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#1 2016-05-15 17:29:33

tonnz
Member
Registered: 2015-08-02
Posts: 38

[SOLVED] Using an Arch Linux mirror in the local network?

Hello!

I recently found out that my university hosts a well-maintained Arch Linux mirror (http://linux.rz.rub.de/archlinux/).
Since i live close to the server during weekdays, i added the mirror as the first entry in my pacman-mirrorlist.

The important part is: i am directly connected to the University's local network, which includes the mirror server.

So here is my question:
Do my communications with the server go over the local network already, or do they go over the internet like they normally would? (Excuse me if i am talking nonsense, i am not too well informed about networking).
I am hoping that my moderate internet connection speed would no longer bottleneck the update process if i could download packages via the local network.
Is it possible to achieve this? And if yes, how?

I think i know that there is a difference between a local and global IP address, and i assume in order to connect to the mirror in the local network, i have to find out its local IP. Is that correct?
How should i proceed?

Last edited by tonnz (2016-05-22 23:50:13)

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#2 2016-05-15 22:57:31

wudu
Member
Registered: 2010-03-08
Posts: 83

Re: [SOLVED] Using an Arch Linux mirror in the local network?

tonnz wrote:

I think i know that there is a difference between a local and global IP address, and i assume in order to connect to the mirror in the local network, i have to find out its local IP. Is that correct?
How should i proceed?

If they host it in the same network it should automatically do the routing right. You can simply check it by looking at the reply time of the ping command.

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#3 2016-05-15 23:07:58

fukawi2
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From: .vic.au
Registered: 2007-09-28
Posts: 6,217
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Re: [SOLVED] Using an Arch Linux mirror in the local network?

tonnz wrote:

Do my communications with the server go over the local network already, or do they go over the internet like they normally would?

Well, conceptually speaking "the internet" is just a bunch of interconnected local networks, and these days the line between "local" network and "rest of the internet" is increasingly blurred, especially at educational facilities that frequently have exceptionally good connectivity to the rest of the world. So I guess it depends on what exactly you're specific goal is -- keeping the traffic within the same switched network? Or within the same physical campus? Or within the network directly controlled by your university, even though it may go to a remote data center?

Ultimately though, the question comes down to the design of the university's network -- where you connect to the network relative to their mirror. Which is something we can't answer.

tonnz wrote:

Is it possible to achieve this? And if yes, how?

It's certainly possible, but depends on the network design of the university.

tonnz wrote:

I think i know that there is a difference between a local and global IP address, and i assume in order to connect to the mirror in the local network, i have to find out its local IP. Is that correct?

There is a difference between global unicast IP addresses, and Private IP Addresses (see RFC 1918) -- but they do not (necessarily) relate to a host being on the "local" network vs remote. Especially in an educational environment, you could have a device on the local network (eg, within the same physical campus) with a global unicast address; in fact your computer itself may even have a global unicast address on the university network rather than a private address. You could also have access to a device with a private address that is in a remote campus or data center (accessed via a VPN or WAN etc)

tonnz wrote:

How should i proceed?

Talk to your university's IT team.

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#4 2016-05-16 09:12:31

tonnz
Member
Registered: 2015-08-02
Posts: 38

Re: [SOLVED] Using an Arch Linux mirror in the local network?

wudu wrote:

If they host it in the same network it should automatically do the routing right. You can simply check it by looking at the reply time of the ping command.

The reply time is in the sub-millisecond to millisecond range. This sounds good to me, but the bandwidth with which i download packages never exceeds my internet connection speed. But i do not know whether my provider is the limiting factor or the university network.

fukawi2 wrote:

Well, conceptually speaking "the internet" is just a bunch of interconnected local networks, and these days the line between "local" network and "rest of the internet" is increasingly blurred, especially at educational facilities that frequently have exceptionally good connectivity to the rest of the world. So I guess it depends on what exactly you're specific goal is -- keeping the traffic within the same switched network? Or within the same physical campus? Or within the network directly controlled by your university, even though it may go to a remote data center?
Ultimately though, the question comes down to the design of the university's network -- where you connect to the network relative to their mirror. Which is something we can't answer.
[...]
Talk to your university's IT team.

Thank you for the detailed answer!
Yes, talking to the IT team should be the best idea.
I'll probably start by starting a thread in my faculty's (applied computer science) forums, i am sure there are some experts who are familiar with the uni network.

Last edited by tonnz (2016-05-16 09:13:50)

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#5 2016-05-17 03:27:39

severach
Member
Registered: 2015-05-23
Posts: 192

Re: [SOLVED] Using an Arch Linux mirror in the local network?

sudo traceroute -I linux.rz.rub.de

Finding an IT member that knows more than this will be difficult.

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#6 2016-05-22 23:49:40

tonnz
Member
Registered: 2015-08-02
Posts: 38

Re: [SOLVED] Using an Arch Linux mirror in the local network?

severach wrote:
sudo traceroute -I linux.rz.rub.de

Finding an IT member that knows more than this will be difficult.

I should have tried this earlier. Traceroute only shows addresses within the uni network.

Also, what i should have tried earlier, is trying to connect to the mirror without internet access (i need to log in to a specific uni server to get internet access from a third party). It works.
Unfortunately, my download speed from the mirror is limited to a maximum of 10 megabytes/s. Well, that is not bad at all, but below the limit of the internet provider (which i was hoping to exceed).

Marking the thread as solved.

Last edited by tonnz (2016-05-22 23:55:58)

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