ASP.NET Response.BinaryWrite file download being block with SSL

Question

I have a page that generates a dynamic file for download, and sends it to the client using Response.BinaryWrite.

Everything seems to work fine, except when we moved it to a test server with SSL. The download happens in a new window, and what I'm seeing (in IE7/8 but not chrome or FF) is the tab opens, and closes, but no File Dialogue is shown.

Here's the complete header write:

Response.Clear()
        Response.Buffer = True
        Response.ContentType = "application/octet-stream"
        Response.AddHeader("Content-Length", abytFileData.Length.ToString)
        Response.AddHeader("cache-control", "private")
        Response.AddHeader("Expires", "0")
        Response.AddHeader("Pragma", "cache")
        Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", "attachment; filename=""" & pMsg!pstrFileName & """")
        Response.AddHeader("Accept-Ranges", "none")
        Response.BinaryWrite(abytFileData)
        Response.Flush()
        Response.End()

I thought for sure that my problem was what was mentioned here,

But my cache-control heade is correct. Any ideas?

maybe duplicate? http://stackoverflow.com/questions/419868/file-download-dialog-ie7-disappears — Dimi Takis, Dec 08 '09 at 21:39
Didn't see that post, but the link I provided is similar. In his question he didn't specify the cache-control header as anything, which was causing his problem. In mine I'm specifying cache-control as private, which should work. — Gaidin, Dec 08 '09 at 22:05
Your Expires: 0 or Pragma may be the culprit. You should consider removing them. — EricLaw, Dec 27 '09 at 21:41

score 3 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:25

3

See answer here:

C# BinaryWrite over SSL

Essentially, replace:

Response.Clear();

with ...

Response.ClearContent();
Response.ClearHeaders();

edited May 23 '17 at 12:25

Community

1
1

answered Dec 08 '09 at 21:48

Keith Adler

20,880
28
119
189

Sorry I neglected to mention that I tried that as well. No luck. – Gaidin Dec 08 '09 at 22:02

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 14 '10 at 15:38

2

I've encountered the same problem and after some degree of investigation I found an article on codeproject suggesting that the download is being blocked by IE security settings. If you go to Tools->Internet Options->Security Tab and look at the Download options for the zone you are accessing, you need to change the "Automatic prompting for file downloads" to be Enabled. The "Internet" zone default setting for this is Disabled. Here's the link to the article I mentioned: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/aspnet/SecureFileDownload.aspx

answered Jan 14 '10 at 15:38

Garry Stewart

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Yep, this was the same conclusion I came to as well. Not very helpful in that the security setting for SSL connections is defaulted not to force the download prompt, and telling every single one of our users to change their security settings isn't really an option. What I ended up doing was instead of doing our download in a separate window, I did it in an iframe, so the IE security drop down warning was visible. – Gaidin Jan 15 '10 at 14:08

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 07 '10 at 19:49

Have you tried changing or removing your Expires or Pragma headers? The following code works for me when streaming PDFs over SSL:

Response.Buffer = True
Response.ClearContent()
Response.ClearHeaders()
Response.AddHeader("Cache-Control", "max-age=3")
Response.AddHeader("Pragma", "public")
Response.ContentType = "application/pdf"
Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment; filename=file.pdf")
Response.AddHeader("Content-Length", mem_stream.Length.ToString)
Response.BinaryWrite(mem_stream.ToArray())
Response.Flush()
Response.End()

ASP.NET Response.BinaryWrite file download being block with SSL

3 Answers3

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