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I’m considering my options for hosting at the moment. (Fully managed, dedicated server). At a minimum it’s time for me to change things up with my server, so now is the time to consider my options. I sorta asked this question last fall, but didn’t get much of a response.
Mandatory items are:
They don’t flinch if I tell them explicit site names or have use cases that have explicit images. (Though I do try to give PG-13 use cases when I can). But, if the problem is with a video of an ass oozing cum on a site named Cumdump Network, then they need to deal with it like it’s completely normal request.
First line DDOS mitigation that actually works for a reasonable price. In other words, they need to be able to reroute my traffic through a 3rd party, off-site, traffic cleaning service for a day or two when there’s an attack (or have that capability in-house).
Support that responds within a few minutes to urgent problems, regular problems within an hour or two, and low-priority issues within a day or two.
Support that doesn’t wash their hands of problems. Not that I expect them to dig in and do programming, but they shouldn’t say things like “we think that’s a code problem” and walk away.
Reasonable pricing with no gotchas (say on bandwidth overages).The “nice to haves” would be:
Support that gets it right the first time, most of the time.
Support that knows how to properly tune machines and databases.Where most hosts fail is on the DDOS protection. I talked to MojoHost at TPF and they flat out said “yeah, we can’t do that”. But having been attacked last fall (with sustained attacks up to 17 Gbps), it’s a mandatory requirement for me. DDOS protection was relatively new for NatNet, but things could have gone very badly for me had they not been able to handle the attack.
Honestly, I’ll probably stay with NatNet. They’re not perfect, but they’re generally decent. They’re sorta “the devil I know”. But if there are other hosts I should consider, now is the time for me to look into them…
I really don’t know. The host I use are great but I don’t think they take on new smaller customers (like us) and focus on bigger clients and development.
After working with MojoHost the past couple years for a Client, I can honestly say I feel so thankful having NatNet. Yeah, they aren’t perfect, but believe me there is far worse out there.
Yeah, seeing how casually Mojo said “we don’t do that” about DDOS protection when I sat with them in Phoenix makes me rule them out.
On the other end of the spectrum I talked to one host yesterday where all their traffic gets DDOS filtered (and we’re talking good, comprehensive scrubbing) so you’re just never even aware that someone tried to attack you because the attack never even made it into their network. They clearly “get it” and it’s just part of their standard package. Gotta see what they cost though.
Jay – talk to NatNet. We were victim of an insanely large DDOS recently (100Gbps+) and we were down for about 12 minutes in total. It blew my mind how quick the mitigation went into effect.
I recently visited their Datacenter and I can categorically say I will never move my servers from there – there’s NatNet and then there’s the others. Tell Tony or Bill I sent you, they’ll take care of you (price and service wise).
Jay, one more tip with Natnet. Don’t use their nameservers as they are unable to mitigate against server attacks if you use their nameservers, go with Dyn.com. Dyn, in collaboration and conjunction with Natnet, has done an excellent job protecting us from DDOS attacks (and we used to get hit a lot, especially from China).
i’m very happy with certifiedhosting – we’ve had a managed server there for years. fast support, never snicker or pause if i tell them i’m calling about sexymalefeet.com or grandmashairypussy.com.
@Dannyz
You’re preaching to the choir! I moved my DNS to DNSMadeEasy a few years ago and never looked back. Dyn is great too, but it’s more expensive and a tiny bit slower than DME. Either way, I think any solid DNS provider > a host’s own DNS servers.
@Jay_StandAhead
As I mentioned, I’m already with NatNet. They’ve even mitigated DDOS attacks for me. Seeing them in action is why a good DDOS mitigation plan is a must have for me. This thread is a review of who is at least as good as they are, that should be considered for hosting.
@dannyz
I’ve never used NatNet’s DNS, but despite that, if I remember correctly, the attack on their name servers a couple years ago still caused problems for me (though not as serious as the people who were using their DNS). I’m guessing it was because the attack was large enough to cause problems with their network generally.
@Jay_StandAhead
Get off DNSMadeEasy as quickly as you can. I went into depth about why in another thread, but the short version is that they will stop service and/or bill you massive amounts of money if your sites are under DDOS attack. Read their TOS. When I read it I was shocked. And the sales people will reiterate the policy if you ask them for details. They literally kick their customers when they’re down. I went with the DDOS-protected plan at ClouDNS, unlike DNSMadeEasy, they don’t charge more when you’re under attack – instead they can work with you to reroute your traffic to a DDOS mitigation cleaning service, if your host doesn’t provide those services.
@Jay
Whoops, I somehow skipped right over that, embarrassing!
I certainly see your point there. Their TOS isn’t customer friendly. I’m on their Corporate plan with 70M+ queries / month and I haven’t seen any impact from DDOS attacks on our queries. I would assume they’d be a bit more friendly to customers on the Corporate plan but that could be wishful thinking, I’ll make sure we have up to date backups of our zones so we can move at a moment’s notice if needed.
