Uganda Linux User Group

If you are running a network of Ubuntu machines (more than 1), installing your own cache is a good idea. You can chain caches, so you can point your cache to the central Ugandan cache.

Here is a very simple tutorial to install apt-cacher:

sudo apt-get install apt-cacher
sudo pico /etc/apt-cacher/apt-cacher.conf

We need to point apt-cacher to the Ugandan cache, so change :

# Apt-cacher can pass all its requests to an external http proxy like
# Squid, which could be very useful if you are using an ISP that blocks
# port 80 and requires all web traffic to go through its proxy. The
# format is 'hostname:port', eg: 'proxy.example.com:8080'.
#http_proxy=proxy.example.com:8080
http_proxy=ubuntu.mountbatten.net

# Use of an external proxy can be turned on or off with this flag.
# Value should be either 0 (off) or 1 (on).
use_proxy=1

save the file.
A note for Datanet clients, on some connections, using port 80 to connect to the Ugandan Cache might not get you the speed benefit you are looking for. Instead connect to the http_proxy like:
http_proxy=ubuntu.mountbatten.net:3142

Ok, once you have done that, restart apt-cacher:

sudo /etc/init.d/apt-cacher restart

On your client machines (including the localhost of your apt-cacher server), change the sources.list file to point to your local cache. Updating over a LAN is really cool to see. Even OpenOffice updates in minutes.

You can run a cache on a laptop, you just need a bit of diskspace.