Slow website through proxy

[craig.maconnachie]

Hi we run many websites through Cloudflare and lately have noticed websites are running slow when loading data, for a particular client I added a host header direct to our server and the data load is now working as expected, so this is 100% pointing to a Cloudflare issue

This is not happening with every request, more like every 5th request. The website is hosted on Azure in Australia, yet I have noticed the routing through Cloudflare is going via Singapore, which I obviously not ideal.

Also if I bypass the Cloudflare proxy, I also get the fast data speed for every load.

[cbrandt]

Peering is what determines the routing of visitor’s requests through Cloudflare network and beyond. Higher priced plans are expected to make use of better network routes, but that’s not a promise.

Peering - Why don't I reach the closest datacenter to me?

Why don’t I reach the closest datacenter to me? Cloudflare is an anycast network, so where you are routed is determined by peering with ISPs. The shortest path geographically isn’t always possible due to peering agreements. If you request a site hosted on Cloudflare from home: The domain resolves to a Cloudflare IP Your browser sends an HTTP request to that IP Your ISP’s routers consult their routing table and route the packets upstream to their transit provider ( COSTS MONEY ) The packets …

[craig.maconnachie]

So would you suggest this is a routing issue?

If 4 requests run as expected (within 1 second) then the 5th request runs very slow (around 5 seconds) for the same data, would the route taken be different?

Or could this be a different issue?

[cbrandt]

@craig.maconnachie

So would you suggest this is a routing issue?

No. I was referring to the routing via SIngapore. The perceived slowness could be the result of a myriad of issues, though peering/routing cannot be ignored as a factor.

@craig.maconnachie

would the route taken be different?

This is hard to say. You can run from your connection requests to the domain with the path /cdn-cgi/trace to see how often the CF colocation changes, if it changes at all.

https://example.com/cdn-cgi/trace

But keep in mind that whatever results you get may differ from requests made using a different ISP, due to peering. You can test alternating different wi-fi and 4G connections, to see what results you get.