I know it may not be specifically for this purpose, but...
Internet Download Manager absolutely ROCKS.
It makes multiple small connections to a site and speeds up your download immensely.
I was averaging like 173K/Sec downloads over DSL. The SAME FILE will download around 375k/s with IDM.
I have no idea HOW it works exactly, and I was extremely skeptical but it DOES work, and I'd never use anything else again. Works well when downloading LARGE files, albiet I do so from a fast server in the first place, so it may/may not work for you.
www.internetdownloadmanager.com--NipsMG