check fastest mirror

[Auke Kok]

Jon South wrote:
> Steven Michalske wrote:
>> So we need to use wget to pick a 1MB file off of that mirror,
>> and download it.  after we pick a file we then download that same  
>> file from all the other mirrors.
>> save the times and pick the lowest.
>>
>> now we can specify the file manually or we can have it auto magically  
>> selected.
>>
>> This should be written as a fast_mirror_plugin,  that ranks the  
>> mirrors from your location.
>>
>> Steve
> 
> If I were the admin of a mirror you used to do speed tests with random 
> files, I would not be too happy with you. Speed tests should be done 
> with a legitimate file that you *need* -- Perhaps a scoreboard system 
> addon would be better to keep track of download speeds from different 
> mirrors. This could go along with the region codes and/or mirror weights 
> and the addon would adjust according to the [actual] fastest mirror.

I actually think this is a bad idea in general. You are trying to come up with 
a perfect solution to an imperfect problem and not taking friday-night's pr0n 
rush into account, the fact that your cat is chewing on your wifi antenna, and 
the ISP playing lottery with your download speeds.

It's a lot better to just take the FIRST step in the right direction, and then 
see where we can improve. I think my region-based approach is already good 
enough for almost anyone, it's easily to implement, it will always work and the 
overhead is negligent.

Those who want more can ping and traceroute all they want and pick specific 
mirrors anyway.

Auke