Re: redirecting netscape downloads to local ftp ?

Andreas Reeh wrote:

> I have many users who think it's a good idea to download Netscape and
> other very big files not from the original server but from one of the 50
> mirrors they find :-(((

You aren't the unique with this problem, I'm maintaining a Squid w/7Gigs
of cache and I don't want to know how many times I have in the cache the
same file.

> So these big objects are almost every time fetched from one of the many
> mirrors instead frome the cache where they still are, but under an other
> URL.

I have some tricks. It could be a little nonsense but with a lille
patience I've put all the IP addresses of the netscape FTP servers ftp2
thru ftp8 pointing to one local server of mine where I maintain all the
Netscape FTP server in the HOSTS file of all workstations. I've released
ftp1.netscape.com out of this list because this is very special... it's
the unique who accepts security accounts rather than anonymous/email.

Hardware could be expensive but the great havoc caused by the behemoth
size of the latest releases of Netscape is more expensive.

> A solution for this problem would be a redirector that would redirect the
> download-request to our local ftp-server (where always all new browsers
> and other big stuff is uploaded - but the stupid users don't use our ftp
> server!).

[off-topic mode on
Have you tried with a ping -f ip.address.of.user ? ;)
[off-topic mode off

Greetings.
        Alfonso Correas

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