[GLLUG] Any relatively local mirrors for downloading Ubuntu Isos?

[Charles Ulrich]

Al Puzzuoli wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Does anyone know of any Michigan based, or other relatively local mirror for
> downloading feisty isos?  The downloads from Ubuntu.com always go really
> slowly for me, and configuring a torrent client to get through our firewall at
> work is probably more trouble than it's worth.

MSU used to have a mirror that served a number of open source projects, but
either it shut down or isn't maintained anymore because I haven't seen it in a
mirror list for a very very long time.

That said, usually the speed of FTP mirrors has less to do with geographic
location than with the allowed upstream bandwidth of the FTP host. Most mirror
operators intentionally limit the transfer rate such that the mirror's
bandwidth isn't a significant portion of the organization's whole (unless part
of their mission is to be an FTP mirror). Sometimes you'll get horrible speeds
from a server the next state over while a mirror in Finland will easily
saturate a 20Mbit connection. Of course, it's better on the Internet as a
whole if you're not grabbing gigs of data from the other side of the world,
which they main reason they recommend using a nearby mirror.

The best thing to do is keep a list of list of fast mirrors and consult them
first when you need to download something large. My favorite three are:

http://mirror.cs.wisc.edu/ (U of Wisconsin)
http://mirrors.tds.net/ (TDS, a telco and DSL provider)
http://ftp.osuosl.org/ (OSU's Open Source Lab)

-- 
Charles Ulrich
Ideal Solution, LLC - http://www.idealso.com