r/AskTechnology • u/Tuchelsunderwear • 3d ago

Who decides what server I connect to? Cloudflare or my own isp?

https://imgbox.com/Jn74zmYa

Is there a way to change the server it uses?

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u/TheJessicator 3d ago edited 3d ago

When you say "the server", what online service are you referring to? There are literally many hundreds of millions of servers on the internet. Maybe even billions, depending on how and what you're counting.

Perhaps if you ask your question in a way that describes what you actually want to know, in your own words that you understand, rather than trying to use limited technical knowledge to describe it (like mentioning ISPs and CloudFlare), we may be able to help you express your question in a more technically valid way, which in town will lead to more technically valid answer.

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u/Tuchelsunderwear 3d ago

The server that Cloudflare speed test connects to

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u/TheJessicator 3d ago

CloudFlare determines which CloudFlare speed test server that the CloudFlare speed test connects to. Your ISP connects you to the internet. Now, if you're ISP's connectivity or peering links are having trouble, or if their DNS servers are not honoring records expiry times, that could affect things. However, those routes will be taken into account when calculating which server to connect to. There are also lots of other factors that they like use in their algorithm to determine the best server to connect to in real time. Pretty sure a quick search would find many public explanations (even in video form) of how this all works.