Porting over a foreign IP...

Can it be done?

[SEOMike]

I have a large client that is launching new sites for their foreign branches. They would greatly prefer if they hosted all the sites in the same network operating center as their 600+ US local sites.

My question is, can they have foreign IPs point to a site hosted in the US? I hope they can host each country's site here at their HQ and that they don't have to have a host in each country.

Thanks in advance.

-M

[SEOMike]

Nobody has any answers? I've been doing a lot of research and have found nothing.

Guess it's not possible.

[mcavic]

They can point the DNS entries for the foreign domain names at US-based IP addresses.

In other words, set up a host in the US, and make www.domain.ru point to the IP of the host.

[SEOMike]

In other words, set up a host in the US, and make www.domain.ru point to the IP of the host.

But doesnt' that still have the US IP? I'm pretty sure foreign engines / robots treat things from their own IP country differently than foreigners. PLUS with locations all over the world, who's to say that a US IP could get into a foreign LOCAL search when it finally evolves. I want to start out right... I'm thinking a foreign host is the only way to go...

[mcavic]

Yeah, I guess that's true - geolocation works by IP address, not by host name. I was talking about making the site work for users.

[racer_x]

IP addresses are tied to rough geographically regions, this done so as to reduce the complexity of the routing tables in the Internet backbone routers.

What you could do is setup a foreign server to transparently forward all traffic to a US based server. You could either do this by simple port forwarding or using a VPN to tunnel the traffic or else use a more complex solution that caches data. But really if you going to this much hassle you might as well just host the website in the foreign country.

[SEOMike]

Thanks for the tips. I kinda figured I'd have to host in the countries.

This is going to be one huge project...

[kalos]

Shot in the dark but couldn't you have each contry host a small webserver that redirects to the US data center? This would maintain an IP for each country tld, www.site.ru for instance, yet allow the company to have the main bulk of the site in one easy to manage and maintain location (both physically and content-wise).

Apache running on an average box with an index.cgi of nothing more than:

print "Location: http:// www.site.com\n\n"

would do the trick.

I added a space between the // and www so the page didn't parse it as a link.

[JasonD]

The functionality you require is possible though in an ugly roundabout manner.

I am not suggesting you do this as it's expensive (in bandwidth, hardware etc.)

You have 2 IP addresses

Foreign IP.
US IP.

Foreign IP has an SSH port forwarding connection on port 80 to the US IP.

In practice it will appear that the foreign server is hosting the content whereas in actual fact the US server is and the foreign IP is simply proxying the content for the viewer.

[py9jmas]

If the majority of a site's visitors are going to be in country A, it seems counter-productive to host the website in country B. You'll end up with slower load times and higher latency and lower reliability than if you host the site local to your visitors. You'll also slow down the international links for the rest of us.

Perhaps running something like Squid in reverse proxy mode in the foreign country might be suitable? The site will have a foreign IP and international traffic can be minimized by the cacing.

[JasonD]

If the majority of a site's visitors are going to be in country A, it seems counter-productive to host the website in country B

The main benefit I can see is for content management. Host all the data locally and in one place for all the various sites instead of running multiple CMS systems around the globe.

Other than that I can't see a benefit, but depending on the type of site, amount of data, CMS licencing costs etc., then that single benefit can be huge.