An add on for the popular peer to peer file sharing utility BearShare that reduces download times and improves the user experience.

Features: Especially beneficial for users of the BearShare utility who are connected to the internet through a slow connection. SpeedUp Pro aims to use the maximum possible download bandwidth at all times (instead of a more conservative approach taken by the default BearShare engine) and this can improve download performance on an average. Other aspects of the SpeedUp utility are mainly in self-managing downloads in the case of a break in the connection to the internet (resuming and pausing automatically) as well as in the case of a system reboot, thereby reducing the level of input required by the user and / or the time wasted by the BearShare utility in figuring those things out on its own. Some other aspects of the download improvement are provided by more frequent peer searching, and, as and when a new peer is found, it is only logical that the download speed will be improved. There are also the automatic file management functions (clearing invalid or corrupt files) that are typical of this kind of add on utility.

Overall: The good news is that as compared to other SpeedUp Pro offerings that promised a lot and delivered little, this version designed for the BearShare peer to peer file sharing utility seems to get something right. It may very well be that the development has now matured into something useful. However, the bad news is that like all such utilities that aim to improve the performance of the underlying utility, there is not a significant improvement on connections that are proven fast and reliable in the long run. In those cases, more fine grained control is required in order for the user to get the maximum possible performance, which is sadly not provided by SpeedUp Pro (which has a simple approach to the UI – hit a button).