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Free Download Manager site redirected Linux users to malware for years
(www.bleepingcomputer.com)
this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2023
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What is a free download manager and why would someone need one?
Back in the day when most stuff was on FTP and HTTP and your connection was crap and could drop at any time, you'd use a download manager to smooth things along. It could resume downloads when connection dropped, it could keep a download going for days on end and resume as needed, and it could abusing the bandwitdh limitations of the source site by using multiple parallel connections that pulled on different file chunks. In some ways it was very similar to how we use BT today.
It was also useful to keep a history of stuff you'd downloaded in case you needed it again, manage the associated files etc.
Also for files which had multiple different mirror sites you could download chunks from multiple mirrors concurrently which would allow you to max out your bandwidth even if individual mirrors were limiting download speeds.
It's a download client that can pause/Resume downloads, as well as use multiple connections to download files
Like a BitTorrent?
I guess I just don't download that much stuff.
Sucks having your connection drop and having to redlownload the entire thing again. Managers are a fix.
BitTorrent works in chunks basically, or can download it nonlinearly. Downloading from a site in a basic way gets the file from start to finish, the download manager can let you stop it and pick up where you left off, as long as the server you're getting the file from is configured to allow it.
https://github.com/agalwood/Motrix
(Note: I don't use that or any other download manager and haven't since Windows 95, it's linked as example only)
Back in the 2000s, browsers were really bad at downloading big things over slow connections since they couldn't resume, a brief disconnect could destroy hours of progress. But I don't think you need this anymore.