STEAM is a download tool available to those who are willing to subscribe to it... or bought half life. IT ROXX!
after 1.3 hours i downloaded about 100 megs of patches , it probably uses a VERY high compression medium to turn 3-4 k a sec to 20-30 k a sec.
it also pings servers for you ALOT better than GAMESPY ARCADE or ALLSEING EYE can.
if someone were to apply this technology to the REST of the internet... we would be complaining about how it takes us hours to dload a tiny 1GB file...