HK Mirror Download Speed

[gato]

I just had to restore my iPhone and re-download all my Pleco add-ons. Since I'm in mainland China, the downloads default to the HK mirror server. However, for some reason, the HK mirror server is just as slow as the main server -- takes about 2 minutes for an 8MB add-on.

Anyone else experiencing this?

Mike, do you any test files on the HK mirror server to test this outside of the app, so to see if there is a problem with the server connection itself?

 

[mikelove]

There are HK mirror links for all of our download files at http://www.pleco.com/ipdirectdownload.html - not aware of any recent changes on their end but if there's been some sort of change to their network that complicates matters then we can certainly investigate.

However, are you sure you're actually using the HK mirror? In the new version we're switching to just the one download link with no more switching - we're migrating to a different CDN (Akamai) which seems to work well enough from China so as to render a separate China server unnecessary. The beta uses the old CDN and only that CDN so downloading add-ons within the beta might very well be slow from China.

 

[gato]

From within the app, add-on download speed from mainland China from the HK mirror is at about 1MB / min , and from the main server somewhat slower, maybe 0.5-0.8 MB / min. A large dictionary would take about half an hour to download.

Is that what one should expect? I thought the HK mirror used to be faster.

 

[mikelove]

If your connection is faster than that then yes, it should download faster. Try this link to Grand Ricci on our new system (bring it up in Safari or the Pleco web browser) - does that work better?

 

[gato]

The new system actually appears to be worse: 10KB/sec vs 20KB/sec under the old main server.

Here's the download speed I'm getting:

New System (file: Grand Ricci)
- directly from mainland China: 10KB/sec, 1 hr 52 min
- with VPN through Taiwan: 100KB/sec, 8 min

Old System (file: Xiandai Hanyu Guifan)
- main server, directly from mainland China: 20KB/sec
- main server, with VPN through Taiwan: 150KB/sec
- HK mirror, directly from mainland China: 20KB/sec
- HK mirror, with VPN through Taiwan: 170KB/sec

 

[mikelove]

Interesting... suggests we ought to stick with our old system for the time being at least.

 

[gato]

As you probably know, since the Arab Spring, the Chinese government has been cracking down on the Internet, to the extent that many VPN services were blocked for a while. Was the current HK mirror set up before the Arab Spring? Perhaps other choices may need to be reviewed.

 

[mikelove]

Yes, it was set up before then so that's certainly one possible explanation. Anyway all the more reason to keep playing around with CDN configurations in the hopes of finding something faster.