NBLUG Mirror Survey

[Dustin Mollo]

On Sun, Dec 08, 2002 at 11:50:28AM -0800, Scott Doty wrote:
> On Sat, Dec 07, 2002 at 01:57:07PM -0800, Dustin Mollo wrote:
> 
> Well, I have a question...
> 
> > * If the mirrors were severly cutback or removed, would you miss them?
> 
> If you're concerned about bw from the mirror use, how about coordinating
> something with the Sonic.net mirrors?
> 
>   ftp://ftp.sonic.net/mirrors/
> 
> Click on the html files for mirror information.

There is no /mirrors/ directory.  Well, there is (it appears to be
hidden)...but I get a permission denied when I try to cd to it.  I tried
from my Sonic.net dialup.

The big issue here folks, is that yes - Sonic.net is becoming concerned
about the server's bandwidth usage.  I've started working on monitoring
where traffic is going (ie, staying on Sonic's network or leaving it), but
we had some hiccups with the software I had setup and we ended up loosing
about a month's worth of data.  For example, so far this month (December),
we've pumped out 9.6GB and taken in 1.24GB.  Last month (Nov 1 - Dec 1) we
sent out 49.59 GB and took in 4.63GB.

I'd say *most* of that traffic leaves Sonic's network, but I have no idea
what percentage.  Either way - technically (ie, if we were a paying
customer) Sonic charges for bandwidth regardless of whether it's staying on
Sonic's network or leaving their network.

I would never go so far as to say that providing fast mirrors is part of
NBLUG's mission and if they went away, I don't think that would really
effect our usefullness to the local Linux community.  I would really like to
keep the mirrors around since one day soon I hope to have DSL and would like
to take advantage of speedy mirrors like other NBLUG members have.  I do
have some concerns about non-NBLUG members using the mirrors, as they were
originally intended to be for our group (or at least in the sense that the
agreement I have with Sonic is that anything that happens with the server is
for the benefeit of members only.)  Obviously if a non-NBLUG member finds
the server without the help of a member, we can't really help that unless we
start requiring authentication to the mirrors.

As to Scott's comment about Sonic's mirrors, I suspect that Sonic would
prefer to keep access to those to just Sonic.net customers to cut bandwidth
issues.  I'm not sure how we could work together, but I'm certainly open to
suggestions from Sonic or from NBLUG members.

-Dustin