Byte Range Requests in Bluehost

Byte Range Requests let you download only part of a file, which is useful for large media files or resuming interrupted downloads. This feature also allows clients to use multiple connections to download a file at the same time.

Apple requires servers streaming podcasts to iTunes to support Byte-Range requests, and many other companies and applications use this feature as well.

• Byte Range Requests Availability
• How to Check if Byte Requests is Enabled
• Summary

Byte Range Requests Availability

Linux Hosting - Enabled

Apache has Byte Range Requests enabled by default and it is enabled on all our Linux Hosting options, including Shared, Reseller, SEO Hosting, VPS & Linux Dedicated Servers.

Windows Hosting

Byte Range Requests can be enabled on a Windows Dedicated Server, but are not available on Windows Shared Hosting.

How to Check if Byte Requests is Enabled

The following quick PHP script can be used to verify that byte range requests is turned on:

<?php
$range = '60-120';
$host = "yourdomain.tld";
$socket = fsockopen($host,80);
$packet = "GET /some-static-file.txt HTTP/1.1\r\nHost:
$host\r\nRange:bytes=$range\r\nAccept-Encoding: gzip\r\nConnection:
close\r\n\r\n";
fwrite($socket,$packet);
echo fread($socket,2048);
?>

You will need to edit this to include your domain (instead of yourdomain.tld) and upload a static file on your account called some-static-file.txt in the same directory as the PHP script.

Summary

Byte Range Requests are important for efficient file downloads and are supported on Linux hosting platforms by default. Windows Dedicated Servers can enable this feature, but it is not available on Windows Shared Hosting. You can use a PHP script to check if Byte Range Requests are enabled on your server.