Tot Hosting Youtube? (Or Not?)

[smallbear]

I'm interested to know why this appears in the brower's bottom status bar, when I play a Youtube video. This has recently started to show. Clearly, the domain name from which the stream is downloaded, refers to TOT. Sure, TOT is my ISP.

Some weeks ago, many tracks on Youtube were unusable because of the slow Thailand-International Internet performance. As a resolution to this, does the presence of TOT in this domain, mean that TOT is hosting the Youtube content?

[rakman]

the site in question:

o-o.preferred.tot-bkk1.v22.lscache2.c.youtube.com

resolves to:

118.174.24.33

which is listed on whois:

Whois information on 118.174.24.33:

inetnum: 118.174.24.0 - 118.174.27.255

netname: totnet

descr: IP Assignment for Google Caching Systems

descr: TOT Public Company Limited

country: TH

Since Google bought youtube, google is using their Thailand caching systems to give better response.

This particular cache setup is in the TOT network to give TOT and other users better service.

Youtube like other media providers use a test algorithm to find the closest cache to the end user.

Edited July 2, 2011 by rakman

[smallbear]

which is listed on whois:

Whois information on 118.174.24.33:

inetnum: 118.174.24.0 - 118.174.27.255

netname: totnet

descr: IP Assignment for Google Caching Systems

descr: TOT Public Company Limited

country: TH

Thanks, that sounds very clear. I'm not sure however, does this show whether the server is inside TOT, or inside Google? How do you obtain such detailed whois information from that single IP address? I normally use ip2location, but it doesn't give that address range, nor does it give the "TOT Public Company Limited".

[nikster]

Google has a dedicated line out of thailand. So you in essence get speeds close to thai speeds as you are not using your TOT international line. You are using googles international line.

I posted info on this recently.... Apple and MS employ similar systems. The effect on the end user is that these big sites are fast. But there is no actual cache server in thailand.

[smallbear]

But there is no actual cache server in thailand.

This sounds like a different approach to the cache solution mentioned in Rakman's reply. In that case, why would the domain shown in Youtube refer to TOT cache?

Irrespective of that however, if Google Inc. has its dedicated line, that would offer a significant advantage because the International bandwidth of that line would not be shared with other traffic. I'm amazed that a corporation can get its own line circumventing any existing connection into an entire country. It's rather disconcerting that a corporation can wield such power.