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In Remdore’s 2026 probe, 29 of 345 websites that responded consistently showed a different HTTP status code or final hostname across eight country-based datacentre locations. That is 8.4% of the responsive sample—not a census of the web, and not proof that location never matters. The test also found a separate pattern: many sites refused the scripted client regardless of where it connected from.
What the experiment measured
Remdore tested 500 popular domains with one HTTPS request per domain from eight datacentre locations: New York, San Francisco, Toronto, London, Frankfurt, Singapore, Bangalore and Sydney. The Python urllib client followed redirects, used a Chrome user-agent string, and recorded HTTP status, final hostname, DNS answers, timing and cookies.
The author then repeated the list from a Sofia home-broadband connection as a control. The full exercise involved around 4,500 requests. Of the 500 domains, 345 answered from every vantage point; the author excluded the other 155 from the main comparisons, saying most appeared in the ranking but did not serve a human-facing page. Unless noted otherwise, the figures below use those 345 responsive domains as their denominator. Read Remdore’s 2026 DEV Community article.
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Across the eight datacentre vantage points, 22 of 345 domains (6.4%) returned different HTTP status codes, while 12 (3.5%) ended at different hostnames. In total, 29 domains (8.4%) varied on at least one of those two measures.
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A changed hostname or status is not automatically evidence of a block. Remdore cites Yahoo, Kaspersky, CNN, Business Insider and USA Today as examples of country-specific hostnames or editions, interpreting these differences as localization—the web presenting a different front door—rather than access being denied. The measurements alone do not establish the reason for any named site’s behavior.
Refusing the client was more common than changing by country
In the separate comparison of the Sofia home connection with datacentres, 243 domains (70.6%) served both, 71 (20.6%) refused the client everywhere, 14 (4.1%) served the home connection but refused all tested datacentres, and one (0.3%) refused home but served datacentres. These are categories reported for the 345-domain comparison.
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The 14 home-only successes are consistent with sites treating the request differently because of its origin or the address ranges involved. They do not prove an individual site’s policy. Remdore also noted an unusual Toronto pattern: some sites served Toronto while refusing most other tested locations, which the author says could point to IP-range reputation rather than country alone.
Among datacentre responses that included a body, the author counted 96 HTTP 403 responses, eight 429 responses and eight 406 responses. Those codes indicate refusal or other request handling, but they do not by themselves identify the cause. The author reported request-refusal rates near 27% in several locations: 26.7% in New York, 27.5% in London, 27.0% in Bangalore and 26.7% in Sydney. These refusal observations concern the scripted client and should not be read as general visitor access rates.
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Why the client matters as much as the location
The request identified itself with a Chrome user-agent, but it used Python urllib and therefore did not have Chrome’s TLS handshake. Anti-bot systems can detect that mismatch. In a follow-up, running Chromium through Playwright still did not separate blocks against non-browser clients from blocks against automated browsers, since automation itself can be detected.
That leaves a narrower, defensible finding: the experiment measured how a particular scripted client was treated from particular IP ranges. It did not isolate geography from bot detection, address reputation or other request-level signals. Remdore puts the narrow claim this way: “The measurement I can actually stand behind is the narrow one: a fifth of the top 500 will not answer a scripted request, no matter which continent it comes from.” That statement refers to the author’s test set and scripted client, not to all websites or ordinary browser users.
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Distance still showed up in response times
For complete responses, Remdore reported these median times by datacentre location. They are measurements from this experiment, not general network-performance benchmarks.
| Vantage point | Median time to complete response |
|---|---|
| New York | 244 ms |
| Frankfurt | 275 ms |
| London | 286 ms |
| Toronto | 321 ms |
| Singapore | 506 ms |
| Bangalore | 680 ms |
| Sydney | 690 ms |
The spread—from 244 ms in New York to 690 ms in Sydney—shows that geographic vantage point was associated with different response times in the probe, even though status and hostname differences were limited among the sites that responded everywhere.
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What the numbers can—and cannot—tell you
- They can describe this sample: among 345 domains responsive from all eight datacentres, 29 (8.4%) varied in status or final hostname.
- They can reveal a client-origin pattern: 14 domains served the Sofia home connection while refusing all tested datacentres, but the test does not identify the policy behind each result.
- They cannot establish a universal geoblocking rate: the sample, tested IP ranges and scripted client were limited, and the 155 excluded domains were not part of the main comparisons.
- They do not assess cookie purpose or compliance: the author observed first-request cookies on 162 of the 345 responsive sites and counted 541 cookies across the 345 New York page requests, but did not evaluate why they were set or whether their use met legal requirements.
- The reported cost is historical: Remdore said the experiment cost about seven cents using temporary DigitalOcean droplets; that is an author-reported past cost, not a current cloud-price quote.
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