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.

Choosing a seedbox provider

Choosing a seedbox provider can be hard! So many choices, so many offers, so many caveats!

Do i want unmetered or traffic limits? Do i want 10Gbps down speed or is 100Mbps sufficient? What is transmission? What is rTorrent? What's deluge?

It's then best to go someone like Pulsed Media with their 14day moneyback guarantee and emphasis on ease of use, making it risk free. They even have Bitcoins as payment method :)

But if you are looking for 10Gig speeds, then someone like feralhosting is more to your needs.

10Gbps, 1Gbps or 100Mbps?
If you are looking just for a downbox, downloading stuff via a 3rd party server quicker and then FTP'ng that data to home, then 100Mbps can be sufficient since 9gb file still downloads in under 15mins, and your home connection is likely much more slower than this, if you have fast download speed at home, then you need 1Gbps - at least down if not upload as well.

If you are seeding or publishing your own content - you need to have more bandwidth available to you, a 1Gbps starts to become a necessity for certain users, but 100Mbps is still a fair bit of bandwidth if you are looking to publish something on a public tracker, that's fair bit, it's still 700Gb a day!
If you are competing with others, then you definitively need as much bandwidth as possible. 10Gbps, Autodl-irssi etc. becomes a necessity of life very quickly.

Blazing fast speeds on a shared seedbox server?

YES, that is possible! and not only with SSD servers, but also with more traditional servers.
You need something like Pulsed Media's Super100 seedbox, with few users per disk and traffic limits ensuring you get a fair piece of the pie that is bandwidth.

You will then be able to use much more larger share of the pie at the time you need it, rather than potentially be limited by resource hungry other users on the server, and thus getting blazing fast seedbox speeds.

Look for the overall offer, if it has traffic limits you can potentially have much higher burst performance than otherwise expected.

Why shared over dedi?

In many cases shared seedbox is much better choice than a dediseedbox.

Why shared seedbox is often better choice?

• Ease of use
• Instant availability
• Cost
• Better burst capabilities
• Sometimes you get practically a dedi for shared money

Easy to use

Most of the times a dedi doesn't come setup, it's just a plain install, and you need to know how to install everything etc.

You could go with something like PMSS, but it still requires you to set it up and knowing how to administer the server, updates, creating users etc.

Shared service has already all of this covered.

Instant availability

Shared and semidedi seedboxes are usually instantly available, no waiting period etc. just login and start using it. Even if a dedicated server is provided to you within seconds like many providers do, you still need to install everything and that could easily take up an hour or two.

Cost

Obviously a shared service is going to be much cheaper almost all of the time. Certainly, there is ultra cheap dedis on the market as well, but they often have a setup fee associated with them or other hardships, and often are so weak as to be barely usable.

Better peak performance

Say you get a 10Gbps seedbox from someone like Feralhosting, you are going to see 5Gbps+ peaks at least down. To get a dedicated like that would cost you hundreds a month, but with someone like Feralhosting it's going to be tens of euros. Sure, they have huge markup, and huge amount of users per server to be able to offer that service for tens of euros, but you will also benefit from their optimizations.

There is also plans where you are going to see ultra stable performance despite being shared, for example a 1Gbps seedbox with just 100Mbps upstream capability and traffic limited seedbox, so you get a nice middle ground between dedicated and shared :)

Sometimes you get tons more than you bargained for

With shared services you have the potential to get tons more than what you bargained for, sometimes the other users on the server barely use any resources what so ever, or it's mostly empty server waiting for new signups. Think about it, dediseedbox for shared seedbox money! :O

Dedicated Seedbox vs Shared Seedbox

Dedicated or Shared Seedbox? That's quite an question!

It all depends on your budget and what you are after. If you want stable speeds and lots of resources, and got a bit of budget - then definitively a dedicated seedbox is your option!

If you need more burst speeds, and don't mind sharing the connection, or you are budget limited then shared seedbox is your choice.

Technically they differ in that dedicated seedbox has dedicated resources, dedicated hardware *just* for you, so for the money it may not offer as high peak speeds or performance, but you will not share with anyone else neither.

Shared seedbox is a slot, or slice, in a server with multiple users. It does not mean you share an account with another user, it merely means that there is a multitude of users on that same server which may affect your speeds.

If you are worried that no bandwidth will be available for you to use, to hit an server with heavy users then a good middle point choice is a seedbox with traffic limits. The traffic limits ensure that a single user may not use 100% of the server resources, as they will get limited if they do too much traffic.

Why is a Seedbox a good idea for downloading Torrents?

Are you someone who craves for extreme upload bandwidth during your torrent phases? Do you need an equipment which lets you meet all your tracker relationship obligations but leaves your own home personal computer free for other internet activities you may have to do? Are you a content producer who wants to keep his submission bandwidth costs to the minimum? Are you a victim of traffic shaping? Are you a file sharer who works in an anti- P2P company that doesn’t let you do your work? If you have answered yes to one or more of the above questions, you just can’t do without a seedbox!

With a seedbox you don’t even need to trouble your home computer with a Bittorrent or rTorrent client. Worrying about the MPAA and the RIAA spying that may be done on you will be over. No more DMCA news or notice letters will be sent to you and no suit letters will bother you anymore. Not only can you move your rTorrent downloading from your home computer to the seedbox, you can do it with ease. Seedboxes come with a VPN connection for you to be able to route all your internet visitors through an encrypted funnel. This means that you can browse the internet in whatever way you want secretly and without anyone knowing.

A seedbox is your best bet if you are a compulsive file sharer. As you must know, torrents are the way the world is viewing entertainment today. Torrent protocols like rTorrent have made it possible for people to access an unlimited number of movies, music, games and e- books for free. All you have to pay for is bandwidth.

Buying a focused seedbox for yourself to use with your rTorrent downloads is a great idea. A focused seedbox will come with loads of other features as well. It will let you stream videos or play music via your internet browser on your seedbox itself. The seedbox will also provide you with advanced remote PC capabilities that will let you control and view your movies, music and play games on your seedbox or television. It also has video encoders and office applications.

The most important reason why more and more people are using the seedbox as an accessory to their rTorrent downloading and uploading is that it gives them speeds they have never experienced before. This is true of both downloading and uploading. If you are someone who downloads torrent files all day long, your expenses on bandwidth must be quite high. A seedbox is a good way to reduce your bandwidth expenses as the time taken to download will get at least halved when you use it.

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. 

How can you choose a good, reliable seedbox provider?

Man, can it be so hard, right, it should be easy to choose an reliable seedbox?

Yet we see very high failure rate, as of late RapidSpeeds, Evoboxes, Knowinservers and Boxslots is having some major issues.

YEA, it can be at times. Seedbox market is full of flybys, scams and frauds. There are several tell-tale characteristics to find a reliable, good provider.

To make matters worse, sometimes even the unreliable provider doesn't realize itself it's promising vapor, because of their upstream provider or not to realize the overheads running a business. There is also the providers who are very comfortable lying, and they will run with your money. Consider yourself lucky if a upstream provider does bail them out and save the users day.

You need to be able to distinguish every type of failure so that you can be assured your torrents are up and seeding even tomorrow!

Is the promise too good to be true? It often is, but there is a huge pressure to deliver more for less especially in seedbox market, because customers themselves have outrageously diluted expectations, partially due to overpromising hosts and partially due to a reality distortion field. In most cases the seedbox provider is paying exactly the same for servers as you would get as an average joe - yes, as unbelievable as that is, it is true. There are no magic bullets, or insanely low cost servers providers can tap into.

It simply is not possible to offer a true, dedicated, SLA'd, high quality 1Gbps connection for 10€. Even big companies often paythousands of euros per month for such a connection.

So just to be able to offer a seedbox service for you, stars got to align just right for so many factors.

Torrenting is not lightweight. Most users believe torrents are very lightweight, this couldn't be further from the truth. Seedboxes are primarily used by power users, and there is a lot of users per node, that's when even the fastest HDDs start to crumble.

So what does all that mean? When you see a 1Gbps unmetered, 500Gb Disk space, unlimited torrents seedbox offer for 2€, it probably isn't what you'd expect.

RAID10 yet same amount of storage for money as the average provider? That is very likely not true, tho exceptions do exist such as the Pulsed Media 1Gbps running RAID10 on some nodes.

Do not go with a provider full of spelling mistakes, or if you can spot, technically factual errors. If suspicious, ask around from your friends if that is possible.

What support do they provide? Do they tell you upfront? If they are not upfront about support services and actively market their support, in all likelyhood it's going to suck - at best. At worst, there is no support services in place at all, which is true for sadly many long standing seedbox providers.

Are they real registered company? Did you ask them, and they said yes? Well, did they back that up with Business ID #, and/or Brick And Mortar address + phone number? The latter is not necessary, but former is. If they are not willing to discuss those details, especially if european company, they probably are not a registered, lawful firm. Sometimes they are, even if they don't tell you their Business ID # or VAT ID, but that's the exception not the rule.

Is there "buzz" about them? If not, chances are they are either a really small provider or new. Both entail a big risk. Most of the cases you can find some reviews with simple "company namereview" google search. Take the reviews with a grain of salt tho, as the competition is fierce and often the competition might try to smear campaign their competitors, or at times a bad review is done without even trying to reach support to fix it. If you see negative review, check up on the following commentary about the review.

Do they provide guarantees? Check up on them, upfront. look into footer or ask their pre-sales for those guarantees. Those can be moneyback guarantee, service level agreement or other. Service Level Agreement (SLA) is very rare on seedboxes, but there is providers who give this as well. It means you will be compensated shall there be fatal problems with your service and they can validate the problem.

Don't buy into the Hype, immediately at least. Many up & coming providers are being hyped, more hyped it is, the more likely it is a scam or fraud. Longstanding, stable companies do not produce this kind of hype, but a steady stream of buzz and activity around them. There really is no exception to this rule.

Expect lies. Most Seedbox providers lie, and they lie big. Many will claim to be best, but those who claim to be best, usually are on the worse scale of things. There is some providers who claim this, and their marketing is full of lies. They sell metered, capped service as unmetered, do not even give all the basic services (ie. SSH or SFTP access, or web filemanager), and at times security is less than lax. Those who truly are The Best, do not need to advertise the fact.

Cheapest, is not the best choice. Best value is the best choice. Given high enough value, the offer might also seem insanely cheap, maybe even below cost but in such case there probably is a good, healthy profit margin involved - which is required to provide high value. Every cent higher price, every single cent more per server earned, is directly to profit for the company. Sometimes high enough value offer might seem too good to be true, but if you ask the company or look at the details you might notice how that is possible - and the company offering this earns every single cent of the extra margin.

When in doubt, ask your friends or see if the company offers a 14-day moneyback guarantee. If there is a moneyback guarantee you can quite safely try them out. Sometimes the guarantee is not marketed, and not in so obvious places in order to reserve that right to those who truly need it and not the flock of abusers waiting in line to take advantage. Ask the company about it.