Create a small progress 'display box' that shows the current speed/progress

A very old favorite program, Flashget, has a little box which shows the speed of the current download. eg- if you sent your d/l speed at 1meg (1000k), and your downloading at ~500k, the box shows a linear graph at about the half way point from top to bottom. If you're d/l'ing at above 1000k, the box is full.

It's great for monitoring d/l speed and noticing any interruptions in service without having to switch programs. Note that it doesn't show progress of any particular file(s), just the current speed vs. max of anything currently downloading.

See flashget for more. It's an old program, but it still works. (Find the older version, not the most recent. The most recent doesn't work well)