One quick note about the FTP/HTTP Mirrors. Many of the files located in these mirrors are not yet complete. I would assume they are downloading them presently. The DVD isos appear to be most affected, but I have seen improper sizes listed for the CD as well, on occasion. I would give the Mirrors a chance to get the files up before downloading from there.

BitTorrent certainly appears to be the way to go at the moment. I downloaded both the DVD and the CD isos in less than one day, AND they BOTH passed the MD5Sum checks. I have heard from others, and have seen a few posts regarding boot failures, etc., that I can categorize as issues due to poor download integrity. I have heard nothing about issues with a successful BitTorrent download that was attributable to the downloaded file or the download process. What you can do to mess up the file after it downloaded is left up to one's own imagination. It amazes me to see that someone can spend hours downloading a file of DVD size, only to mess it up by not spending a few more minutes burning the files to disc SLOWLY, or to use media of questionable quality or compatibility.

I have counseled a few people that had bad downloads from an FTP Mirror. I instructed them to retry a download with BitTorrent and point the program to save the file to the same folder as the original download. It was able to "Fix" the bad downloads and only needed to download a part of the file to do so.

It appears that the US Mirrors are usually the last in line. I could be wrong about this, but I base this on personal observation.

If you are having trouble downloading using the BitTorrent, there are many things you can do to ensure that the process works as well as it can. These options have been posted elsewhere and are discussed in the Faqs at the BitTorrent site. One of the most important is to allow enough time to establish good peer connections. I saw times when my bit rate dropped under 10, but it usually picked up again and proceeded as expected. I did upload (seed) about three or four times the file sizes so far and it is continuing to seed from two locations when I can do so.

One other note about download speeds. I have a couple of contacts that both use the same ISP. They Both had poor download speeds with BitTorrent, although their throughput is usually close to double what I can achieve with other applications. I would suspect that there is something set by the ISP that prevents full speed torrent downloads, although it could just be coincidence. They are looking into it at the moment and will keep me posted.