[ale] ALE FTP Server

[Dow Hurst]

I've been using the ale server for my 9.3 updates and it is always the 
fastest of the suse defined US servers.  I just used it today and 
yesterday for patches.  Actually, only the first update has real size to 
it, and those are still delta rpms.  Suse switched to delta rpms in 9.x 
series to save bandwidth.  I haven't setup a local source mirror for 
patching but it is possible to do that by having one server pull the 
patches and save them.  Then, you'd point your other local machines to 
that machines repository of patches with ftp, nfs, or http, take your 
pick.  So only during the month or so after a new version comes out will 
the load be extra heavy.  I've not noticed any slowdown from ale.org at 
all, even for remote installs in the last month.

I appreciate the ale server being available like this.  In the past 
there were only a few erratic US servers and the only truly reliable one 
was the suse.de server.  It was always overloaded and very slow.  Now US 
installs default to only US servers and there are several around the 
country that are reliable.  Just my thanks and two cents on the issue,
Dow


Greg Freemyer wrote:
>Recently it has seemed to me that the ALE FTP server is running slower
>than before.
>
>Today I finally got around to upgrading a couple of my machines to SUSE 9.3
>
>I was very surprised to the the ALE FTP server shown as one of the 5
>main US update sites.
>
>Considering the size of SuSE 9.3s online update and number of 9.3
>users, could the load be slowing down data transfers?
>
>If that is the case, should we consider trying to get Novell to take
>ALE FTP off the list, or at least make it a secondary site.
>
>Greg
>