Fast broadband internet connection is quite common nowadays whether it is wireless or wired. With more and more people able to download at super fast speed, sometimes a website can’t even cope up in serving a file for people to download with maximum speed. For example, let’s say you have a 1Mbps connection which gives you the capability of downloading at 128KBps max. Sometimes you end up downloading a file at only 40KBps from a website because the server limits you to that speed. The only way to overcome that is to download using multiple threads with a download manager.

With so many download managers nowadays, I’d say that Internet Download Manager or often shortly called IDM is without a doubt one of the best. I used to be a hardcore FlashGet and Orbit Downloader user but when I started trying out IDM, I pretty much got hooked to it and never use back what I used before or even want to try any other download managers. Believe it or not, IDM is even able to help you finish your download slightly quicker than other download managers (yes I’ve timed it).

Internet Download Manager is a shareware that cost $29.95 for a single license. Thanks to IDM’s company, Tonec Inc, they are very kind to sponsor 30 lifetime Internet Download Manager license to Raymond.CC readers as Christmas giveaway.

First of all, IDM is able to support A LOT of web browsers. You can see the amazing list at this page and I bet that you have not even heard of some of the names.

Secondly, you do not need any other Youtube downloading software because IDM supports downloading FLV video files from YouTube, MySpaceTV, Google Video and many more.

Another feature which is not normally found in a download manager software is the IDM Site grabber. IDM downloads all required files that are specified with filters from web sites, for example all pictures from a web site, or subsets of web sites, or complete web sites for offline browsing. It’s possible to schedule multiple grabber projects to run them once at a specified time, stop them at a specified time, or run periodically to synchronize changes.

Finally, a feature that cannot be beaten by other download manager is their download speed acceleration using their intelligent dynamic file segmentation technology. Unlike other download managers and accelerators, Internet Download Manager segments downloaded files dynamically during download process and “reuses” available connections without additional connect and login stages to achieve best acceleration performance. I have a 1.5Mbps connection and most of the time I can only download at a maximum speed of 160KBps. IDM is able to accelerate the download speed up to 241KBps at some point during its peak.

As a test, I tried downloading a 100MB file from a website hosted in Malaysia so that I can achieve a full download speed without using a download manager. I was shocked to find that Internet Explorer can even finish downloading faster without a download manager if compared with FlashGet. The difference might not be a lot for a 100MB file, but think again how many MBs have you already downloaded and how much time could you have saved?

Internet Download Manager = 10 minutes 11 seconds

Download Accelerator Plus = 10 minutes 20 seconds

FlashGet = 11 minutes 12 seconds

Internet Explorer = 10 minutes 24 seconds

Christmas Giveaway
If you’d like a chance to win the lifetime license of Internet Download Manager, leave a comment at the end of this article and the winners will be announced tomorrow. Make sure you’re a subscriber too or else your entry will be forfeited.

By default Internet Download Manager takes over all downloading from your web browser by automatically capturing the download link when it tries to download a file. If for some reason IDM is unable to properly download from a site, you can press and hold the Alt key on your keyboard while clicking on the download link to prevent downloading with IDM.

If you look at IDM’s screenshot, you will find that the graphical user interface (GUI) doesn’t come with any modern flashy ribbon style interface with transparency glass effect. All it takes to become one of the most popular download manager today is their technology and feature. Internet Download Manager is fully compatible with Windows 7 since version 5.18 build 5 which was released on November 11, 2009.

[ Visit Internet Download Manager Official Website ]

IDM Christmas Giveaway Winner
Here are the 30 lucky winners for lifetime Internet Download Manager license! I will be sending your email address to IDM people and they will get in touch with you. Please allow at least a week for them to process because of the Christmas holidays. Congratulations!

[tags]IDM, download, manager, accelerator, transfer[/tags]