Downloading files in pieces with WebRequest/WebResponse

  • Thread starter Thread starter Richard K Bethell
  • Start date Start date
R

Richard K Bethell

From what I am reading, a System.Net.WebRequest can be set to retrieve just
parts of a file in the WebResponse, using the .AddRange method to specify a
byte range. This would be very useful for me for a client that I want to
build which will download files in a small footprint.

However, what I'm missing (probably just overlooking) is how to use the
WebRequest or WebResponse to query a file's size, so that you know what your
maximum range is - how can you get the number of bytes for a potential
download before actually beginning?

Richard
 
However, what I'm missing (probably just overlooking) is how to use the
WebRequest or WebResponse to query a file's size, so that you know what
your maximum range is - how can you get the number of bytes for a
potential download before actually beginning?
Click to expand...

AFAIK there is no simple way to knowing it. Some web servers will specify
content-length, and some will not. they can even put content-length to -1.

So, what the client has to do in this case?

In your situation, I'd specified some fixed range which can be adjusted by
some heuristics, if content length is not specified.
 
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