technical assistantance neededwith downloading

[cathyfan]

Can anyone tell me of a good tool to make downloading faster. I did have one (name of whicjhI have forgotten) but a nerdy computer friend whom I could not tell why I needed it. deleted it from my computer as he said downloading speeds depended on the servers computer not mine. Is this true? Today I took me over an hour to download a 2 minute mpg. There must be a quicker way than this. Many thanks in advance of any forthcoming help.

[mart]

I don't know about downloading tools, I've heard they're not much good evcept for really dodgy connections when they'll carry on from where a connection was lost. But it sounds to me as if you have got a very slow connection. Deuce is the guy who knows where to go to have your system checked over for free.

Mart

[Deuce Bigolo]

I can't really recommend any good freeware downloaders

The difference is minimal at best in my experience being on a 56K connection

How large was the file that you downloaded?

The one thing that might make a small difference is changing your internet settings....try running the free trial utility at
Gives you ideas of how to make your entire computer perform better

The only other tweaks which might be helpful can all be found in the Miscellany Section under Software/Technical Tips-Lizards Locker

Removing spyware/adware with adaware,spybot & CW Shredder plus running a firewall like zone alarm will do a lot to stop unwanted messages slowing your speed down

As for wether your geeky friend is right or not about the speed being all down to the others ISP I can't say as I'm not that nerdy to know for sure

One thing I do...if you download without a Download Manager eventually you will lose the lot if the connection is broken

Try the forums at



Just do a search on the appropriate forum under something like

Download Managers

cheers
B....OZ

[mart]

As I understand the speed thing, it depends on both ISPs. You wont get a faster download than the speed of your own ISP, but a lot of the time you'll get a slower download speed than your own maximum if the "other end" is slower.
Hope that makes it clearer......well I think that's what I mean....lol

[Deuce Bigolo]

Sounds Logical

Downloads on P2Ps are always faster if you can manage to find a broadband user that has the file or even multiple dial-up users

Dividing the streams when downloading would seem to be an effective way of increasing speed....I bet the difference would be barely noticeable

Its not going to make an hour download come down to 30 minutes on a dial-up connection

I'm still of the opinion that the Download Managers best asset is being able to restart broken downloads without loss more than any extra speed

cheers
B...OZ

[mart]

I think you are right Deuce. Speed is measured in bits or bytes per time unit. So if you divide the original into however many streams its still the same amount of info.

Mart

[Deuce Bigolo]

That bit & bytes stuff confuses the hell out of me

I work on the principal that a 56Ks maximum download rate is 7(whatevers) per second...there being 8 bits or bytes to a bit or a byte

You see it quite often when a download starts it will start impossibly high but eventually slip back to betwteen 3 to 6 (whatevers) per second

cheers
B....OZ