Erratic Repos & Mirrors
 

New Fedora 10 installation: I spent the better part of 4 hours
downloading a list of available updates for installed packages
using yum via dial-up. The volume of info wasn't so much a problem as
was the repos and mirrors sending the data. They kept erroring out
with one excuse or another - usually a timeout of some sort. I'd get
as much as 99% of a 1.8 MB file downloaded only to have the site die
on me and then have to start all over again. The thought of having
to download a 20MB update makes me literally sick.

Any suggestions for anything I can do on my end to optimize conditions
for the mirrors? High speed internet service is not an option until I
hit the lottery. Thanks.
dickydo1

Dickydo1,
I would visit Distrowatch.com and purchase the distro's you are interested in by mail. When I had dial-up, I bought a bunch of distros for just a few bucks each and avoided the problems of trying to download them on dial-up. LinuxCD.org has very reasonable prices and all the disks I got from them worked. Plus it's kinda cool to get some mail from France.

Good luck, Michael

Thank You
 

Thanks, Michael (mogrady)

Your suggested approach is probably how I will need to acquire updates
that are multi-megabyte in size for the immediate future.

Is there any reason to believe that download life will be any better if
I bite the bullet and spring for DSL? Are the mirrors going to get me
up to 19MB of a 20MB upgrade and then die on me like they do with dialup?
I'd be interested in hearing how others are faring with DSL.

From the looks of the URLs of the mirrors, it suggests that most of them
are colleges and universities that are most likely providing support on
a charitable basis. If that's the case, I guess I can't expect to have
the same download experience that I enjoy with Windows XP, where update
support is handled by large, for-profit institutions. While my dialup
downloads are still painfully slow with that OS, I can't help but feel
that things are going more smoothly there.

While waiting for a reply to my question, I found the following
suggestion on another web site:

* Yum plugins
* Fastest Mirror Plugin
Exactly what its name says. This plugin searches for the fastest mirror
in your mirrorlist and downloads all packages from it. To install it
type:
su -c 'yum install yum-fastestmirror'
Now, just use yum as usual. You can configure various settings of this plugin in the file:
su -c 'gedit /etc/yum/pluginconf.d/fastestmirror.conf'

Haven't actually tried it yet, but I'm hoping for better performance
when I do.

Thanks again, Michael (mogrady)

dickydo1

Dickydo,
Check with your local DSl providers, depending upon how many choices you have, and ask to "try out" their services. DSL varies by how far away you are from the their box or whatever they call it but you should be able to find one that works way MO' faster than dial-up. In Washington State I switched from dial-up to DSL, Qwest was the provider, and was more than happy. Most DSL providers will allow you to rent a modem for like 5 bucks a month and most, not all, offer 30 day trials. It will change your life. It's like getting television. You will be able to watch movies, all kinda video, its great. And you should have no trouble downloading Linux distros. Once you have high speed, you will never go back to dial-up. Just be smart and check your local choices. Check cable, too. But the ten buck a month dial up price will jump, I pay 45 bucks a month for cable high speed so . . .

Good luck, Michael