How to download anything you need using open source tools

Direct downloads from one-click hosting servers

As we’ve seen in the previous article, direct downloads from one-click hosting servers like Megaupload and Rapidshare have several drawbacks (at least if you’re downloading contents from those servers for free). Even if you have a premium account, having to download 10 different parts of a 1 GB file can be tiresome.

If you want to be able to download files from those sites easily and with a minimum effort, jDownloader is the only application you’ll need.

After downloading and running the program, the only thing you need to do is provide the links of the files you want to get. You won’t be bothered by the restrictions imposed by the one-click hosters (like waiting for the downloads to begin, waiting from one download to the next, entering captchas, etc). Just let jDownloader run in background and it will perform its magic, freeing you to focus on more useful tasks.

These are some of the program main features:

• Support for more than 100 one-click hosts : besides the most popular one-click hosting servers (Megaupload, Rapidshare, MediaFire, etc), jDowloader supports more than 100 of those servers. If you’ve already installed it, go to Extras / Configuration / Hosts so you and see which ones are supported.
• Automatic file extraction : when the files you’re downloading consist of several parts (typically multipart rar files), the program will extract the files when all the parts have been downloaded. When downloading an encrypted file, you can also provide the corresponding password at the time you start the download and forget about it (once the complete file has arrived, jDownloader will use the supplied password to open it).
• Captcha recognition : the program makes quite an excellent jobs in solving the different captchas that are usually required for downloading a file. And even if it can’t figure out a given captcha, it will show it to you in a small window so that you can enter the solution.
• Automatic IP renewal : most one-click hosters set a daily download limit for free accounts, that is enforced by checking the users’ IP addresses. If you’re using a broadband connection, all you have to do to get a new IP is turn your router off and on again (or forcing a reconnection through its web-based management interface). jDownloader can do this for you automatically if you wish (it supports a lot of popular broadband routers).
• Bandwidth throttling : if you’re downloading multiple files at the same time, you may want to limit the speed at which the program downloads those files, so there is some bandwidth left for other tasks like web browsing, email, etc. This program is so efficient at downloading that if you use it intensively it’s quite likely that sooner or later you’ll have to limit its download speed.
  

Caveats

• Automatic updates : every time the program starts, it will check for updates and prompt you to install the upgrades. There can be several updates each week, and having to upgrade the program every couple of days is annoying. And even though it’s likely that the updates can be disabled, that wouldn’t be a wise thing to do (most updates are related to the modules that support the different file hosting services, so if you don’t update the program, chances are you won’t be able to download files from some of the servers).
• User interface : being a Java application, don’t expect it to look pretty. Anyway, the application doesn’t look bad, it’s quite easy to use and it works like a charm.