Some Big Websites Are Fast

[nikster]

Just an interesting tidbit somebody pointed out to me recently: Many big companies are leasing a service in Thailand whereby requests to their IP addresses go through a dedicated line out of Thailand.

Example: Google has its own bandwidth. All requests to Google (and also YouTube) don't use your crappy international bandwidth, but instead work like a local inside-Thailand request, and use Google's dedicated line to Singapore and then the USA.

Apple store has a similar deal, which explains why I always see full line speed on connections to the Apple store. The data is in the USA but it's not using my international connection, it's using Apple's.

I just thought that was interesting.

Check out the NECTEC internet map, there's several companies with direct lines to Singapore or HK, including Microsoft and Google.

[lomatopo]

http://internet.nectec.or.th/webstats/internetmap.current.iir?Sec=internetmap_current

Not sure why they haven't kept those up to date? Now nearly 16 months out of date.

Anyway, yeah, that's why we get such good service using Google's DNS servers.

[woodyleonhard]

http://internet.nectec.or.th/webstats/internetmap.current.iir?Sec=internetmap_current

Not sure why they haven't kept those up to date? Now nearly 16 months out of date.

Anyway, yeah, that's why we get such good service using Google's DNS servers.

I'm surprised Akamai isn't on the list but, yes, many major sites have dedicated lines worldwide.

Following up on your observations that the maps are dated 02-2010 -- I hadn't noticed that! The statistics, which used to be up-to-date, now seem to stop at 08-2010. See, e.g., http://internet.nectec.or.th/webstats/bandwidth.iir?Sec=bandwidth . That's troubling. I wonder if some other government organization has taken on the job?

UPDATE: Ooops. My bad. Akamai is on the bottom.

This also explains why people can, on occasion, get good speeds everywhere on the Internet EXCEPT google.com or yahoo.com or hotmail.com - when those lines get clogged, it brings down the service.

[wpcoe]

That is interesting. I thought it was because large sites, like Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, etc actually maintained mirror sites in Thailand. Instead, they are simply linking to their main sites (external to Thailand) via dedicated lines?

[woodyleonhard]

That is interesting. I thought it was because large sites, like Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, etc actually maintained mirror sites in Thailand. Instead, they are simply linking to their main sites (external to Thailand) via dedicated lines?

They probably maintain regional mirror sites in Singapore, Hong Kong, even in Malaysia. It's even possible that some mirror sites are in Thailand, and the links carry traffic from, say, Singapore to servers in Thailand.

The exact location and coverage of those sites is a closely guarded corporate secret. Companies like Akamai provide additional data pipes and regional servers for giant companies (including Microsoft) to handle unusual spikes in demand.