integration moves it to IDM0, the download must go through the normal conventional way of downloading it through browser. This feature is good for sites which do not support download managers and will block your download if the download manager is being detected.

If you wish you can add “Exclusions” so that IDM does not downloading files automatically from  those sites. Its a great feature if you use it wisely.

Queue Manager and Scheduler

A Download queue manager and scheduler is inbuilt which makes it easier for you to add loads of download URLs into a queue and it will download on its own depending on the file sizes, when you schedule it and maximum number of downloads that you allow at any particular instant. All these can be configured very easily in the scheduler.

Site Authentication

If some downloads need Authorisation like user name and passwords to download, you can add the login info inside site logins and save it. The download links from these sites will never ask you to enter your credentials anymore and downloads will happen automatically. It supports formats like http, https, ftp, mms etc.

Number of Connection and Speed

You can also decide the number of maximum download connections based on your connection speed. Recommended value is max. 8 connections but you can go for more if you got more speed. You can also set download limits so that all your bandwidth is not consumed by IDM itself and you can browse freely while the downloads are in progress.

Pause and Resume support

As most you may already know that download managers give you a option to pause downloads and start it later. IDM too has this feature. I have never encountered a corrupted download while using IDM to download big files which may happen with some download managers while downloading big files and pausing downloads in between.

Download Videos from Web

Another great feature is you can download videos from the web without any hassle. A small IDM button will be visible near almost every video that you can open in browser. Just click on ” Download this video” to start downloading the video file automatically.

Site Grabber

I bet most of you who used IDM anytime have not a clue that it has a inbuilt “Site Grabber”, which lets you download All pictures , Audio files, video files from websites or even full website. It reminds me of a free application HTTrack which can be used to copy full website directly on your hard disk and you can browse offline.

Import Links

You can also import a full batch download using a notepad file and you need not to add all the links manually for download. It is a great feature which saves loads of time if you got hundred of links to download. Just copy paste all links in a notepad file and use the import feature in IDM to add those download URLs to queue for download.

Conclusion

Overall, this is the best download manager I have ever used. Most of you must have tried it, but who have not please download a trial from IDM website and give it a try.

GIVEAWAY

Thanks to Tonec, we got 20 license of Internet Download Manager, IDM to giveaway to lucky subscribers of Avinashtech. The rules of this giveaway are same as previous ones.

For being eligible to participate in contest/draw, you need to do the following:

  1. Subscribe to Avinashtech by entering your email address in the subscribe box on right sidebar of the blog or by clicking this link. Do remember to verify your email address when you get the verification email from Feedburner.
  2. Share it on Facebook or twitter if you have a account there.
  3. Leave a comment below telling why you would like to have Internet Download Manager License.

PS- Use a email address to comment instead of Twitter or Facebook login.