Other Sites

Genre: Internet utility

Format: Shareware

Developer: Yazsoft

Minimum System Requirements: Mac OS X 10.2.6 or later, an Internet connection, and any popular Mac OS X browser

Review Computer: 400MHz G4 (Gigabit Ethernet), 768MB RAM, ATI Rage Pro 128, Mac OS X v10.2.6

Price: $20 ($15 upgrade from Speed Download 1)

Availability: Out now

Version Reviewed: 2.3.1

All browsers keep track of what you're downloading, and that might be all you need or all you think you need. Speed Download 2 intends to replace this built-in download manager with a much more sophisticated version that promises to dramatically increase your download speed. Are these added features worth the money?

Speed Download 2's main window is the My Downloads section which shows all of the current and recent downloads. When you start any download, you'll come here to see how fast you're downloading, how much has downloaded, how much the download has left until it's finished, and more. You can also resume a download if it gets interrupted (if the server supports this feature). The amount of information you have about each download is quite a bit more than what your browser will tell you, and you can show as much or as little of it as you want.

You also have control over when the downloads take place by controlling the queue. By right-clicking on each download or using the Queue menu, you can stop all downloads from automatically taking place, pause or start certain downloads, and even schedule when the queue will start or stop. Unfortunately, you can't control when each individual download will take place, just when the queue starts and stops. To get around this, you can put all of the downloads you don't want to start on hold, queue the ones you do, and then schedule when you want the queue to start. It's not as flexible as being able to schedule each download individually, but it works quite well.

You can add new downloads with this dialog box, or you can have Speed Download 2 take over the downloading responsibilities from your browser so all you have to do is click on a link as usual. This worked very well, and the exchange from the browser to Speed Download happens seamlessly. By changing the preferences, you can even have it download pictures and movies instead of having the browser load them as would usually happen.

Another neat feature is the ability to download multiple files. Let's say you want to download all 15 parts of the Mac OS 9.1 update. Instead of adding all 15 downloads separately, what you type instead is "reallylongurl/Mac_OS_9.1_Update_{2..15,2}of15.part.bin" and all of the parts are automatically added to the My Downloads section for you to download at your leisure.

Have you ever come across a page with a whole bunch of great pictures or movies or songs and you wanted to just grab them all in one fell swoop? With the Add Files from URL feature, all you have to do is input the URL, where you want the files to go, what types of files you want to download by specifying the extension (for example .jpg or .mov), and click OK. Automatically, Speed Download 2 will search all of the linked files on the page you entered and add the files to your My Downloads page. The only limitation is that it can't do this with ftp servers. If the links are to an ftp server, then Speed Download 2 can't find them. Another flaw is if there are any animated gif, each frame will be downloaded as a seperate file rather than as the one original. I've used this feature several times, and it's rapidly becoming my favorite.

While both http and ftp are handled with equal ease, it's not so easy to connect to an ftp server that requires a name and password since you need to write the url in a ftp://username:password@restOfTheURL or http://username:password@restOfTheURL format. Fortunately, you just need to enter it once since Speed Download 2 can remember the passwords for future use.

One feature I was initially very excited over is the ability to connect to other computers running Speed Download 2, both over the Internet and using Rendezvous. I thought this would allow me to exchange files with other people, but I realized all I can do is exchange URLs. If I have the item downloaded still on my computer, then I can share that, but I need to have downloaded it first. It's impossible to select a file on my computer to share. So, while it's very easy to share URLs and connect to other computers, I don't see the usefulness of doing so. If I wanted to share a URL with someone, it's just as easy to send it to them via ICQ or e-mail. If they want to download it, getting it from the source will be just as fast or faster than getting it from me. Perhaps this is useful in an Intranet where the connection would be considerably faster than connecting to the Internet, but, for the home user, I think this feature would not be used.

You can set up filters that will move files with the same extension into a folder which is automatically created in your download folder. While convenient if you're downloading many of the same types of files, these filters are too limited to be really useful. If I could move files from the same URL or files which are downloaded on a certain date into a folder of my choosing, I would use filters. As they are right now, they serve no use for me.

Speed Download 2 has close integration with MacShareware.net, and you're able to browse the recent updates and search its library without needing to go to your browser. You're also able to place your favorite applications on a Watch List, and Speed Download 2 can let you know if they are updated recently when it starts up, or every ten hours, daily, weekly or manually. You can also have a menu which lists all of the updated software, lets you update, and launch Speed Download 2.

From my browsing and searching, MacShareware.net has a good collection of software, although there are a few problems. The latest Appleworks update is listed as shareware when it doesn't cost anything, and everything is listed twice when you run a search. You also can't filter what you see to only have OS X or OS 9 software or just freeware or shareware. However, you can find what you want easily, and downloading is a button click away.

Speed Download 2 claims that it increases your download speed by "using more effective segmented and simultaneous connections." I am on a DSL connection, and find that the speed of the download is controlled more by the general congestion of the Internet and the speed of the server I'm downloading from. While Speed Download 2 works to maximize your bandwidth, it can't give you more bandwidth than you have at the moment. What I've found in my downloads is that Speed Download 2 has a more consistent download rate than I have with my browser. So, while it can't work miracles, it makes better use of the bandwidth you have.

A bigger benefit is when you're downloading large or multipart items which can cause your browser to time out, such as game demos which can be 100MB or bigger. Most browsers can't resume downloads, so, if your Internet connection fails, you'll have to start that download all over again. Often, they can be downloaded from ftp servers with ftp clients which usually are resumable, but their limitation is only working with ftp servers while Speed Download 2 can work with ftp and http servers. On the other hand, all ftp clients can upload as well as download from ftp servers, and Speed Download 2 can only download.

Speed Download 2 is a good download manager with a lot of features, but it also has a lot of room for improvement before I could call it great. The integration with MacShareware.net and your browsers are very useful, and being able to download all files from a URL will be used again and again. Overall, if you do a lot of downloading and don't need to browse or upload to ftp servers, then Speed Download 2 is a worthwhile buy.