OT: Microsoft Local Mirror

[Brolloks]

Since it seems some of the people on this list are more in the know.
Why is there not a local mirror for Microsoft Update? (or is there?)

I think a lot of bandwidth dissapears with MS Updates and it would make sense having a local mirror to update from.

 

[groenie]

If I look at the speed at which we download the updates, they are downloaded from a local server. Before MW our updates at the office were downloaded through a 64kbps Diginet line with only 19.2kbps international bw. Any microsoft downloads came in at 7kB/s, so its obviously not international. I think they use some sort of transparent redirection based on your IP address similar to what google does.

 

[regardtv]

The update servers are akamai based. If memory servers there's an akamai farm in south africa.

Also, I'd think most ISP's would cache any incomming exe's from microsoft's update servers .. I know I do...

both of these will give huge benefits.

If you're running the update services for a corporate I'd say its a very good idea to get the SUS(software update services) running in your company... It downloads the updates once and you do a local distribution of the software within youe lan/wan.

 

[MrGray]

I'm glad someone brought this up. I'm convinced the lack of a local microsoft mirror for windowsupdate, etc is the number one killer of international bandwidth. Your average browser/security update can be over 20mb - can you imagine how much traffic that creates when 2 million local internet users decide to update their windows installation or install security patches regularly?

The downloads do originate overseas. I'm running a critical security update now and according to netstat it's coming from 213.199.155.56 which seems to go through the msn network in the uk for some reason.

The issue of microsoft having a local mirror has been repeatedly raised with microsoft south africa for many years and no satisfactory response has ever been forthcoming. I think the way their download/windowsupdate system works makes it hard for ISP's to cache the d/l's, as well.

I would love to know how much international bandwidth is wasted by this - it is potentially a huge amount and it is shocking that almost ten years have already gone by since the local internet community first started asking microsoft to do something about it. They can't even be bothered to host www.microsoft.co.za locally as that just redirects to www.microsoft.com/southafrica which is always painfully slow. You'd think a company with the size and resources of microsoft could at least make an effort to mirror locally.

There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of by mere mortal men - Shakespeare

 

[Brolloks]

I've heard the theory that it's due to user feedback control. ie. they want to know how and when people connect. Seem to recall the whole User Privacy thing in the news a year or so back.