If you have been seeing improvements in internet connectivity in Pakistan during the past two weeks, especially with reduced lag and latency, now we know why.
Cloudflare, which is one of the largest networks responsible for powering websites and online services, Â has unveiled that it now has three new data centers housed in Pakistan. These data centers are operational in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.
For those who don’t know, Cloudfare is a content delivery network (CDN), which basically powers:
- 10% of internet requests overall,
- content that is served to 2.8 billion people 24/7,
- 8 million internet websites and services.
Massive Improvements for Online Services in Pakistan
As per preliminary reports, you may be already seeing latency per request decrease by over 3x and as much as 150ms.
This means that your favorite websites, online apps and services will load quicker than ever. For those who play online games like Fortnite and others, they will see a huge decrease in online lag from now on.
Cloudfare says that these numbers are expected to further improve since they are still tuning routing for their customers.
Latency from PTCL to Cloudflare customers reduces by over 3x across Pakistan. Courtesy: Cedexis
How does it work?
Whenever you try to visit a website, you need to send a request to a server. The farther the server is, the more time it will take for the website to finally load.
Now suppose you weren’t the only one sending the requests. The more requests sent to the server, the more slower it gets back to you (and finally starts loading the website for you). In fact, too many requests could result in a denial of service attack. Think Daraz and other e-commerce sites here on Black Friday, and you get the idea.
Cloudflare basically has servers all around the world. Â They also help you secure your websites and boost performance via its edge connect network
ALSO READ
PTCL Partners with Akamai to Make your Internet Connection Much Faster
Another CDN, Akamai already has a strategic partnership agreement with PTCL, helping to serve content to Pakistani users faster than ever before. Now with Cloudflare joining the ranks, expect more improvements as you run out of excuses for missing that headshot in your favorite FPS game.
CloudFare are ISP services for Home User ? Or Just Customer Services ?
Its a Cashing Services for Website, Home users will see improvement in browsing “free of cost”
When it will be available for HOME USER ?
Not an ISP it just optimises the web traffic to give faster load times to end users. It all happen behind the scenes.
M.Aswad Mehtab, But Will it Be Available For HOME USERS????
Cloudflare Servers do not differenciate between business and Home Users. All the querries are served equally. So Yes, its already available to Home Users without them requiring to change a thing on their network, computers, mobiles etc.
You open a web link, if the link is available on Cloudflare Servers in Isb/Lhr/Khi… these servers send you back the data of that website instead of asking the same data from America / Europe.
I was being sarcastic, but thanks for the application anyways.
No. If you want to use their DNS servers you have to change a thing which is DNS server address on your router to 1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1
Change DNS Servers in your router to Cloudflare DNS servers like 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1. You can also use their DNSCrypt service if your router supports (DD-WRT firmware and OpenWRT routers do).
Chaing it in the Router isn’t mandatory although preferrable because that way all the connected devices will be automatically using Router’s DNS.
While on the other hand if You are using PC/Laptop. You can go to Network Setting>Change Adopter Options> then in the Properties of Your wired or wireless connection and changed the DNS server in TCP/IPv4… its the same but just for one device.
An App of Cloudflare is available for Mobiles as well.
I am using the mobile app and have changed my own laptops network setting to use DNS Server of Cloudflare this way.
Changing it in the Router isn’t mandatory although preferrable because that way all the connected devices will be automatically using Router’s DNS.
While on the other hand if You are using PC/Laptop and just want to use CloudFlare DNS Server on that device. You can go to Network Setting>Change Adopter Options> then in the Properties of Your wired or wireless connection and changed the DNS server in TCP/IPv4… its the same but just for one device.
An App of Cloudflare is available for Mobiles as well.
I am using the mobile app and have changed my own laptops network setting to use DNS Server of Cloudflare this way.
Yes, much like Google DNS. Please access CloudFlare DNS website at https://1.1.1.1
WOW, That’s a Great News! Internet will be boost in Pakistan :)
Should I have to use cloudfare dns to decrese lag and latency.
DNS 1.1.1.1 1.0.0.1
no
i am using cloudfare dns. pages load much faster
If You use thse DNS addresses 1.1.1.1 & 1.0.0.1 then You will see improvement in latency when browsing the internet + these DNS addresses work as VPN too for free.
These are better than google’s 8.8.8.8 & 4.4.8.8 so Yes, it’s not that difficult at all to put them in your network settings and you have to do it just once.
DNS Server isn’t equal to VPN, but if you use DNSCrypt service of Cloudflare you are somewhere little safe.
Ordinary People in Pakistan don’t use VPN service to encrypt their communication they just want to open banned websites so they use free VPN and CloudFlare DNS does the same thing for them.
The author is a frigging numbskull! They have servers in 3 DCs in Pakistan not 3 whole DCs to themselves. If they actually invested millions of dollars in setting up 3 whole DCs in Pakistan that would have been front page news. It would have made a dent in our FDI figures for shaytaan’s sake!
Sites under CloudFlare are so blazing fast, it’s awesome. So this is how browsing internet feels in the rest of the world.
But the author is so ill-informed. This won’t affect gaming at all. CloudFlare doesn’t run any of the gaming servers nor are CDNs used for gaming.
Cloudflare has launched DNS service much like Google DNS. It can be accessed at https://1.1.1.1 – this is what the author is talking about.
Add these DNS Addresses manually and see the difference
1.1.1.1
1.0.0.1
Note the latency before and after adding these DNS resolvers. Many international websites become more responsive.
I didn’t say it doesn’t affect DNS resolvers and I already said how fast the sites under CloudFlare are.
As for when using their DNS, if you were using Google DNS rather than a local ISP DNS, the DNS resolution will be relatively faster. It’s just for the first-visit to a site/domain though as there’s a network-level DNS cache maintained by your computer.
But this does NOT affect gaming at all. That’s a lot of BS. No, Fortnite pings won’t decrease, nor will your headshots register any better.
Very true. Only sites on their CDN will open fast.
I think only those sites will be boosted which are using Cloudfare CDN only. Not all the websites.
True
Yeah, but most of the websites are using Cloudflare CDN (Free version)
No wonder why did they mentioned online player’s will get lower latency its almost impossible with PTCL experience. Getting frequently time’d out every 10m but paying 5k per month. Lag hurts more than break up :/? No try it with PTCL
I switched to Ad guard DNS from cloudflare. Every device in our home is now using ad free browsing without plugins.
I tried these DNS on PS4 (Battlefield V) and they didn’t help. Stick to Google DNS.
Good to see that. Cloudflare is working in Pakistan. I hope that our websites will load faster in Pakistan.