BITS job throws an error trying to download a zip file

Question

We get this error from the BITS job when trying to download a zip file from a remote server (we implemented an HTTP Handler for zip files on that server):

ERROR CODE: 0x80200013 - The server does not support the necessary HTTP protocol. Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) requires that the server support the Range protocol header.
ERROR CONTEXT: 0x00000005 - The error occurred while the remote file was being processed.

My understanding is that the error suggests we should add the Content-Range header. I added the header, now the code looks like below:

context.Response.ContentType = "application/x-zip-compressed";
context.Response.AppendHeader("Content-Disposition", string.Format("inline; fileName={0}", downloadFileName));
context.Response.AppendHeader("Content-Range", "bytes " + start + "-" + end + "/" + size);
context.Response.AppendHeader("Content-Length", fs.Length.ToString());
fs.CopyTo(context.Response.OutputStream);

context.Response.Flush();
context.Response.Close();

, but I keep receiving the same error.

I also tried the following line:

context.Response.AppendHeader("Accept-Ranges", "bytes");

but ended up with a different error: "The connection with the server was terminated abnormally". The download link works perfectly fine in the browser.

i will appreciate any ideas, thanks!

Answer 1

That error indicates that your server does not meet the HTTP Requirements for BITS Downloads . Does the server accept HEAD requests?

BITS users should configure download jobs with BITS_JOB_PROPERTY_DYNAMIC_CONTENT and BG_JOB_PRIORITY_FOREGROUND when targeting non-compliant servers. Bear in mind that this will result in BITS having to restart the download from scratch if/when it gets interrupted (eg, due to connectivity issues or system reboot).