# Download Accelerator Plus **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 26, 2002, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/download-accelerator-plus/121008 "2002-07-26T21:15:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2002, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/download-accelerator-plus/121008/1 "2002-07-26T21:15:21Z")
I’m trying the free version of Download Accelerator Plus that I got at > **[Download Accelerator Plus (DAP) - Free Download Manager & Video Downloader](http://www.speedbit.com/)** > > DAP is a download manager that allows you to download files up to 400% faster - multiple simultaneous downloads, resume broken downloads and much more. Accept for maybe the resume feature should a download get interupted, I don’t notice any acceleration in download time at all. Does anybody know if this product is supposed to make a big difference, or if it simply isn’t that good? If it makes any difference, I connect to the internet with a dial up service. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2002, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/download-accelerator-plus/121008/2 "2002-07-26T21:17:22Z")
Oops, Accept should be Except…\ ---
**Author:** ![Alereon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@Alereon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alereon)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2002, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/download-accelerator-plus/121008/3 "2002-07-26T21:22:01Z")
This only works if your net speed bottleneck is due more to the speed of the server. It allows you to download a file in several segments simultaneously, speeding up your download if one connection can’t max out your bandwidth. 1 connection at 10KB/sec isn’t as fast as 2 connections at 7KB/sec. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2002, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/download-accelerator-plus/121008/4 "2002-07-26T22:03:49Z")
So, in what situations is it most helpful? ---
**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2002, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/download-accelerator-plus/121008/5 "2002-07-26T22:20:08Z")
- - - I tried it and didn’t really see any speed increase at all on a 56K dial-up. Some servers didn’t support multiple connections (by the same user) or download resumes. … - I tried it because I was using a [USR] winmodem that lost connections during big downloads a lot. Eventually I bought a USR serial/hardware modem that works perfect and seems to download a bit faster besides. I just figured that Download Accellerator was spyware/adware. - DougC ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2002, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/download-accelerator-plus/121008/6 "2002-07-26T23:12:11Z")
I have DSL, so speed isn’t too much of a problem. I don’t think that Download Accelerator gives me any noticeable increase in speed, and nor does the other product i use called called [Meta Products Mass Downloader](http://www.metaproducts.com/mp/mpProducts_Detail.asp?id=3). What i find these programs useful for isl for downloading multiple files in sequence without having to be at the computer. I’m a grad student who often needs to download articles from databases etc., and these programs allow me to set up 20 or 50 or whatever number of articles in a row and just leave the computer to download them. It saves constantly right-clicking on “Save target as”. ---
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2002, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/download-accelerator-plus/121008/7 "2002-07-26T23:30:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Joel \* > \*\*So, in what situations is it most helpful? \*\* It is most useful when downloading large files. The large file can be downloaded in parts, as **FDISK** mentions. This offers you a speed increase as compared to downloading the same large file as one single part. Other than two connections working simultaneously, it also offers you the option of downloading the same file from different servers, hence if one server slows down you are still getting part of the file from another faster server. The speed increase on a dial-up is not too profound, so don’t get all upset if it’s not as much faster as you hoped it would be. But over time, and especially over large downloads, it definitely offers a speed increase. The most useful option is as **- - - DougC - - -** mentions. which is that on a dial-up modem, you can resume your downloads whenever you get disconnected. saving you the frustration of starting from the beginning of the file every time you get disconnected. personally, i prefer Getright ( [http://www.getright.com](http://www.getright.com) ) over Download Accelerator Plus. Since you use a dial-up connection, i highly recommend using one of these products. You will realize the usefulness the instant your connection disconnects you while you’re downloading a 10mb file that has reached 8mb. here’s a recent cnet article that compares the features of 4 different download managers: [http://home.cnet.com/software/0-352105-8-20139056-1.html?tag=st.re.9870989.fs.352105-8-20139056-1](http://home.cnet.com/software/0-352105-8-20139056-1.html?tag=st.re.9870989.fs.352105-8-20139056-1) ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2002, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/download-accelerator-plus/121008/8 "2002-07-27T04:13:02Z")
Yeah, I’ve heard about getright. I’ll check it out. I uninstalled DAP because the download speed was exactly the same as without it, but I do like products that let you resume a download when it’s interrupted.