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title	description	section	order
How to Check if Your Host is Self-Hosted	Use arcline-check to detect whether a website is truly self-hosted or routed through a CDN/cloud provider.	privacy	2

How to Check if Your Host is Self-Hosted

The arcline-check tool tells you whether a domain is truly self-hosted or routing through Cloudflare, Fastly, AWS CloudFront, or another CDN/cloud provider.

What arcline-check does

When you run arcline-check example.com, it:

Resolves the domain to its IP address
Performs a reverse DNS lookup (PTR record)
Looks up the ASN (Autonomous System Number) and organization
Checks whether the IP falls within known CDN/cloud provider CIDR ranges
Inspects HTTP response headers for CDN signatures (CF-Ray, X-Served-By, etc.)
Produces a color-coded terminal report

This is especially useful for:

Evaluating potential hosting providers during migration
Verifying a host's claims about being "self-hosted"
Understanding your own site's infrastructure

Installation

# Download the latest binary
wget https://git.arcline.it/arcline/arcline-check/releases/latest/download/arcline-check-linux-amd64

# Make it executable
chmod +x arcline-check-linux-amd64

# Move to your PATH
sudo mv arcline-check-linux-amd64 /usr/local/bin/arcline-check

Or build from source:

git clone https://git.arcline.it/arcline/arcline-check.git
cd arcline-check
go build -o arcline-check .

Basic usage

arcline-check arcline.it

Example output:

  domain      arcline.it
  resolved    203.0.113.42
  rdns        server1.arclineit.com
  asn         AS64496  Example ISP
  org         Example ISP LLC

  [OK]  not behind a known CDN
  [OK]  no Cloudflare headers detected
  [OK]  IP not in AWS/GCP/Azure ranges

Checking a site behind Cloudflare

arcline-check example-cloudflare-site.com

Example output:

  domain      example-cloudflare-site.com
  resolved    104.16.42.42
  rdns        104.16.42.42  (no PTR)
  asn         AS13335  Cloudflare, Inc.
  org         Cloudflare

  [FAIL]  behind Cloudflare (CDN)
  [FAIL]  CF-Ray header detected
  [FAIL]  IP in Cloudflare CIDR range

JSON output for scripting

arcline-check example.com --json

{
  "domain": "example.com",
  "ip": "203.0.113.42",
  "rdns": "server1.arclineit.com",
  "asn": "AS64496",
  "org": "Example ISP LLC",
  "cdn_detected": false,
  "headers": {
    "server": "nginx/1.24.0"
  }
}

Watch mode for DNS migration monitoring

During a DNS migration, use --watch to see when propagation completes:

arcline-check example.com --watch 30

This re-checks every 30 seconds. When the IP changes from the old provider to the new one, the output updates in place.

Interpreting the results

Indicator	What it means
IP in Cloudflare range	The site is behind Cloudflare's proxy (orange cloud)
CF-Ray header	Cloudflare is terminating the connection
IP in AWS/GCP/Azure range	The server is a cloud VM, not self-hosted hardware
IP in a residential/business ISP range	Likely self-hosted (on-premises or colocated)
PTR matches domain	Good operational practice — the host configured rDNS
No CDN detected	Traffic goes directly to the origin server

Limitations

A CDN-detected result doesn't always mean bad hosting — some providers use CDNs for legitimate DDoS protection
Arcline doesn't use any CDN by default, but customers are free to add one if they choose
The tool can't detect every possible CDN or proxy — new providers are added regularly
If a site uses Cloudflare spectrum or TCP tunnels, it may appear self-hosted even though Cloudflare is involved

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