Fuselane

The Fuselane guide

How it works and how to use each part, in plain words. Including what it can’t do, so nothing surprises you. Short answers live in the FAQ.

Get started

  1. Install it

    Get the app for your system on the download page. On a Mac, macOS asks once before opening it; the illustrated guide shows the three clicks, or use the one-line install, which skips them.

  2. Add a second network

    Plug in an Ethernet cable, connect your phone over USB and turn on its hotspot or USB tethering, or add a second Wi-Fi or USB network adapter. Fuselane uses every network your computer shows; there is nothing to set up in Fuselane itself.

  3. Download something

    Choose New download, paste a link and choose Download. Fuselane checks which networks can reach the server, then shares the file out between them.

  4. Watch who carries what

    The download’s page shows the file as a ring: each block takes the colour of the network that fetched it, and the middle shows the speed of all of them together, with each network’s share underneath.

How combining works

Fuselane asks the server for the file in parts, the standard way browsers resume a download. Each part goes over whichever network is free, so faster networks simply carry more parts and the speeds add up. Every part is checked before it joins the others, and a download picks up where it stopped after a dropped network, sleep, quitting or a crash.

It helps most when the networks come from different internet lines: your home Wi-Fi plus your phone’s mobile data, or two providers. Two cables to the same router share one line, so they won’t be faster together.

Downloads

Many links at once
Paste a list, or a pattern: part[01-20].rar becomes 20 downloads. Links added together stay together as a group, with one progress bar and one notice when all are done.
Files on a page
Paste a downloads page, pick its files by type, and get them as a group.
Do this now
One download gets every network; the others wait and carry on after it.
Ready by
Give a download a time it should be finished. It goes first, runs outside your schedule if it has to, and says whether it’s on track.
Later, or at a set time
Add links without starting them, or choose a start time under More options. Schedules can limit downloading to set hours, then sleep or shut down the computer when it’s done.
Limits
A speed limit per download, per network or overall, and Slow mode: one switch that caps everything for calls, then puts your limits back.
Checked files
Paste a SHA-256 to be sure. When a site publishes one next to the file (.sha256, SHA256SUMS), Fuselane finds it and verifies the finished file by itself, then says Verified.
Mirrors and Metalink
Add other links to the same file under More options; each is checked to be the very same file, then every network downloads from all of them. A .meta4 or .metalink link works the same way.
Feeds
Follow a podcast, a project’s releases or any RSS or Atom feed under Downloads, Feeds. New files download by themselves, with words to include or skip. Torrents in a feed wait for you to open them.
A watch folder
In Settings, Files, pick a folder: a .torrent, a Metalink or a .txt list of links put there starts by itself.
Continue on another computer
Send a paused download, with everything downloaded so far, to another computer with Fuselane on your network. It carries on there.

Videos from pages

Install the free yt-dlp tool (and ffmpeg for HD and MP3). Then paste a video’s page and choose Get the video from this page. Pick a quality, or Audio (MP3), and Fuselane downloads it over every network. YouTube and 1,000+ other sites work; the browser extension’s button does the same in one click.

Torrents

Paste a magnet link, drop a .torrent file, or open one from your system. Choose the files you want first, and give each High, Normal, Low or Skip; you can play a video or song while it downloads. Peers are spread across your networks, the Peers tab shows who you’re downloading from, and limits, Slow mode and allowances apply too.

Sharing after a download finishes is off unless you turn it on, with ratio and time limits and a guard for metered networks.

Sending

Fuse Send links
Open Send, pick a file and copy the link; send it any way you like. The other person’s Fuselane fetches the file straight from yours, encrypted on the way, and checks it before saving it. There is no upload, so no size limit and no expiry. Shares come back after a restart with the same link, and can stop by themselves after one full copy.
Nearby
Computers and phones on your network appear by themselves on the Send page. Pick one and send; trusted devices receive without asking. It works with the free LocalSend app on phones, and you choose who can see your computer.
Text and folders
Send what you copied to another computer; from a trusted one it lands on the clipboard. Drop a folder on a device to send it, or keep a folder in sync with your other computer: new and changed files go across whenever both are on your network, nothing is deleted there, and there is no cloud.
Phones without the app
Show a code to scan: a phone on the same Wi-Fi can then send or receive files and text in its browser.

Your networks

The Networks page has three tabs. Setup lets you rename and recolour each network, set its limits and its hours. Check measures them. Usage shows what each one carried.

Network check
Each network’s speed, delay, jitter, how it copes when busy (graded A+ to F) and name lookups, then every network together. It takes about a minute and uses roughly 25 MB per network from Cloudflare’s public speed test. Fuselane also notes outages, and makes a dated report you can send your internet provider.
Data used
What each network carried this month, and a chart day by day.
Allowances
A monthly cap per network, for example 5 GB on the phone resetting on the 15th. At the cap, Fuselane stops using that network until the reset day.
Hours, and long downloads only
Use a network only between set times, such as the phone on a night plan; downloads move over by themselves. Before midnight sets 22:00 to 00:00, for a phone on a daily data pack that expires at midnight. Or choose Always, Long downloads or Never per network, so short downloads leave your phone’s data alone.
Throttled networks
When one network slows to a crawl while the others keep going (a phone cut to 64 kbps after its daily data, say), Fuselane stops giving it work and the others carry the rest. The download says so, and the network is tried again every few minutes. A server that is slow on every network doesn’t count.
Proxy per network
For a network that only reaches the internet through a proxy, set an HTTP or SOCKS5 proxy for it in Setup. Downloads on it go through the proxy; https stays encrypted end to end. Your system’s proxy settings aren’t used, and torrents still connect directly.
Sign-in pages and low battery
Hotel and café Wi-Fi that needs a sign-in shows Sign in needed and is left out until you sign in. On low battery you can keep going, leave out the phone, or pause until you plug in.

Browser extension

The Chrome extension hands big downloads to Fuselane and leaves the rest in the browser. Files behind a sign-in work too, if you allow it. The app sets itself up for Chrome, Edge, Brave, Vivaldi, Chromium and Firefox every time it starts, so there’s nothing to install by hand, and if Fuselane can’t take a download, the browser keeps it.

Other apps and the command line

Remote control (Settings, Other apps, off by default) lets AriaNg, the Aria2 browser extensions and phone remote apps add downloads and watch them. Every call needs a secret, and only this computer can connect unless you allow your network; then you can scan a code to control downloads from your phone’s browser.

The same engine runs from a terminal, for scripts and servers:

fuselane get <link>

There are also resume, ls, rm and nets, with --json for ls and nets.

Limits, honestly

  • Servers that refuse parts. If a server doesn’t allow downloading in parts, the file comes over one network. If it limits connections, Fuselane backs off.
  • Links tied to one network. Some links only work from the address that asked for them; then only that network is used.
  • One shared line. Two networks through the same router and provider share that line, so they won’t add up.
  • A VPN that takes everything. If a VPN routes all traffic through one connection, Fuselane sees one connection.
  • Torrent lookups. DHT and tracker lookups use the default network and aren’t counted toward allowances.
  • Android over USB on a Mac. Some Android phones’ USB tethering needs a driver macOS doesn’t include. If the phone isn’t under Network in System Settings, Fuselane can’t see it either. On Windows and Linux it usually just works.
  • Not notarized on macOS. Fuselane is ad-hoc signed, not notarized (that needs a paid Apple account), so macOS asks once. The install script and Homebrew skip the step.
  • SmartScreen on Windows. Until code signing through the SignPath Foundation is approved, Windows may say it protected your PC: choose More info, then Run anyway.
  • Beta. It’s a public beta. Downloads survive a dropped network, sleep and crashes, but please tell us what breaks.

Privacy and updates

Nothing leaves your computer except your downloads and a check for signed updates. No account, no analytics, no crash reports. Updates arrive inside the app; each one is signed and checked before it installs.

If something goes wrong, Settings, Report a problem opens a bug report with the diagnostics filled in, for you to read and send. Nothing is sent by itself, and diagnostics never include links or file names. Read the privacy policy.