Anycasting allows you to have multiple servers in different data centers all share the same IP. IRCNow currently uses [BuyVM](https://buyvm.net), which provides [[anycasting](/https://buyvm.net/anycast-vps/) free of charge for customers that purchase 3 VMs with them provided they are all in different data centers.
Anycasting allows you to have multiple servers in different data centers all share the same IP. IRCNow currently uses [BuyVM](https://buyvm.net), which provides [[anycasting](/https://buyvm.net/anycast-vps/) free of charge for customers that purchase 3 VMs with them provided they are all in different data centers.

The benefit is that, whenever a user connects to your network, he will request from the server that is closest to him, reducing the latency of the connection.

To set up anycasting, first follow the instructions provided by your provider ([here are BuyVM's](/https://wiki.buyvm.net/doku.php/anycast_vps)), then configure OpenBSD to use those IP addresses.

Suppose you have the normal IP address 192.0.1.1 and 10.0.1.1 as the anycast IP address. Inside /etc/hostname.if0, you should put:

Suppose you have

    inet 192.0.1.1 255.255.255.0
    inet alias 10.0.1.1 255.255.255.255


Make sure to configure this for each of the three servers that share the same anycast IP address.