Dynamically regulating content downloads

At a client computer system in a computerized environment that includes one or more regulation services configured to deliver software content in the form of one or more software packages to one or more client computer systems, a method of the client computer system accessing the software content in accordance with instructions received from the regulation service so that network bandwidth is managed effectively, comprising the acts of:

• sending a request to one or more servers to access one or more software packages hosted by any of the one or more servers;
• receiving one or more responses that include at least an acceptance rate associated with each of the requested one or more software packages;
• calculating an access value for each of the one or more software packages;
• sending one or more new requests to the any of the one or more servers to access each of the one or more software packages for which the calculated access value is within the acceptance rate for the corresponding software package.

At a regulation service in a computerized environment, the regulation service being configured to distribute software content in the form of one or more software packages to one or more client computer systems, a computer program product having computer executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed, cause one or more processors at the regulation service to perform a method comprising:

• identifying one or more software packages to be delivered to one or more computer systems over a network, wherein the one or more software packages are separated into priority levels;
• identifying at least an acceptance rate for each of the one or more software packages;
• receiving one or more requests from one or more computer systems for any of the one or more software packages;
• and
• sending to each of the one or more computer systems one or more responses that include the identified acceptance rate for each of the requested software packages.