Why does my maven break into closed repository? - maven

Question

I have configured many repositories, as I found in
MAVEN_HOME/conf/settings.xml
I was thinking this will increase availability of packages for my workplace.
Unfortunately it creates some additional problems. For example, I have configured repository
<repository>
<id>lhogie.i3s.maven.repo</id>
<name>Luc Hogie Maven repository</name>
<url>http://www.i3s.unice.fr/~hogie/maven_repository/</url>
</repository>
which website is currently down or is unstable.
Nevertheless, my Maven is trying to download something from this repository again and again, receiving permission denied and then trying again. It does this even for those packages, which are calmly present on central repository.
Why?
Why doesn't it try other repositories if knocked out of one of them?
SAMPLE OF STDOUT
Downloading: http://www.i3s.unice.fr/~hogie/maven_repository/org/eclipse/jetty/toolchain/jetty-toolchain/1.4/jetty-toolchain-1.4.pom
ш■э 25, 2014 4:18:22 PM org.apache.maven.wagon.providers.http.httpclient.impl.client.DefaultRequestDirector tryConnect
INFO: I/O exception (java.net.SocketException) caught when connecting to the target host: Permission denied: connect
ш■э 25, 2014 4:18:22 PM org.apache.maven.wagon.providers.http.httpclient.impl.client.DefaultRequestDirector tryConnect
INFO: Retrying connect
ш■э 25, 2014 4:18:43 PM org.apache.maven.wagon.providers.http.httpclient.impl.client.DefaultRequestDirector tryConnect
INFO: I/O exception (java.net.SocketException) caught when connecting to the target host: Permission denied: connect
ш■э 25, 2014 4:18:43 PM org.apache.maven.wagon.providers.http.httpclient.impl.client.DefaultRequestDirector tryConnect
INFO: Retrying connect
ш■э 25, 2014 4:19:04 PM org.apache.maven.wagon.providers.http.httpclient.impl.client.DefaultRequestDirector tryConnect
INFO: I/O exception (java.net.SocketException) caught when connecting to the target host: Permission denied: connect
ш■э 25, 2014 4:19:04 PM org.apache.maven.wagon.providers.http.httpclient.impl.client.DefaultRequestDirector tryConnect
INFO: Retrying connect

Answer 1

Probably because Maven doesn't want to hide problems from you. I don't know the algorithm which Maven uses but I think it just tries all repos in order until it finds what it looks for. So you can simply add Maven Central as the first repo and it will stop early.
But a better solution is usually to install a proxy server in your local network. It will keep a mirror of all the packages that you use. You can then tell Maven to ask the proxy (so you don't have to keep N repos in the same state in all settings.xml of many developers) plus doing the first build for a new developer (or for you when you have to wipe your local repo) will be much faster.