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-   -   Please put the average connection speed/bandwidth of mirrors on LQ (

vharishankar 01-16-2005 04:12 AM

Please put the average connection speed/bandwidth of mirrors on LQ
I don't know how this information can be obtained, but before downloading from LQ, I'd like to be able to see the speed/bandwidth of the servers where the ISO mirrors are hosted.

It would help me choose a server/mirror that has a high-speed connection to the internet.

Just a thought.

david_ross 01-16-2005 07:36 AM

This information is not always easy to obtain which is why we introduced the % rating system.

This also has the added advantage that if a mirror A has twice as fast a connection as mirror B but mirror A receives 10 times as much traffic it is likely that mirror B will have a better rating.

vharishankar 01-16-2005 09:00 AM

The % rating is not always reliable. In different places in the world, people may have different types of internet connection. What is good for them is not always good for others. Also location is a very important factor.

The better method would be to specify the hosting server's total and available bandwidth/speed (i.e. the connection that the server that hosts the image to connect to the internet).

The reason I say it is this:

The other day, I downloaded SuSE Live 9.2 from a mirror which was highly rated and I got a very slow connection and the download took about 36 hours continuously on my slow cable connection. At the end of it, my download was corrupted probably due to long duration of inactivity with the download.

Yesterday I downloaded Knoppix 3.6 from another mirror and I good a consistently good speed of download and it took only 21 hours. And the downloaded file was good and uncorrupted.

So to me, the difference between a good connection and a bad connection is about 15 hours of wasted time and also a possible corrupted ISO image.

It would be nice if this info is available, however I agree that it may not always be accurate.

jeremy 01-16-2005 09:02 AM

Available bandwidth, the really useful number, would almost never be available in a real-time fashion that would be usable for LQ ISO. It would be great if it was, but it's just not feasible.


vharishankar 01-16-2005 09:05 AM

OK. If there are any other options to better representing a mirror's reliability/bandwidth, it would be nice.

However, being in India, I must say that in general, I find the Japanese/Singapore/Australasian/Pacific mirrors much faster and offer more consistent connections for my needs than mirrors in Europe or the US.

david_ross 01-16-2005 02:37 PM

The locations are already listed by continent. If we have missed a mirror that is available please use the suggestion links to let us know.


slackist 01-16-2005 08:16 PM


FWIW when I have to download on dial up I always try to find a mirror located in a timezone where it is the middle of the night, seems to help a bit.

