How to use BITS to download from a UNC path?

Question

What is the best way to distribute files to users in remote offices, using BITS with a UNC path or BITS with HTTP? I have a VB.NET project which currently downloads from a HTTP path, but there is added complexity involved (e.g. having a web server).

Or is there a better way to do this? Low bandwith usage is more important than speed of synching.

Answer 1

Maybe consider not using BITS at all and use the old favourite Robocopy. Robocopy is a standalone command-line executable which is part of the Windows Server 2003 ResKit tools and now standard on Vista/2008. Robocopy has the /IPG:ms (Inter-Packet Gap) switch to "dribble" the download, which is designed specifically to not saturate slow links.