Codeedoc - Programming Blog

Limiting File Downloading Speed In PHP

The following code allows you to limit the speed of downloading files from your server.

// file to download 
$filename = ‘file-to-download.zip’;

// filename visible for client
$visible_name = ‘client-file-name.zip’;

// setting the download rate limit (=> 36,6 kb/s)
$download_rate = 36.6;

// checking if file exists
if(file_exists($filename) && is_file($filename)) {

    // send headers
    header(‘Cache-control: private’);
    header(‘Content-Type: application/octet-stream’);
    header(‘Content-Length: ‘.filesize($filename));
    header(‘Content-Disposition: filename=’.$visible_name);

    // flush content
    flush();    

    // open file stream
    $file = fopen($filename, “r”);    

    while(!feof($file)) {

        // send the current file part to the browser
        print fread($file, round($download_rate * 1024));    

        // flush the content to the browser
        flush();

        // sleep one second
        sleep(1);
    }    

    // close file stream
    fclose($file);
}
else {
    die(‘Error: The file ‘.$visible_name.‘ does not exist!’);
}