Answered: NeuroRouting does not appear to take into account all available locations/servers

[pkaloc]

Dear PP users,

it seems the advanced NeuroRouting feature will not always make use of the geographically closest server out there. Have anyone run into that, too?

For instance, if I go to a Czech server, the exit IP address is still a German one. Even if PP is available in Czech. Sadly, there is no option to switch NeuroRouting off for specific URLs. PP, do you happen to plan to add this feature in near future? Would come in handy.

Thanks for your time!

P.S. I use the original PP application for mac os

 

[webslap]

Are you sure that the target adress is in czech?
could you give us an example?

 

[MixMaster]

I guess since machine learning is involved, there's no guarantee that NeuroRouting will always pick the closest exit node. Depending on internet routing, the german node might even be closer than any other PP server. Can you tell us which address you tested?

 

[pkaloc]

Sure thing. To test it out, connect directly (no hops etc.) to the 'Prague 1' server (a Czech one) and then look into the traceroute for the following domain: ivys-st07-6.o2tv.cz (according to GeoIP, that domain should be Czech too) You will see its quite a different depending on the status of NeuroRouting. But you are right, you never know how the current internet routing topology looks like.

What I am doing is to watch a video on this webpage: http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/ivysilani/12124196120-rallye-dakar-2018/218471291262004-dakar-2018
If I switch NeuroRouting on, the video will not play. Without NeuroRouting, the playback works okay.

Anyway, many thanks for your interest.

 

[PP Werner]

To test it out, connect directly (no hops etc.) to the 'Prague 1' server (a Czech one) and then look into the traceroute for the following domain: ivys-st07-6.o2tv.cz.

Latencies to this host are practically the same as seen from our servers in Prague and Nuremberg, so NeuroRouting possibly balances users over both locations. It should prefer direct exit for very close destinations and also consider the additional hop latency.

We'll have to ask the AI for an explanation ;-)

If I switch NeuroRouting on, the video will not play. Without NeuroRouting, the playback works okay.

That is an unfortunate side effect of how NeuroRouting works and some sites try to protect from unauthorized downloads. The main site probably ties authorization to view the video to the client IP address from its perspective while the next request arrives at the download server from a different address and is denied.

ceskatelevize.cz is best reached from the Frankfurt location while a connection to ivys-st07-6.o2tv.cz should exit from either Nuremberg or Prague.

 

[pkaloc]

Thank you for the analysis! I see NeuroRouting works perfectly. It is a nice idea and unique feature, no doubt about it.

Like you say, that website most likely uses geo-based authorization. Unfortunately, as some European internet routes can be on par (from latency perspective), NeuroRouting use may be problematic in specific cases.
Not a big deal, but if a user was allowed to provide sort of a blacklist of target domains/addresses which would automatically switch NeuroRouting off for a specific IP request, that would help. Dunno how much burden it would add to your infrastructure, though.