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By this I do not mean that it opens multiple connections. I am more interested in how it monitors the browser's activity and recognizes when a file is available for download (a music file, or a video, or whatever).
Is this something that it adds to the browser? Is it somehow scanning all traffic that is going to the PC? Is it acting as a kind of proxy?
Connect to remote location, read list of files, compare timestamp / checksum / etc. of the files, then do whatever is specified based on that info... notify, download, etc. – Joe Internet – 2011-08-16T22:59:27.870
I don't follow. I dont connect to any remote locations, what list of files, checksum??? – soandos – 2011-08-16T23:01:50.923
Questions on Super User are expected to be based on actual problems that you experience; in this case you could simply read their manual as they explain it to you. In cases where they don't explain it to you, you should ask it to the owner of the product as he is the one who is most likely to know this and he should be able to explain it to you. It simply interacts with your browser, where it is told when a download has been requested. If you are afraid, either don't use an unnecessary download manager at all or get yourself a good scanner/firewall... :)
– Tamara Wijsman – 2011-08-17T22:50:27.4603I do not have a trust issue with IDM (though if I did that would be a an actual issue I face). To quote from the FAQ: "However, if your motivation is “I would like others to explain ______ to me”, then you are probably OK." So I think my question is ok. I want to know how it monitors the browser, so It simply interacts with your browser" does not help me. IDM does not say how it works. – soandos – 2011-08-17T22:59:21.720
Reverse engineering is off-topic here; we can't tell you the inner workings of a closed source program, that would be illegal. The best you can do is as said reading their documentation or contacting there support, there is not much more that we can say than "it simply interacts with your browser by monitoring it or through an add-on, it kicks in when you perform a download". What are you actually trying to do?
I would like others to explain _ to me
is no exception, you still have no problem that you need explained. We can't help you if you don't have an actual problem... – Tamara Wijsman – 2011-08-17T23:07:48.5873
I don't want to create a duplicate program. I want to know roughly how it works (see question). I don't see this as so unreasonable as there are a very limited number of ways to do this. I want to solve my other question elegantly (see here) but in a specific case (not by uninstalling IDM thought).
– soandos – 2011-08-17T23:17:45.5432@Tom - "intellectual curiosity" is a legitimate cause for questions. He didn't ask to know exactly how is the code, he only wonders how is that possible, how such program can do that, like plenty of other questions on the site. It's not "what exactly IDM uses to do that", just a curiosity about download managers as a whole. Seems legitimate to me. – Gnoupi – 2011-08-21T11:09:26.597