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Every request you send on the internet crosses dozens of routers before it reaches its destination. This guide explains the basic logic of network routing, the BGP protocol that ties the internet together, and how you can inspect your own server's routing step by step.
Getting a packet from source to destination relies on routing decisions made at two distinct layers: local network routing and inter-autonomous-system routing across the internet.
A collection of IP networks operating under a single administrative policy, such as an ISP, a large company or a hosting provider; each is identified by a unique AS number.
The routing protocol that announces which IP blocks are reachable through which paths between autonomous systems, forming the backbone of the internet.
An AS announces the IP block it owns (for example 203.0.113.0/24) to neighboring ASes so that traffic destined for that block is routed to it.
Traffic heading to your server's default gateway is local routing; from there the packet continues across multiple ASes, guided by BGP decisions, until it reaches its destination.
Knowing BGP and routing concepts lets you correctly diagnose the latency, availability and performance issues you run into during day-to-day server management.
Seeing at which hop latency increases in a traceroute lets you tell whether the problem is on your own server or in a network somewhere along the path.
When an AS announces an IP block it doesn't own, either by mistake or maliciously, traffic can be misdirected; knowing how this can affect your server's availability matters.
It's normal for traceroutes to the same destination taken at different times to follow different paths; BGP path selection can change based on traffic engineering and agreements between providers.
Choosing a data center that is geographically and topologically close to your audience reduces the number of ASes in between and therefore latency.
The steps below let you examine your server's network position and the path its traffic takes using standard command-line tools, without installing anything special.
Run a WHOIS lookup to see which AS number and which provider your server's IP address is allocated to.
Run traceroute to see which routers (hops) the packet passes through on its way from source to destination.
Instead of traceroute's one-off snapshot, use mtr to observe packet loss and latency variation over time.
Use a public looking glass or route server to see how your own IP prefix is announced from different points on the internet and which AS path is being followed.
Check whether the same IP address is routed to different servers depending on geographic location (anycast) or always goes to a single fixed server (unicast).
If you manage your own AS number and IP block, use a BGP monitoring service to get alerted about unexpected announcement changes for your prefix.
traceroute example.com
mtr -rw example.com
whois <your-server-ip>
dig +trace example.com
telnet route-views.routeviews.org > show ip bgp 203.0.113.0/24
ip route show default
An AS number (ASN) is a unique identifier for a network that follows an independent routing policy on the internet. Most hosting customers don't need their own ASN; your server already sits under your hosting provider's AS. You need your own ASN once you want to announce your own IP blocks through multiple providers (multihoming).
DNS translates a domain name (such as example.com) into an IP address — it helps you find the destination's address. Routing determines which path, through which routers, packets take to reach that IP address. DNS tells you 'where to go'; routing determines 'how to get there'.
A BGP hijack happens when an AS announces an IP prefix it doesn't own, either by mistake or maliciously, causing some or all of the traffic destined for that prefix to be misdirected. This can make affected servers temporarily unreachable or route their traffic through an unexpected network.
Yes. How many networks a provider directly peers with, which internet exchanges (IXs) it connects to, and the quality of its BGP path selection all directly affect the latency your audience experiences.
Anycast is a method where the same IP address is announced from multiple geographic locations, and BGP routing automatically directs the user to the nearest or lowest-cost location; it's typically used for DNS and CDN infrastructure. Standard VPS and dedicated server IPs are typically unicast; anycast requires network infrastructure built specifically for that service.
Choosing a data center that is geographically close to your audience and has good peering relationships reduces both the number of ASes in between and the physical distance, lowering latency. Using a CDN for static content also lets you serve users from the edge location nearest to them.
The primary source on AS number allocation and routing policy from the regional internet registry for Europe.
A plain-language learning resource explaining how BGP works and what a BGP hijack is.
The official IANA registry of global AS number allocations.
Check out our VPS and dedicated server plans, hosted in data centers with strong peering relationships to give your audience the closest and fastest routing.
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