Latency is network delay for a packet to reach from its source to the destination
Inoder for you to understand this ; i am comparing the time taken for an ICMP echo (ping) packet to 2 destinations that are geographically seperated
The source IP is located at KOCHI,INDIA (BSNL National Internet Bachbone) and the destination 1 is a server located at INDIAn subcontinent ,whereas destination 2 is a server located in the United States
Computer located in INDIA
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anoop@ubuntu:~$ ping 124.153.106.142
PING mobshare.in (124.153.106.142) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 124.153.106.142: icmp_seq=1 ttl=56 time=84.7 ms
64 bytes from 124.153.106.142: icmp_seq=2 ttl=56 time=84.0 ms
64 bytes from 124.153.106.142: icmp_seq=3 ttl=56 time=83.2 ms
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Computer located in US
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anoop@ubuntu:~$ ping gnusys.net
PING gnusys.net (209.40.199.67) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from neutron.gnusys.net (209.40.199.67): icmp_seq=1 ttl=44 time=283 ms
64 bytes from neutron.gnusys.net (209.40.199.67): icmp_seq=2 ttl=44 time=284 ms
64 bytes from neutron.gnusys.net (209.40.199.67): icmp_seq=3 ttl=44 time=282 ms
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You can clearly see the difference!
Does latency matter to you? - the answer to the question depends on the type of application that you host.
For example if you are hosting a VoIP server;latency is very important to you and you must always choose a host with low latency. If you have a technology blog like what i have ..latency is not a big deal and since we have more internet users in developed countries like US;there is also a possibility that i have more visitors from US which makes hosting in the US a more better option.
Usually bandwidth and other internet resources are a lot cheaper in US and other developed countries and so money wise also hosting in the US is a good option
Another good option is to select a web-host tat have a CDN (content delivery network ) that is geographically dispersed
Posted under hosting
This post was written by Anoop Alias on June 30, 2008
Hello Anoop,
This a good point regarding latency. Not all applications need low latencies(your exceptions like VOIP, conferencing are correct).
Do you know if ANY of the big CDN networks like akamai et all have servers located in the sub-continent.
Pinging google.co.in from a VSNL leased line results in >[100-140]ms round trip time. Thats a datacenter in taiwan i think. google.co.in used to resolve to some Akamai IPs some time ago.
Google usually only locates its web servers in same locations as their several datacenters. The asian ones are a mystery. I’m just talking nonsense now, i know.