So I’ve been umming and ahhing for a while about buying a VPS to use for hosting files or playing with the IP over ICMP and DNS tunnelling system, even playing with a basic PBX setup to hook up with my sipgate account that I use for a landline.
But 3 things have stopped me from doing it in the past.
1. Security – I’m paranoid, more so now i’m in my current job about just how easy it is to break into systems without too much hassle. Heck I do it for my day job, do I really want to take on board the full management of a server that has no security other than what I apply to it.
2. Security – I’m paranoid but I’d consider myself at least proficient at my job. What’s the likelihood I’ll tweak something, knacker the install and have to rebuild it over and over just because I was trying to lock it down just that bit more.3. Cost – VPS instances aren’t cheap for something that may be left alone for months before being used on occassion.
So I never got around to it, I did mess about once but after pooching the firewall and having to pay £15 for a server rebuild as they had no other way of accessing it and support wouldn’t just take the firewall down for me I cancelled the account and never looked again.
Until now. I’ve been browsing the entries over at www.lowendbox.com and monitoring the offers up there, understandably a lot of the offers are flashes in a pan, you pay $5 for access to an amazing VM, a week later the company stops trading and starts up another scam.
However I came across a post about a company called “quickpacket” offering a very basic low end VM (128mb ram, 256mb vSwap, 20GB HDD, 500GB transit) for $15 for 12 months.
At just over $1 a month I figured I could suck that up if they disappeared overnight, but I read into them. They’ve been trading quite a while now, looks like a seller of webspace primarily but have moved into VPS hosting.So yes, I am now the proud new owner of a mini-VPS. Stay tuned for developments but on the cards i’m thinking private svn repository, ICMP Tunnelling and maybe a play about with that PBX idea.
P.S. I’ve already locked myself out of it at least 10 times, thank goodness they have other means to access it and a great big “rebuild” button for when you absolutely hosed the box, no additional costs 🙂