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What you should look for in a legit provider
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What you should look for in a legit provider

I just wanted to pass some advice so you know some pointers to check out a provider before you sign up for a 12 month VPS and they disappear with your money. As we all know, we have truly legitimate providers that have infrastructure to support their customers and then we have the kids of summer that get a colocated or dedicated server and oversell it and try to make some quick cash.

  • Ask for their IP Block. Perform a whois on the IP Block, which is available with the whois command (whois 192.168.0.0) or going to the ARIN, RIPE, AFRNIC, or APNIC websites. If the provider does not own the netblock or the netblock is not reassigned to the company, that should be a huge red flag.

That's a huge red flag as by RIR policy, IP addresses can't be further reassigned to end users (VPSes) unless the netblock is a ISP owned netblock from the RIR or a netblock reassigned by an ISP to another service provider to further reassign to end users.

  • Check out domain whois information to determine domain creation date. You don't want to fall for a company that just came up last week offering that annual prepaid contract at a low rate.

  • Finally, just ask stuff like "What Hypervisors do you use?" or "What are your upstream providers/peers?" If they say they have peers, ask for an ASN and check them out at http://bgp.he.net to determine if they really do have peers.

Thanks,

Conrad

Thanked by 1uptime

Comments

  • uptimeuptime Member

    PHP SELEKTER OK ?

  • @uptime said:
    PHP SELEKTER OK ?

    Is that a provider?

    Thanked by 1uptime
  • uptimeuptime Member
    edited July 2019

    THE most important question to ask for every legit provider sir!

    EDIT2:

    seriously, thanks for this.

    But here on LET, most common questions seem to be:

    1) torrents allowed ?
    2) dmca ignored ?
    3) bitcoin accepted ?
    4) ip blocked by gfw ?
    5) free trial / monkey-backed guarantee ??
    6) unmetered bandwitch ?
    $7) debian, thx
    8) do you have sister ?

    Thanked by 1NobodyInteresting
  • lolol

  • @uptime said:
    PHP SELEKTER OK ?

    I've seen it mentioned many times. But I don't get what it is supposed to mean.

  • uptimeuptime Member
    edited July 2019

    It's an idiotic meme from a troll posting here maybe a month ago.

    Enjoy.

  • donlidonli Member

    @ShihabSoft said:

    @uptime said:
    PHP SELEKTER OK ?

    I've seen it mentioned many times. But I don't get what it is supposed to mean.

    Consider yourself lucky.

  • uptimeuptime Member

    @conradrock - if you spend a bit of time here you'll understand a few (more serious) suggestions to add to the list.

    Some are fairly nuanced / low-end centric / may or may not eventually come correct:

    • offer listed on LowEndBox.com in 2017 or 2018 ?
    • front company and/or captive audience of colocrossing ?

    More generally, and subtler shades of grey ...

    • own hardware or just renting ?
    • business registration info (etc.) up-to-date and accessible ?

    Bonus round, frequently checked on LET:

    • using pirated software / invalid WHMCS license ?
    • offering colo in Houston ?
  • @uptime said:
    @conradrock - if you spend a bit of time here you'll understand a few (more serious) suggestions to add to the list.

    Some are fairly nuanced / low-end centric / may or may not eventually come correct:

    • offer listed on LowEndBox.com in 2017 or 2018 ?
    • front company and/or captive audience of colocrossing ?

    More generally, and subtler shades of grey ...

    • own hardware or just renting ?
    • business registration info (etc.) up-to-date and accessible ?

    Bonus round, frequently checked on LET:

    • using pirated software / invalid WHMCS license ?
    • offering colo in Houston ?

    Oh yes, the own/rent hardware question is definitely a good one. I've already noticed the front companies as well, from lurking.

    What's wrong with colo in Houston?

  • KwoonKwoon Member

    @conradrock said:

    @uptime said:
    @conradrock - if you spend a bit of time here you'll understand a few (more serious) suggestions to add to the list.

    Some are fairly nuanced / low-end centric / may or may not eventually come correct:

    • offer listed on LowEndBox.com in 2017 or 2018 ?
    • front company and/or captive audience of colocrossing ?

    More generally, and subtler shades of grey ...

    • own hardware or just renting ?
    • business registration info (etc.) up-to-date and accessible ?

    Bonus round, frequently checked on LET:

    • using pirated software / invalid WHMCS license ?
    • offering colo in Houston ?

    Oh yes, the own/rent hardware question is definitely a good one. I've already noticed the front companies as well, from lurking.

    What's wrong with colo in Houston?

    They sip lean

    Thanked by 2uptime conradrock
  • uptimeuptime Member
    edited July 2019

    What's wrong with colo in Houston?

    just one long-time egregious scammer.

    some recent news currently pinned as an announcement: https://www.lowendtalk.com/discussion/152957/psa-avoid-365nap-yet-another-joshua-prout-scam/p1

    Thanked by 1MichaelCee
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