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You specify a byte "range" when requesting a file via HTTP from the server. Not all servers support this, but most do these days.

#Edit. More info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byte_serving



Just looked that up, that's a rather limited usefulness. The multi homed usage makes sense but feels out of place really.


Why? How could it be more useful? HTTP byte ranges are incredibly flexible, since you one request can specify many byte ranges at once (it's almost too flexible, since a dumb server can easily be overwhelmed by a maliciously complicated request)

It handles the basic case of fetching the remainder of an interrupted download, and can also support partial downloads e.g. for supporting a video stream with the user jumping to different places in the movie.




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