Does anyone know of a provider that sells IP tunnels or something similar?

I might be asking the wrong question so let me try to provide a bit of background. I run a business that needs geographically diverse IPs to let people test GeoIP based sites. At the moment we're simply buying VPSs from various providers around the world which works, but at some point it becomes a bit of a chore to manage 30+ boxes, especially since all we really need is an IP and bandwidth.

So we were thinking it should be possible to simply purchase an IP tunnel with one end point anchored at a router in some datacenter and the other end sitting at one of our machines. Does the product I'm looking for have a name? Do people even sell it?

Yes, it's called a GRE tunnel but the cost is substantial (generally, thousands).

You can check out PRQ

http://prq.se/?p=tunnel&intl=1

They offer 512Kbps for $10 with 1 IP.

Yes, it's called a GRE tunnel but the cost is substantial (generally, thousands).

So I guess my next question is why is it so expensive? Why can I get a dedicated box or VPS from a provider for $20-$100 a month, but a tunnel with no CPU/RAM/HD costs thousands?

So I guess my next question is why is it so expensive? Why can I get a dedicated box or VPS from a provider for $20-$100 a month, but a tunnel with no CPU/RAM/HD costs thousands?

IMO, more specialized therefore increase in cost. Not a true expert on the subject, but trying to learn more about the GRE Tunnels.

I guess it depends what you mean by an "IP Tunnel". Pure GRE may be difficult to find. If you can work with a VPN, there are hundreds of services out there, each with servers in many countries.

yeah, it might make more sense for you to get a VPN, preferably with a static ip.

you could try setting up a low-power 'dumb' server at various POPs/datacenters using the Vyatta OFR (http://www.vyatta.org/downloads) and set up tunnels from them back to any central machine/server to route the IPs as appropriate and run the rest of the software on a central webserver that takes the bulk of the managing & use etc.

GRE tunnels off a server or vpn under some providers can be problematic setup and configuration.

Ask the provider if they are familiar with GRE and can they create a tunnel off one of their routers

GRE is a very easy process to setup and works very well if done correctly.

Costs more because your buying bandwidth, just like collocation bandwidth costs more than when you get a dedicated server or VPS.

Personally I would get a load of VMs and Servers running VPN software - like you probably are now. Will be a lot cheaper.