Internet Download Manager - Download Using Premium Account

In the previous post about IDM setting, I've discuss about 'site login'. Site login setting is very useful if you're willing to spend some money to buy a premium account from certain filehosting. Basically almost all of the filehosting provide free service to download from their sites but most of them will discriminate free download and premium download. They will give more advantages for premium download such as faster transfer rate, resume broken download, unlimited parallel download, no waiting to download another file, support download manager and etc.
One of the most popular filehosting is Rapidshare. I'm gonna use this website as an example for downloading using site login. We'll discuss about filehosting in another post.
If you've a premium rapidshare account, and you've already do the setting correctly, than it's easier to download from this site. Just copy the URL (eg. http://rapidshare.com/files/251705533/wdc.part1.rar), open IDM interface and click 'Add URL'. This windows will appear.

Note that your username and password will appear and IDM will use this account information to download the file. Simply click ok and 'Download file info' will appear. Click start and you can download the file directly without having to open the link using your browser.
This method is easy for a few link to download. But what if you have so many links to download? Take a look at this screenshot:

There are so many links and it's a hell of a job to copy those links, one by one and paste it in the IDM. But there's always an easier way. Just copy all those links and paste it in the notepad. Save it in a location where you can find it. After that, open IDM interface and click 'Tasks -> Import -> From text file'.
Browse to the location where you've saved the notepad file, select the file and open it. Check the file list and if you've satisfied with the location and so on, just click ok. Then you can start the queue process by clicking the 'start queue' button and let your computer finish its job.

Note:
1. The download process will follow exactly as your scheduler setting. Remember the previous post about scheduler/queue download.
2. If you want to save all these files in a same location/folder, before you import the text file, copy one link of the file and click 'Add URL'. Select the folder where you want to save the file and then tick the checkbox 'Remember this path for "compressed' category' (the red box in the image) and then click start download (or download later). And after that, you can proceed with the 'import file' method.

Internet Download Manager - Queue Download

Okay, now you've already know how to download using IDM (I guess so). One thing you should know is, when you're downloading using IDM, you'll experience slow surfing of your browser because IDM already use almost all of your bandwidth. Because of this, I've always use IDM to download huge file when I'm not surfing the net, and I always set the IDM to download while I went to the bed. This can be done using 'scheduler' at the top of the IDM interface.
I'll give you an example, refer to the image below.


This window will appear after you click the 'scheduler' button. In my case, I want to download those file until finish, and I want IDM to shut down my computer automatically when the download process done. So that, I just tick the 'one time downloading' (this is the default value) and most important is 'Turn off computer when done'. This setting will shut down my computer after the process finished. But sometimes there are some problem with the download process, and the transfer rate stuck and become 0 (no download process) so my download won't finish. If your download queue isn't complete, your computer will still be on, consuming your electricity bill. To prevent this, I tick the 'Stop download at' and set it as my wish, in the image I put 19:05. The queue process will stop and the computer will turn off at that time, whether the download process is completed or not.


Above image shows the list of download files, awaiting for their turn in the queue process. In this process, I choose to download only 1 file at the same time. The next file will start the download process after the previous one has been completed. You can select which file do you want to download first, and which file next. After you've satisfied, just click the start button and you can leave your computer. The computer will shut down after all download have been completed or the time set has been reached.

Notes:
1. The list of files to be download in this process must have resume capability. If not, your download will not complete.
2. You also can set to download more than 1 file at the same time but the transfer rate will reduce. If you set 2 files at the same time, the transfer rate for each file will be half of transfer rate for 1 file at the same time. For example, if transfer rate for 1 file is about 200 kBps, you will get about 100 kBps for each file if 2 files are being downloaded at the same time. What about more files at the same time? Just do the mathematics things.
3. You can also create more download queue. Just put a bunch of files in the queue, and play with the settings.
3. When the download queue has finished, IDM will shut down your computer. But what if you still want to use your computer when IDM is trying to shut it off? Don't worry, IDM will ask you first before it shut it off. There will be a pop up message with 30 second default countdown and you can cancel the shut down process by clicking 'cancel' button. And also you can shut it down quickly without having to wait for the countdown to finish by clicking the 'shutdown now' button.

Internet Download Manager - How To Download

I've tell you about my IDM setting. And now I'll like to share about how to download using IDM. In the setting, I've already integrate IDM with Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. So, how to download using IDM? Simple, just open the link of the file you want to download using your browser and click the button or the link to download the file, depends on the filehosting, some of them using button and others gives another link.



Search for the magic word, which is 'download', some of them says 'click here to download', others says 'download now' and some others just says 'download'. Wait for a pop up just like this picture:

Take a look at the numbered red box in the picture. Where do you want to save your downloaded file? The default location is in my document -> downloads (this is for general type of files, if the file felt in video category, than it will be saved in my document -> downloads -> video, and so on with other categories). If you want to change it, click the number 1 button, browse your computer and then select the location where you want it to be saved.

The number 2 red box is just for your information. It's the size of the file that you're gonna download. In the example picture, the size is 100MB. Of course, bigger file will take more time to complete.

The number 3 red box is your action, whether you want to start download, download it later or cancel the download process. If you click the start button, then it will start the download process. A new windows will appear, showing you the download process, the status, the file name, the size of the file, the percentage and amount of the downloaded data, the transfer rate (speed), time left (estimated download complete) and info whether you can pause it and resume it later or not.


*Note: the second and third image in this post are not the same file, therefor they have different size.

You can pause the download process anytime you like but if the download didn't support resume capability, then you have to start it over.

And also, pay attention at the details there, there are 16 parts (0-15) connections. The numbers of connection varies according to the setting. I've changed the setting in the connection tab to 16, therefor there are 16 numbers of connection.

If you choose to download it later, then IDM will put the file in the queue to download. You can start the queue by simply click the start queue button at the top of IDM interface but bear in mind that the queue process is only work for file which can be resume. If not, than you've to start it over. I'll discuss about queue process in the other post.

And if you click cancel, than IDM will cancel the download process. I guess I shouldn't tell you about this, it just so simple.

Refer the first image for these tips.
*Tips 1: If the filehosting gave you another link to download, you can also right click the link and choose download with IDM. It also works. This method sometimes better than click the link because browser tends to hang for sometime while IDM's trying to download the file. Use this method and your browser wouldn't freeze. But this method can't be used for filehosting with download button.

*Tips 2: You can also right click the link and copy the link location (I'm using Mozilla Firefox, I don't remember for IE or others), open IDM interface and click 'add URL'. This is also another way to download a file. Like the first tips, this method only works for filehosting with link to download such as Mediafire.

Internet Download Manager - The Setting

In this post I'll share about my setting. Actually, it depends on yourself for your own setting. You don't have to do exactly like mine.

Refer to the left image. It's a general configuration. You can set which browser do you want to integrate with IDM, if you've already installed that browser in your system. Just tick/untick the checkbox next to the browser's name to change.






This is configuration for file types. All the file types in the red box will be recognized by IDM and so that IDM will take over the download process from your browser, but it still depends on the filehosting where the file is stored, whether it allows download manager or not. I'll tell you about filehosting in another post, later. You can also add another types of files that you want IDM to download, just type the files extention in the box. In my case, I've already add nothing I guess. The latest version of IDM already has fulfill all my needs, in term of file types.

This is the setting where your files will be stored. Actually, you don't have to change it since you can decide where to save it when you start download (or during downloading) but pay attention on the red box. It's a location where your temporary file will be stored. The default location will be in your partition where your OS. This is quiet important because sometimes you don't have much space in this partition. IDM will give an error message, if this message appear, you can change it in this configuration windows. And there's another tips about this location, but I'll tell you in the other post.

In the image at the left, it's a configuration for connection. As for me, I'll choose 'LAN 10 Mbs' (eventhough my connection speed is way lower than that) and 'Default max. conn. number' I've changed to 16. This is a setting to boost download speed just a little more but worth for a change.





Setting for a site login. This is a configuration if you have premium account for certain filehosting. Just click the three buttons in the red box if you want to add, edit or remove your account. You don't have to type 'www' in the box. For example if you have rapidshare account, just type rapidshare.com in the box. Put in your username and type your password twice, make sure you type the correct password. This setting will save your time to download from the filehosting where you've paid for.

There are also another tab when you open the option interface but I don't want to elaborate it here since I didn't change anything. But you can set it according to yourself.
Okay, till the next post.

Internet Download Manager

Internet Download Manager, or IDM is a tool to increase download speeds by up to 5 times, resume and schedule download. For me, this is the best downloading tools and I've been used it for quite some time. You can get more info from their website, and also download free trial. I'll like to share how to use it since many people ask me about this software. And also, I'll share some of the trick I found while using this software.
Firstly, I'll start with some introduction. For your information, this is not a free software, so that you need to buy to use it. But in the internet world, there is other ways to get it for free. Some people made a crack to make it full version. I'm not gonna publish the link to download the pirate version of this software, but you can easily find it in the net. You need to install it to your computer but there is a portable version, where you can save it in the flash drive and use it without installation.
After installation complete, we can set it according to what we want. In here, I'll share with you what did I do with the setting. It just a little addition.


Take a look for a green triangle logo of IDM at your taskbar. Just click it once to open the IDM interface. A window like in the picture will appear. Take a look at the top of the interface, there are some shortcut button for different functions. I'll elaborate those in the next post, and I'll share about my setting.