CN2 VPS in the West Coast of the United States has become an important choice for many companies and individuals to build overseas businesses and accelerate data transmission between China and the United States. However, there are many data centers in the West Coast of the United States, from Los Angeles, San Jose to Seattle, and the network structure and service quality of each location are different. So, which data center should I choose for CN2 VPS in the West Coast of the United States?
CN2, the next-generation bearer network of China Telecom, is divided into two types: CN2 GT and CN2 GIA. Among them, CN2 GIA is a high-end optimized line, which is more expensive, but can greatly improve the access speed and stability of mainland China. Compared with traditional BGP lines, CN2 GIA has shorter path hops, lower packet loss rate, lower latency, and remains stable during the evening peak period. Therefore, when choosing a West Coast VPS for building Chinese sites, remote offices, cross-border businesses or game acceleration nodes, the CN2 line is a preferred option.
Analysis of mainstream data centers in the West Coast of the United States:
The West Coast of the United States roughly covers California, Washington State and its surrounding areas. Common VPS service providers deploy data centers in Los Angeles, San Jose, Seattle, etc. The data centers in each city have representative operators and line structures. The following details their characteristics and advantages and disadvantages.
1. Los Angeles: The first choice for Sino-US transmission
Los Angeles can be said to be the first hop city connecting mainland China and the United States. There are plenty of entrances to the CN2 line in Los Angeles, which is the preferred node for many CN2 GIA VPS providers. Representative data centers include Coresite LA1/LA2 (One Wilshire), Equinix LA3, Psychz Networks, etc.
Advantages: A large number of CN2 direct POP points, mature network optimization, support for transit + return CN2 GIA; a large number of high-defense IPs, strong DDoS mitigation capabilities; the delay from mainland China can be as low as 130ms.
Disadvantages: Occasionally congested during peak hours, you need to choose a high-quality service provider; some cheap VPS providers have network congestion.
As an international communication hub, Los Angeles occupies a leading position in cost-effectiveness, stability and access speed, and is suitable for most CN2 VPS needs.
2. San Jose: Silicon Valley High-Speed Transit
Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, San Jose has a huge network bandwidth, high-quality CN2 access points, and a highly neutral data center, which is convenient for VPS vendors to self-organize their networks.
Advantages: Multi-line integration, support for CN2+HE+BGP strategy; high network transparency, low failure rate; seamless integration with Silicon Valley cloud ecosystem; usually better IPv6 support.
Disadvantages: Some lines are slightly slower than Los Angeles by about 5~10ms; high-configuration VPS prices are slightly higher.
San Jose CN2 VPS is more suitable for users who focus on network reliability and professional purposes, such as building cloud databases, container platforms, or high-frequency website access.
3. Seattle: Dark Horse in the Cold
Since Seattle is close to Canada, a lot of CN2 traffic will also be forwarded to Vancouver through here, which is suitable for users who optimize access to southern or western China.
Advantages: Relatively small network pressure; support for wider coverage of internal access in North America; some service providers provide CN2 + 9929 hybrid solutions.
Disadvantages: CN2 has fewer direct connection nodes, which may be secondary transit; the latency is slightly higher than Los Angeles/San Jose.
If your business tends to be used locally in North America and has moderate access needs to China, Seattle CN2 VPS is a cost-effective supplementary option.
How to choose a high-quality CN2 VPS service provider in the western United States?
Although the line is good, choosing the right business is the key. Many so-called CN2 VPS on the market are actually "pseudo CN2", that is, they only provide inbound or outbound CN2, not full-process CN2 GIA optimization. The following are selection suggestions:
1. Clarify the line type
CN2 GIA has high-quality access experience and more stable latency;
CN2 GT is cheaper, but easily affected by peak;
The best solution for bidirectional CN2, but the price is also the highest;
Hybrid line (CN2 + BGP): cost-effective, suitable for users with non-strong needs.
2. Look at the evaluation/route tracking, use the traceroute tool or the webmaster tool to check whether the line hops are detours and whether it is directly connected to the United States from China Telecom.
3. Pay attention to CPU and I/O performance. Even if the network is good, the performance of the virtual machine itself is poor, which will still affect the user experience. It is recommended to use KVM architecture, SSD hard disk, E5 series or AMD EPYC architecture.
4. Give priority to service providers with test IP/Looking Glass pages, so that you can verify the actual delay before purchasing to avoid pitfalls.
FAQ:
1. Is CN2 VPS suitable for all websites?
Answer: Not necessarily. CN2 is suitable for businesses targeting Chinese users. If the target audience is Europe, the United States or the world, you can choose BGP optimized line + CDN acceleration.
2. Why is CN2 VPS more expensive than ordinary VPS?
Answer: Because its network is China Telecom's exclusive optimized line, bandwidth is scarce, and operating costs are high.
3. How to distinguish CN2 GIA and GT?
Answer: GIA is a high-end line, usually marked as "two-way CN2" or "full CN2 GIA", and GT is mostly an economical return line, which needs to be confirmed by routing tracking test.
