Methodology

How I Verify A Web Host Is Actually Canadian

Not all “Canadian hosting” is truly local. Before listing a provider on HostScout.ca, I verify its ownership, server locations, and network routes via public records. Below is my verification process and a full example using Web Hosting Canada (WHC.ca).

By Records checked 11 min read

Behind every listing

4 Separate Questions

The data below demonstrates the exact evaluation process used across all Canadian web hosts featured on HostScout.ca. I cross-reference every host's claims against public business registries, ARIN network records, and technical documentation before listing it.

Each host’s More Info panel shows the date I last checked it. If a record changes, such as a sale to a foreign company, the listing is reviewed.

  1. Verify Canadian Ownership

    I check corporate records for the host’s legal name and controlling owners, including any parent company. Canadian ownership and data residency are assessed separately.

  2. Check Server Ownership

    I review provider and data-centre documentation for host-owned hardware, rented servers or reseller hosting. IP and network records alone do not prove who owns the equipment.

  3. Confirm Canadian Server Locations

    I compare advertised server locations with facility details, DNS and IP records. A CDN can hide the origin server; my Canadian hosting checker provides a starting point.

  4. Trace IP Addresses And Networks

    I check ARIN IP and ASN records, then compare BGP routes and PeeringDB entries to identify the networks behind each service. Try the ARIN Whois & ASN Lookup.

What each check can and can’t proveNo single record answers every question, which is why all four are used together.
CheckConfirmsCan’t confirm on its own
Corporate registryWhere the company is incorporated and who controls itWhere its servers or your data are
Provider documentationWhich services use which systems, in the provider’s own wordsAnything independently; claims are checked against records
DNS and IP lookupsWhich addresses a service uses todayPhysical location behind a CDN or anycast network
ARIN and BGP recordsWho an IP block or ASN is registered to and who routes itWho owns the hardware or the building
Worked example

Is Web Hosting Canada (WHC.ca) Actually Canadian?

Yes, Web Hosting Canada (WHC.ca) is a 100% Canadian-owned and operated web hosting company. Founded and headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, WHC operates infrastructure across Canadian data centres in Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver. Below is the step-by-step verification process, backed by corporate registries, ARIN network records, and public WHOIS data—used to check WHC’s Canadian ownership and advertised hosting locations.

WHC publishes its 100% Canadian-ownership statement and Canadian server locations. DNS and WHOIS records alone do not establish where every website, database or backup is stored.

1 Ownership

Three Independent Records Point To The Same Montréal Company

The brand “Web Hosting Canada” has to be tied to a legal entity before it can be checked. WHC’s own privacy policy names it: WHC Online Solutions Inc., “which trades under the name Web Hosting Canada,” at 7250 Clark Street, Suite 301, Montréal. That name and address then show up in two records WHC doesn’t control: the federal corporate registry and ARIN’s network registry.

  1. BrandWeb Hosting CanadaWHC.ca, operating since 2003
  2. Legal entityWHC Online Solutions Inc.Federal corporation 708193-6
  3. Controlled byEmil FalconFounder & CEO, holds more than 75% of shares directly
  4. Network registrantARIN org WOS-29Same legal name, same Clark Street address
Corporations Canada: federal corporation recordOfficial record
Corporation number
708193-6
Legal names
WHC SOLUTIONS EN LIGNE INC.
WHC ONLINE SOLUTIONS INC.
Former name
7081936 CANADA INC. (2008–2021)
Status
Active
Governing law
Canada Business Corporations Act, incorporated 2008-12-01
Registered office
7250, rue Clark, suite 301
Montréal QC H2R 2Y3
Director
Emil Falcon
Significant control
Emil Falcon: more than 75% of shares, held directly, since 2008-12-01 (confirmed 2025-12-03)
Annual returns
2024 filed · 2025 filed
Source: Corporations Canada, corporation 708193-6. The registry also publishes the director’s home address; it isn’t needed to establish ownership, so it isn’t reproduced here.
Why This Points To Founder Control, Not A US Parent

The federal record reproduced above identifies WHC’s founder, Emil Falcon, as holding more than 75% of the shares directly, in his own name rather than through another company. This supports founder ownership rather than a majority stake held through a US hosting group. WHC separately states that it is 100% Canadian-owned. Significant-control records are not a complete shareholder list and do not identify every minority holding.

Contact details I cross-checkedThe same address appears in WHC’s legal pages, the federal registry and ARIN.
DetailValueMatches
Head office7250 Clark Street, Suite 301, Montréal QC H2R 2Y3Registry · ARIN · WHC
Phone1-514-228-1830WHC About page
Toll-free1-888-545-3942WHC About page
LeadershipEmil Falcon, Founder & CEORegistry · WHC
2 Documentation

WHC Uses Different Nameservers For Different Services

Nameservers are where a domain’s DNS is answered, and they’re the easiest public starting point for tracing a host’s infrastructure. WHC documents seven sets, each tied to a type of service:

WHC’s documented nameserver setsFrom WHC’s help centre article “What are your DNS (or nameservers)?”
ServiceNameserversUsed for
Standard
ns1.whc.cans2.whc.cans3.whc.ca
Starter and Go plans, add-on domains, Email Pro
Premium Anycast
cloud1.whc.cacloud2.whc.ca
Pro and Enterprise primary domains, Premium DNS
Managed WordPress
ns1.wpdns.cans2.wpdns.ca
All Managed WordPress plans
Reseller
ns1.web-dns1.comns2.web-dns1.comns3.web-dns1.com
Reseller plans (white-label)
Parking
parking1.whc.caparking2.whc.ca
Domains without hosting
LifeBoat
ark1.whc.caark2.whc.ca
LifeBoat hosting
Private
ns1.cloud123.mywhc.ca
Cloud or dedicated servers with 2+ IPs, on request

The reseller set is the original one. In May 2015, WHC moved new shared hosting accounts to the whc.ca nameservers and kept web-dns1.com as a white-label option for resellers. That history explains why, as the next step shows, the two sets still share some servers.

3 Live lookup

Tracing One Nameserver From Name To Network

Here is the full trail for WHC’s primary shared hosting nameserver, ns1.whc.ca. The same two lookups were repeated for every nameserver in the table that follows.

ns1.whc.ca · simplified output
$ dig +short ns1.whc.ca
173.209.49.178

$ whois 173.209.49.178      # ARIN registry + BGP routing
NetRange:     173.209.49.176 – 173.209.49.183
NetName:      GLOBOTECH-173-209-49-176
Parent block: 173.209.32.0/19  # GloboTech Communications
Customer:     Web Hosting Canada
Address:      7250 Clark, Suite 301, Montréal QC H2R 2Y3
Routed by:    AS36666 GloboTech Communications, Montréal

The line that matters: GloboTech, a Montréal network operator, has sub-assigned this small block of addresses to “Web Hosting Canada” by name, at WHC’s head-office address. That ties the nameserver to WHC through a registry record, not just a hostname.

Every WHC nameserver, resolved and tracedLive DNS (Google and Cloudflare resolvers agreed on every answer), ARIN registration and BGP origin, October 21, 2026.
NameserverIP addressRouted byARIN registrant
ns1.whc.ca173.209.49.178AS36666 GloboTechWeb Hosting Canada
ns2.whc.ca67.43.237.129AS36666 GloboTechPrivate customer
ns3.whc.ca192.99.36.227AS16276 OVHcloudOVH Hosting, Inc.
ns1.wpdns.ca173.209.36.131AS36666 GloboTechWeb Hosting Canada
ns2.wpdns.ca144.217.39.57AS16276 OVHcloudOVH Hosting, Inc.
ns1.web-dns1.com173.209.49.178Same IP as ns1.whc.caAS36666 GloboTechWeb Hosting Canada
ns2.web-dns1.com68.168.122.106AS36666 GloboTechWeb Hosting Canada
ns3.web-dns1.com192.99.36.227Same IP as ns3.whc.caAS16276 OVHcloudOVH Hosting, Inc.
cloud1.whc.ca162.219.55.2AS394354 CIRACIRA
cloud2.whc.ca162.219.54.2AS55195 CIRACIRA
parking1.whc.ca149.56.225.6AS16276 OVHcloudWeb Hosting Canada
parking2.whc.ca23.27.253.127AS32613 Leaseweb CanadaInternet Utilities NA LLC (US)
ark1.whc.ca51.222.210.64AS16276 OVHcloudWeb Hosting Canada
ark2.whc.ca192.99.222.61AS16276 OVHcloudOVH Hosting, Inc.

What stands out: 5 of the 12 unique addresses are registered by name to “Web Hosting Canada” as a sub-assignment from its network providers. The standard and reseller sets share two servers, ns1 and ns3, consistent with WHC’s 2015 change. Shared nameservers don’t mean the websites themselves run on the same servers.

4 Network operators

Who Runs The Networks Behind WHC

An ASN identifies who runs a network in global internet routing. Three operators carry nearly all of WHC’s nameservers, and WHC also runs a network of its own. Here is who sits behind each, from ARIN’s registration records:

AS36666Canada

GloboTech Communications

Registered in Montréal, Quebec

Montréal infrastructure provider carrying WHC’s primary standard, WordPress and reseller nameservers, on address blocks sub-assigned to WHC by name.

AS16276France · Canadian entity

OVHcloud

OVH SAS (France); Canadian IP space held by OVH Hosting, Inc., Montréal

Routes ns3.whc.ca, ns2.wpdns.ca, both LifeBoat servers and one parking server. OVH’s large Canadian data centre is in Beauharnois, Quebec. Its French parent is worth knowing about, but it doesn’t change who owns WHC.

AS394354 · AS55195Canada

CIRA

Canadian Internet Registration Authority, Ottawa

The .CA registry. WHC’s Premium Anycast nameservers run on two separate CIRA networks, through WHC’s collaboration with CIRA’s D-ZONE DNS service.

AS400262WHC’s own ASN

WHC Online Solutions Inc.

Registered in Montréal, Quebec (ARIN org WOS-29)

WHC’s own network identity, registered in 2021. It announces one address block of its own, with OVH as its upstream connection. None of the nameservers above currently use it.

AS400262 · ARIN registry + routing
$ whois AS400262
ASNumber:     400262
ASName:       WHC
OrgName:      WHC Online Solutions Inc.  (WOS-29)
Address:      7250 Clark Street, Montréal QC H2R 2Y3, Canada
RegDate:      2021-11-29
Updated:      2025-09-04

# BGP: what AS400262 announces today
Prefix:       104.234.3.0/24  NetName WHC-SHARED-INFRA
Upstream:     AS16276 OVH

Own ASN ≠ own data centre. An ASN gives WHC its own identity in internet routing and more control over how its addresses are announced. It doesn’t prove WHC owns the buildings or every network its traffic crosses, and using carriers like GloboTech and OVH is normal for hosts of any size.

About Anycast DNS: with normal DNS, each nameserver address points to one location. With anycast, many DNS nodes in different places share the same address, and internet routing sends each query to a nearby one. That improves speed and resilience, and helps absorb denial-of-service attacks. It only affects DNS answers; the website itself can still run from a single Canadian server.

Honest limits

What Public Records Can’t Prove

The WHC records show exactly where these checks stop being conclusive. These are the gaps I keep in mind for every host.

  • A CDN hides the real server

    whc.ca itself resolves to Cloudflare (AS13335), a US network. That’s Cloudflare’s proxy in front of WHC’s site, not where WHC’s servers are, and it’s why the hosting-location check is never a single lookup.

  • Geolocation databases disagree

    parking2.whc.ca is routed by Leaseweb Canada, but its address block is registered to a US company and one geolocation database places it in the US. It only serves parked domains, but it shows why I don’t trust a single “IP location” result.

  • Nameservers aren’t websites

    Where DNS is answered says nothing about where a site’s files, databases or backups live. Customers with strict residency needs should get the data-centre and backup locations in writing.

  • Records are a snapshot

    DNS, routing and corporate records change. Everything here reflects October 21, 2026, and each listing shows its own last-checked date.

Ownership, routing and residency are three different questions

A host can be Canadian-owned, use networks run by other companies, and keep your data in a Canadian data centre, all at the same time. For any host, ask:

  • Who owns and controls the company?
  • Which networks announce its IP addresses?
  • Where are the web servers and databases physically located?
  • Where are backups stored, and who can access them?

Corporate records answer the first. ARIN and BGP answer the second. Only the provider can confirm the last two.

What I Concluded About WHC

  1. Ownership: Canadian

    A federal Canadian corporation, controlled directly by its Montréal-based founder, with the same name and address across the federal registry, ARIN and WHC’s own legal pages. No parent company, US or otherwise, appears in the public record.

  2. Network: Canadian-registered, multiple operators

    WHC’s DNS runs mainly on GloboTech (Montréal), OVH’s Canadian entity and CIRA (Ottawa), and WHC also operates its own network, AS400262. Relying on several carriers is normal and adds redundancy.

  3. Data location: confirm per service

    Public records confirm Canadian network routing, but nameservers don't guarantee server location. If data residency is a legal requirement, get written confirmation from WHC specifying exact server and backup locations.

Read My WHC Review
Sources

Records Checked For This Example

  1. WHC privacy policyLegal entity and trade name, head-office address
  2. WHC: AboutFounder and CEO, phone numbers, operating since 2003
  3. WHC help centre: What are your DNS (or nameservers)?Documented nameserver sets by service
  4. WHC blog: New WHC nameservers now live (May 2015)whc.ca nameservers introduced; web-dns1.com kept for resellers
  5. WHC: Premium (Anycast) DNSBuilt in collaboration with CIRA on its D-ZONE platform
  6. ARIN registry: AS400262 and IP registrationsRegistrants for every address in the nameserver table
  7. RIPEstat: AS400262 routingAnnounced prefix and upstream network (BGP)

Method: DNS answers were checked against two public resolvers (Google and Cloudflare); IP and ASN registrations come from ARIN’s RDAP service, and routing origins from RIPEstat.

Check Any Host Yourself

The same lookups used in this example are free on HostScout. Enter a domain or an ASN and see the records for yourself.

Is this site hosted in Canada? ARIN Whois & ASN lookup