Freeware

DownThemAll!: Fantastic Manager for Faster Firefox Downloads

By EAN ⋅ August 23, 2007 ⋅  Email this Post ⋅  Print this Post ⋅ Post a Comment

Developer: Federico Parodi, Stefano Verna, Nils Maier
Version: 0.9.9.10
Price: Free
Operating Systems: Linux, Mac OSX, Windows (Firefox required)
Download DownThemAll! Here.

I’ve never been the kind of person who was really into that whole download manager craze. Most of the time I find that I only need to download a single file or two from a website - and it’s often easier to just click their respective download links instead of firing up a download manager to do the job. However, there are times when I must download a large file or strip the zip files from a particular website. It’s those moments when I treasure a download manager like DownThemAll!

This is my first review of a Firefox [review] extension, and as such I’ve decided to start with one of my absolute favorites. DownThemAll! is free, extremely easy to use, integrates right into Firefox, and works like a charm. Despite the fact that I only use it every couple of weeks or so, it sticks by my side like a good friend and is always up to whatever task I throw at it. Whether I need to download the newest version of Ubuntu from an FTP server or if I’m looking at free loops for GarageBand, DownThemAll! does it’s job and it does it well.

As far as Firefox extensions go, DownThemAll! is one of the more advanced ones out there. Once you download it and restart Firefox, there are quite a few options to change. It can be a little overwhelming, but there’s a nice help section on their website for newbies. Also of note, DownThemAll! is a little larger in file size than most of the other extensions on Mozilla’s extensions page, but it’s well worth that extra space.

Although download management is it’s primary function, DownThemAll! also touts itself as a download accelerator. For small files, in the one to five megabyte range, download times are roughly the same. However, in comparison tests for larger files (500 - 600 MB and more) I’ve noticed that DownThemAll! speeds up the download time by a couple of minutes or so. Not bad for a Firefox extension that is designed primarily to be a download manager.

One of the greatest benefits of DownThemAll!, aside from the management and accelerator functions, is that it’s genuinely easy to use. While the menu can seem a bit daunting at first, the program becomes second nature once you get accustomed to it. To download a single file, just right click on it’s link and hit the dtaOneClick! menu button. To strip a site of whatever files you want, just click on the DownThemAll! button on your browser and make your selections. It really is that easy and it works with HTTP and FTP sites equally as well.

I like to close my reviews with a few things that could be improved upon. But I just can’t think of anything here. Everything just works so well already. I suppose the developers could crank up the download speeds or shrink the extension size somehow - but that’s really all I can come up with. If you’re using Firefox, this is one of those extensions that you need to download right now - even if you don’t find yourself downloading large files all that often.

Try DownThemAll! for Yourself.

- Eric Norton

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