PRB: FTP Does Not Support InternetSetFilePointer (168408)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Internet Explorer (Programming) 3.0
  • Microsoft Internet Explorer (Programming) 3.01
  • Microsoft Internet Explorer (Programming) 3.02
  • Microsoft Internet Explorer (Programming) 4.0
  • Microsoft Internet Explorer (Programming) 4.01
  • Microsoft Windows Internet Services (WinInet)
This article was previously published under Q168408

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.
Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:5/17/2002
Keywords:kbprb KB168408
©2002 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.