Speed up Ubuntu updates

An article by Bharat Balegere    No Comments  Last Modified on May 12, 2008

Ubuntu uses apt-get to update itself. The update-notifier which starts on system startup checks with a server for latest updates and notifies you about it. When you click “Install Update” , update files are fetched from the server and installed on the computer. Most of the times the downloading takes a long time to install, especially if you have low speed internet connection. Sometimes the server maybe down and you might not be able to install the updates or sometimes the server might be overloaded and you might not be able to get a good speed even if you have a high speed internet connection. To overcome this issue you need to choose a different server. The following steps will help you to choose the best server to download the updates.

Go to System-Administration-Software Source

Click on the box encircled in red as shown in the screenshot.

In the window that appears click on Select Best Server and wait for sometime.All update servers will checked and the best one will chosen.You can then update from the update manager.The updates files will download much faster now.