Like most people, I’m a huge fan of free stuff and I found a great way to help make the process of getting it easier.  It’s called jDownloader.

There are great ways to get files from other people.  One of my favorites is usenet.  I’ve even had a monthly subscription to the Giganews service for the last 5 years where I pay about $30 a month for unlimited SSL protected downloads.  I’ve downloaded over 197 gigabytes of data in December so I’m getting value out of it.  Here is a breakdown of my last few months of downloads that show how much I use it:

stats

As great as usenet is, it’s not always possible to find what you need or you will see a post on a forum that links to files on a download site such as Rapidsite or MegaUpload.  If it’s just a single download it’s easy enough to click the link, enter their code on the page to verify you’re not a bot, and then wait 30-60 seconds to start your download.  The trouble comes in hand when you want a very large file that’s posted in multiple files such as this 14 gigabyte download I’m working on now:

list

(I’ve blured the end of the links as I got this list from a private forum I belong to and don’t want to betray their trust)  :D

It would be a pain in the butt to download one link, about 500 megabytes worth, and wait for it to finish.  Go back to the second link, enter the code, wait for it to time out, and then start your download.   I know it’s a pain in the butt because that how I used to do it before I found jDownloader.

Now just click and drag your mouse to copy the links and it automatically adds these to my download list in the program, enters the code for me, waits for the timer to expire, starts the download, and when it finished the first file it moves on and does the same for the next.  No further need for me to get involved.  I just wait till it’s over.  Here is a shot of the program in action:

jDownloader

It seems you can also add links individually but I just started using it so I’m not sure how much else it can do for you.  Considering this is a free program and does exactly what I needed it’s all WIN in my book.  The only down side I see is that I’m going to have to buy some more hard drives soon.  I’m getting close to filling up my 4 TB I have now.

**James