> > It seems to me that the main reason that ftp.kernel.org gets overloaded is
> > the vast number of people who are referred to it from sites which carry
> > announcements. Slashdot being the obvious offender here, but linuxhq and I'm
> > sure other sites are also guilty. Has anyone tried persuading them to carry
> > a mirror of anything they announce so as to reduce the strain? It seems like
> > a reasonable request.
> DNS could be setup such that when ftp users attempt to connect to
> ftp.kernel.org, it resolves to one of the mirror sites. For example, look
> at ftp.netscape.com's DNS entry:
> [ttyp3] bentlema@feyd /home/staff03/bentlema% nslookup ftp.netscape.com
> Server: mail.cs.umn.edu
> Address: 128.101.230.70
>
> Non-authoritative answer:
> Name: ftp.netscape.com
> Addresses: 204.152.166.60, 207.200.74.21, 207.200.74.22, 209.143.199.10
> 207.200.77.34, 207.200.77.46, 207.200.74.25, 207.200.74.26,
> 207.200.71.59, 204.152.166.47
> One of the administrators at ftp.kernel.org would take on a little bit more
> responsibility maintaining the DNS entry, but it would sure help distribute
> the load.
Note that this list isn't really a list of mirrors, it's merely the list of
machines called 'ftp.netscape.com'. A mirror does not necesarily have the
information in the same place, and quite oft doesn't. Also, most people
consider a mirror only an ftp site with the same information that is
located, network-topographically, in a different place, to provide faster
links.
Also, in order to do something like netscape, one actually has to have 10
machines (or less, but 10 is what netscape uses) for it to have any effect.
Merely giving a machine one more ipnumber is not going to have any effect.
Not with FTP anyway.
kernel.org does have mirrors, and yes, they should be used, but kernel.org
cannot do much about it, other than friendly notes saying where to find
mirror sites. I think the 'ftp.<country>.freebse.org' setup is a nice
example. It's not perfect, because being in the same country doesn't mean it
has a fast link to you, but it's about as simple as it gets.
Whoever administrates kernel.org (Linus ? HPA ?) -- I think there are a few
sites around the world that wouldn't mind the 'ftp.<>.kernel.org' name... I
know of 2, at least, here in .nl. The question is, does anyone (at
transmeta) have time to organize it ? :)
Regards,
Thomas.
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