Location, ping time, load factor of update servers?

User Support Hub Install, Performance & Graphics
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Given that the following is true:

  1. People wish to install and/or re-install MSFS.
  2. People wish to install and/or re-install various updates, such as world updates, that are non-trivial in size.
  3. People want to optimize their download speeds to minimize the time spent hogging the network.
  4. People want to optimize their connection speed to the various photogrammatry servers, etc., to improve game performance.

Is it possible to know:

  1. The current transfer rate and/or ping-times to the various servers from the user’s location?
  2. How heavily loaded a particular server endpoint is at a given point in time?
  3. Approximately where a particular Microsoft server is located?  (I don’t necessarily mean the EXACT location, but a close enough approximation that a user can pick a close VPN endpoint for example.)

Likewise:

  1. Is the “multiplayer” server location the same as the “download” server location, as the multiplayer server list shows ping-times?

In my case, (being stuck in Russia and with the political situation being what it is), it is often an advantage for me to use a VPN to place myself outside The Great Firewall of Russia to improve my data-rates.

Other people may live near, (and show low ping times to), a server which is highly overloaded, whereas another server might be considerably less heavily loaded.

Is there any way we can get information that we can use to optimize data rates, or at least convince ourselves that we’re getting the best we can?

Why?
There have been times when I set a VPN endpoint in (for example), the Netherlands and get a relatively slow data rate, but when I switch to a VPN endpoint in Chicago, USA - the data rate is considerably faster.  Or, vice-versa.

It would be better if we could know, by some method, which server(s) are likely to give us the best data rates and which aren’t.  This would save a lot of headaches, angst, and complaining if we could either get the best and fastest server based on where we are, or know that everything is hammered and there’s nothing we can do to make it better right now.

Thanks!