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Comment by cute_boi | Hacker News Reader

I wonder if you can uncover where the data center is just by using ping command.

It could give you a rough idea, but it's far from precise. The delay added by a single router could throw you off by several KM.

It's much more effective to just go through satellite imagery and land title records.

https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=0.01+ms+at+speed+of+lig...

>> I wonder if you can uncover where the data center is just by using ping command.

Not exactly, but you can uncover cloud providers like Google and Azure, who forget to tell you, their "availability zones" are in the same data center ;-)

As long as they're on opposite sides so the same Shahed missile doesn't hit them both.

You can find data centers by looking for hvac units in satellite photos.

Probably also grid connections like size of transformers and if there is prominent number of trucks going in and out.

The relative lack of trucks is what would identify the data center. The only other buildings like that are warehouses, which have a lot more trucks going in and out relatively speaking.

In rural areas maybe. But plenty of data centres are in cities too. And European cities are not generally known for an abundance of parking spaces.

The giant kilometer by kilometer hyperscaler data centers aren't in cities.

Actually sometimes they are.

For example Lakeside Technology Center in Chicago

Or Telehouse in London

You can make a few phone calls. Maintenance is not avoidable until boston dynamics figure out how to clean the toilets at least.

That's some of how geolocation works. Ping can't go faster than the speed of light, so that gives you a circle for where something is. Ping from enough places and you can get a good enough idea, if you're the Iranian Guard or otherwise.

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