>>>Yes, you can return the data as a byte array and it will encode on the wire. On the other hand you can pick up the byte array and either write it to disk or creaet a stream from it...
>>>
>>>Note though that there's overhead in this as the data is base64 encoded, so it'll likely double in size.
>>
>>thanks Rick, so for a file size in the 500k average size which pops to a meg per file, is it better to go via an FTP layer instead?
>>
>>This is a product catalouge that will have nag update reminders on a quarterly basis. In an update there may be a need to push out 3 or 5 new pdf "bulletins" that the company has created. Overall I figure that there will be 300 to 500 users around the world and 90% will be in broadband and remainder in dialup.
>>
>>Thanks for the reply.
>
>
>Hey Stephen,
>
>I think ftp is a more reliable protocol because http doesn't have any error checking.

The problem with ftp though, is that a lot of companies (like the one I work for) disable ftp. I can download all the harmful files I want, just so long as I do it in a protocol without error checking.