Why is freebsd-update so horrible slow?

[Ralf Mardorf]

On Wed, 14 Apr 2021 10:46:40 +0100, Steve O'Hara-Smith wrote:
>overloaded servers

In my experiences with different operating systems, servers (mirrors)
might be overloaded or the ISP arbitrarily restricts download
speed or something ISP or router related is broken. Sometimes
restarting the router or if more hardware should be involved, such as
a separated DSL-splitter, disconnecting and reconnecting all
connections solves such issues. Usually just waiting a few minutes,
hours or days is all that is needed.

While I'm in favour of Linux over FreeBSD for my domains, I strongly
discourage to migrate away from FreeBSD to another BSD or Linux, just
because Internet download speed is fishy. I experiences this for
Windows running in a VM and my iPads, from time to time, too.

At least in Germany it's not unusual, that from time to time download
speed is catastrophic. Take a look at websites where users report
issues with ISPs. They sometimes provide graphs with reported
disturbances by hours.

Sometimes the last mile is just fishy. Usually I'm joking, "it's
raining, so the last mile can't work. I should have known better"! I
don't know how well they maintain local loops in your country. Here in
the Ruhrgebiet they seem not to maintain those at all ;).

And again, servers (mirrors) could be more or less down, too, even
without DDoS attacks involved.