Thanks to
Network Redux and
Ubiquity Hosting Solutions, Simple Machines now has two offsite servers available. These servers are being used, in part, as download mirrors for our public release packages.
The Portland, OR server, provided by Network Redux, has been mirroring download packages for a few weeks now with great success. Our Chicago, IL server, donated by Ubiquity Hosting Solutions, is current serving as a secondary nameserver and will soon become a fully operational download mirror.
Our primary goal as we design and implement our network of download mirrors is to require no additional effort on the part of the user. In that light, requests are being distributed to an automatically chosen mirror with no user intervention required. Currently, with only one mirror running, the choice is easy to make. As we bring more mirrors online, download requests will be randomly distributed among the currently available mirrors, resulting in relatively uniform load distribution.
Why not use geo-targeting to choose a mirror? While we haven't entirely ruled this out, with two mirrors currently on the horizon - both located in the US - any form of geo-targeting is currently not practical. This issue will be re-addressed in the future as more geographically dispersed mirrors are introduced.
As a user, you will notice very little change in experience. Once your download request is fulfilled, you will be presented with a "Thank You" page, which indicates the mirror serving your request. In the event your download request is unable to be fulfilled by the chosen mirror, simply clicking the "Please Try Again" link will allow a direct download from our own servers, located in Atlanta, GA.
It should be noted that only publicly available packages are currently being mirrored. Charter member releases are served directly from the Simple Machines servers.
Again, Simple Machines would like to thank Network Redux and Ubiquity Hosting Solutions for providing us with much needed relief for our download servers.
