Compress download file

Sorry, You don't have that type of control over the downloaded file.  You could compress the file, but the client would have to know the steps to uncompress it, you can't do it for him.

What about the GZIPStream where the file gets compressed while it is being downloaded??  I am trying to download an .mdb access file and they are too big, so am needing to compress them and make them smaller.

GZipStream works great between two computers connected and running a compatible .Net application.  The web is completely different, downloads occur over HTTP, and the best you can do is zip the file completely and give instructions on how to unzip.  If you really really wanted to do this, you'd have to create a client application that receives the GZipStream over a socket connection, then you can download the file that way.  Mind you, this is not asp.net!

This is over the intranet actually, the people that dial in have really slow connections and timeout before the file is completely downloaded...  so I do have more control over what the clients have..  if that helps..

Totally off the subject, but have you tried compacting the access database before you make it available to download?  There is an option in Access to do this somewhere.  That can greatly decrease the size of the database.

If you want to do this right, I'd create a client application to download the database, using GZipStream or whatever you want to use.  You probably can even modify asp.net to serve compressed chunks of the file that the client application will download and piece together.  The client program will be better able to handle timeouts, and resuming downloads, and making sure the download is completed successfully.  Unfortunately, I can't help you much with that, that's really out of my expertise.

Before you do this though, you might want to look at some of the download managers that you can install for the browser.  They support resuming downloads when they timeout.  You may have to do something in asp.net to support that though.

The database is compacted, I am looking at using the Chilkat Software possibly, but would rather not use a third party...  Do you or anyone know if VS 2008 has better support for compressing the files, we will be switching to that very soon.

When I need to zip something up, I just run 7-zip from the command-line.  There is no need to purchase third-party software to zip something up as long as you have capable programmers.  I'm not sure if VS 2008 has something easier, but I doubt it since Zip is a protected technology.

Unfortunately the people downloading are not programmers, they are users that only know to hit the download button and their databases will be updated....  but now they are getting timeouts since the databases are getting larger..

You misunderstood me, I'm not implying your users be anything than users.  I was just stating you don't need a third-party tool if you have a capable programmer to work with a command-line utility.

I guess I am still just needing an example of how to use the GZIPStream, it seems like it would work for me, from what I have read on MSDN, but I just can't find a good example of how to use it.

We just seem to be going in circles now, I've already mentioned why GZIPStream isn't going to work solely over a web browser.

But raterus you said,
"If you want to do this right, I'd create a client application to download the database, using GZipStream or whatever you want to use.  You probably can even modify asp.net to serve compressed chunks of the file that the client application will download and piece together.  The client program will be better able to handle timeouts, and resuming downloads, and making sure the download is completed successfully.  Unfortunately, I can't help you much with that, that's really out of my expertise."

I was wanting to try going the way you recommended???

Thank you very much for your help, if I need further help with the coding I will just make a separate question.