CN2, China Telecom's Next Generation Carrying Network (ChinaNetNextCarryingNetwork). CN2 is a multi-service carrying network that supports the integration of various services such as data, voice, and video applications. Typically, CN2 networks are superior to regular networks and are worth considering when purchasing VPS.

Route Tracing

You can use the tracert command in the cmd prompt to trace routes, but it may not be very intuitive. We can use the tool called besttrace to view the routes more clearly.

Download link: besttrace.exe

Enter the VPS IP address, and you can see each route node passed through, along with IP location, maps, etc. It is very intuitive, as shown in the screenshot below.

Obtaining Backbone IP

Generally, the middle few routes are backbone networks of network operators. Please refer to the "key routes" in the previous screenshot and copy the IP, such as 59.43.244.141. You can use the tool ipip.net to query the IP.

If one of the IPs shows "CN2 Backbone Network," it means that the request is routed through the CN2 network, as shown in the screenshot above.

Return Path Testing

Many people refer to bidirectional CN2 as requests going through CN2 and returns also going through CN2, which generally indicates better network quality. However, some IDCs only have one-way CN2. How to determine this?

Taking a Linux system VPS as an example, you can use the tool Best Trace for Linux to accomplish this. The usage is as follows:

# Create a directory
mkdir test && cd test
# Download and unzip Best Trace for Linux
wget https://cdn.ipip.net/17mon/besttrace4linux.zip && unzip besttrace4linux.zip
# Add executable permission
chmod +x besttrace
# Route tracing
./besttrace -q 1 180.153.68.1

Replace 180.153.68.1 in the last command with your own public IP. The return path route is as follows.

The above screenshot is a test conducted with HostUS Los Angeles VPS, and it was found that the return path did not go through the CN2 network, so it can only be considered as one-way CN2 network.

Conclusion

CN2 network can be considered as a reference factor, but it does not represent the quality of the network as a whole. The above tests are for reference only. Currently, the following hosts used by xiaoz support CN2 network.

• Alibaba Cloud Singapore: https://blog.xiaoz.org/archives/8913 (Bidirectional CN2)
• HostUS Los Angeles (KVM): https://blog.xiaoz.org/archives/7502 (One-way CN2)