In industries such as cross-border e-commerce, game acceleration, and video distribution that require extremely high network quality, BGP multi-line servers have become the first choice for many companies to deploy Asian businesses. But before you actually rent a Hong Kong BGP multi-line server, do you really understand what BGP is? What are the advantages of multi-lines? How can you choose reliable configurations and lines from many service providers?
Before introducing it, let us first understand one thing: BGP is not a network line, but a "routing protocol."
BGP is a protocol for exchanging routing information between Internet autonomous systems. In layman's terms, it allows the server's IP to connect to multiple operators (such as China Telecom, China Unicom, China Mobile, and overseas ISPs) at the same time to achieve automatic selection of the optimal path.
Why choose "BGP multi-line" instead of "single line"?
Single lines are prone to high latency or packet loss when accessing across networks. BGP multi-line can automatically select a better exit based on the network source of the visiting user.
Consideration 1: Does it support China's three-network optimization?
Many users choose Hong Kong BGP servers for the purpose of serving users in mainland China, but this does not mean that all Hong Kong BGP servers can achieve three-network optimization.
If the server provider only provides "normal international BGP" instead of "optimized BGP", the quality of mainland access may be greatly reduced.
Consideration 2: Data center quality and operator cooperation level
There are many types of server data centers in Hong Kong, from T3-level data centers (such as Equinix HK2, MEGA-i) to small and medium-sized IDC hosting.
How to judge the quality of a data center? Is it a Tier3 or above data center? Does it have an operator POP point (access to China Telecom, China Unicom, etc.)? Does it have an independent firewall and DDoS cleaning capabilities? Does the data center provide 24-hour on-site engineers + Chinese support?
Consideration 3: Is the bandwidth specification "real and effective"?
Although many Hong Kong servers are nominally "100Mbps" and "1Gbps shared", in fact, the available bandwidth is far from enough, and there is even a situation of export speed limit.
Key points to check: Is it shared bandwidth or exclusive bandwidth? Are there any restrictions on peak/continuous traffic? Are large-volume downloads/video push/game services allowed? Is there a speed limit policy?
Suggestion: Be sure to ask the service provider to provide a bandwidth measurement map and verify access through Speedtest/iperf.
Consideration 4: Are IP resources sufficient and do they support replacement and independent ASN?
IPv4 resources are in short supply, especially in Hong Kong, where the value of each IP far exceeds that of other nodes.
Core issues include: Is an independent IP provided (non-NAT sharing)? Is IP replacement supported (to avoid blacklist issues)? Is IPv6 supported? Can multiple subnets be bound (/29 or /28 segments)? Can the company's own ASN or BGP broadcast be connected?
Consideration 5: Can the defense capability resist DDoS/CC attacks?
BGP servers are often used in core business scenarios. Once they are shut down due to an attack, the loss is huge.
Key points: Is there a hard defense or cleaning center? What is the DDoS protection flow capacity? Does it support TCP/UDP protocol layer cleaning? Does it provide custom fire prevention rules? Can it be used with high-defense IP and cleaning back-source architecture?
Some Hong Kong high-defense BGP servers also support automatic attack identification and real-time switching of cleaning lines, which are more suitable for game deployment.
Consideration 6: Access delay and stability test (must be done)
No matter how good the configuration is, it will lose its meaning if it is slow to access from the target customer area.
Test method recommendations:
Use ping, traceroute, and MTR tools to test from the three networks in mainland China and overseas nodes
Use Speedtest to monitor the actual performance of upstream and downstream bandwidth
Require the service provider to provide test IP and download test files
Reference data: The average delay of high-quality BGP nodes in mainland China should be controlled at 30~60ms.
Hong Kong BGP multi-line servers do bring advantages such as low latency, multi-line high availability, and filing exemption, but their deployment cost and operation and maintenance complexity are also relatively higher. Therefore, when selecting a model, you should avoid just looking at the price. Instead, you should consider your own business model, target market, and traffic demand, and give priority to line quality and service stability.
