.io is a place, but you can’t go there, unless you’re serving in the military, sailing your own yacht, or in chains. The only way the rest of us can reach it is through the internet. sure.io is the telecommunications provider to Diego Garcia, and their network is the only accessible one on the islands: the only .io server registered in BIOT itself. The only thing that can touch it is a traceroute, a log of the waypoints along a data path:
Start: 16 Jun 2015 12:27:34
Find route from: otago.home
to: www.sure.io (202.44.112.70 [AS17458]), Max 30 hops, 40 byte packets
Host Names truncated to 32 bytes
1 bthomehub.home (192.168.1.254 ): 2.039 8.101 6.231
2 AS2856 217.32.146.70 (217.32.146.70 ): 17.791 135.434 16.649
3 AS2856 217.32.146.110 (217.32.146.110 ): 137.041 38.705 15.885
4 AS2856 213.120.156.210 (213.120.156.210): 138.322 132.566 23.075
5 AS2856 213.120.178.65 (213.120.178.65 ): 129.129 * 17.470
6 AS2856 217.41.168.107 (217.41.168.107 ): 20.543 18.313 19.293
7 AS2856 109.159.249.68 (109.159.249.68 ): 26.293 17.629 18.068
8 AS2856 core3-te0-10-0-26.faraday.ukcore (109.159.249.53 ): 20.832 55.124 44.754
9 AS2856 host213-121-193-171.ukcore.bt.ne (213.121.193.171): 38.268 26.039 22.909
10 AS5400 166-49-211-248.eu.bt.net (166.49.211.248 ): 20.069 23.267 25.069
11 AS174 be3035.ccr21.lon01.atlas.cogentc (130.117.14.169 ): 18.677 20.041 18.565
12 AS174 te0-0-2-0.agr11.lon01.atlas.coge (154.54.39.94 ): 21.027 19.271 19.984
13 AS174 149.6.184.30 (149.6.184.30 ): 27.285 24.509 24.044
14 AS44972 213.175.157.246 (213.175.157.246): 23.095 25.687 25.620
15 AS44972 213.175.157.253 (213.175.157.253): 27.035 34.663 19.973
16 AS44972 213.175.156.4 (213.175.156.4 ): 565.511 556.845 560.283
17 AS17458 202.44.114.25 (202.44.114.25 ): 574.080 560.309 564.556
This is a traceroute from London to Diego Garcia - although wherever in the world you start from the last few steps of the route will be the same. (For more explanation of traceroutes, see “How to see through the Cloud”). Passing through phone lines and datacentres around the world, all communications with Diego Garcia ultimately travel through Cobbet Hill Earth Station in South-East England - AS Number 44972.