If you download content from the web (we all do it), and by this I am referring to legal content only (and obviously!), have a look at an application called Free Download Manager (FDM). I’ve been through loads and loads of download managers, GetRight, FlashGet, LeechGet, Teleport Pro (not quite a download manager), but this is by far the bes tone I’ve used – best of all, its opensource and completely free!
Quick feature set;
- Pause/Manage download queue – duh, wouldnt be a download manger if it couldnt do that.
- Bit Torrent support – handy!
- Download the same file from multiple mirros – useful for downloading those linux ISO images.
- Flash video download ability – download videos from YouTube, Google videos etc. (I’m always getting asked by people about this one!)
- Site spider – downloading entire sites locally (like”wget -r” or Teleport PRO).
Official homepage: http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/index.htm
Official features list: http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/features.htm
Official download link: http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/download.htm
My mirror of the install file (in case someone buys the application and starts charging for it 
)
Polymath. Serial entrepreneur turned VC, now sitting on both sides of the table, talking tech, finance, and motorbikes.
This is ever the best downloading tool, I see in the market for a personal computer with many excellent and handy features. It worked excellent with my windows Vista too. In the last half year I used this product there were just 2 crashes and a minor one. honestly my FDM picked up from the place where it quit without any trouble.
Big companies like speedbit.com when unable to compete, would be willing to buyout excellent products like FDM and make it unavailable. The best example is Symantec bought a free firewall company and completely made unavailable. I wish such thing never happen to this product