Multiple Ip’s and Locations?

[Eli]

I noticed CubeCraft has two IP adresses. But I don’t understand why they change location so much? The play.cubecraft.net IP is usually located in Williamsville, US. But now it’s located in Atlanta according to namemc.

So you understand what I mean: https://namemc.com/server/play.cubecraft.net

 

[Dohaa]

I'm confused...

 

[Marta]

I would recommend you don't read into location data too much.

The way this works is fairly simple. When you get an IP address range assigned, the RIR you get it from, for America in this case, ARIN, allows you to specify the country and geolocation coordinate data to each address block. How accurate of location data you put on your blocks is up to you, you can be quite vague if you wish.

Different "IP Lookup databases" on the internet then index this information and try to make more accurate guesses based on other data they have, such as where the company that owns a specific block is registered, and "augment" the data this way. In many cases this is inaccurate.

If namemc recently switched or updated where they get the information from, this might have been the cause of the change you see. Currently, I do not know which service they use for it.

To give you a more precise answer, the US servers we have are located near the center of Buffalo, NY. I can tell you this with confidence, as I have been in the data halls where the servers are. :)

 

[Chitter]

So if u live in buffalo u get less ping?

 

[Marta]

So if u live in buffalo u get less ping?

Yes, but not all the time.

It all depends on what network path your ISP has to the datacenter. This might not be the most direct path possible, as these routing decisions are not only made based on latency, but also cost and a dozen other factors.

An example:

I live in Manchester in the UK. Our ISP is BT.
There's a couple of datacenters in Manchester, which are about a 30 minute drive away. With a direct path this would be about 0.5ms give or take of latency, however if I ping them, I get around 8ms.

This is because these datacenters have a peering point in London, and so does BT. BT also has all of their core infrastructure in London, so the default path is to send the traffic down there, so instead of going directly from my house to the DC in Manchester, the packets take a detour via London, thus adding + ~4ms each way.

Network infrastructure can get fairly complex, as you can see. Being next door to the datacenter might not make you have any better latency then someone who's further away. It's all dependant on the choises the DC and the ISP's make.

 

[Chitter]

So then it would be most efficient to put the datacenter nearer to the closest peering point? Or would it be better to put the datacenters near the midpoint of 2 peering points.

 

[Marta]

So then it would be most efficient to put the datacenter nearer to the closest peering point? Or would it be better to put the datacenters near the midpoint of 2 peering points.

In most cases thats what happens. Overall however pricing does significantly impact where a DC ends up.

Examples are LINX in london is one of the biggest internet exchanges in the world, but building out a DC in the middle of london is not exactly a cheap endeavour. Likewise getting space in Telehouse, very near it, is also quite expensive.

So the compromise is you build your DC outside of London, and then run a dedicated line to LINX and other exchanges. The result is a much cheaper bill, with the downside of one or two millisecond difference. (Which in most cases isn't noticeable, unless you're working with something like a stock exchange.)

 

[Chitter]

So about how many datacenters does cubecraft have? Is all the 1ms lags building up to make cubecraft laggier than other servers?

Also is a datacenter something tangible, like a building or is it just something on a computer

 

[Marta]

Also is a datacenter something tangible, like a building or is it just something on a computer

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_center

So about how many datacenters does cubecraft have?

We have one in the US and one in Europe.

 

[Chitter]

How big are the datacenters? And how old are they?

Sorry if im sking alot of questions im just pretty interested in this

 

[Marta]

How big are the datacenters? And how old are they?

Sorry if im sking alot of questions im just pretty interested in this

Feel free to hit up google.com with some searches like "datacenter providers". They often list stats on how big and what kind of capacity they offer.

Iomart Maidenhead is an example of our EU site: https://www.iomart.com/about-iomart/uk-data-centres-maidenhead/

We only consume a small portion of the available space on that site. You need to keep in mind a single datacenter can host hundreds or even thousands of different customers of various sizes. Some may just want to colocate a single 1U server, which isn't very big comparatively.

 

[Chitter]

So how expensive would it be to add another datacenter somewhere in south america? Because i feel like that would improve the ping of many people in the spanish community

 

[Marta]

So how expensive would it be to add another datacenter somewhere in south america? Because i feel like that would improve the ping of many people in the spanish community

We can take that into consideration.

Bandwidth and space in South America is quite expensive compared to mainland Europe or US, so I doubt you will see this happen in the short term.

 

[Chitter]

ok, so would it still be really expensive to put a datacenter in texas or mexico? or possibly central america?

and how expensive, like 3 times mroe than europe/us?

 

[Eli]

ok, so would it still be really expensive to put a datacenter in texas or mexico? or possibly central america?

and how expensive, like 3 times mroe than europe/us?

If there’s already a data center in the US the most convenient thing would be to have one in South America, not North America. Brazil is a good option.
Because I doubt there’s an important amount of players from Central America. But there are many players from countries like Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, and Peru.

 

[Chitter]

Im suggesting putting dcs there because its closer to south america, but still is in NA/Central america, hopefully thos eplaces have cheaper datacenter prices. Therefore ms would be lower with a datacenter there rather than having them be forced to use the datacenter in buffalo, which is in upstate new york, really far from places in south america such as argentina.