Okay, so downloading with the browser is A LOT slower than with a download manager (like say GoG downloader) and I guess I've gotten spoiled by the high speeds I got with the GoG downloader and Steam.

I want that on all of my downloads.

Can someone recommend a good download manager that is good for SPEED. I don't EVER have the issue of needing to stop a download and resume it. My ISP speeds are such that starting over is not an issue.

And I hope it's free. If not free, then hopefully less than $20.

Any suggestions?

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I would stay with browser and put up with it.Most of the others add all sorts of shit and so forth.

So what kind of (slower) download speeds are you getting with a browser? Have you tried different browsers?

I haven't tested it at work recently, but at least earlier I usually got great browser download speeds from GOG there (with a 100Mbit/s connection). I said "usually" because once in a while some downloads seemed to be throttled to 400kbytes/sec, probably at GOG's end. But fortunately that would usually affect only single downloads, if I started other downloads on the side, they would usually come at full speed.

At home I get the full 10Mbit/s that my cable modem offers. Then again I haven't downloaded right now during these sales, maybe they could slow down things too?

EDIT: And just to clarify, were you talking about GOG downloads only, or are all your browser downloads from other sites slow too?

The speeds you get with anything is based on your internet connection, I doubt your browser, Steam or a download manager had much to do with it.

You may have just experienced a slow connection, run a speed test (speedtest dot net) and check it against your connection.

This is not a slow connection, or a "random" occurrence. This has been this way since forever.

On Steam downloads I get between 20 and 23 MB/s. ALL THE TIME. For months.

On Gog, using the Gog downloader, I get between 13 and 17 MB/s. ALL THE TIME. Again, for months.

On Gog, or any other site where I use the browser (Firefox now, although it was basically the same with IE/Edge before) I get MAX about 3.5MB/s. HUGE DIFFERENCE. But most times I just didn't care. The only time I really download something that makes it matter is when I'm downloading a game..... and for that the Steam client and Gog Downloader do just fine.

But over the past few days I've been playing with mods from Nexus, and some of them are well over 1GB, and I was getting less than 1M/s from Nexus. I paid to get the "premium" speeds/service, and that resulted in an increase to... wait for it.... about 1.5MB/s. Almost nothing. I wish I could get my money back.

But I bet.... in fact, you know what, I'm going to try it. I'm going to use the Nexus Mod Manager (which IIRC has a built in download manager like the Steam client and I'm guessing the GoG client has) and see what speeds I get.

I'll post back here when I'm done. But first I'll download a mod with the "premium" service using the browser and take a screenshot. Come back and post that. Then I'll load their mod manager, download the same exact mod, and hopefully the mod manager will show download speeds somewhere, and I'll take a screenshot of that and post it.

I didn't think it was a controversial thing to say that browsers download much slower than download managers. I thought that was accepted as fact. I know it's always been fact for me on every computer I've ever owned.

Okay, so I just did a speed test to make sure things are working at least mostly normally. And they are. (Attachment one).

And using the "servers" on Nexus I got the same as I've always gotten with the browser, a whopping 1.3Mbs. (second attachment)

And using Steam, as you can see, once again over 20MBs, as always. MUCH MUCH FASTER than anything I get with the browser. (Third attachment)

Well, I installed the Nexus Mod Manager, and OF COURSE, my luck, the file I picked to download only has the option of downloading manually (not through the NMM).

I'll see if I can find another mod somewhere that has both options and compare those speeds.

So I found one that offers both, and started with the manual (browser) and got the exact same sloooooow 1.3MB/s I got before. 4th attachment.

And the nexus mod manager download manager did increase the speed...... all the way to about 2.0 MB/s. lol, Nexus must just be a slooooooooooooowwww site. But still, the point remains valid, as using the download manager did increase the speeds even on Nexus. (attach 5).

And to finish, I just downloaded a gog game using the browser, and got the exact same speeds I always get here and elsewhere (Nexus is just slower than other sites for some reason but the point that a download manager speeds it up was just as valid there).

As you can see from the screenshot, I get about 3 and a half MB/s at GoG using the browser. This is about what I get everywhere (except Nexus and maybe one or two others that are slower)

But when using the Gog Downloader, I always got about 15 (varied from 13 to 17 but 15 was what I got most of the time and I can't show a screenshot of that because I don't have the GoG downloader installed on this particular laptop and since it's no longer being supported by GoG I don't want to install it on here.

And, as shown with my Steam screenshot, I get over 20MB/s. And this is the way it's been always with Steam.

So, to recap, any time I use a download manager I get speeds in excess of 10MB's. Any time I use a browser (Firefox and/or IE/Edge) I get less than 4 MB/s.

So does anyone have any good, free or cheap download manager software, that they can recommend?

Does DownLoadThemAll count as a download manager?

Try Download Them All for Firefox. You can get it from Mozilla Add-On site.

That's the one I meant. :P My brain doesn't work anymore.

It's DownThemAll. >.> And it's good. Really good.

It really has nothing to do with controversy, technically if everything is working as it should it just can't happen (regardless of the fanciful claims download managers make).

Your internet connection is capable of a certain speed, which should be consistent as it's all using the same connection, be it via browser or other means.

Try opening your browser in Private and then check download speed.

EDIT: Or try a standalone browser that doesn't need installation, Opera and Chrome should have one.

It seems to me that we have three scenarios involved:

1. Your standard download speed is determined by the minimum bandwidth on your connection to your ISP, and from there all the way to the server. If you can get better speeds in other ways, you are not the problem. Some servers are conservative to allow service to many users, and limit their upload speed to each connection (say, 1MB/s), even if you are the only user connecting.

2. Download Managers usually overcome this limitation by establishing multiple connections to the same server. If they create a second connection the the above server, starting from the middle of the file, you get 2MB/s. It then joins the two files and you get your download in half the time. If you configure it to establish 5 connections, it goes even faster! But keep in mind that each connection comes with its overhead, so you will start getting diminishing results with each one.

3. Dedicated clients (like Steam) may work in another manner, that provides better performance (warning: I'm guessing here, but it seems likely). Steam may have multiple servers spread around the world. When you start a download, it may probe, say, its 20 servers, and select the faster one based on your location and the load of each server. More than that, it may connect to more than one server at the same time, and make ever better use of your bandwidth. That is why you get so much better download speed: you are comparing a single connection to a single server with multiple connections to multiple servers.

Yet I've just proven multiple times this is bullshit.

My internet connection speed is capable of downloading at over 100Mbps, which should translate to at least 15MB/s (one is measured in bits, the other bytes).

So I get over 20 MB/s at Steam and usually over 15MB/s at GoG, USING A DOWNLOADER MANAGER/CLIENT.

The speed test is run right through the browser, and it shows well over 100Mb/s. Yet any download using the browser from any site anywhere only nets at MOST 3.5MB/s. I have not found a single site that downloads any faster through the browser. I have found sites slower than 3.5. (Nexus for example).

My ISP connection that I pay for and that is proven from multiple speed tests I've done at multiple sites shows an internet connection capable of over 20MB/s. Yet I never, EVER, get those speeds when downloading through the browser (either Firefox or IE/Edge.... those are the only two I've ever tried and have absolutely NO interest in using anything related to Google/CIA, including it's search engine/browser/email or any other "service".)

As far a setting up multiple connections, yes, I believe that is why download managers are faster than the browser. But no matter how many multiple connections you established, if you're ISP download speed can only handle 2MB/s, then the fastest you'll ever get at Steam, or Gog, or anywhere else using a download manager is 2MB/s. But, if you're ISP download speed is faster, than it can take full advantage of these multiple connections and get up to whatever your connection speed is (for me it's technically, according to my bill, 125Mb/s, the second fastest tier offered by Comcast).

Not possible with a 100Mbps connection (or a 125Mb/s).

I'm not trying to be a smartarse, just trying to help but what you've stated is just not possible, you cannot get higher speeds than your maximum available bandwidth.

It's like a garden hose, you can force through all the water you like, but it will only have a maximum flow rate regardless.

Which your browser should be able to do just as well as any download manager.

If all you want is a download manager, people have given you a few suggestions.

If you want to fix this, try another browser to isolate the issue and/or ring your ISP.