VPS/Dedicated hosting options?

Energize · 22 Jun 2013 at 18:44

I already have a domain name and shared hosting package with Tsohost, however due to lack of features such as: SFTP, JSP, VPN, and poor security practises (aside from insecure ftp access) such as not hashing the cpanel password, displaying it in plain text and then allowing it to be overwritten without any authentication from the tsohost control panel. I've realised I'll need to change to a different type of package and preferably a different provider.

Essentially I just want something that I can do all the same web stuff I can do on my home computer as and when I need to, ie:

Host websites based on JSP/PHP.
Host forums based on JSP/PHP.
Run an email server.
Run a web proxy.
Database management.
Allow anonymous ftp.
Allow authenticated and encrypted file management through SFTP or VPN.

I don't need a CMS or control panel, and have quite low resource requirements, probably don't need more than 1GB of storage and 10GB data transfer.

visibleman · 22 Jun 2013 at 18:55

If you're happy about administrating the box yourself then have a look at www.lowendbox.com; plenty of decent low cost VPS providers on there.

Energize · 22 Jun 2013 at 19:20

Thanks, that looks great. The setup fee and £45 a month TSO were charging for their lowest end vps was outrageous!

visibleman · 22 Jun 2013 at 20:20

Granted, they have put up their prices (lowest tier was originally ~£26p/m) but they are managed services and they do provided solid performance.

It might also be worth looking at Vooservers, they're now providing cheap VPS boxes.

Energize · 22 Jun 2013 at 22:23

Oh I know the managed aspect is worth a fair amount of money, I actually think a failure of their business is not offering unmanaged services as many people prefer them. But £20 to setup Apache Tomcat, really?! It's free software with an open licence for gods sake; it takes about a minute to install and configure with the wizard and they probably use an ISO with it on anyway when setting up the server, what a rip.

p_r_i_m_e · 22 Jun 2013 at 23:29

have you spoken to them regarding your concerns? they are usually really good at sorting out stuff like this

Energize · 23 Jun 2013 at 07:45

Yeah I have, I've got a refund for the hosting account. The level of provider involvement required with their hosting package was far too high to get simple things done, self-managed or unmanaged is definitely a better option for me.

uniQ · 23 Jun 2013 at 11:28

I picked up a bargain VPS from Low End Box for $8 for a year. It's OK for testing/dev but I wouldn't serve a product/site on it.

Digitalocean $5 a month. Google for a code get between 2/4 months free. So far so good.

Otherwise Linode are established and reasonably priced.

Energize · 23 Jun 2013 at 17:21

According to their website Linode had a major security breach the other month, not confidence inspiring.

uniQ · 23 Jun 2013 at 18:42

They did, makes for an interesting read, Linode were unfortunately part of a chain of hacks which involved various Domain Registrars and sites like nmap. I would still trust Linode with my hosting though.

http://www.zdnet.com/revenge-hack-put-5-5-million-domain-names-allegedly-at-risk-7000015107/

http://straylig.ht/zines/HTP5/0x02_Linode.txt

Sagalout · 23 Jun 2013 at 18:44

You appreciate the managed option if you manage commercial sites for clients and something goes wrong. That extra money helps you sleep at night. If you don't, then self managed is the way to go. Rackspace cloud is pretty cheap for the unmanaged service...we have the managed cloud service and its great

Rroff · 23 Jun 2013 at 18:52

I've used RapidSwitch for most of my dedicated server hosting (their prices don't include VAT tho). Never had any complaints.

aln · 23 Jun 2013 at 19:33

Energize said:
Oh I know the managed aspect is worth a fair amount of money, I actually think a failure of their business is not offering unmanaged services as many people prefer them. But £20 to setup Apache Tomcat, really?! It's free software with an open licence for gods sake; it takes about a minute to install and configure with the wizard and they probably use an ISO with it on anyway when setting up the server, what a rip.

You aren't paying for the software, you're paying a fee because they obviously don't want to deal with tomcat. They've probably just have less experience with dealing with it and are charging on the assumption of spent time. I wouldn't pay it myself like, but there you go.

Energize · 23 Jun 2013 at 21:27

Sagalout said:
You appreciate the managed option if you manage commercial sites for clients and something goes wrong. That extra money helps you sleep at night. If you don't, then self managed is the way to go. Rackspace cloud is pretty cheap for the unmanaged service...we have the managed cloud service and its great

Yeah I bet. Luckily I am only hosting stuff for myself.

aln said:
You aren't paying for the software, you're paying a fee because they obviously don't want to deal with tomcat. They've probably just have less experience with dealing with it and are charging on the assumption of spent time. I wouldn't pay it myself like, but there you go.

The installation is surely automated though? How many person-hours needs to go into installing something as simple as that?

I'll have a look at some of your guys other suggestions too, thanks.

aln · 24 Jun 2013 at 00:10

Energize said:
The installation is surely automated though? How many person-hours needs to go into installing something as simple as that?

Naw the business will be charging you at £80 p/h rounding to the nearest 15 minutes while the guy doing the work will be getting about £7 an hour. =p

And you never know, I used to have to manually setup IIS websites because they weren't automated at the place I worked while the lamp ones were.

Energize · 24 Jun 2013 at 19:41

Rroff said:
I've used RapidSwitch for most of my dedicated server hosting (their prices don't include VAT tho). Never had any complaints.

£31.32 inc vat per month for a completely customisable dedicated server, with 2 cores, 8GB RAM, 160GB storage and 10TB bandwidth lol. Put's TSO's virtual server at £45 per month to shame!

Energize · 24 Jun 2013 at 23:39

Ok, so if I went for one of these dedicated servers from Rapidswitch. What software do you recommend for the various things I want to do and what OS should I use?

To start off with I require JSP and PHP hosting, a firewall, and SFTP or VPN (preferable) capabilities.

So maybe Apache HTTP, Apache Tomcat, Comodo Firewall. I guess I could use something like filezilla for SFTP? But what about VPN?

Backups will be done daily by synching the server data with my desktop and an off site file store. Data amount is not expected to be large.

p_r_i_m_e · 25 Jun 2013 at 00:56

my guess is that if you really need to ask these questions then you probably should have a managed solution.

Energize · 25 Jun 2013 at 05:45

I've been running my own home web/ftp server for years with apache tomcat/xampp, I'm just asking for people's opinions on what they would use with this type of service because I'd rather be safe than sorry given the totally different scale of the thing.

Energize · 25 Jun 2013 at 05:48