Quoting Martin Schulze <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
I'd just say that this is not a supported way to access the
Debian archive. Use ftp or rsync instead.
There are a couple of issues I have with that answer.
What is the value of having useless stock distribution default virtual
hosts? Is having them point to something useful not worthwhile for
some reason?
As a consistency issue, trying to use SSH port forwarding to access
the Debian security archive via http will mysteriously fail about 2 of
3 times. This is annoying and takes time to troubleshoot; preferably
it should always work or always fail.
Why would you want to SSH port forward instead of just connecting
directly to the archive? When using machines in a locked down DMZ,
there is value in having a machine that can't reach the outside as it
can't be used as a zombie if exploited.
For the same reasons Debian doesn't mirror the security archive on
outside machines, having a cache of the archive and using that as a
workaround has its own issues. Port forwarding ftp can be a pita, and
rsync has its own world of issues, including increased load on both
Debian's and my servers.
