Blog
Network notes, route updates, and product announcements from Riven Cloud.
How to Read China's Carrier AS Numbers: AS4134, AS4809, AS23764, AS4837, AS9929, AS58453, and AS58807 Explained
Identify major Chinese carrier AS numbers in traceroutes, understand what they reveal about routing, and check provider claims in both directions.
China's Cross-Border Data Transfer Rules Explained
Understand China's cross-border data transfer mechanisms, thresholds, and exemptions, and how the rules can affect offshore servers and business operations.
Why Chinese New Year Is the Best (and Worst) Time to Migrate a China-Facing Server
Weigh quieter business traffic against holiday demand, staffing gaps, and carrier change freezes when planning a China-facing server migration.
Why HTTPS Handshakes Are Slow From Mainland China (and How to Fix TLS, OCSP, and Certificate Chain Delays)
Find what slows HTTPS handshakes from mainland China, measure TLS and certificate delays, and apply server-side fixes while accounting for routing.
How to Explain "Last-Mile" China Routing Problems to a Client Who Blames Your Server
When a client in China reports slow load times, the instinct is to blame the server. Often the real bottleneck is the last mile, the final leg of the route inside China's own domestic networks, and explaining that clearly is half the job.
Real-Name Registration vs. an ICP License: Which One Actually Applies to Your China-Facing Service?
Real-name registration and ICP licensing get treated as one requirement, but they govern different things and attach to different parties. Here's what separates them, and which one a foreign-hosted server actually has to care about.
What Is China's "Eastern Data and Western Computing" Initiative, and Does It Affect Foreign-Facing Hosting?
China has been steering new data center capacity toward its western provinces for years under a national initiative called Eastern Data and Western Computing. Here's what it actually does, and whether it changes anything for a foreign business routing traffic into China.
Why Some VPNs Make China Routing Worse, Not Better, for Business Traffic
A VPN sounds like a reasonable fix for spotty China connectivity, but for business traffic it often makes latency and reliability worse, not better. Here's why, and when a VPN actually helps versus when it just adds another point of failure.
8 Best Hosts in Singapore with China-Optimized Routing
Singapore comes up constantly in China-facing hosting discussions, but being hosted there doesn't guarantee good China routing. Here are eight providers with a genuine Singapore presence, and what to verify before choosing one.