Beware of Hosting Nightmares in the name of DMCA Ignored: My Experience with AlexHost

totally_not_banned

@alexvolk said:

@totally_not_banned said:
They have kind of a reputation from the past way beyond the silly DMCA stuff. Maybe they changed, maybe it depends on the size of payment, i don't know. I somewhat suspect it's the latter though. On the other hand the open advertisement of DMCA-ignored services kind of raises some red flags in my opinion as abuse ignorant hosts usually don't communicate any of that to the outside for obvious reasons.

Maybe their initial plan was to attract new customers that want to host pirated stuff and when getting too much legal trouble @alexhost decided it was enough and started terminating customers.

For the past year at least, they've been pretty strict on abuses. It doesn't matter to them if the abuse is fake.

I'm not even talking about hosting pirated stuff or doing illegal shit just one abuse and your server is gone...

I wouldn't even host favicon with them, looks sketchy and the owner acts like he is Gordon lol.

Well, if i remember correctly @jar had a quick glance at the domains hosted in their ranges recently and unless i'm mixing that up somehow the bulk still looked quite sketchy with more than a couple likely being pharmacies. Unless a lot changed over the last couple of years these should draw a ton of hate, so it seems there would be different approaches chosen by a metric we don't know. From what i remember over the years reading industry sources there'd always be a couple glowing reviews and a bunch questioning what all the fuss was about.

I think it's kinda save to say that having some random ~30$/y VPS alone will probably not buy one an overly favorable treatment. Crystal balling the situation: Maybe it's partly because of the risk of having a whole node confiscated by law enforcement vs. a dedi only used by a single (supposedly abusive) client?

jar

@totally_not_banned said: Well, if i remember correctly @jar had a quick glance at the domains hosted in their ranges recently and unless i'm mixing that up somehow the bulk still looked quite sketchy with more than a couple likely being pharmacies

Indeed. At my last check, spam was a huge problem on their network and a look at PTRs + A records pointing to IPs in their ranges suggested a lot of phishing activity.

Of course, to address something that hasn't yet been mentioned in this thread, I'm obligated to point out that I broke a golden rule when I mentioned those findings:

I had previously falsely accused them of connection to a criminal spam operation, which technically did forbid me from calling out actual abuse from them later. It was my mistake, as I wasn't aware of the rule.

Mustafa

@jar said: I'm obligated to point out that I broke a golden rule when I mentioned those findings:

I had previously falsely accused them of connection to a criminal spam operation, which technically did forbid me from calling out actual abuse from them later. It was my mistake, as I wasn't aware of the rule.

You took it way too personal bro

alexhost

Hi,

First Question is: Why when someone does a "bad review" doesn't provide evidence? Tickets ID? Invoice ID? Something that we can check?

Alexhost doesn't suspend anything without a valid reason to do so.
One of few reasons are our AUP (Acceptable Usage Policy)

DMCA doesn't have nothing to do with Phishing / FRaud. This clearly is a mistake that some people think it is.

Second Question: Where are the ticket asking why you got suspended? We always answer you with the reason why you got suspended. We only see text (but at least provide ticket id...)

The last one, we obey to local laws where the servers are. That is very explicit.

Alexhost

totally_not_banned

Now it's your turn @OP.

RinnDoge

@sillycat said:

@RinnDoge said:
use pfcloud, easy solution

Are you affiliated with them? You have shilled them in 4/13 comments.

I purchase services from PFCloud and have had no issues with them so far and their highly known for their relaxed AUP and ignorance toward American policies like DMCA. I wouldn't call it shilling if I have a good time with them and merely want to extend said reach to others?

Malin

phishing != DMCA

nithi2023

@Malin said:
phishing != DMCA

OP said, there was no phishing involved. All he was saying is they never do due diligence.

If someone wants you to get kicked from Alexhost, all they need to do is send out a fake Phishing email to them with your domain / IP.

alexhost

@nithi2023 said:

@Malin said:
phishing != DMCA

OP said, there was no phishing involved. All he was saying is they never do due diligence.

If someone wants you to get kicked from Alexhost, all they need to do is send out a fake Phishing email to them with your domain / IP.

We do not suspend a customer without properly analyzing the complaint.

What sometimes happens is that there are customers who think they can phish and use the "dmca" excuse. Which has nothing to do with anything.

DMCA and Phishing have nothing to do with each other.

If someone is wrongly suspended, just contact them via telegram (we have that option) or ticket. And we'll rectify it.

It's also essential that the customer show evidence as soon as possible and provide as many details as possible so that we can see.

Now we can't deny that there are many who take advantage of "dmca" to think that anything goes.

We don't suspend just because someone says so. Unless you are correct in what you say after verification by the team.

totally_not_banned

@alexhost while i understand where you are coming from you can't really deny that you market towards that segment. You could very well also call the practice diligent-abuse-handling. I admit that No-DMCA doesn't have a lot of meaning anymore in general but for many people it reads as no-copyrights (from which they deduct no-laws) and some more naive folks get the impression they are signing up for some old-style bulletproof hoster, not understanding the times of $10 buying you immunity from takedowns on the open market are long gone.