wget is a small, yet amazing program originally created for linux, which lets you download files via HTTP and FTP with the facility to resume aborted downloads. It has some other nifty features including the option to mirror websites and directories among other things.
wget is also available for windows. Even though there are other programs out there that let you resume downloads using a GUI like Download Accelerator Plus, the best part about wget is the simplicity of the program. If you are comfortable with the command line, it is extremely easy to use. A sample command to download a file in windows would look something like this:
wget -c http://domain.com/app.exe -P c:apps
Lets break that command down:
- wget – starts the wget program
- -c – checks to see if this file has been downloaded before and resumes the download if possible.
- http://domain.com/app.exe – name of the file to download
- -P – lets you specify where you want wget to download this file on your computer
- c:apps – path to where you want to save the downloaded file
You can find more commands under the GNU Wget Manual