[BobJam]

I recently downloaded and installed one of those free download managers.



I had been using one called "WellGet", but it stopped working for some reason, and the author no longer has a web site.



I know a lot of those things have spyware, adware, and malware. I had been using WellGet for several years, and had no indication of any infections from it, or that it even contained any of those things itself.



I have a primitive archaic dial up, which is why I have even considered and used a download manager. The capability to resume downloads is critical when you've been downloading something for hours and then it disconnects. My virus defs are approaching 40MB now, and the daily updates I do, manually by the way, just about require the ability to resume if there is a disconnect. There is nothing quite as bothersome as having a large download interrupted and then having to start all over again.



I would switch to broadband and be done with the whole issue, but I live in a rural area and broadband is just not that reliable. I've considered satellite, but that seems like it would be just as much hassle as dial up.



In any case, I Googled on download managers, and came across a link for reviews by that Spybot S&D guy. He recommended "LeechGet" and "Download Express" as spware and adware free, but I tried them and was not very satisfied with their GUI.



So, I am currently trying "Free Download Manager" (FDM). I use McAfee SiteAdvisor (MSA), and they have rated the FDM web site "yellow", which means use with caution. Apparently, MSA at one time rated the FDM site as "red" (meaning stay away from it), but they "upgraded" to yellow based on a lot of user complaints that the FDM site was harmless.



I went to the MSA site and read some of the user reviews, and the majority of users have said that the site should be rated "green", and that FDM does NOT contain any malware. Quite a few of the user reviews commented that those that have reported malware were DOWNLOADING software containing malware with FDM, NOT that FDM itself contains malware. I myself try to only do downloads from trusted sites (which is one of the reasons I'm making this post).



They also mentioned that FDM is now open source, and that FDM.org has cleaned up any links the site contained to malware sites. Now I know that open source and a .org domain are not guarantees that there won't be any malware, but that would seem to reduce the risk.



Additionally, I've noted that FDM also has an "opinions" tab, which gives the user opinions that other users have written about the download being done. It even has a setting to label the download as malware if a certain percentage of the opinions say that.



I've been using FDM for a couple of days now, and even have done a Spybot scan, an Adaware scan, and an antivirus scan, and all have come up clean. And FDM has a GUI that I like.


So, I'd like to hear some comments on this issue. If the comments are overwhelmingly "anti-FDM", then I may go back and try LeechGet or Download Express and just deal with a GUI that I don't like. Security is much more important than a bothersome GUI.


Thoughts??

[piyushsingh]

http://forums.pcworl.../23448?tstart=0

[Tech4me]

~143262] . You have my compassion for dial up.......Check these.......(They have quite a few for you.) Good site to research.....Good luck.

[http://softpedia.com/progSearch]


|[Download Accelerator Manager 3.0.0.0
|Download Accelerator Manager (DAM) Free Edition is a free, fast and easy download manager for resuming and managing downloads from internet.
Unlike other downloader programs of this kind, it is completely free; it does not contain any form of adwar... [read more]|OS: Windows All
License: Freeware
Downloads: 17,660
Price: FREE
Date: August 31st, 2007 05:31|

[BobJam]

Hey Tech4me,


Thanks. That's EXACTLY what I was looking for, because the Softpedia site DID have FDM listed, and under that listing it said:


bq. Softpedia guarantees that Free Download Manager 2.5 Build 755 is 100% FREE, which means it is a freeware product (both for personal and commercial use) that does not contain any form of malware, including but not limited to: spyware, viruses, trojans and backdoors. This software product was tested thoroughly and was found absolutely clean, therefore it can be installed with no concern by any computer user.
Now I realize that even a guarantee from Softpedia is NOT a 100% assurance that FDM is free of malware, but that coupled with my own experience in the past week (see my original post) is enough for me.

[Tech4me]

[~143262] . Glad It works out for you.

(BTW don't trust free stuff completely...LOL....You know what I meant.. Just pick a best one..)

Have fun.