chrism@imntv.com wrote:
John Summerfield wrote:
Who cares? When I think of "local" in terms of an update mirror, all I care about is latency (less so) and bandwidth (more so)...the fact that a particular host is located in Perth or Ulan Bator or Los Angeles really isn't important to me. Getting the bits from point A to point B in the quickest and most reliable fashion IS important. I don't understand why you're so hung up on server location as physical geography is becoming less and less relevant as the world becomes more and more wired.
If you read my earlier posts, you might have noticed terms like "download limits."
Most users don't have "all you can eat" plans, and if they exceed their quota they can be charged extra ($60-120 per gigabyte) or br throttled back to modemesque speeds.
Okay, the minimum charge gor overuns seems to have come down since last I looked (I can't have ADSL here), but the top charge is pretty steep. See here for a sample of what people in other places have:
http://bc.whirlpool.net.au/bc-plan.cfm?state=wa&class=0&type=res&...
"shaped" means "throttled back severely."
This rabbit looks like a wounded bull!! http://bc.whirlpool.net.au/isp.cfm/Rabbit-Net-ADSL/678-1.html?p=7610
That is why geographic locality is important. And it's not just so for Western Australian, similar rules apply in at least some European countries.
I'm downloading at work (adsl there); while the boss knows, he will not be happy if he gets a Big Bill, or if the school gets "shaped."