tcp downloads and bandwidth utilization

Dave Barr (dave_barr@phoenix.com)
Thu, 3 Jun 1999 19:12:33 -0700

I am interested in downloading content in the background when a user is
connected to the internet. The requirement is that the downloading will not
impair the user's performance, i.e. the application will only download when
the connection is not being used, the full bandwidth is not being utilised
etc, etc.

Can anybody tell me how this would be done? I am looking to find out the
following:

a) At what level do I have to monitor TCP/IP traffic - would this be a
driver level app, or could it be done at the sockets layer?
b) How do I monitor performance on the socket, and judge when my application
can take over?

b) is more in the area of this mailing list, i.e. stack performance, but I
hoped that somebody would have done this type of thing before and could give
me some pointers.

Thanks,

Dave