I have an asp.net website that allows the user to download largish files – 30mb to about 60mb. Sometimes the download works fine but often it fails at some varying point before the download finishes with the message saying that the connection with the server was reset.
Originally I was simply using Server.TransmitFile but after reading up a bit I am now using the code posted below. I am also setting the Server.ScriptTimeout value to 3600 in the Page_Init event.
private void DownloadFile(string fname, bool forceDownload) { string path = MapPath(fname); string name = Path.GetFileName(path); string ext = Path.GetExtension(path); string type = ''; // set known types based on file extension if (ext != null) { switch (ext.ToLower()) { case '.mp3': type = 'audio/mpeg'; break; case '.htm': case '.html': type = 'text/HTML'; break; case '.txt': type = 'text/plain'; break; case '.doc': case '.rtf': type = 'Application/msword'; break; } } if (forceDownload) { Response.AppendHeader('content-disposition', 'attachment; filename=' + name.Replace(' ', '_')); } if (type != '') { Response.ContentType = type; } else { Response.ContentType = 'application/x-msdownload'; } System.IO.Stream iStream = null; // Buffer to read 10K bytes in chunk: byte[] buffer = new Byte[10000]; // Length of the file: int length; // Total bytes to read: long dataToRead; try { // Open the file. iStream = new System.IO.FileStream(path, System.IO.FileMode.Open, System.IO.FileAccess.Read, System.IO.FileShare.Read); // Total bytes to read: dataToRead = iStream.Length; //Response.ContentType = 'application/octet-stream'; //Response.AddHeader('Content-Disposition', 'attachment; filename=' + filename); // Read the bytes. while (dataToRead > 0) { // Verify that the client is connected. if (Response.IsClientConnected) { // Read the data in buffer. length = iStream.Read(buffer, 0, 10000); // Write the data to the current output stream. Response.OutputStream.Write(buffer, 0, length); // Flush the data to the HTML output. Response.Flush(); buffer = new Byte[10000]; dataToRead = dataToRead - length; } else { //prevent infinite loop if user disconnects dataToRead = -1; } } } catch (Exception ex) { // Trap the error, if any. Response.Write('Error : ' + ex.Message); } finally { if (iStream != null) { //Close the file. iStream.Close(); } Response.Close(); } }
The final fix for this problem was to make a modification in the web.config file. I simply had to change sessionState mode=’InProc’ to sessionState mode=’StateServer’.