Widestream – Open source download manager and FTP explorer

WideStream is an open source download manager, FTP manager, FTP explorer, Host manager and URL crawler all bundled into one, and it manages to do that without making the program too overwhelming or cluttered.

The latest version of WideStream dubbed WideStream6 (6 is not the version number – the software itself is called WideStream6, while WideStream is it’s parent project) supports multi-threaded downloads, pause downloads, direct and indirect HTTP downloads, HTTP redirects, FTP downloads, network traffic management, download priorities, host manager and URL crawler.

widestream6

WideStream6 can also download videos from MetaCafe and a few other sites. Just supply the video URL and it will automatically locate the source video file and download it. WideStream6 can also download from file hosting services such as Megaupload and RapidShare.

A navigation panel on the left allows you to quickly sort your downloads by time – two days ago, one week ago, one month ago and so on. It can also display only active downloads or completed downloads while hiding the rest.

Additionally, there are filters that allow you to sort your downloads by file type, download status and also by time period.

widestream6-ftp

The FTP Explorer allows you to browse remote FTP directories using an interface similar to the one that you can see in Windows file explorer. FTP Explorer includes a main window with folders and file view, log window that displays statistics for current connections, a menu and a toolbar with an Address bar where you can enter links to the FTP directories. The Address bar keeps the history of browsed FTP folders.

Finally, WideStream6 throws in a very basic URL crawler that allows you to scan sites for links and displays these links in the list so you can either copy them to clipboard or download in WideStream6.

Other features include:

Bandwidth control
Configurable HTTP auto redirections
Download notification
Change number of connections per download on the fly without the need to suspend a download
Host manager with wildcard matching for host name
Highly customizable interface
Browser integration (Internet Explorer, Opera and Firefox are supported)

WideStream6 runs on Windows 2000 through Windows 7 and supports both 32-bit and 64-bit editions. WideStream6 requires Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 (already included in Windows 7)