(Do excuse my bad english at times; it's not my first language.)

For a while now I have been playing with the thought of starting my own "shell business." While I know that the vast majority of the business and very often its customers is shady at best (alas), I am very serious and I would like to offer grown-ups with a grown-up service. I am only interested in doing business with serious people.

(If you'd like to know what I mean by "grown-up" service, I refer to, say, SATEXAS (http://www.satexas.com/) and their rules (http://www.satexas.com/eggdrop_shell.phtml).)

One of my considerations (a very strong such) is dedicated hosting with a stable and good provider. In my quest for finding the one, I start this tread asking and hoping for advice in this regard.

My UNIX experience pretty much evolves (but is not limited to) around Linux and *BSD.

Here are some of my desires/demands for my DH provider:

* Ability to run OpenBSD (i.e. my DH provider installs it).

* Remote reboots (good to have - just in case). I do not require this, but it's certainly a bonus.

* Although I will administer the system all by myself, it would be nice if I could get support if I happened to break something. Say, I compiled a new kernel and it was broken. Therefore I needed an on-site operator to start the system with my earlier kernel (a 30-second job). However, this kind of support would rarely (if at all) be needed, but you know: just in case.

* I would need around 30 IP addresses (for vanity hosts).

* Fast replacement of broken hardware.

Bandwidth is important. I've seen DH providers offering 400-500 GB monthly transfer and this can meet my need. But we can get back to that - there are several options.

Thank you for reading this message. I'm looking forward to hearing from you.

Have a nice day!

- kcr

Make sure you keep in mind that eggdrop bots tend to be a target for attacks.

Any smart dedicated hosting provider will not host you as you will get hit with ddos attacks they didn't think could exist. All those firewalled dedicated server packages are a joke. If your going to run a shell business httpd.net is the only one who can handle your firewalling needs.

complx.net - Yes, I'm aware of the potential danger.

dk2 - To the eye, httpd.net seems good. I've been looking at them before.

Thanks,

- krc

btw...
most adults do not need a shell account

+ most web hosting accounts come with a shell account,

theres nothing to do with a shell account other then run a bot , or program some code on it, but nobody programs on a shell account.

So your only market is 15 year old hackers with stolen credit cards.. most of the time :)

mmmm..

I know everytime IRC or Shells come up on WHT, everybody starts to bash.

But do you ever stop to think of the possibility that older people use shells too? Legit people too?

EVERYONE is a target for attacks. Not just shell users.

mrbling -

As I've already stated: "I know that the vast majority of the business and very often its customers is shady at best (alas)."

And no, not every customer are 15 year old crackers with stolen credit cards. Take a look at SATEXAS (http://www.satexas.com/), for instance: it's really possible to run a shell business without being shady. One of the keys is active monitoring of the users.

There's nothing wrong with neither IRC or IRC robots - in itself.

- krc

I love programing in a shell enviroment. Don't ask me why but, I do.

Abaddon -

Great!

Many view "shell services" as shady altogether, but this simply isn't true. There are some (although they are a vast minority) shell providers out there who are serious and who also have serious customers.

Serious providers with a serious policy tends to attract serious users, and I am most definitely serious about my work.

- krc

You might look in to Foonet.. Its rather expensive, but might be a good idea for you...

The Prohacker -

They seem like the place to be for a shell business!

- krc