In Ubuntu there’s a graphical utility that let you choose a mirror according to the faster download response. I wondered if there was something like that in Debian…and there it is: apt-spy.
Installing
As usual you can install it by typing:
aptitude install apt-spy
Usage
You can test several mirrors by country, area or even from a list. For instance, let’s say you want to know which mirror in South America is the best for Debian Squeeze:
moody:~# apt-spy -d squeeze -a South-America Couldn't find country CR . Skipping.SERVER: ftp.br.debian.org Benchmarking FTP... Downloaded 1525176 bytes in 16.36 seconds Download speed: 91.02 kB/secSERVER: ftp.cl.debian.org Benchmarking FTP... Downloaded 584992 bytes in 17.99 seconds Download speed: 31.75 kB/secSERVER: debian.uni.edu.ni Benchmarking HTTP... Downloaded 332780 bytes in 15.80 seconds Download speed: 20.57 kB/sec Writing new sources.list file: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/apt-spy.list
As you can see the best mirror is ftp.br.debian.org, but I recommend you to run apt-spy at least a couple of times to compare discrepancies and decide the best average response.
Why my country is not found?
If your country can’t be found the more likely reason is because there’s not an official Debian mirror in your country. To know the official Debian mirrors list go to Debian worldwide mirror sites
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