Fresh install - question about sources.list

I just did a fresh install on a Kingston DataTraveler 4GB. Which, by the way worked fine, but it seems slower than my San Disk Cruzer 2GB... nevermind :)

My question pertains to the /etc/apt/sources.list. When I looked at it at the last step (after changing the root pw) i noticed that it contains:

deb http://cdn.debian.net/debian squeeze main

The first time I did an install; the sources.list had a ftp.us.debian.org url in it.

I partially understand the sources.list's function; but, if they're all mirrored (as, I believe they're supposed to be) what difference does it make which one is used???

I suppose some of the mirrors are busier than others -- is that it???

Please excuse the 'basic-ness' (or dumb-ness) of this question; and, as always, thanks,

- Ray

The following will test all the mirrors and create a basic sources.lst with your fastest mirror...

apt-get install netselect-apt 
cd /tmp
netselect-apt squeeze
mv /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.orig && mv ./sources.list /etc/apt/
apt-get update

-PG

Quote
sandbasser
I partially understand the sources.list's function; but, if they're all mirrored (as, I believe they're supposed to be) what difference does it make which one is used???

I suppose some of the mirrors are busier than others -- is that it???

Some are busier, and some are closer to where you live. It looks like you have some program (maybe the one petergunn suggested?) that set you up with the mirror at Columbia University instead of the overall USA ring. ftp.us.debian.org is a bigger mirror, obviously, that's meant to cover the whole USA, and is really an alias for a bunch of different servers. Try running the following commands to compare: "host http.us.debian.org" versus "host cdn.debian.net"

Which server to use is kind of a personal question. The netselect program will find the one that's closest/fastest for you. On the other hand, if that mirror goes down, you can't do updates for a while. If you pick a broader one like the ftp.us.debian.org alias, then if one mirror goes down, you try again and should get updates from a different mirror automatically.