UK vs US

[alkit]

Just out of interest, I tried to ping both a UK web host and a US web host.
Results averages:
UK - 220ms
US - 340ms
So it seems ping is a lot quicker to the UK.

So now comes my question-
If UK hosts and US hosts charge almost the same price, why do people in South Africa wanting to host overseas choose the US instead of the UK??

 

[semiautomatix]

Just out of interest, I tried to ping both a UK web host and a US web host.
Results averages:
UK - 220ms
US - 340ms
So it seems ping is a lot quicker to the UK.

So now comes my question-
If UK hosts and US hosts charge almost the same price, why do people in South Africa wanting to host overseas choose the US instead of the UK??

What if you're appealing to the American market? But generally the USA works out cheaper...

And the USA is always going to have higher pings since we route traffic to that country view Europe and the UK!

 

[alkit]

well, unfortunately, most people hosting overseas are still targeting the South African market. It is just that bandwidth costs so much in SA, that it is much more cost effective to host overseas.
So that is my question- If we want to target South Africans, and we are forced to host overseas, why not host in the UK rather than the US? Many such local companies choose US servers. Why?

 

[midrange]

If UK hosts and US hosts charge almost the same price

I pay $3 a month for US hosting. I doubt I could get that in the UK.

 

[alkit]

UK is around 2 pounds for 50gb transfer and 3 pounds for unlimited. Almost the same price when converted

 

[midrange]

UK is around 2 pounds for 50gb transfer and 3 pounds for unlimited. Almost the same price when converted

Which host?

I use: http://www.hawkhost.com/

 

[alkit]

sites like www.heartinternet.co.uk

 

[midrange]

sites like www.heartinternet.co.uk

To get a MySQL database there I'd have to pay £9. Hosting in the UK would be handier for support though.

 

[alkit]

yeh, but that is just one out of hundreds. (i just showed u that b.c of the unlimited bandwidth) look at other sites like studyhost.co.uk or geeksrv.net etc. and u can find around 2 pounds a month with mysql functionality

 

[JasonH]

What ISP accounts are you using to test? Ive done tests over 3G, ADSL IS and SAIX. And the low UK ping only happens on the IS accounts, with SAIX the pings are both in the lower 300 range..

 

[alkit]

correct, I did the ping from my IS account. Quite weird that latency is higher on a saix account especially since both (i think) use the same SAT3 cable.
And nevertheless, ping to the UK should definitely not be the same as the US. The UK is much closer?? Maybe saix has bad routing?

 

[icyrus]

How many people are hosting services offshore that are latency dependent though?