like if i wanted to see who hosted aol.com how could i find out? Sometimes its in the whios looksup but most of the time its not.

Use the tools 'IP Block' and 'WHOIS' at http://www.samspade.org and you will get the info.

Some big (and small) companies like AOL and IBM will use their own servers...

Large companies tend to operate rather sophisticated configurations and most likely own their own IP blocks and may parcel out their content to different providers. I do know that AOL colocates their own servers at AboveNet, which delivers 100% of their content. AboveNet also handles about 60% of MSN's traffic, with UUNet picking up the rest.

i highly doubt aol colocates their server with anyone. they own their own private network, atdn.net. it's their own huge backbone across the united states. i wouldnt mind having a box on their network. as far as msn, that could be but they too have their own little backbone, msft.net, their stock symbol followed by .net. as far as i can tell, sprint handles their traffic followed by conxion.com who does all their taffic on downloads.

if i'm wrong, please feel free to correct me.

My information came directly from my rep at AboveNet. I'm sure AOL may have more than one POP.

[Edited by alchiba on 09-16-2000 at 02:25 PM]

Couldn't resist but AOL does not control their own internet backbone. I'm not going to tell you who handles all of their system but they don't do their own. I don't know if you can use co-location either but most of their engineering work is outsourced. I'm speaking from experience. Now I'm pretty sure too that there are some things that AOL handles themselves but the engineering part of it isn't one of it. I am speaking of their internet backbone which includes dialup etc. Server farms are also located elsewhere.

Go to observers.net, I'm sure she can tell you everything about AOL :D