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Geek Culture / Important Poll!

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Ian T
22
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Joined: 12th Sep 2002
Location: Around
Posted: 1st Jun 2003 21:12
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Okay, not terribly important

I'm honestly curious here though. Let's say... you come to a download page. The download is gonna take a while. You have several mirrors. What do you normally do?

1- Pick a random mirror
2- Pick one in your general global area
3- Determine the one nearest to you and use it
4- Start downloading from all of them to see how fast they all are and choose the quickest

If #1, and in some cases #2 (if there are lots), which are you more likely to pick?

1- The first
2- The second
3- The third
4- Further link
5- The last (whichever it is)


Please answer honestly .

(By the way-- with me, it's normally #2 and #5)
--Mouse

Famous Fighting Furball
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IanM
Retired Moderator
22
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Joined: 11th Sep 2002
Location: In my moon base
Posted: 1st Jun 2003 21:52
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It depends.

If the links are anonymous, I'd pick the middle one.
If I know where the link is (geographically), I'll pick the nearest one, unless it's on the West Coast of the US (my ISP has a dedicated pipe to the west coast).
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Martyn Pittuck
22
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Joined: 27th Aug 2002
Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 1st Jun 2003 21:56
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personally i use the one furthest away.

The Outside is a evil place to be, too much light, too much noise and too many distractions....
I went outside once and my FPS rate dropped to 5.
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Mortie
21
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Joined: 1st Jun 2003
Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 1st Jun 2003 23:13
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Why? Surely whichever one is the closest would be the fastest. I don't download enough to know what I do... but probably if they were geographically labelled I'd chose a nearby one, and if not I'd choose one a couple down on the list because I'd assume most people went for the top one so it'd be the busiest.

Contrariwise, what is the world without the life? You fail to see the reverse of your arguments, and you are defeated.
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Danmatsuma
21
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Joined: 2nd Mar 2003
Location: Australia
Posted: 2nd Jun 2003 00:58
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I don't think I could help but use the nearest one, it's so boring waiting for things to download, what better way to pass the time than pop those annoying zits...

As far as the download mirrors were concerned, I'd probably download a segment from each of them using getright, fastidiously check which segments progressed the quickest, then rearrange, perhaps having two segments from the same server if they allowed it, but I'd definitely stay away from the ones which didn't support resuming, oh and hopefully by the time it had completed, The nearest mirror would be covered in my bloody puss I also like to place bets on which segment will arrive first, I always thought that utility would be worth a lot more if there was a little horse at the end of each progress bar, and you could bet on the winner for... fun?

ZX Spectrum 48k Issue 3, Radio shack Tape drive, Rank arena 12" T.V. set.
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Dazzag
22
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Joined: 26th Aug 2002
Location: Cyprus
Posted: 2nd Jun 2003 02:15 Edited at: 2nd Jun 2003 02:22
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Personally I choose ones that sound like US Unis. Tend to be better than most. Failing that is normally something US. Generally just seem to have better servers. And I've been downloading stuff since around 1991, so it's kind of second nature now. Ah... I miss Lancaster PD and Mono, now that I think of it....

Oh yeah, and don't a lot of download programs (think Gozilla does it) analyse mirrors and give you their speeds? Allowing you to choose the fastest. Thats what I used to do, before I realised Gozilla messes up all the machines I've used it on, and have never used it since. Infact I'm pretty sure it even has auto options to move automatically to another mirror when it is hitting a % above your current one. Or something like that.

Cheers

Oh, and I only do the above if it is a big file (10s of mb). Otherwise pick the one nearest the mouse. And if it starts really dragging (less that 35k a sec) then will kill off and try one of the others. Then go back to the 1st once I realise the first 3 are even worse.

I am 99% probably lying in bed right now... so don't blame me for crappy typing
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MikeS
Retired Moderator
21
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Joined: 2nd Dec 2002
Location: United States
Posted: 2nd Jun 2003 02:18
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I pick closest link, but if that gets too slow I try all of them.

(Current)-Game entering concept art stages-
(progress)-Should have demo in 6 months latest-
(misc.)-Started modeling buildings and other objects-
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Kangaroo2
21
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Joined: 26th Sep 2002
Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 4th Jun 2003 02:02
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I usually click the last one, assuming less people will be using it

Bunnies aren't just cute like everybody supposes, They got them hoppy legs & twitchy little noses,
And what's with all the carrots? What do they need such good eyesight for anyway?
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Nilrem
21
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Joined: 27th Feb 2003
Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 4th Jun 2003 02:26
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Quote: "assuming less people will be using it"

Assumed by most people. (Tries not to get all Derren Brown).

I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.
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Shadow Robert
21
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Joined: 22nd Sep 2002
Location: Hertfordshire, England
Posted: 4th Jun 2003 03:01 Edited at: 4th Jun 2003 03:36
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the distance of the mirror makes no difference... its the network it is based on will determin the hops.

for example the Vulcanus FTP has only 10hops and is based in Netherland ... whereas Fileplanet on a subscriber line for me is 28hops and it is as good as next door to where i live.

Adverts on a site which host files usally is a good indication there will be more hops, and if your worried about it then just goto run and type in "iproute ip" and it'll tell you the hops it makes.
anything over 30 and the line will be unstable and slow, ideally you want something with less than 14 ... but i wouldn't expect any to be less that 8 and yes even on a static line or direct internet link.

[edit-]
kinda forgot to say, i'll always pick a server i believe is reliable - if i've never used any before i usually go for a UK one, hardly anyone really uses otherwise i just pick one in my area or first on the list.

never really cared much about it to be honest though, a server is a server - no matter the load, no matter the hops, sometimes they just slow because thier slow.

Within the Epic battle of the fates the Shadow and the Angel will meet. With it will harbinger the very fight of good vs evil!
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Kangaroo2
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Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 4th Jun 2003 03:01
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lol yeah. I actually click on the one before last but wasn't gonna say that in case you all start doing the same and slow my downloads! lol

Bunnies aren't just cute like everybody supposes, They got them hoppy legs & twitchy little noses,
And what's with all the carrots? What do they need such good eyesight for anyway?
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Ian T
22
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Joined: 12th Sep 2002
Location: Around
Posted: 4th Jun 2003 05:58
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Thanks for your input, all

--Mouse

Famous Fighting Furball
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