X-Host-IP

When you discover a problem on you website, and you run multiple web servers, one of the first questions you ask is "Which server am I on" (often followed immediately by: "Does it happen on all of them").

This presented an unfortunate problem for WonderProxy customers, as when they connect to a server through their proxy, they are no longer able to determine which webserver provided a resource. That information is hidden because their connections take place through the proxy.

This is why we're happy to announce the introduction of a new HTTP header being served through all 18 of our proxies: X-Host-IP. This header is injected by our proxy software when handing data back to the client. This header includes the IP address of the machine that provided the resource, allowing clients to obtain this information through a variety of methods like Live HTTP Headers, Firebug, or Dragonfly.


This is the first of two steps we’re taking to better inform, and empower our clients when it comes to servers. We’re planning to roll out a new feature allowing customers to inject a hosts file[1] onto the proxy server of their choice to allow server selection through a web interface. This should be completed in the next few weeks.


[1] A hosts file (/etc/hosts on most linux machines, and \system32\drivers\etc\hosts.txt on Windows boxes) allows users to hard code hostname and IP combinations, often used for testing and development.