[K12OSN] yum update performance?

[mrok12osn at eastgranby.k12.ct.us]

East Granby, CT has three school buildings.  The HS/MS building is fiber
connected to the Internet (via the Connecticut Education Network) at
10mbps.  The two elementary schools are connected via Cox Cable service at
6 mbps.

When I update servers at the HS (7 servers running Fedora 5), the download
speed is very slow (about 8 KBPS per display tick).  For example, I am now
updating the kernel-smp and the download is indicating it will take 62
minutes.

Yet at both elementary schools, the downloads speed.  At one of the
elementary schools with Cox Cable, I just updated a kernel in less than a
couple of minutes.

This has been consistent for over a year - most likely dating back to when
we switched the HS from Cox to the CEN for Internet access.

For all applications other than yum, downloading to the HS moves very
quickly.

One other symptom.  When updating the repository metadata at the start of
yum, the ones marked k12ltsp and webmin seem to also take a long time
versus the other repositories.

Any ideas as to why the downloads from yum are so slow at the HS?

Mark Orenstein
East Granby, CT School System