Do you use services online that make you wait for a countdown clock to run down before you can download files? Do you have to watch advertisements before continuing on to your favorite websites?

Well I don’t know about the later (I tend to skip browsing these types of sites) but when I am downloading files using a free account on RapidShare I can tell you I hate staring at the screen for those 30-50 seconds before I can continue and start my download.

I have walked away from the machine to come back a few minutes later only to find out that my download had expired and I had to start all over again!

I know I mentioned that popular file sharing site called Rapidshare but I am also talking about MegaUpload, Zshare and loads of others.

Now I found this great service that gets added to your FireFox by browsing over to Skipscreen and clicking the link to “Add to FireFox”.

Take a look at the video below for a detailed explanation of how SkipScreen works. Or continue on for my ‘how to’.

When you first arrive at the SkipScreen site you will see this screen:

Simply click the button that says ‘Add To FireFox’.

(First and foremost you need to be running Firefox for this to work, so I don’t want to keep getting questions on why it doesn’t work in Internet Explorer or Safari.)

You will be taken to the Firefox add-ons page. Here you click on the same ‘Add To FireFox’ button and this time you will see this screen:

Click on Install Now. You will see your progress followed by this screen:

You know the drill – hit the Restart Firefox button and you are now loaded and ready to go.

Now to give it a shot.

Normally I go to download a free RapidShare link and I have to wait to click my link and then wait some more. Now I simply click my link and continue on with what I am doing and SkipScreen does its magic. When my file becomes available it grabs it and starts my download.

I visited this Rapidshare link to grab a copy of Windows Mobile 6.5 for my ATT Fuze.

The screen I got looked like it normally does but on closer inspection it has a green banner at the bottom that says this:

I continued on to open another tab and after a short while of browsing I saw this pop-up:

This is awesome! I don’t know if it violates the TOS from any of the big download companies but it is making my life MUCH easier!

Anyone else have any tips or tricks on downloading what we want faster ““ without paying a premium? Hit us up in the comments!