A lot of offers we publish here and on LowEndTalk refer to a “Looking Glass” or have a link to a “Looking Glass” for network info.

What is that?

It’s not a Jersey Shore band, a Nicholas Cage film, or an airborne doomsday control center (though that last article is an interesting read on Wikipedia).

A Looking Glass is a server that runs at the provider’s edge (usually right on the edge) that allows you to test their network.  Historically, the term “looking glass” was a synonym for “mirror” and that’s what an LG server does.

For example, SmartHost recently announced that they’ve expanded into Toronto, Canada.  They provided a Looking Glass you can see here.

From here, we can immediately see a lot of info:

• Their test IP, which we can ping or lookup
• They’ve got IPv6, which we can also test
• Test files so we can test what larger downloads look like

Let’s say I have something hosted in NYC.  For this examle, I’ll use one of the network addresses in the YABS script, Clouvider’s NYC POP:

Note that this is a test run on the Smarthost side.  Of course, if I had something hosted at that NYC POP, I could run a ping from my side, but Looking Glass allows you to ping from the other side.

Also useful is running traceroute so you can see how the provider’s network is connected.  Again, I can do that from the NYC side in this example, but here I can do it from Smarthost’s side:

In short, Looking Glass servers allow you to run a limited set of network commands from the remote provider’s side which is helpful for evaluating their network before you sign up.

raindog308

Raindog308 is a longtime LowEndTalk community administrator, technical writer, and self-described techno polymath. With deep roots in the *nix world, he has a passion for systems both modern and vintage, ranging from Unix, Perl, Python, and Golang to shell scripting and mainframe-era operating systems like MVS. He’s equally comfortable with relational database systems, having spent years working with Oracle, PostgreSQL, and MySQL.

As an avid user of LowEndBox providers, Raindog runs an empire of LEBs, from tiny boxes for VPNs, to mid-sized instances for application hosting, and heavyweight servers for data storage and complex databases. He brings both technical rigor and real-world experience to every piece he writes.

Beyond the command line, Raindog is a lover of German Shepherds, high-quality knives, target shooting, theology, tabletop RPGs, and hiking in deep, quiet forests.

His goal with every article is to help users, from beginners to seasoned sysadmins, get more value, performance, and enjoyment out of their infrastructure.

You can find him daily in the forums at LowEndTalk under the handle @raindog308.