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HostEONS VPS review: IP unreachable after about 10 days, $3 replacement fee, no refund
ClearRouteNotes
Member
I bought a HostEONS VPS for about $21/year. It worked normally at first, but after around 10 days the IPv4 became unreachable from my local networks.
I’m not a network engineer, but I use VPSs regularly and did some basic checks before contacting support:
- SSH (22) and 443 to this VPS timed out from my local network.
- The same HostEONS VPS was still reachable from another US VPS.
- My other US VPS servers were still reachable normally from the same local network.
- The HostEONS server itself was running, and the service on 443 was listening.
So this looked more like an IP/network reachability problem than a VPS software failure.
Support told me an IP change costs $3. I asked for a refund instead because the VPS had only been active for about 10 days.
They refused the refund and initially said the IP may have been blocked “due to your activities.” I asked them for technical evidence supporting that statement.
Their later reply was more careful: they said the issue could be ISP-side filtering or blackhole routing, that IP replacement is chargeable, payments are non-refundable, and even a replacement IP cannot be guaranteed to work because filtering may affect the whole prefix.
That last point is the main reason I decided not to pay for an IP change. If I pay another fee and the replacement may still be unreachable, I don’t see much value in continuing.
I understand that no VPS provider can guarantee connectivity from every ISP or country. I’m only sharing my actual experience so that users, especially those connecting from mainland China, know the risk before buying.
Not saying they caused the filtering, just sharing what happened and how support handled it.
I can provide screenshots of the support replies if needed.
Comments
Complain to the GFW, not the provider.
what's your alt account?
@>; @luckypenguin said:
Fair point. I’m not blaming HostEONS for the filtering itself. My issue is mainly how the situation was handled: the VPS became unreachable after about 10 days, the only solution offered was a paid IP change, the refund was refused, and the replacement IP was not guaranteed to work either. That’s the part I wanted other users to be aware of.
No alt account. I just registered today because I wanted to share this experience.
That’s how every hosting provider works. Some may provide a guarantee that the IP will work initially, but no one can guarantee the IP would work indefinitely in China.
No one here cares. Don't buy yearly services when you know that it will likely be unusable within days due to GFW. This isn't a new phenomenon. You're increasing support load and provider frustration by hopping from provider to provider asking for an IP change or refund every time the GFW blocks you.
I agree that no provider can guarantee an IP will remain reachable indefinitely in China. I wasn’t expecting that.
My concern is more about what happens when it becomes unreachable so soon after purchase. In my case, the only option offered was to pay for another IP, with no refund and no guarantee that the replacement would be reachable either.
I’m mainly sharing that support experience so others can decide whether that policy works for them.
The only issue I see here is that you expected free IP changes on a $21/year VPS.
The GFW is the issue here, not the provider itself. You might need to use a proxy or check if any background services are conflicting.
The IP can be blocked the day of the purchase. That’s just how GFW works. It’s an unmanaged VPS, and you should be the one taking care of it (including hiding from the GFW)
Just one clarification, since a couple of comments seem to misunderstand my point.
I’m not asking providers to guarantee China connectivity, and I’m not repeatedly hopping between providers asking for free IP changes. This was one VPS and one support case.
I understand now that many LET users consider this normal risk for an unmanaged VPS used from China. That perspective is useful too. I posted the experience mainly so other buyers can see what happened and make their own decision.
Fucking AI slop telling people (everyone in this thread btw.) that they misunderstood the point. Stupid people, misunderstood. Name dropping? Oh, they misunderstood.
Adding bullshit support cases because you (or your AI Agent) clearly knows it's GFW.
But hey, I guess prompt was "CHINA NUMBA ONE, WE ALWAYS CORRECT, GOVERMENT IS CORRECT, GET ME A REFUND!!!!!"
Can we nuke this AI slop already?
Decision for what ? Not live in China ?
You cant ask for refund of something that working for other but not for you only. IP change require manual and labour work so why you expect it free, esp on a 21$/y server, what ahppen if you ask for ip change again and again in future after it got blocked from GFW.
Be reasonable customer
As always