title: Do most browsers make multiple HTTP Requests when displaying a PDF from within the browser
body: <p>Do most (IE, FF, Safari, Chrome, Opera) make multiple HTTP Requests for a PDF file when displaying the PDF in a browser? I am working on an issue integrating with WebTrends Web Analytics software, and the statistics around PDFs appear to be incorrect. Support told me that because WebTrends parses the Web Servers access logs to determine traffic, downloads, etc. it has a difficult time determining accurate PDF downloads because:<br>
  When a user clicks on a PDF and the PDF opens in the user's browser via the Acrobat Reader browser plug-in, each page is downloaded one-at-a-time -- it does this to conserve bandwidth, if a user only views the first 2 pages of a 50 page PDF, only the first 2 pages are downloaded.</p>
  
  <p>This sounds fishy to me (how could a HTTP Request be made to only serve out a portion of a binary file?) -- I've been searching Google, but haven't found anything that speaks to this.</p>
  
  <p>I will try to find some IE software that lets me sniff the HTTP traffic tomorrow to see if i can observe this phenomenon.</p>
  
  <p>Any info/thoughts are appreciated though.</p>