BitComet is a BitTorrent/HTTP/FTP download management software, which is powerful, fast, very easy-to-use, and completely FREE. The advanced features it contains can accelerate your downloading speed up to 5 - 10 times faster, or even more.

Right from the start we have to say BitComet is a top p2p client for downloading torrents, and offers an embedded browser to make finding torrents easier.

In terms of features BitComet is quite generous: UPNP auto-configuration with your router, custom categories to organize your files, simultaneous downloads, DHT networks (trackerless), a download queue, selected downloads in the Torrent package, fast-resume, disk caching, speed limits, auto port mapping, proxies, and IP filtering. The program packs in lots of features though you can’t improve its functionality through plug-ins. BitComet presents you with a default list of torrent index sites, (however, sometimes there are script errors) which you can change by removing sites you don’t want or adding sites that are missing.

The program also allows you to set a limit on your upload speed, so it won’t choke your connection and prevent other web use while running.

For some of you BitComet might look a bit dense at first, coming with a rather non-simplistic design as compared with some of its competitors. This is due to the amount of info it offers but it shouldn’t take you much to easily find your way with it.

Probably the coolest feature of the latest version of BitComet is the possibility to download any video from any video site such as YouTube, Google Video, Dailymotion, Metacafe, etc.

Strong Points:

highly versatile

very powerful

able to download any video/mp3/flash files from ANY website

comes in 64-bit version too

supports VIP account systems

Weak Points:

a bit complicated

Conclusion: deserves a place in your p2p clients’ toolbox.

Download The Latest BitComet Version

Screenshots of BitComet:

Internet Download Manager is a program that integrates with your internet browser and replaces the default download manager in order to provide a better downloading experience and a 500% increase in download speed. Aside from the massive speed boost, Internet Download Manager -or IDM for short- offers a few extra features on the side, like the download scheduler, the possibility to resume broken downloads and a few more goodies that might just convince you to never go back to “stock”.

Internet Download Manager - Main

Installation & Requirements

The installation process for Internet Download Manager is fast, simple and clean of any toolbars, additional programs or nagging windows. The bad news is that IDM is not a freeware program so it actually comes in the form of a 30 days trial, after which a paid license is needed in order to be able to use IDM further. A great thing about buying a license is that the full version actually benefits from even bigger boosts in download speeds.

As for system requirements, Internet Download Manager is available exclusively for the Windows platform and it supports the following versions: 98/2000/XP/Vista/Win 7.

Internet Download Manager supports proxy servers, ftp and http protocols, firewalls, redirects, cookies, authorization, MP3 audio and MPEG video content processing. IDM integrates seamlessly into Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape, MSN Explorer, AOL, Opera, Mozilla, Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Firebird, Avant Browser, MyIE2, and all other popular browsers to automatically handle your downloads. You can also drag and drop files, or use Internet Download Manager from command line. Internet Download Manager can dial your modem at the set time, download the files you want, then hang up or even shut down your computer when it's done.

Interface
The Internet Download Manager Interface doesn’t offer anything special in terms of looks. You would expect to see a nicer design on a tool that integrates with your latest version of Chrome or with Firefox 5 but all you get is a plain interface that resembles the Windows 98 theme. The big icons on the top are not that bad and they actually feature a bit of animation whenever you hover the mouse cursor over them, but other than that there’s nothing much to admire.
On the other hand, looks are not everything and IDM definitely proves that right. Overlooking the simple design you will most likely be surprised of what the software has to offer, not only in terms of improved download speed, but features such as the highly customizable download scheduler or the Grabber which is a tool that enables the user to easily download videos from video-sharing sites such as YouTube. To keep your archive of downloaded files organized, IDM will automatically detect what type of file you are downloading and place it in the appropriate download folder.
There is one weird thing worth mentioning regarding the buttons on top, and it’s this one icon in particular named “Tell a Friend”. This button is a shortcut that once pressed it will create a Microsoft Outlook message that’s meant to tell your contacts how “cool” IDM is. Perhaps complaining about this feature seems like nitpicking, but it would’ve been better for this option to be more out of sight and not right next to the neat tools such as the grabber or scheduler which are actually useful.
Pros
- Very powerful and low on resources
- Lots of useful features such as the Scheduler, Download organizer or the Grabber
- Clean installation process with no toolbars or adware
- Easy to use interface
- It easily integrates with pretty much any browser available
Cons
- The user interface is a bit disappointing in terms of design
- Shareware, available only for 30 days of trial
- Available only for Windows OS
- There are free alternatives
Alternatives
Internet Download Manager is a very powerful tool that will definitely leave a good impression after the very first few uses. However, for those who prefer another platform besides Windows, or for those who would prefer a freeware product, there are a few options out there besides IDM.
One of these alternatives is Free Download Manager, a tool similar to IDM that boasts with 600% increase in download speed and useful tools such as the scheduler, resume of broken downloads and pretty much everything else that can be found on IDM. Free Download Manager is available only for Windows as a freeware product.
Another alternative to IDM could be DownThemAll, a free Mozilla Firefox extension that offers new downloading capabilities and features to Firefox users. Unlike IDM, DownThemAll is unfortunately designed to work only with Mozilla Firefox, but on the brighter side it offers support for Windows, Mac and Linux altogether. And of course, there’s DAP (Download Accelerator Plus) – one of the best managers and accelerators out there – or FlashGet, a complete lightweight download accelerator and download manager.
Conclusion
Internet Download Manager is a very powerful download manager offering an extensive array of features that will definitely improve your downloading experience. It has its small flaws and there are some minor options missing which can be found on other freeware alternatives, but overall IDM can be described as a good product and for those who would prefer using IDM after the 30 day trial period the good news is that the program is not greedy at all and buying a license is not really expensive.