PRB: FTP Does Not Support InternetSetFilePointer

ID: Q168408

The information in this article applies to:

• Internet Explorer (Programming), versions 3.0, 3.01, 3.02, 4.0, 4.01

SYMPTOMS

InternetSetFilePointer is wrongly documented as supporting FTP and Gopher protocols. In reality it is only supported for the HTTP protocol and only works for requests to servers that support the HTTP/1.1 "RANGE" header.

CAUSE

Support for partial file download is contingent on both the client and the server. Because of a lack of FTP servers that support partial file downloads, no support for FTP was included for InternetSetFilePointer. The Gopher specification does not support partial file downloads.

STATUS

This behavior is by design.

Keywords          : kbIE300 kbIE400 kbIE401 kbWinInet 
Version           : Win:1.0,4.0,4.01
Platform          : WINDOWS
Issue type        : kbprb

Last Reviewed: January 8, 1999