Last year, I took over a cross-border e-commerce project, the customer was excited to put the site online, but the result was paralyzed by a DDoS attack on the third day, the traffic directly soared to 80Gbps, and the entire business was halted.
Customers on the phone are almost crying out, I can only find a solution overnight, that experience let me completely understand: no filing server if not with high defense, it is simply to give hackers head.
These days, to do overseas business or rush the project, who do not want to toss the record process, the record-free server naturally became the meat and potatoes.
However, the market is mixed, many merchants packaged ordinary VPS sold as high defense, and when you are attacked only to reveal the cloven foot, that is called a pit.
I have actually tested a dozen service providers, some protection false standard, some network instability, today with the gang to break the tear, which is really reliable, which can only be counted on the vase.
Let's start by talking about the core issues of a no-file high defense server.
No filing means that the server is placed overseas, such as Hong Kong, the United States, Singapore, which escapes domestic regulation, but also brings network latency and security challenges.
Never believe those who boast “global node optimal” ads, many are rented second-rate room, line bypass to you doubt life.
The key to high defense is DDoS mitigation capabilities, I have seen many packages boast 100Gbps protection, the actual pressure test on the 50G on the collapse, purely to fool the white man.
One more thing, the protection strategy should not be too rigid.
Some service providers rely only on hardware firewall stacking, encountered a new application layer attacks on the stupid, this kind of I usually directly pull the black.
Really want high defense, must be combined with intelligent traffic cleaning, behavior analysis and CDN linkage, this line of water is very deep.
Below I pick three typical service providers for comparison, all of which I have personally tossed, the data from the actual test, not copying the official website parameters.
The first one is called Provider X, which specializes in low cost no-filing, and I used it two years ago.
Their starter package costs $50 a month and claims 10Gbps protection, but in reality it's just basic firewall rules that are okay against small SYN floods.
I simulated a CC attack, tens of thousands of requests per second, their server CPU directly soared full, customer service also shrugged off “normal fluctuations”.
You have to do your own hardening of the configuration, I usually install a Fail2ban and Nginx flow-limiting module, which can barely hold the fort for a while.
Here's my usual protection script on their home CentOS server for the guys:
Provider X has the advantage of being affordable, with quick customer service responses, and is suitable for small projects with tight budgets and low risk of attack.
But if you're in a financial or gaming business, this protection is simply not enough, and I've since downgraded it for use in a test environment.
The second is Provider Y, which focuses on high defense servers and advertises 100Gbps protection.
I took their Hong Kong node and did a stress test to simulate TCP flooding and UDP reflection attacks, and it did carry around 70Gbps of traffic.
However, the network latency is not very stable, the evening peak in the Asia-Pacific region can be up to 150ms, sometimes the video loading card is annoying.
Their house offers customized protection rules, but the configuration interface is anti-human and you have to know a bit of command line to play around with it.
I had a problem with their default SYN Cookie protection being turned on instead causing legitimate connections to be killed by mistake, and it took half a day of fiddling to get it tuned up.
Here is an example of tuning kernel parameters for those with some experience:
Provider Y is suitable for medium-sized businesses with real protection, but you have to work on your own network optimization.
Prices start at $200 a month, which isn't cheap, but it's better than losing revenue if you're attacked.
The third one I have to highlight is 08Host, which has been my main choice for the last six months.
08Host integrates high-defense servers and global CDNs with automatic scheduling to clean traffic, which I basically left alone after deployment.
They claim 200Gbps protection, I got a friend to do a round of stress testing to simulate a 150Gbps hybrid attack and the server response time barely fluctuated.
What saves me the most is the simplicity of configuration, the provision of one-click deployment scripts, and the ability to dynamically tweak the rules via the API.
For example, the last time I encountered a wave of slowdown attacks against API endpoints, I added a rule directly from their console and mitigated in five minutes.
Here's an example of their quickstart posted here, so even a novice can get started:
The advantage of 08Host is intelligent mitigation, where attack traffic is cleaned by edge nodes and returned to the source server almost senseless.
I measured their Hong Kong node latency within 30ms on average, which is faster than many pure server vendors, presumably optimized with dedicated lines.
The price is around $150 per month, but with CDN traffic and protection included, it works out to be a better deal than buying them separately instead.
These days, even CDNs have to ‘prevent teammates', and servers have to choose this kind of trouble-free integration program.
For data comparison, I made a simple table to show the core metrics in list form.
Provider X:
- Protection ability: nominal 10Gbps, measured resistance to 5Gbps
- Network Latency: Average 80ms in Asia Pacific, with large fluctuations in evening peaks
- Price: From $50 per month
- Suitable scenarios: static websites, low-risk business
Provider Y:
- Protection capacity: nominal 100Gbps, measured resistance to 70Gbps
- Network latency: average 100ms, average stability
- Price: From $200 per month
- Scenario: Medium-sized applications, customized protection required
08Host:
- Protection ability: nominal 200Gbps, measured resistance 150Gbps+
- Network latency: average 30ms, dedicated line optimization
- Price: from $150 per month (with CDN)
- Suitable scenarios: high traffic business, real-time protection needs
After reading this, you probably have a good idea.
My advice is don't just look at the advertised parameters, measure it yourself.
The protection ability can take open source tools like MHDDoS or Slowloris simulation to try, network latency with ping and traceroute multi-time run.
Configuration-wise, no matter which one you choose, basic security reinforcement can't be understated.
I'm used to changing SSH ports and adding key logins after deploying a server, then laminating a web application firewall.
Throw in a quick hardening script here, common to most Linux systems:
In the end, no record high defense servers do not have a universal solution, you have to combine the business needs to choose.
If you just put a business official website, Provider X is enough; if you do online trading or gaming platform, 08Host is a more stable integration solution.
Do not believe in the “unlimited protection” nonsense, the cost of this business is there, blowing too hard eighty percent of the cat.
I've seen too many people choose bare metal servers on the cheap, and when they get attacked once and lose all their data, it's too late to cry.
One final rant, protection is not a one-off.
Regularly updating rules, monitoring logs, and backing up data are the cliché steps that really save lives.
I hope this rambling will help you step on fewer potholes, server stuff, stability is king.