|
Christmas
time - a time where many PC users will use their free time
to download and test a lot of software. Time for us to
review what download managers are out there and which ones
are free of spyware and adware. Inspiration for this article
was a download manager review in issue 1/2004 (page
144) of my favorite computer magazine
c't;
this review doesn't repeat all the feature and speed tests,
but concentrates on looking for easy-to-use and spy- and
adware-free software.
The following list is in alphabetical order by the way...
Download Accelerator Plus
(7, dubious privacy policy)
A few versions back, Download Accelerator Plus came even
without a privacy policy, and the one found in a hidden
place online contained some
bad terms. Today, during the installation a license
agreement will be shown, and this license agreement contains
a privacy policy. It's still quite misleading and
contradicting though, speaking about co-registrations with
other services on the one hand, but only anonymous
publishing on the other hand. How a registration with other
services can be done anonymously is beyond my
understanding...
In addition, just starting it opens half a dozen connections
to ad servers, including
Cydoor. Couldn't deal with the downloads on the site I
used for this tests, as it always tried to download the
download page, blocking the load of it inside the browser.
On other pages, it worked ok. Still, even if you neglect the
ads and possible spying, there are other download managers
that are easier to use.
Download Express
(1.4 build 233 SR 1, spyware-clean, free for non-commercial
use)
Download Express is freeware for personal use, and quite
fast in downloading as it splits every download and
downloads it with 10 connections (like nearly all download
managers in this list do). Its IE integration is working
nicely, its download dialog is informative (though its quite
flickering - a small thing the developers should fix). The
German localization I tested is not complete, but at least
there are a lot of localizations.
FlashGet
(1.40, spyware-infected or paid mode)
FlashGet can be installed in two modes - one ad-sponsored,
one ad-free shareware mode that needs registering. I tried
the ad-sponsored version, and indeed it did install
Cydoor.
The interface by the way reminds me strong of one of the
other tools I tested (screenshots will be added later to
this article). With only 5 simultanous download connections,
it was only half as fast as Download Express, but it can be
set to use up to ten.
My opinion about this one is that you can get better
download managers for free.
FreshDownload
(6.50, spyware-clean, free for personal use)
The IE integration of FreshDownload had problems during my
tests and tried to download HTML pages as files, but once
downloaded identified them as such and re-opened them in the
browser. It doesn't have a lot of features, but it has the
necessary ones and comes along with an easy to use
interface. Too bad it doesn't uninstall completely.
Update: After a user reported that newer versions of
this software would phone home every few minutes, I wanted
to give it another try. I'm afraid I will have to report
that it now required your name and email address to get a
download link. I never received that email, but bunches of
"unpopular" (misleading) advertisement popups from their
website.
GetIt
(1.04, spyware-clean, freeware)
Not very easy to use. In fact, the browser integration and
the save dialogs need a lot of work. Until that work is
done, I wouldn't recommend using it.
GetRight
(5.02, spyware-clean, free trial)
GetRight has been one the first download managers around; in
the early days spyware infected, but clean today. GetRight
is not free, and doesn't have too many features compared to
some other download managers in this test, but it's reliable
and its IE integration works better than that of many
others. If you already use it and don't miss any features,
there are not many reasons to switch.
Go!Zilla
(1.44.39, spyware-infected, 30-day trial)
Only a trial, and then also infected with
eZula and
Radiate. Does also installs a Smart Explorer, a
browser that did phone home when starting it and will keep
in memory. The browser integration wasn't working either,
and crashing IE instead. With so many good and clean
alternatives, keep your fingers from this one.
Internet Download Manager
(3.1.8, spyware-clean, 60-day trial)
IDMs advantage is an easy to use user interface and
integration into many browsers.
LeechGet 2003
(1.0 RC3 build 1500, spyware-clean, free for personal use)
LeechGet has the biggest graphical overload, but it's nicely
designed and very informative. LeechGet is free for personal
use, but you have to pay for commercial use and/or for for
removing some limits. It doesn't install any adware or
spyware, and has more features than most managers I tested.
It has also been recommended by c't as the best freeware
solution. It works with IE as well as Opera, Netscape or
Mozilla (even Firebird).
Lightning Download
(1.2.1, spyware-free, free 30-day trial)
From the same makers as GetRight (HeadLight Software, Inc.)
comes Lightning Download. My first suspicion was that they
created it because some people may mistrust GetRight because
of its infected past, but its clean as well, and working
like it should, and it's easy to use (I specially like that
it shows URLs that are in clipboard inside the tray icon
menu to quickly start downloading them).
NetAnts
(1.25, spyware-infected)
Not only that the NetAnts interface looks more complicated
to use than most other tested download managers, it is
infected with
Cydoor.
Net Transport
(spyware-clean, free for non-commercial)
Net Transport also behaved quite well, is spyware free,
available at no cost and in many languages.
ReGet
(Deluxe 3.3, spyware-clean, 30-day trial)
Actually not a bad one, having different modes for newbies
up to pros, a usable interface, and a good browser
integration. 16 streams at the same time is the highest
default I found so far, but as I would recommend 10 to 20
with DSL for larger downloads anyway, that's not bad at all.
Star Downloader
(1.42, spyware-clean, freeware).
The link on their website downloaded an older version
(1.42), and right upon the first start Star Downloader told
me there was a newer one available (1.50). Sniffing the
network traffic though it became clear that all that this
update lookup is a clean anonymous thing. Star Downloader is
free and spyware-clean. It supports the major browsers, and
after changing some options, it worked quite well.
WGET
(1.6.x to 1.8.x, spyware-clean, GNU freeware)
WGET is my all-time favorite. It offers more options than
any of the other tools I tested (except splitting the
download - at least I haven't found that option yet ;) ),
but the downside is that it is a command line utitility. You
should have some command line knowledge to use it, or take a
look at some of the GUIs (graphical user interfaces, I'll
try to add some links to those later) for WGET that are out
there. While the other tested download managers are all for
Windows, WGET is available for Linux, MacOS and some other
Operating Systems.
Still to be
tested: NetLeech, Sun Download Manager,
Download Mage
Conclusion:
And the winner is ... LeechGet, followed by Download
Express. Both are easy to very easy to use, have a nice
looking (but not too crowded) user interface, are spyware-clean
and free for personal use.
Patrick
Kolla on December 26th to 29th, 2003
Additions (LD,IDM) on Dec 31st.
Article Source:.
|
