Axel

Axel is a cool tool that speeds up your HTTP and FTP downloads by grabbing files from multiple sources at once. This means you can get your stuff faster!

How Does Axel Work?

Here's the deal: some FTP sites limit how fast each connection can go. So, if you open more than one connection, you can boost your download speed. Just a heads up, though—some FTP sites don’t like it when users do this.

Download from Multiple Servers

The best way to use Axel is by opening connections on different servers and downloading from all of them at the same time. Axel version 0.97 or later lets you do this! You can either pick a list of mirrors yourself or let the program find them for you.

What Makes Axel Different?

You might be wondering what makes Axel stand out compared to other download managers, especially those mostly found on Windows. Unlike others, Axel doesn’t save data into separate files and then combine them later. Instead, it puts everything in one file right away as it downloads!

How Does It Manage This?

This unique feature is thanks to how most Unix file systems work—they allow writing data after the end-of-file marker. Plus, Axel runs in the console and doesn’t hog system resources.

Supported Systems

• The program works on all Linux systems.


• If you're using Mac OS X, you're covered too! You can compile your own version from sources or use what’s available in Fink.


• FreeBSD should work fine as well as other BSD versions.


• If you're on Win32 systems with Cygwin, good news—you can use it there too!


• Solaris 8 should also support it; other versions might work as well.


• If you're feeling adventurous with AtheOS, you could compile an older 0.96 version without threading.

You can check out more details about downloading and using Axel by visiting this Axel for Linux.