Offshore or Local Server?

[g-d-zilla]

I have been arguing with an MSCE about www.youtube.co.za and www.google.co.za being located in Mountain View, USA, and NOT in South Africa as claimed by Google. I feel they are leading users astray by claiming that YouTube has a local (.ZA) server when in fact it is located in the USA. This MCSE told me to do a course in DNS. What is the use of a DNS course when a simple traceroute shows beyond shadow of doubt the IP Address for the "domain" is located in Mountain View, USA, and not in South Africa?

If anyone types in "http://www.youtube.co.za/" hoping to get a local server, they are in for a surprise: it resolves to: "http://www.youtube.com/?gl=ZA&hl=en-GB" and the difference between youtube.com and youtube.co.za is a few numbers in the 4th set of the IP Address. If the first set designates country, how can YouTube.co.za be located in this country?

Please explain!

 

[Grouter]

The MCSE is a nong.

 

[HavocXphere]

Both are partially right.

One some connections it goes local and on some it goes intl. Mostly the TENET based connections that go local.

 

[Grouter]

Can't say that I've done traces, but I've never seen Flagfox light up with an SA flag when on google or youtube. It's always the Stars & Stripes...

But then I'm not at a university or such.

 

[murraybiscuit]

i just logged into youtube za and did a live webcam recording.

i then requested the flv:

GET /videoplayback?ip=0.0.0.0&sparams=id%2Cexpire%2Cip%2Cipbits%2Citag%2Calgorithm%2Cburst%2Cfactor%2Coc%3AU0dWSVNUUF9FSkNNNl9LTlRJ&algorithm=throttle-factor&itag=34&ipbits=0&burst=40&sver=3&expire=1274392800&key=yt1&signature=81CE2F106237C5ADA266C8BF9CDFE7A5B52CB912.A05FE7B2820F9F0D913070DA13BAC196714C279B&factor=1.25&id=8a2ad2dedf96a28b HTTP/1.1
Host: v18.nonxt6.c.youtube.com

response:

Content-Type	video/x-flv
Date	Thu, 20 May 2010 15:14:41 GMT
Server	gvs 1.0

whatismyipaddress geolocates the server (v18.nonxt6.c.youtube.com) to mountain view, california:
http://whatismyipaddress.com/ip/173.194.0.149

 

[HavocXphere]

http://mybroadband.co.za/news/internet/12281-Googles-local-network-presence.html

 

[satanboy]

and we should care...why?

 

[JasonH]

Google does have a local presence, you cannot see this by doing a simple traceroute. A lot of content is actually served off their local cache servers, but the actual youtube.co.za domain still points to an USA IP from most ISP's in South Africa.

 

[McGuywer]

Agreed with JasonH

 

[ToAsTeD]

On a local only account I can access youtube.co.za and google.co.za without a problem. Must be local.

 

[Lawnchairman]

That cant be correct cause when tried on local that did not happen.