Traffic to/from my Linode is taking a weird route -- why is that?

Hey there! If you notice that your web traffic is making stops at places you wouldn't normally expect on its way to its destination, the most likely reason is that it's cheaper for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to at major hubs than connect locally to another ISP at every small location. Think of it almost like taking a flight -- it'd be much easier (and cheaper) for airline companies to fly you to a major city than it would to a remote town!

The unfortunate truth here is that once traffic leaves your local router/our network, there's very little that the Support team or you can do outside of contacting ISPs. If this is something you'd like to do, you could always run an MTR report, and then use dig to identify any problematic hops. Once you've done so, you can contact the ISP with any questions or concerns.

Alternatively, you could always clone your Linode to a new datacenter, use a VPN, or contact Support to request that we migrate your Linode to another datacenter.