2017 Update: This article is outdated and might not be working please see new version here.
Hello,
Is WGET slow for you ? Did you tried increasing TCP Buffer and still not having the results you expect for downloads ? Do you need resume and multi connection functionality ? The solution is Axel
In Windows we have many download manager softwares that let us download with the maximized speed and resume ability but with Linux there are a few based on CLI as the most are with GUI.
Axel Installation :
Here we are going to install Axel and then explain how to use it.
– Debian Based Distro : If you’re on a Debian Based distributions like Ubuntu you can install Axel easily with apt-get .
apt-get install axel
– Redhat Based Distro : Axel is not included in Yum repository by default if you don’t have EPEL / Remo so you need to install it from scratch via source code or use RPMs which is faster and more easy.
rpm -ivh ftp://fr2.rpmfind.net/linux/dag/redhat/el6/en/x86_64/dag/RPMS/axel-2.4-1.el6.rf.x86_64.rpm
Command-Line Switches :
You can have a complete list of command lines if you do “man axel” or “axel –help” but here we mention a few of usable command lines for general usages.
--max-speed=x -s x Specify maximum speed (bytes per second) --num-connections=x -n x Specify maximum number of connections --output=f -o f Specify local output file --header=x -H x Add header string --user-agent=x -U x Set user agent --no-proxy -N Just don't use any proxy server --quiet -q Leave stdout alone --verbose -v More status information
Examples :
– Downloads with max number of connections set to 10
axel -n 10 http://cachefly.cachefly.net/200mb.test
– Downloads at 512,000 Bytes/second (500KB/s) and max 10 connections
axel -s 512000 -n 10 http://cachefly.cachefly.net/200mb.test
Generally you can see about %88 percentage improvement in download speeds with Axel than Wget .
Hope this article was clear and usable for you.
Let me know your opinions in comment.
Thanks.