How-To Download Large Data Using Multiple Streams

Last Updated: Oct 27, 2025

Introduction 

You want to download large data files to a VM with multiple connection streams for increased download speed

Prerequisites

• SSH access to an Ubuntu VM

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Install aria2 utility
   

   # sudo apt-get update
   # sudo apt-get install aria2

2. Download files using a custom connection count flag (-x)

   # aria2c -x 16 <HTTPS_FILE_LINK>

Example

• Example run with 16 concurrent connections:

  • $ aria2c -x 16 https://<URL>/10GB.bin
    
    08/07 01:19:09 [NOTICE] Downloading 1 item(s)
    [#1b7110 9.9GiB/10GiB(99%) CN:5 DL:258MiB]
    08/07 01:19:57 [NOTICE] Download complete: /home/ubuntu/10GB.bin
    
    Download Results:
    gid |stat|avg speed |path/URI
    ======+====+===========+=======================================================
    1b7110|OK | 248MiB/s|/home/ubuntu/10GB.bin
    
    Status Legend:
    (OK):download completed.

• Traditional download of the same file with a single connection:

  • $ wget -O /home/ubuntu/hel_10GB.bin -q --show-progress http://<URL>/10GB.bin
    /home/ubuntu/hel_10GB.bin 100%[===========================================================================================================>] 10.00G 58.8MB/s in 2m 56s

Additional Resources

• aria2 GitHub Project