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I've heard the term mirror site being used for downloading packages, but I'm not exactly sure of its importance. Isn't a mirror site just a copy of another website?
piperchester
Posted 2012-08-26T01:09:35.543
Reputation: 888
What are mirror sites used for?
Answers
2
Exactly. A mirror is there to balance the load (traffic) among many servers and to provide redundancy. If one server breaks down temporarily, the others will still be there and happy to server your content.
sinni800
Posted 2012-08-26T01:09:35.543
Reputation: 3 048
2Also, mirrors allow you to download from a server that is closer to you than the master server, which can speed things up. And having mirrors in many countries makes it harder to shut you down, if you are running a kind of site that annoys people with expensive lawyers. – Alan Curry – 2012-08-26T01:19:43.443
Kind of forgot this, thanks for the addition even though the question got closed :) – sinni800 – 2012-08-27T00:53:08.667
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_(computing). Also, this is off-topic for Superuser since it doesn't concern computer hardware or software (see the FAQ for more information). – Indrek – 2012-08-26T01:11:55.670
Nothing should be off topic. If some one has more knowledge than other, it is for sharing the knowledge. Not properly directing is a problem but over period of time it gets solved. You do not know how old is the person seeking answer. – C2940680 – 2012-08-26T02:09:34.893
@C2940680 I don't see what the OP's age has to do with anything. But at any rate, the FAQ defines which questions are acceptable on SU and which aren't. – Indrek – 2012-08-26T13:44:34.287