I am looking for a free download accelerator/manager for Mac.

February 4, 2008 6:24 PM

I am looking for a free download accelerator/manager for Mac.

I recently made the switch from Windows to Mac and need a download accelerator/manager. My internet connection stops momentarily every once and a while and is killing my downloads.

I love DAP, but I am not ready to spend the $30 for the Mac version and I was wondering if there are any decent, free download managers for Mac.

Already checked out this listing of download managers for Mac via this AskMeFi thread, but did not find what I was looking for.

Any ideas?

posted by anthropoid to computers & internet (12 answers total)

download wizard
posted by ncc1701d at 6:47 PM on February 4, 2008

MacUpdate is a pretty good resource for finding freeware (or shareware, or commerical demos), complete with user reviews, comments, complaints, and all with a rating system. It's helped me out in a number of similar situations (I want a thing, but not that thing).
posted by shakespeherian at 6:55 PM on February 4, 2008

Awesome, checking it out now.
posted by anthropoid at 6:56 PM on February 4, 2008

Meant to add: Even if it doesn't help in this particular instance, it's a good site to bookmark.
posted by shakespeherian at 6:58 PM on February 4, 2008

If you're using Firefox, you might want to grab the DownThemAll extension.
posted by stefanie at 7:09 PM on February 4, 2008

2nd DownThemAll
posted by daboo at 7:35 PM on February 4, 2008

If you decided that you want something more powerful than the free plugins, etc., I'm a pretty big fan of Speed Download 4.
posted by buriedpaul at 8:13 PM on February 4, 2008

Downloaded a file successfully with Download Wizard, but DownThemAll stopped the download when the internet blipped, and then started the download from the beginning instead of resuming. Weird.

Any other suggestions?
posted by anthropoid at 8:17 PM on February 4, 2008

DownloadThemAll is buggy on a mac. Personally I use Speeddownload, which is about $30 and it works like a charm.
posted by mathowie at 8:43 PM on February 4, 2008

Some sites simply don't support resuming an interrupted download, regardless of which tool you're using. Brain-dead, but there it is. If there is one particular site that's always making you start the whole thing over, try looking for an alternative source for whatever it is you're trying to download.
posted by flabdablet at 11:53 PM on February 4, 2008

Thanks flabdablet, but that's not the issue. Downloads resumed with no problem on my Thinkpad, and also are fine if I am on a connection at another location. It's not the site that's the issue it's the internet connection.
posted by anthropoid at 5:16 AM on February 5, 2008

@ mathowie and buriedpaul: if I do end up wanting something more powerful (and costly), any particular reason to go with Speed Download instead of DAP, which I've been using for years?
posted by anthropoid at 5:18 AM on February 5, 2008