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Poll: what do you actually use your smallest VPS for?

VPS Hosting by hankels 26 replies 4.2K views
hankels

Member OP

52 VPS and counting

6 #1

Running a quick survey because I realized my fleet is... eclectic. Current count: 52 active boxes across 8 providers

Vote for your PRIMARY use:

  • VPN/proxy (personal)
  • VPN/proxy (sharing with family/friends)
  • Self-hosted services (nextcloud, plex, etc)
  • Dev/test environment
  • IRC/bouncer/communities
  • Other (specify below)

My breakdown by $/GB/RAM efficiency:

  • 14 boxes: WireGuard exit nodes (cheapest $/GB I can find)
  • 9 boxes: Docker labs, basically burn them monthly
  • 7 boxes: Off-site backup targets (rsync targets, nothing fancy)
  • 6 boxes: Running this one guy's packet radio node??? (see below)
  • 16 boxes: "I'll use it eventually" — the scrap gods provide, the scrap gods accumulate

The packet radio thing is wild. Some ham in Nebraska pays me $2/mo to keep a linbpq node alive for APRS relay. I don't understand it, I don't question it.

What's your weirdest smallest-VPS story?

seedbox, NAS, tape, and three offsite
dave39

Member

#2

Mostly they giveth cheap ipv4,,,,, I have a 256mb box from 2019 that runs my grandfather's email archive,,,,, He died in 2021 but I keep paying the $8/yr because the family still sends messages to his address and I have a autoreply set up that quotes his favorite fishing spots,,,,, The provider has tried to migrate me three times and I just keep moving the mbox file,,,,, Efficiency is a false god compared to the scrap gods,,,,, ~~dave

beto60

Member

#3

Caramba! Kkkkk my smallest VPS nossa I don't even use for internet things, ne? I have one box in Contabo — https://contabo.com — that runs only a MUD server for my brother and his friends from 1998! Kkkkk they no play so much anymore but I don't have heart to turn off, the banco de dados is only 40MB but the nostalgia? Nossa, is very big!

I don't have no other use for it, so the $3/mo is not nothing for keep the memories alive, ne? My wife say I am crazy but she no understand the RPG life kkkkk

techmei

Member

#4
hankels said:
What's your weirdest smallest-VPS story?

Two server in OVHcloud, 128MB, run nothing but AX.25 over IP tunnel for amateur radio BBS relay in taiwan mountain. Grandfather set up, now I maintain. Will check every month the packet log.

$ tail -f /var/log/ax25/axipd.log

The provider think is dead box because traffic so low. UPPERCASE WRONG. Is very alive, just slow life.

One server also host gopher hole for his old club. Never migrate, never upgrade. Debian 9, kernel 4.9. The scrap gods protect? XD

$ uptime
14:23:01 up 892 days,  6:17,  0 user,  load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00

892 day. Two server cost $18/year total. CHEAPER THAN GRAVE FLOWER.

AL

Member

#5

Which provider is the $8/yr archive with? Need to check migration terms.

WO

Member

#6

Contabo still alive? I remember them from old times, no?

FA

Member

#7

Debian 9 still getting security patches for that ax.25 setup?

hankels

Member OP

52 VPS and counting

#8
techmei said:
CHEAPER THAN GRAVE FLOWER

This is now my second favorite justification for keeping a box. First place still goes to dave39's grandfather autoreply.

892 days though, that's scrap-god territory. My longest uptime is 341 on a BuyVM slab in Las Vegas. Rebooted for Spectre patching like a sucker.

Updated my own list: 6 of the "eventually" boxes have now graduated to "actually running something." The other 10 are still liars.

seedbox, NAS, tape, and three offsite
AL

Member

#9
dave39 said:
The provider has tried to migrate me three times

If that's RamNode or BuyVM, from memory their migration terms are basically they'll tell you, then they do it. No opt-out I've found. Which provider lets you dodge three times?

dave39

Member

6 #10

Alpha14 it's a old Crissic deal from before the buyout,,,,, They became QuadraNet then something else,,,,, I just keep updating the card and the mbox follows,,,,, Terms don't matter when nobody remembers the account exists,,,,, ~~dave

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