What portion of data is lost in data transfer?

[lukev]

When you download a 100mb file, how much bandwidth do you actually use? Let's say that the file is downloaded over HTTP. How much data is used up by the client and server conversation (e.g. client: send me 100k, server: starting now, client: got 100k, send me the next 100k...)

What I'm trying to establish is: Can my 3gig cap get me a 3gig file?

[Pox]

short answer...no
but it should get pretty close :)

<edit> ...spelling

[ant1b0dy]

This is sort of to do with your topic:

Binary email attachments are encoded as Base64 which basically uses 25% more space than plain binary. So to save 25% try to download your email attachments via a webmail interface cos HTTP downloads have less overhead... :p