Systems, methods, and computer program products for determining network characteristics are provided. The network characteristics may be used to facilitate changes to how content is delivered over a network, such as to avoid network congestion, to provide improved throughput, or to provide a good (or better) user experience, such as when streaming media. For example, the network characteristics may be determined, in part, by tracking domain name resolution requests by using specially formulated domain names that require resolution at an authoritative name server.