Q.Why do some things take so long to download?
The speed at which a download takes place is limited by both the bandwidth of the downloader and by the bandwidth of the uploader. A document cannot by transferred faster than the uploader is capable of sending it, nor can it be transferred faster than the downloader is capable of receiving it. To Maximise transfer speed chose search results having more than 2 yellow stars and configure your firewall/router to allow traffic through Ares' data port (your data port is in control panel->transfer->Accept incoming connections on port:)
Quoted from http://aresgalaxy.sourceforge.net/support.html
If that does work try their forums:
http://sourceforge.net/forum/?group_id=112366
Hope this helps