Mirror, mirror for my updates

Hamish Taylor
Monday, 16 June 2008 05:48

Opinion and Analysis

It is possible to set your update sources to your ISP's local Linux mirror (however not all ISPs provide this). From them on, all the updates will come from the local mirror.

To get to this setting in Ubuntu, go to System, Administration, Software Sources. You'll need to put in your password, as you are changing something fairly fundamental. I suggest you take a screenshot or write down the existing settings before you change anything.

Right in the middle of the window you'll see "Download from" and it will (most likely) be set to "Main server". If you click on it, and then click on "Other" another window will open. From there you can select the best mirror.

Currently available Australian mirror servers are: iinet, netspace, aarnet, internode, optus, pacific, planetmirror. There's also an Australian Ubuntu mirror, but I am not sure where that operates.

If your ISP is not on that list above, I suggest that you contact them and ask if you have free access to one of those mirrors (maybe aarnet). If your ISP is on that list and you have free access to their mirror, then you can enjoy getting updates and it not affecting your monthly downloads.

Highlight the best one for you and click on Choose server, Close and click Reload to get the new package information. From then on your downloads will come from that mirror server.

Very occasionally I have found that my local mirror hasn't yet copied the files from the Main server, and the updates aren't found. Usually I just leave it for an hour or so, try again and it is all OK. If you are in a hurry and want the updates, just change the Software Sources back to the Main server, Reload the package information and go from there.

If you are travelling, and not on your usual internet connection you can change the Software Sources to whatever suits you best. This is important to remember as for example, Internode don't allow downloads from their mirror from non-Internode internet connections.

I hope that someone finds this useful. It took me a while to figure out how to do this, but I now enjoy being able to update at full speed, even when shaped, and not have it affect my monthly downloads.

Let me know if you have any questions that you want me to talk about. Thanks for reading all the way to the end!