Prioritized delivery and content auto select system

A method for delivering a file from a server to a plurality of client over a network, comprising:

• determining a time by which each client of said plurality of clients is to receive said file;
• determining an availability of each client of said plurality of clients;
• determining a throughput of each client of said plurality of clients;
• transmitting said file to said plurality of clients in a prioritized order determined in response to said time by which each client of said plurality of clients is to receive said file, the respective availability of each client of said plurality of client, and the respective throughput of each client of said plurality of clients;
• and
• calculating a first probability and a second probability that said file will be delivered to each client before said time,
• wherein said first probability that said file will be delivered before said time is calculated in response to a first distribution curve and a second distribution curve,
• wherein said first distribution curve is the expected amount of time that each client is active until said time, and
• wherein said second distribution curve is the distribution of throughput to said client.

A method for distributing a file from a server to a plurality of clients over a network, comprising:

• determining a deadline by which time each of the clients is to receive a copy of the file,
• determining a throughput for each of the clients at which the server can transmit the copy of the file to that client;
• computing a priority value for each of the clients from the deadline and the throughput to that client;
• and
• transmitting the copy of the file to each of the clients in an order determined by the priority values computed for each of the clients,
• wherein a higher priority value is initially computed for a first one of the clients than for a second one of the clients when the throughput to the first one of the clients is faster than the throughput to the second one of the clients, and
• wherein the priority value of the second one of the clients increases relative to the priority value of the first one of the clients as the time remaining until the deadline decreases.

A method for distributing a file from a server to a plurality of clients over a network, comprising:

• determining a deadline by which time each of the clients is to receive a copy of the file;
• determining a throughput for each of the clients at which the server can transmit the copy of the file to that client;
• computing a priority value for each of the clients from the deadline and the throughput to that client;
• transmitting the copy of the file to each of the clients in an order determined by the priority values computed for each of the clients;
• detecting a new client on the network in communication with the server;
• determining that sufficient bandwidth is currently unavailable to transmit the copy of the file to the new client;
• computing a priority value for the new client;
• interrupting communication between the server and one of the clients having a lower priority value than the new client;
• and
• initiating transmission of the copy of the file to the new client.