Linode Fremont (US West Coast) Data Center Review

Established in 2003, the veteran hosting provider Linode initially required credit card verification, creating a higher barrier to entry. Following competition from rising stars like Vultr and DigitalOcean, Linode launched a $5/month plan in February this year. Combined with Linode's powerful control panel, which outperforms many other providers, it remains a strong choice.

Linode currently operates two data centers in Japan: JP1 (via KDDI) and JP2 (via NTT). However, new users can no longer purchase JP1, and JP2 has seen a surge of Chinese users, leading to suboptimal network conditions. The image below shows the network status of the JP2 line as observed by Sichuan Telecom (red indicates packet loss).

Linode JP2 Network Monitoring (Click to enlarge)

Linode offers 8 data centers to choose from. For users in China, the Fremont (US West Coast) data center generally offers the best network performance. The following is a review of the Linode Fremont data center.

Ping Test

Sichuan Telecom Ping Test

Super Ping Test

Sichuan Telecom One-Week Monitoring

Regarding packet loss for Sichuan Telecom to Linode Fremont, the performance is significantly better than Linode JP2. Latency remains around 200ms. However, the one-week monitoring shows that network fluctuations are somewhat significant.

Route Tracing

Sichuan Telecom

Jiangsu Mobile

Shanxi Unicom

Route tracing for the three major carriers shows direct connections with no routing detours.

I/O and Bandwidth

The average I/O reaches 551.3 MB/s, which is quite impressive for both reading and writing. The maximum download speed reached 194 MB/s, suggesting the host machine likely has a 1000M bandwidth.

Other Notes

• Linode now supports PayPal payments.
• Automatic backups are supported (additional fee required); users with high data requirements can opt to enable this.
• Affiliate funds (AFF) cannot be withdrawn but can only be used for consumption.

Conclusion

Overall, the Linode Fremont data center performs well, although network fluctuations are slightly high (specifically for Sichuan Telecom). However, network conditions vary by user, so it is recommended to test different data centers directly. Like Vultr and DigitalOcean, Linode supports hourly billing, allowing users to delete instances and stop charges at any time.

Purchase Link: https://www.linode.com/ (Includes Affiliate Commission)