OK team, our first job would be to create a download manager named 'Download Warper'. Here's what we will need:-

A custom Winsock class - This would ensure speed regulation mechanism. It will also aid in using multiple connections.
HTTP Connection class - This would contain the Winsock class and would basically do all the protocol specific low level transactions.
FTP Connection class - Similar to the above class except that this would be for the FTP protocol.
Main Application - The GUI for the Download manager.

Other Requirements:-
Icons and other graphics. The only thing I can think of right now is a Download Icon.

Programming language:-

> VB/VB .NET for the main Application.
> Delphi/C++/VB/VB .NET for the custom Winsock class and the Protocol classes.

This is not the final idea for the project, just a beginning. Lets discuss on the topic and come with more ideas before starting to work on it.

Nobody interested? Come on people!!

in the case of icons and graphics you are going to need ones such as start, stop, pause (if that is what you are planning to do with your program) maybe one to change the target of the download (where its being saved), one to open the options to regulate speed.

my idea for the gui is that it should be more of a tabbed interface. people who have used azureus will know what im talking about!

have the main screen that has a list of current and finished downloads with some basic info (say completion, speeds, ETA etc etc) and then when you select the download a new tab opens, which contains more specific info about files, speeds etc)

i would be happy to help, but i have not much experience and have only coded vb and vb.net.

hopefully some of this information has helped!
-jimmy

Thanx Jimmy, the tabbed interface will certainly be a better approach. I was trying to make the interface in VB .NET which was improvised from the Flashget Download Manager.

Below is the link to the prototype http://ntek.astahost.com/wip/downloadwarper/

the new interface that you have at the moment is good! i particularly like the catergorisation that you have in the left pane! are you able to select which type of download that it is going to be and then when finished downloading it is placed into that category?

the tabbed interface could be easily implemented into the bottom right pane that you have currently. (expanding on the tabs that you already have)

also, if you wanted to, another idea from azureus, you could have download information bars that can be moved around the desktop that sit on top of the windows and remind you on how the download progress is going!

making the download progress easily displayed so that the user doesn't have to open the main window every time they wanted to look at the progress, you could have a task bar icon that could display progresses when hovered over! (very handy for bigger downloads that are running in the background)

again, i would like to offer my support if you need it

good luck
-jimmy

As I mentioned before, that was more or less a copy cat of the Flashget interface. The categorization would work exactly like that. I would try to incorporate floating transluent windows for showing the progress related statistics, much like what you said.

Keep the ideas comming, my friend.

I have been working on the Protocols for the past couple of days. The new Download Warper is being built with C# .NET at the backend and VB . NET at the front. I came up with the following compartments:-

Core: Core Functions related to Download Warper such as Formatting Time, Speed, Bytes, etc.
Protocol: The abstract class for all protocols. This would allow easy addition of protocols in the future.
HTTP: The HTTP Protocol derived from the Protocol class.
Download Warper: The main application which handles downloads, categories, saving of files, caching, scheduling etc.

The Protocol wraps up the Sockets and is responsible for providing the Packets. You can check out, the current Pre Alpha version from the link below.

Link to Work In Progress Versions: http://ntek.astahost.com/wip/downloadwarper/