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When I use IDM to download anything on my Windows I get a speed of around 4-5 Mbps but for the same connection speed in Ubuntu (12.04) is around 600kbps. I tried wget, Kget Uget and so many other download managers but no increase in speed.Also none of these was as user friendly or efficient as IDM like they don't give an option of downloading things on their own. Each time I have to open the the application and manually type in the url. What are the options available for me?

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  • Instead of looking for alternate downloaders, I'd first fix the low download speeds, do you get the same speed in Ubuntu and on Windows on speed testing sites such as speedtest.net? Sep 20, 2012 at 2:34
  • Its a routine thing for me to switch to windows just to download a software and then come back to Ubuntu to use it. Yesterday night I was trying to install a 5.8 gb software from xlinx.com and in the end I had to revert to windows beacause it was simply too slow in ubuntu. I want to avoid such situations. Sep 20, 2012 at 2:37
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    @UriHerrera: The problem is often that many sites limit download speeds for each connection. A download manager makes half a dozen connections or more, each getting a part of the download, then it assembles the results back into one file. By doing this, it can speed up the download by 5x or more. I've cancelled slow downloads after 15-20 minutes in the past, and restarted with a download manager that was still much faster in the end. Sep 20, 2012 at 4:05

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I used to use IDM in windows before I switched to Linux. I missed it for a while, but found alternatives for where I needed it.

The problem is probably not, as mentioned in the comments, slow download speed, per se. The problem I had was that some sites limit download speed per connection, so a download manager that makes several connections can make a dramatic improvement, sometimes 5 times faster, or more.

I had no problems with sites that did not limit speeds, and would get the maximum speed from a single connection.

The best I've found for now is a Firefox addon, called DownthemAll!. If you use Firefox, give it a try. It has several options, and took a little playing around to learn the best way to use it, but it can easily duplicate the normal downloading capabilities, and with a little creativity, it's easy to organize downloads on the fly.

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If the command line is your thing, try aria2. It supports HTTP/HTTPS, FTP, BitTorrent and Metalink.

You can use the -x parameter to control the amount of connections.

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Try jdownloader.
It supports multi connections and though it should increase your download speed.
The link includes installation instructions.

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xdman (xtreme download manager) is by far the best download manager for ubuntu.tried and tested. it is a free cross-platform piece of software that works great in ubuntu and other debian based systems. it supports advanced browser integration for many browsers.it also supports flash videos downloading with speeds that reach idm download speeds in windows.

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