[plug] Mirrors

[Sham Chukoury]

James Elliott wrote:

>1.  Since we pay no more for Internet use if we download from within
>Australia as distinct from overseas, why use mirrors? - what is the
>advantage?
>2.  Who pays for the mirror sites if the downloads are free?
>
>  
>
Well, since the mirrors are in Australia and we are in Australia, then 
it means all network traffic happens within Australia (assuming your 
network doesn't route through some server overseas in the first place). 
This means lower latency during downloads (i.e. faster download... 
hopefully). The other advantage is load distribution - everyone trying 
to get a bit of software/source code doesn't have to add to the load on 
a single server. In fact, some servers do not accept more than a 
specified number of connections at once, so having more mirrors means 
you have more connection options.

Who pays? Well that depends on where the mirror is. Some ISPs provide 
mirrors, so they pay for the servers.

§:)