Download Accelerator Plus (DAP)

Downloading files from the Internet is a very common practice, but it is not always as fast and secure as we would like it to be. Fortunately there are several options to help us to speed up and make our downloads more secure, among them we can find Download Accelerator Plus (commonly known as DAP) which is one of the leading download managers having the amazing number of 170 million registered users around the globe. DAP takes advantage of its technology, ease of use and rich features including: multiple download connections, faster response to most of the servers, auto-recovery from lost connections and errors and much more. Today I'm going to tell you about its most outstanding features and novelties.



Fast Downloads
DAP accelerates our the file downloads from the Internet by performing file fragmentation, thus squeezing our connections to the maximum and minimizing the waiting time, developers claim that  the download speed can be increased by 200% and in some cases up to 400%.



Another factor that positively is that DAP runs a media buffer,  which is said to avoid streaming video hitching. Anyway it is highly advisable to have Adobe Flash Player's latest version installed for better performance.

Apart from fragmenting the files to be downloaded, DAP seeks for faster mirrors in an automated way. Additionally it is also able to obtain such file from different locations at the same time, by doing this DAP avoids site download speed limitations if exists and in the particular case of some media files, they can be previewed while we are downloading them.

Functionallity
Basically, Download Accelerator Plus integrates with our browser providing the best possible performance of our connection, no matters if we connect to the Internet through a modem, cable, ADSL, and so on. For example in Firefox via an add-on:



Integrating itself as the default file downloads application, running each time you click on a download link



Or it can also be manually started through the mouse right button as it also integrates in the context menus.



And it also allows us to resume any download if it results to be interrupted for any reason.



More or less the same happens with Internet Explorer, as you can see in the next screenshot.



Security
As an additional function not found in other similar programs, Download Accelerator Plus has a great level of security provided by ZoneAlarm, indicating the level of dangerousness for the downloaded file and the website to which it belongs.



Included is a list for banned sites that we never will ask downloads from, and filtered folders arranged by categories in order to organize our downloaded files.



Novelties
This last version of DAP includes various new features: at first sight we can see its interface change which will allow us to choose among a Firefox- or Internet Explorer-styled download window,



It also offers integration with DAP's publisher's video accelerator (SpeedBit Video Accellerator) . The possibility to stream video in a faster way sound like a cool way to improve the application's functionality. During the setup process we will be asked to install it if we don't already have it and take us through it.



Additionally it brings interesting improvements, besides having an integrated FTP browser, the tabbed interface has been redesigned over the FlashGet style, also incorporating previews if the downloaded file is a video, though it will not always work.



Final Words
Although I cannot irrefutably assert that DAP will unfailingly speed up our downloads in such a vertiginous 200%, I can positively say that it is a really good alternative to browser's default download managers, with a lot of extra functions and features.
On the other hand, I found that the setup process was somehow frustrating, weighing me down with an overwhelming load of toolbars, default switches, and asking me to enter my e-mail for recommendations which I had to obligatorily turn down in order to get a clean setup.

If you use DAP for your daily downloads, we would like to know what you think about it, so please leave a comment with your opinion below.

Author: Lucas Artigas Review on: Download Accelerator Plus (DAP) 9.1.1.1