Harry;
Pleased to hear from you on the subject of SFS.

Indeed, the time delay on internet communications from overseas can be likened to the time delay(on a greater scale) of satellite telephone links, or TV for that matter.

The delay from coast to coast can be compared easily with the delay to Japan by using the ping parameter.

Within the USA, I would expect the 3 minute download time on broadband (768kb/s) to be very comparable.

Most assuredly, the local network server would be ideal. However, when one is only downloading one application, the time becomes quite short, often ten to twenty seconds.

The CD to enable this SFS arrangement is only 20MB in size.

The downloads are not .iso files needing a CD burn but are cloop files decoded "on-the-fly" so there is not any CD or DVD writer needed after the initial burn of 20MB. All files are kernel related so a selection is made at download time.

I suggest you give SFS a try and while you do that, ping their IP to see the delay across the pond and compare it to across the USA pings.

The system seems to have extralarge capability and might be best applied with servers dedicated to specific kernels and maybe....no kernels at all just cloop's.

.................................................. ..

Doc, I have a serious memory problem!!
When did you first notice this problem?
What problem?