Some embodiments provide systems and methods for determining a server of a distributed hosting system to optimally distribute content to an end user. The method includes identifying an IP address of the end user. Based on the IP address, a set of servers send packets to the end user to derive performance metrics. The performance metrics are used to determine a server from the set of servers that optimally distributes content to the end user. The method modifies a configuration for resolving end user requests such that the optimal server is identified to the end user when the end user requests content from the hosting system. Some embodiments determine the optimal server by providing downloadable content that is embedded with a monitoring tool. The monitoring tool causes the end user to derive performance metrics for the hosting system when downloading a particular object from a set of servers.