> Does it matter if the server is far away, geographically, from where I am?

Back in the early 1980s, when I wanted to send data between the Unix systems and IBM minicomputers at UCLA (in Los Angeles, CA), I couldn't transfer the data directly as there was no direct connection between the two (despite being housed in neighboring buildings), and they were on very different networks (the Unix systems were on Arpanet, and the IBMs were on BITNET) -- so I had to pass data through a gateway site. The nearest gateway (geographically) was at U.C. Berkeley campus (in Berkeley, CA), and the other gateway was at the University of Wisconsin. If I passed data through UC Berkeley, it would often take a week for the transfer, whereas when passed through Wisconsin it took no more than 10 minutes. As for why this was the case - traffic.