Tuxperience dot com

So I have been pondering the notion of paying for a dedicated server over using a VPS since I have been experimenting with adding some other features to my server (Email/DNS). The downside to VPS is that the cheapest providers tend to use OpenVZ which has java issues and this limits what software I could use for my email server. The downside to dedicated hosting is there is one large price per instance thus making it more likely I would be putting all my many services into a single box. Long story short my searches yielded a somewhat unexpected turnout........

While I do like my previous provider (IntoVPS.... link is to the right), I was paying $20 for my single server and found another provider (Virpus) which was offering slightly better than half equivilent packages.... (better than IntoVPS' lowest grade plan) for $4. Naturally i found this to be quite attractive and after some experimentation with their servers I found the difference to be rather negiligible. I have now split my services amongst 2 VPS servers hosted at Virpus. Additionally my searches rendered yet another great find which was offered by host1free.com. As the name implies they offer 1 FREE (yes free!!!!) vps. I was a little hesitant to try them out but their registration does not ask for any information pertaining to billing (no credit card/paypal/bank info) so i thought what have I got to lose. Seems their system is a bit slow at processing as it will take about a week till you actually get your "free vps" account created, it is in fact legitimate.

Long story short i have now effectively turned a monthly recurring $20 single VPS system into a monthly recurring $8 (at most) VPS environment spread over 3 servers through 2 separate providers.

Winning! 

Just a quick note to those of you who email "webmaster@tuxperience.com"

First of all, I am NOT interested in buying a list of email addresses for ANY field. I honestly do not care who visits my site.... in fact looking at the content it's pretty evident the sole purpose of this site has yet to even be determined other than just serving as my own personal presence on the interwebs and the site has been "in development" for over 5 years now....... I really do not care it's just a little hobby of mine.

Second of all, Recruiters I am not interested in applying for any position you wish to refer me to. I intentionally do not include my name in the bio/resume section to prevent any claims to referral you may attempt to have with another company should I ever apply for a position somewhere. My expertise and qualifications are of enough stature to land me a job in a plethera of fields that are typically always in high demand. I do not need your help and in fact will go out of my way to refuse it. Dont waste yours or my time.

 Thank you and good day! 

Just a nifty little tip for tracking/logging connections a linux system is making/trying to make.

On redhat based systems edit /etc/sysconfig/iptables (yes i know it says do not manually edit this file)

Add the following lines

-N FIRELOG
-N FIRELOGDROP
-A FIRELOG -j LOG --log-prefix "LOG "
-A FIRELOG -j ACCEPT
-A FIRELOGDROP -j LOG --log-prefix "LOGDROP "
-A FIRELOGDROP -j DROP

-A INPUT -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -p icmp -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -i lo -j ACCEPT
 

right after the line.....
 :OUTPUT ACCEPT [0:0]

What this does is creates 2 new chains for handling traffic. The first one will allow the connection but log it while the second will both drop and log the connection attempt. 

Now when adding a rule in IPTables to open or close a port you can specify FIRELOG or FIRELOGDROP as the action type instead of ACCEPT or DROP.