Benefits of a dedicated server

Wondering why you should get a dedicated server instead of shared hosting?
No matter is it seedbox, webhosting etc. but the same benefits stands for dedicated servers, if you can afford that little bit of extra. So let's take a look at them, shall we? :)

Performance, Power

You will gain stable high performance and processing power. Shared services usually have much higher markup and operate on much stronger servers, but also a huge amount of users in case of webhosting.

You will have the CPU, RAM and Disks just for you. In some cases you can even choose emphasis on CPU, Ram or Disks depending upon your particular needs.

Flexibility

On a Dedicated server you can run whatever software you please and are capable of installing and configuring yourself, even obscure little pieces of software.
You can even share your dedicated server if you have the skills to make the shared environment to share the costs of a such server.

Security

No other users sharing the disks, only the software running you choose to: This usually translates into less potential attack vectors, however, you need to make sure your server is secure yourself, but potentially a dedicated server is much more secure if you put in the right tools, keep it updated etc.

Ping and SSH Port

Oh one more thing, changing SSH port and disabling Ping is not security, it's a nuisance and annoyance to the support team, and will slow your support requests, create additional work for the support team, and provides barely no additional security what-so-ever. Any even semi capable hacker will know how to scan for alive hosts without Ping and find the SSH port very trivially with barely no slowdown. Plus if you run a webserver - everyone will know the node is up - so what's the point?
Don't do. Breaking standards and annoying your provider is not worth the 5secs of slowdown a potential attacker will have to find these out in any case.

Cogent, Verizon, Comcast. Get your act together - NOW!

Cogent, Verizon and Comcast - Get your damn act together now for the sake of users!

Cogent is a brilliant disruptive force in the networking industry - they aim to have the best pricing around, and aim constantly to make better offers for their customers, hence their network has grown really fast.

Verizon and Comcast are the big bad telcos in the states who want to control everything. They all have a peering agreement between each other.

Thing is, Cogent has a lot of customers who use tons of bandwidth as their Mbps rates are generally the lowest. In today's market as low as around 0,45€/Mbps! (4500€ for 10Gig link)

Hence, Cogent is the choice for parties who move a lot of data, such as Netflix.

Verizon and Comcast are telcos, they have their network extending for the last mile and they too have vast backbone networks to connect all the metropolitan areas together, all the counties and states.

Cogent doesn't offer connections to the end user, they focus on datacenters, backbone networking, connecting different datacenters, networks and telcos together.

For more than a year Verizon and Comcast has been refusing to upgrade the peering with Cogent because they are such a disruptive force and moves so much traffic, Cogent gets the big data customers which Verizon and Comcast are unable to reach.
Verizon and Comcast have the eyeballs, Cogent have the providers, until lately Cogent has been starting to get the eyeballs as well from other countries smaller telcos getting their transit agreement.

We cannot know what precisely is going behind the curtains, but my bet is that Verizon and Comcast would like to charge Cogent for access to their eyeballs, and hence refusing to upgrade the peering.
On grassroots levels it's also been suspected that Verizon and Comcast throttle traffic from various Cogent sources, and some of it has been on the news, comcast refusing to upgrade to fix congestion to force netflix into interconnection deal.

At the end of the day, it's all users who need traffic between verizon and cogent, or comcast and cogent who suffers. My guess is that the traffic is mostly one sided, most traffic flows from cogent network to verizon and comcast, since that is the nature.
Cogent has a vastly "upstream" biased network, while Comcast and Verizon offering the last mile has vastly "downstream" biased network - or so i would assume.
However, Cogent is scoring more and more local ISPs in other countries than the states - so we might see that change eventually.

A Guide to Seedbox Speed and More!

There has been much talk about different Seedbox offerings over the recent past, and much of this revolves around the fact that they greatly increase the speed of uploading and downloading files using the internet. For the uninitiated, Seedbox is actually a jargon coined by the Torrent community, and simply refers to a dedicated high speed server which is used especially for file transfers (and therefore the high speed).

Seedboxes are great tools to up your upload ratios whilst using torrent trackers; they can be used to increase your download speed; and even to avoid copyright infringements suits (once you’re downloading using a Seedbox you’re pretty much in the clear). Since almost all Seedboxes, like DediSeedbox, can be controlled using any computer with internet access, you can control your uploads/downloads from just about anywhere.

The Speed:

If you’re hoping to benefit by using a Seedbox it is imperative that you work with a high speed connection, and as long the swarm is able to handle high bandwidths, you would be able to download significantly large files in a matter of minutes. With a 100Mbps connection you’d be able to download around 500mb in a minute. With a 1:1 download:upload ratio, you could even upload the same file to other users in the same time span.  

What About 1GBPS UnmeteredOfferings?

There are a number of companies that offers their customers 1gbps unmetered Seedboxes, and these offers do seem quite attractive. However, the truth of the matter is that in most instances 1gbps offerings offer less value for money than 100Mbps offerings. What also matters is that peers cannot accept data as fast as it can be sent, and as a result the usual transfer rates on a 1Gbps unmetered Seedbox can leave a lot to be desired.

Several Seedbox packages offer 100Tb+ in terms of usage, and this too is not necessary true. Fact remains the several Tb is often more than enough usage and most 1gbps unmetered Seedbox packages are budgeted for about 50Tb usage, and definitely not for 100Tb+ or 300Tb.

In looking at Seedbox speeds, it’s important that you take the average into account, and not the bursts. Consequently, you should be looking at traffic charts from different Seedbox providers to know just what to expect well ahead of time. What has been seen so far is that 100Mbps offerings offer the best value for money.

What to Look For in a Seedbox?

True, that there are many Seedbox companies like DediSeedbox out there, but this does not mean that you choose the first one you come by. When it comes to Speedbox speed, you have to take into account the network’s connection speed, speed per torrent, and speed per client. In addition, you should also take the following into account:

·  Drive space / storage capacity

·  Volume of RAM’s shared resources

·  The ability to run multiple torrents simultaneously

·  The throughput limit

Other factors that need to be considered include knowing which torrent frontend is employed (utorrent, wtorrent, rutorrent, avalanche, rtorrent, etc); and whether you are given the ability to create torrents. Newer offerings also allow you to control your Seedbox account through applications that run on Smartphones, and this is something you might want to look into as well. One more aspect that you need to address early on is checking if the Seedbox in question can run on your choice of operating system (Windows, Mac, or Linux).

Choosing a Provider:

Given that claims of 1Gbps unmetered offerings can leave a lot to be desired, it is best if you look for companies that offer 100Mbps offerings. Aspects you need to look into in making your decision should go beyond the price factor, and you should also take into account the speed that is actually provided as well as the level of service that the company in question has to offer. Once you decide to go with any one company, getting going is quick; in around 24 hours you would have access to your Seedbox.

So, if you are looking at getting a Seedbox to increase the speed of your torrent uploads/downloads, there is no reason why you should not. Getting it from a hosting firm, as opposed to converting a hard drive within your home into one, is always a better idea because of threats like Malwares and viruses. What you need to bear in mind, though, is that getting a 100Mbps connection is definitely better than getting a 1Gbps unmetered one.