The best browser for downloading

VPNs use encrypted tunnels for your web activity, which prevent anyone else from accessing the data you're sending or seeing what you're reading or downloading — including your internet service provider.

VPNs are so easy to use that they've become increasingly popular over the last few years, with growing numbers of people using them in addition to traditional online security, like antivirus software.

When might you need one? Want to browse anonymously? And if you're abroad on holiday and want to watch your favorite sports or entertainment shows — you'll likely need a VPN that can allow you to use the internet as if you're still in the US.

It's fast, offers superb security, and it's very easy to use. But if you're not sure which one is right for you, take a look at our best VPN service guide, where you'll find more advice. That's amazing value.

We downloaded each internet browser to as many devices we could to check the compatibility. After downloading the browsers to our test computers, laptops and mobile devices, we recorded the time it took for the browser to navigate from one page to another, and the time it took to completely load the page. As part of this test we navigated to a variety of sites including search engines and content-heavy pages like news sites.

We repeated this several times so we could get a good average time for each browser to compare against all the others we tested. Of course, load times can affected by the time of day, type of internet connection and the number of devices connected at once.

Still we got a good idea of how reliable each browser is. The biggest difference we saw, and one that is important to consider when choosing an internet browser, is how well each recognized and blocked malware. This includes virus downloads, phishing schemes and untrusted websites that are known to harbor malicious files.

We tested internet browsers for security using live malware samples. While we know adjusting some settings will result in better protection, many users are not tech savvy enough to do this effectively. We feel it is better to test the default security settings since this is what the majority of users will use. After testing how well the internet browsers detect and stop malware on their own, we installed antivirus software programs and performed these tests again.

This allowed us to see how well each internet browser works alongside these programs to provide optimum online security to you and your family. It also let us see how each browser behaves with browser extensions. Your new computer or smartphone should have come with a web browser already installed. You can search for the browser you want to use in any other web browser. For example, you can search for Google Chrome in the Edge search bar.

Once you find the site for the browser you want to use, click the download button and give the permissions for the download and installation when prompted. The web browser will download and install itself on your device.

You can download, install and use multiple web browsers at once. Just know that each browser takes up a lot of memory on your device and requires still more to operate correctly. Chrome tends to use the most resources.

If your computer has a disk drive, you can order an installation disk for your preferred browser. However, since most computers are now made without a disk drive, it is a challenge to find an available installation disk. The other option is to download the web browser program to an external drive. Most web browsers will fit on a flash or thumb drive. Once the file is saved to your external drive, you can connect it to your computer to upload and install your preferred web browser.

Several of the best antivirus programs, like Trend Micro Antivirus Plus Security , use web detection technology to ensure you are visiting a safe site. Yes, you can have more than one web browser installed on your computer. We have found that some websites and programs work best in a particular browser. But keep in mind that you need enough hard drive space to house more than one browser on any device. Sandboxie 5. Isolates and quarantines the outcome of whatever a Web site may do to your pc, like the installation of unsolicited software.

SeaMonkey 2. Google Chrome Portable Chrome combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the web faster, safer, and easier in a portable package. Google Chrome for Android Search and browse fast with Chrome on your Android phone and tablet. Sign in to sync your personalized Chrome experience from your computer to bring it with you anywhere you go.

Google Chrome for Mac Chrome combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the web faster, safer, and easier. Google Chrome for Linux Tor Browser Alpha Tor Browser is the only official mobile browser supported by the Tor Project, developers of the world's strongest tool for privacy and freedom online. Slimjet Slimjet is a fast, smart and powerful web browser based on the Blink engine. It is built on top of the Chromium open source project, on which Google chrome is also based.

Google Chrome Tor Browser for Mac Protect your privacy. Defend yourself against network surveillance and traffic analysis. Tor Browser Tor is free software and an open network that helps you defend against surveillance that threatens personal freedom and privacy. Pale Moon Vivaldi 4. A browser that is fast, but also that is rich in functionality, highly flexible and puts the user first.

Mozilla Firefox Klar for Android The new Firefox Klar automatically blocks a wide range of online trackers — from the moment you launch it to the second you leave it. Opera Mini for Android Download the latest Opera Mini for your phone now. Torrenting is a peer-to-peer sharing technology that allows for the transfer of files and other data between multiple computers and users.

Using torrenting, you can download files from another user or multiple users, and you can share files with multiple users. Originally, you will download a small torrent file that contains the basic data of what you want to download like a movie , and then you will download bits and pieces of the movie from other computers connected to the network.

You can download parts of the file from one user and other parts from another user; once all the data is collected, the system will piece them together and allow you to view the movie on your own device.

As you are a peer in the network, others will be able to download the same data from your computer. In fact, they can start doing so as soon as you have partially downloaded the information — remember, torrenting allows for the download of bits and pieces of each file. The network will track which users have which parts of the file and download accordingly. However, at its core, torrenting is simply a file-sharing technology that relies on peer-to-peer transfers.

Furthermore, you can download pirated, copyrighted, or illegal content using a traditional downloading method, where you download an entire file hosted on a server at once instead of bits and pieces from other users on the network. Nevertheless, you must use a good browser that will protect your identity. In this article, I will talk about the best browsers to use for torrenting. Some browsers have built-in torrent clients, allowing you to torrent easily, and others let you download extensions for that.

The best browser for torrenting is, by far, Brave. Brave is known for its safety and privacy features, but did you know that it includes built-in support for torrenting — both downloading and real-time streaming of torrented content? Brave not only blocks all ads and trackers, so websites can not keep track of what you are doing, but it also uses the Tor network to hide your IP address.

Although its Tor proxy is only available on the desktop browser for now, a release for the mobile browser version is in the works. Tor basically reroutes your internet traffic through the IP addresses of other users, so nobody can tell where the traffic is coming from. To others, it will appear as if the traffic is coming from the last user it was routed through, even if they are in another country. That way, when you download content from sites like The Pirate Bay, it will be impossible for anyone to track your location.

But Brave goes beyond that and allows you to download and torrent files directly in your browser with its built-in torrent extension you can view and enable or disable it in the extensions section in your settings. Brave uses the WebTorrent protocol; when you initiate a torrent download, it will open in another tab and start torrenting as long as the extension is enabled. Another browser with a built-in torrent manager is the Torch browser.

When using Torch, just click on the torrent button to start downloading a file, without the need to install additional software. You can view and manage your downloads directly in your browser. Torch is great for downloading regular files, using traditional downloading, as well. It splits up download files into multiple segments and uses multiple connections to download those segments simultaneously to speed up the downloading process.

It also has a Media Grabber tool that makes downloading videos and audio from the internet easy. Another cool feature is the ability to drag and drop links, text, and images from any webpage to start a new Google search for them.

While perhaps not as well known as some other browsers listed here, Citrio is one of the few browsers that have built-in torrent clients. The torrent manager in Citrio is built into the regular media downloader. Just click on a torrent link to start downloading it; you will be asked if you want to use Citrio, and you can also set it as the default downloader for future torrent files.

You can save the file to your download folder or another destination. You can then manage your ongoing and completed downloads, pause or cancel downloads, and restart downloads. This little widget comes preinstalled with the browser and allows you to quickly swap your real IP address for another one. There are many IP addresses to choose from, and all it takes is the click of a button.

Chrome does not have a built-in torrent client, but it boasts several extensions in the Chrome web store that serve as torrent clients. An example is the Vuze Web Chrome extension. Vuze is a popular torrenting client, and its Chrome extension for Windows computers only allows Chrome users to torrent straight from their browsers and manage their downloads easily.

It is entirely free to use and does not display any ads. It can be hard to torrent on a Chromebook due to limited support for popular Windows software, but JSTorrent makes it possible.

JSTorrent works even on lower-end Chromebooks, and it can download large files straight to your download folder. For example, the newer Chromebooks allow you to install Linux and run Linux applications on your Chromebook. Another browser worth looking at is Opera.