Four questions, one route

Telecom broadband, a proxy use case and a real budget — the answer is direct: a CN2 GIA return path is the ceiling your money can buy, and peak hour is as stable as it gets. Money spent on the route is worth ten times more than the same money spent on specs.

• First choice: BandwagonHost CN2 GIA-E (Los Angeles) or DMIT Los Angeles Premium — both heirloom candidates
• Test the IP before you pay; at peak hour, look for the 59.43 hop in the return-path trace
• Pick the lowest spec that does the job and leave the rest of the budget for the route

Routes to read

Vendors to look at

You are on Telecom and you need what GIA gives you — the budget is just not there yet. Forcing a cheap GIA is usually fake optimisation. The smarter play is to wait for Black Friday restocks, or start on Japan SoftBank: low latency and decent on all three carriers.

• The BandwagonHost Osaka SoftBank annual limited plan (from about $69.99/yr) is the classic stepping stone
• On Black Friday (late November) watch for GIA restocks — the good price comes once a year
• Do not sign a long term while you wait; keep it monthly or quarterly so you can switch

Routes to read

Vendors to look at

Unicom users do not have to queue on the same narrow bridge as Telecom: a 9929 return path comes close to GIA at peak hour and costs noticeably less. Look for vendors that label 9929 on the return path, and do not pay extra for a plan that merely says GIA — that one is packed for Telecom users.

• First choice: Los Angeles or Japan plans labelled “9929 return path”
• Japan SoftBank treats Unicom just as well with even lower latency — worth comparing both
• Plain Unicom 4837 is the floor; even on a tight budget, avoid the worst peak-hour routes

Routes to read

Vendors to look at

The best answer for Mobile broadband is not in America, it is in Asia: CMI locations in Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo have low latency, a stable peak hour and cheap prices. Never buy GIA for this — Mobile reaching GIA has to detour through Telecom first, which means paying to buy a detour.

• First choice: Hong Kong or Singapore CMI locations, usually 30–60 ms
• Asian locations charge more per GB — work out your monthly traffic before committing
• Verify the CMI return path with a test IP at peak hour, not just the city name

Routes to read

Vendors to look at

Home, phone and office sit on different carriers, so do not bet on a single route: pick a box with an optimised return path for all three (Telecom over CN2, Unicom over 9929, Mobile over CMI), or a nearby line like Japan SoftBank that treats all three decently — nobody loses.

• If the budget allows: go straight to the three-network optimised tier and be done
• Mid budget: the Japan SoftBank limited plan is the old, balanced answer
• Before paying, test peak hour once on each of Telecom, Unicom and Mobile

Routes to read

Vendors to look at

Hosting is decided by where your visitors are, not by your own broadband. Visitors in China: a domestic lightweight server (which needs ICP filing) or Hong Kong. Visitors overseas: pick a nearby location on Vultr or DigitalOcean. Buying GIA for a website is the most common waste of money — your visitors never travel your home line.

• China visitors + you can file ICP: Tencent Cloud or Alibaba Cloud lightweight servers, promotional pricing from about ¥99/yr
• No ICP filing: Hong Kong locations, or Vultr Tokyo / Singapore billed hourly so you can move any time
• Spend the route money you saved on backups and a CDN — better value

Routes to read

Vendors to look at

While you are learning Linux, neither specs nor route matter much — the cheapest annual plan from an established vendor is the optimum. Keep the savings; when you are ready to run a real proxy or a site, buy the one machine that fits the route framework — that one deserves the money.

• Annual promo plans from RackNerd or CloudCone (about ¥80–150/yr) — pick at random
• Only vendors with years of operation; never pay annually for a brand-new one, however good the promo
• Black Friday is the main season for these machines — if you can wait, wait until late November

Routes to read

Vendors to look at

Storage is a race on price per TB; the route only has to be sane. Large-disk plans from European and US vendors are the standard answer for this category — but remember one rule: however big the disk, keep an off-site backup. A vendor is not a safe.

• HostHatch and similar storage promos: the 2TB tier often lands around ¥400–500/yr
• Keep at least one more copy elsewhere; do not put all your eggs on one promo box
• Pay monthly and benchmark for a full month before considering an annual plan

Routes to read

Vendors to look at