How download manager works?

[pinster]

I wonder why download managers like download express, download accelerator, getright and etc. often out-perform the IE's default downloader?

What's the mechanism or algorithms behind it?? Anyone has any idea??

BTW, where can I find more references on algoritms?? It would be great for developers!!

 

[Volte]

I believe the general idea is that they search for mirrors which serve the same file and download different segments simultaneously from the fastest servers it can find.

 

[pinster]

Hmm... Makes sense...