Re: [school-discuss] Downloads: Provide FTP or HTTP?

[lee rodgers <sregdoreel@xxxxxxxxx>]

Heh... as usual we play the pro's & con's. I was thinking purely in terms of ultimate recoverability w/out getting into hosting issues (c.f. bandwidth costs).

I agree Ibiblio's a very good way of averting the dropped connections b/c Ibiblio mirrors are everywhere. Sourceforge is similar... sounds like your project might find a spot on sourceforge ... sourceforge's usage rules are pretty loose, one can just use sourceforge as a file repository w/ some versioning. But again, I don't know if there're any associated costs... 

HTH,

/lee  ( thanks everyone for not teasing about my typo ... )

Chris Gregan <cgregan@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Les,

FTP is definitely a more efficient method for large file transfer, and
browsers (Firefox) will manage the download even when the connection is
dropped. However, be sure to set up the download area so you can just
click a link and begin the download. If your audience is fearful or
incapable of successfully using a torrent client, they will probably not
want to spend much time drilling down through FTP directories to choose
between various releases like src, i586, mdk, rpm, exe, etc.
I would suggest offering both, and talking up the advantages of
torrent. They will eventually be using torrent anyway, might as well
introduce them to it now. In the long run, it will also save you server
bandwidth.

Cheers,
Chris Gregan
cgregan@xxxxxxxxxxx
Open Source Migration Specialist/Founder
Aptenix LLC-Desktop Solutions
New Market, MD
(240)422-9224

"Open source, open minds."

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Shane Coyle wrote:
> Torrents are excellent, but a little more techy than many users will be able
> to handle, so it depends on your audience - if a bittorrent client isn't
> already installed, many users will not be inclined or able to install one
> just to consume your content.
>
> I believe that as torrent support is built into browsers (and routers even),
> it is THE way of the future for distribution, definitely begin providing
> torrents for your content today.
>
> If you need FTP mirroring, try checking out Ibiblio for mirror support:
> http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/HOW.TO.SUBMIT.html They are a little
> hesitant to host distributions, preferring applications, but they were super
> gracious to create a folder for my project and I suspect that they may be
> able to help you too.
>
> Regards,
> Shane
>
> On Friday 27 October 2006 01:46, lee rodgers wrote:
>> Bittorrent.
>>
>> Tittorrent stripes or segments a file into sub-downloads. My guess is that
>> even if your torrent isn't widely published a single file can be striped
>> into many small CRC-checked segments (I believe I've downloaded from
>> single-source torrents before, it worked fine).
>>
>> There are a couple of lightweight bittorrent clients ... uTorrent for
>> Windows is one ( Azureus is a bit of a CPU hog & RAM monster ).
>> http://www.utorrent.com
>>
>> /lee
>>
>> Les Richardson wrote: Hi All,
>>
>> When providing downloads for open source software, is FTP a better
>> solution for those with slow, unreliable connections? (ie. from the land
>> of far, far away...)
>>
>> I'm finding many attempts in my log files to download Open Admin and they
>> only get part of the way through the file and fail and then try again (ie.
>> 10+ tries to get the file).
>>
>> Many FTP clients allow folks to continue from a certain part of the file
>> (ie. recover), correct? (Sorry, I haven't done this stuff for quite a
>> while... the Z-modem, telix era)
>>
>>
>> Any suggestions?
>>
>>
>> Les Richardson
>> Open Admin for Schools
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ======
>> /lee
>> +-----------------------------------+
>>
>> | This concludes our broadcast day |
>>
>> +-----------------------------------+
>

======
/lee
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| This concludes our broadcast day    |
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