what is deploy.akamaitechnologies.com?

Hi

Can someone tell me what this site is all about:

a203-111-15-229.deploy.akamaitechnologies.com

Not recognising it, my firewall rejected files from that source during a
Windows update - with the result that my whole installation became unuseable.

I have since found that allowing access to this site is also obligatory for
other installations, such as the Windows version of QuickTime (which comes from
an Apple site).

What is this site, and why is it obligatory during installations of software
from different software sources?

Thanks

Ross

http://www.deploy.akamaitechnologies.com.org/
http://digimedia.com/
--
David Candy
http://www.mvps.org/serenitymacros/
http://www.simtel.com/pub/pd/18669.html
"ross" <reply@to_NG_please.com> wrote in message news:bishi6$an0$1@arachne.labyrinth.net.au...

> Hi
>
> Can someone tell me what this site is all about:
>
> a203-111-15-229.deploy.akamaitechnologies.com
>
> Not recognising it, my firewall rejected files from that source during a
> Windows update - with the result that my whole installation became unuseable.
>
> I have since found that allowing access to this site is also obligatory for
> other installations, such as the Windows version of QuickTime (which comes from
> an Apple site).
>
> What is this site, and why is it obligatory during installations of software
> from different software sources?
>
> Thanks
>
> Ross
>

Ross,

Akamai provides many IT services like application hosting, content delivery,
and streaming media services, but they are probably best known for their
massive distributed computer infrastructure. In lay terms, they have upwards
of 15,000+ servers positioned around the globe providing content (software
downloads, etc) and media (like QuickTime, RealAudio, or Windows Media
files) for their customers (the likes of Apple, GM, MTV, Department of
Defense, IBM, Microsoft, Monster.com, Yahoo!, Adobe...).

So for instance, say your company developed a web site/application for use
by your customers. On this website, you wanted to make available a few
hundred moderate length video clips. If you intend your website to have even
moderate traffic, you will quickly realize the potentially prohibitive
time/energy/costs involved with building an infrastructure capable of
delivering this content - to make those files available reliably you'll need
lots of bandwidth, reliable servers with a backup strategy, redundant power
and A/C, lots of RAID-ed disk space, finely tuned security precautions, lots
of manpower to watch over everything, and on and on and on.

This is where Akamai comes in. They have the infrastructure already in place
to deliver these services. Companies can save money by having Akamai deliver
their content for them. Akamai has become so ubiquitous that it's hard to go
a day without (perhaps unknowingly) pulling at least some content of one of
their servers, as you have discovered!

I hope this helps.

Patrick Pitre






"ross" <reply@to_NG_please.com> wrote in message
news:bishi6$an0$1@arachne.labyrinth.net.au...

> Hi
>
> Can someone tell me what this site is all about:
>
> a203-111-15-229.deploy.akamaitechnologies.com
>
> Not recognising it, my firewall rejected files from that source during a
> Windows update - with the result that my whole installation became

unuseable.

>
> I have since found that allowing access to this site is also obligatory

for

> other installations, such as the Windows version of QuickTime (which comes

from

> an Apple site).
>
> What is this site, and why is it obligatory during installations of

software

> from different software sources?
>
> Thanks
>
> Ross
>

How bad is your installation? It sounds like you might have lost your user
profile with it's related settings. Are you logging in as another user? You
said "...my whole installation became unusable." Perhaps be specific about
any specific errors you're getting. Let's figure out where you are before
delving into figuring out which updates you need.

Regarding system restore - besides needing disk space (which is fairly
cheap), and some RAM (which is also fairly cheap), I haven't found it to be
the resource hog others have. Sure, it doesn't always work, and there are
the inevitable problems, but it's nice to have - just in case.

Admittedly, when system restore was first introduced in ME, it wasn't quite
ready for prime time, but the XP implementation is a capable product, if
only a bit limited compared to commercial offerings. I've never had any
problems with it... although often times I seem to be luckier than others.

Patrick Pitre




"ross" <reply@to_NG_please.com> wrote in message
news:bit405$o2a$1@arachne.labyrinth.net.au...

> "Patrick Pitre" <patrick@nospam.transitair.com> wrote:

delivery,

> ... (snip) ... Companies can save money by having Akamai deliver

go

of

>
> Thanks Patrick
>
> That's the sort of answer I was looking for. Just looking at their web

page

> didn't provide the logical connection, although it was clear they could

offer a

> range of software and services.
>
> Now - a trickier question. Is there any way I can tell *which* software I

was

> supposed to pull from the akamai site while doing recent security upgrades

to

> XP? I would really like to allow my crashed update to continue, so I can

get

> back to my original XP installation. I had backed up my 'normal' data

files,

> but when the whole installation is kaput, you lose a lot more - the

settings in

> all your programs, laboriously accumulated link collections and other

lists,

> proprietary internal databases, etc.
>
> I suppose that next time I'll have to enable System Restore during the

updates.

> It's a pity it's such a gargantuan resources hog.
>
> Ross
>