using RewriteCond or similar mechanism on apache, can i change how fast content is served to users in different parts of the world?
because it seems like this: I am hosting a site on netfirms.com, which is based in Toronto, and hosting another site on dreamhost.com, which is based in California. Both sites are almost empty. So I just uploaded identical files to them, to test the speed of download.
the site on netfirms, it took 3 minutes for a 38MB file to download. the site on dreamhost.com, it took 45 seconds. (I am also in California).
I then asked some friends to test the speed, and the results looked weird:
a friend who lives 15 minute away from me: 4.5 minute for the one on netfirms.com and 8 minutes for the one on dreamhost.com
friend in Michigan: 20 minutes for netfirms.com and 7 minutes for dreamhost.com
friend in Taiwan: 12 minutes for netfirms.com and 42 minutes for dreamhost.com
All my friends had broadband… so it looks like by using RewriteCond or some other mechanism in apache, they change the speed to download for users in different part of the world? when i get a web app running, it may be hard to decide which one to use, since they respond fast or slow quite differently to different parts of the world.
I doubt the hosts are doing any active throttling based on worldwide location. Perhaps have your friends do a tracert to the two servers, see how many hops are being made, what backbone providers are being used, what type of latency they have, etc?