Why is updating so slow?

[Homer]

On 1/25/07, Chris Miller <lordsauronthegreat at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 1/25/07, Homer <fsunoles at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Thanks for the comments.  One thing I'm sure of it is not the
> > connection at my end.  Government lab with connections to the abilene
> > backbone.  I wish I could choose my mirror with (K)ubuntu like I do on
> > all my Debian installs.  With Debian I can pick a close university or
> > gov lab on the Abilene network and the connection is always amazing.
> > With (K)ubuntu you get what you get.  Maybe I'm wrong on this though,
> > as I can't claim to have done an exhaustive search on ubuntu mirrors.
>
> That's curious.  I live right next to the Lawrence Livermore Nat'l
> Labratories (okay, in neighboring Pleasanton, but pretty dang close)
> and the lab's Debian servers were never the cream of the crop when I
> ran that-apt-utility-that-finds-the-fastest-mirror-that-I-forgot-the-name-of,
> yet the Ubuntu mirrors for me are roughly 3x as fast as the fastest
> Debian one.

Living next door may not be enough in my experience.  If you are on
the Abilene network and connect to another computer on the same
network the speeds are amazing.  That said, I've never tried
connecting to LLNL.  Lately my best successes have been with Oregon
State, University of Chicago, Argonne Nat. Lab, and Berkeley.  With
Debian installs I can pick one of these locations which is nice.  I've
pulled 700 MB isos from these places in 5-7 minutes, so when a Kubuntu
150 MB update takes something like 30 minutes, it gets frustrating.