Apple's FTP servers handle hundreds of thousands of requests each week. The Apple Webmasters monitor the traffic need closely, especially after a popular upgrade has been announced. Even so, the servers get crowded and may refuse additional connections in order to serve existing connections. A software download may consist of many large download files and may fill the servers to capacity during the peak of its popularity. The Apple software archive is posted to a variety of mirror locations in the United States, Europe and Australia.
All mirror sites contain the same software.
Customers have the option to choose an individual FTP server for their download or they can take advantage of Apple's automated FTP load balancing system. To take advantage of the FTP load balancing system, point your favorite web browser to our Software Downloads via World Wide Web system. This will allow you to take advantage of our powerful search engine to find the software you need. When you choose to download a file it will automatically serve you from the FTP mirror server that is the least busy. This web page shows how many customers are currently using the various FTP servers and allows customers to choose any one of the servers for their download.