VPS services are primarily directed at those who wish to have total control and freedom over their software and environment, something which isn't possible with shared or business hosting plans. With that being said, this makes VPS services unique and has some considerations. Please read below before ordering.
Management and Support:
The set of VPS services we offer is unmanaged, meaning that the server owner has full root access to their server, as such, and due to this nature of access, all VPS plans are not covered by technical support when it comes to software. Think of it like buying a personal PC from any vendor (DELL, HP, etc), the vendor will supply the PC to you with an OS pre-installed, and then the user (yourself) will install and configure any additional software needed (ex: protection software, database software, etc), and also will be responsible for maintaining it in good condition (by configuring anti-virus software, avoiding the use of untrusted software, configuring security and firewalls, etc).
As the server user (or sysadmin), you are expected to use and manage your system through the command line. You should have a decent knowledge of Linux commands for this purpose. Some control panels are available to choose from during order steps, you should refer to the documentation and guides for these control panels for usage instructions.
Our scope of responsibility when it comes to VPS services extends to the part concerning the hardware only, for instance, providing power supply and maintaining network infrastructure for the main hypervisor that hosts the VMs (in accordance with the SLA).
Although we may offer a complementary backup feature for the VPS services, it is not guaranteed backups will always be made or available, and as such it is still your responsibility to take your own regular backups of your VPS software and apps.
Of course, having freedom and full control over your VPS does not mean you can utilize it for any kind of purpose, your usage of the service should always be in accordance with the usage policies, so please carefully read the prohibited activities outlined in the Acceptable Use Policy of the service agreement.
Control Panel Licenses:
We may provide licensing options for some of the common control panels (such as cPanel and Plesk). Our service extends here to the limit provide the license key only, meaning that we are not responsible for providing support on how to setup and use these control panels, for assistance of using a specific control panel, you will need to refer to the official guides supplied by the control panel provider.
Networking Considerations:
Some VPS network traffic is restricted network-wide to help prevent malicious actions, like reflected DDoS attacks. We know these restrictions also prevent functionality like configuring direct server return and using VPS servers as routers and site-to-site VPN gateways.
Bandwidth:
All x and Px lines of VPS servers come with free 2 TB of monthly data transfer, any excess usage over this limit will be charged at $0.025/GB (US Dollars).
The following network traffic is restricted:
- Outbound traffic via port 22 (initiating outgoing SSH connections from servers is not possible, this is a protective measure due to the increasingly brute force attacks that are common from compromised scripts such as vulnerable and outdated WordPress installs).
- TCP and UDP traffic on port 11211 inbound from external networks (due to the Memcached amplification attacks in March 2018).
- Multicast traffic.
- Traffic that does not match a VPS IP address/MAC address.
- SMTP traffic via port 25 and port 465.
- SMTP traffic via IPv6.
- VPS servers have a maximum network throughput limit of 1 Gbps.
Upgrading and Scaling Up:
When upgrading a VPS server, you can only go up, that is, if you upgrade to a VPS with higher specs than your current specs, you won't be able to downgrade. This is a standard technical limitation with how disks are formatted. Data is not always sequentially written in memory, so reducing the available space would risk data loss and filesystem corruption.
Considerations for Port 25 and Port 465:
Email clients use SMTP to send messages to a mail server for delivery while email servers use it to forward messages to their recipients.
Outgoing emails are usually sent using port 587 or 465 while port 25 is used for relaying the message between mail servers.
Much of the email delivery depends on the reputation of the sender's IP. Therefore, it’s important to follow common courtesy and best practices when operating a mail server.
SMTP ports 25 and 465 are traditionally blocked by residential Internet Service Providers and also cloud service providers to prevent spam. This is to prevent open SMTP relays from being misused or set up for abuse.
Configuring up your own email server requires due care to ensure security. A simple mistake in the setup can render the security settings ineffective, therefore most important part is to make sure the server does not become an open relay.
Although the outbound SMTP ports 25 and 465 are blocked, you can choose to use port 587, or a non-standard port to send email through a relay. For example, you can configure your Mail Transfer Agent to use a mailing service e.g. MailChimp or Mailgun over port 587 to securely relay emails.
Alternatively, you might not want to run your email server. Depending on your intended use for sending emails, you should consider utilizing one of the aforementioned dedicated mailing services. Marketing campaigns and transactional emails are often best left to professionals to ensure reliable delivery.
The outbound SMTP port 25 and port 465 are closed by default on new accounts to prevent accidental open relays and misuse.
