Moving NONET to a VPS

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Secant
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Moving NONET to a VPS

Post by Secant » Thu Apr 05, 2012 2:35 am

The idea of moving night-ops.net to a VPS (Virtual Private Server) has been floating around for a while now. In light of recent anti-free speech governmental activity all around the world, it's making more sense to make the move. Going to a VPS would give me full control over all logs (that is to say, the ability to turn off various types of access logging) and would allow night-ops.net to use SSL rather than unencrypted HTTP like is used now. I would also be able to encrypt the entire server to protect against its seizure.

This is all well and good, but it costs money. Currently, night-ops.net exists due to the generosity of an opper who has spare space and bandwidth. We don't pay anything for hosting. If we were to get a VPS, it would cost somewhere around $90 a year. So the question is - how badly do we actually want to move?

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Re: Moving NONET to a VPS

Post by Neurotic Anomaly » Thu Apr 05, 2012 2:56 am

What is required as far as any downloads and/or setups to our computers are concerned?
שד ציד

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Re: Moving NONET to a VPS

Post by Xanatos » Thu Apr 05, 2012 7:00 am

$90 a year doesn't sound too bad, we could even all pitch in a bit. And if it means less chance of this site getting onto the government's hitlist, all the better.
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Re: Moving NONET to a VPS

Post by Ghost » Thu Apr 05, 2012 12:34 pm

I'm all for it. For sites like this, it may soon become a necessity. $90 a year isn't very bad, like other users have said. i'd be willing to give some money to the cause as well.
"A man's greatest treasures are his illusions."

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Re: Moving NONET to a VPS

Post by joshvillen » Thu Apr 05, 2012 1:36 pm

I would also be willing to pay a piece of that to move it to a more secure server.

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Re: Moving NONET to a VPS

Post by mib » Thu Apr 05, 2012 6:49 pm

Ditto.

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Re: Moving NONET to a VPS

Post by Nukes » Fri Apr 06, 2012 1:26 am

ditto^2
Hey you! Yes YOU! Go here... http://night-ops.net/chat/

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Re: Moving NONET to a VPS

Post by Secant » Fri Apr 06, 2012 4:20 am

Neurotic Anomaly wrote:What is required as far as any downloads and/or setups to our computers are concerned?
Nothing, you would access night-ops.net normally through your browser. A VPS is just a type of web server which would be entirely under my control, unlike our current web server.

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Re: Moving NONET to a VPS

Post by Illusion » Fri Apr 06, 2012 6:26 pm

I'd also be sure to ship some funds in!

Sounds like a very good idea though, would afford us quite a bit of flexibility.
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Re: Moving NONET to a VPS

Post by Secant » Sat Apr 07, 2012 12:11 am

Thanks for the feedback, guys. Let's see what happens after the site upgrade is finished.

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Re: Moving NONET to a VPS

Post by Ghost » Sat Apr 07, 2012 2:10 am

Secant wrote:Thanks for the feedback, guys. Let's see what happens after the site upgrade is finished.
We'll be swarmed by hundreds of new users, eager to begin their ninja-commando-OPERATOR-assassin training.

Because that's when the recruiting phase begins. And it will be glorious.
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Re: Moving NONET to a VPS

Post by Xanatos » Mon Apr 09, 2012 1:20 pm

Hmm... I can imagine what a dark time that will be.

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Re: Moving NONET to a VPS

Post by The Atomic Fishy » Tue Jun 19, 2012 11:38 pm

Xanatos wrote:Hmm... I can imagine what a dark time that will be.

Image

do like what ZombieSquad did, have a hidden section on the forum only open to established members.
allow additions to it by invite only.

on second note: i have been out for a bit but i have a server that you can use for hot standby or other needs, and i am willing to throw some cash your direction to float the VPS.

on final note: no final note.
in a society that has abolished all adventure, the only adventure left is to abolish that society.
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Re: Moving NONET to a VPS

Post by Anthony Sykes » Sun Jul 29, 2012 8:57 pm

The Atomic Fishy wrote: do like what ZombieSquad did, have a hidden section on the forum only open to established members.
allow additions to it by invite only.
I know this is an older thread, but I saw no responses to this idea. I think it's perfect, it gives a place where all members can interact, but also a place for people that are not new, have opped before can go to talk to others of similar experience, without risk of a "newb-derailment"

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Re: Moving NONET to a VPS

Post by Teutoni » Thu Aug 09, 2012 2:16 am

I am a bit late to the party but I am sure as hell willing to throw money your way!
Keep 'em chained, boys!

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Re: Moving NONET to a VPS

Post by Vindicta » Sat Aug 25, 2012 12:50 am

Sounds like a pretty good idea.

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Re: Moving NONET to a VPS

Post by Secant » Tue Sep 04, 2012 1:32 am

Has anyone here had experience with and/or can recommend any VPS services? One service which looks good is http://prgmr.com, it was recommended by our web host. A second interesting possiblity is https://srsvps.com/vps.html which has the advantage of being in Romania and appears to be targeting imageboards and other communities which deal with less-than-legit materials.

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Re: Moving NONET to a VPS

Post by Xanatos » Thu Sep 06, 2012 6:48 am

I've also heard of http://www.koddos.com/. I don't know squat about VPS, but apparently these guys don't ask questions.
We are all books containing thousands of pages and within each lies an irreparable truth.
What is locked, can be opened. What is hidden, can be found. What is yours... can be mine.

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Re: Moving NONET to a VPS

Post by Secant » Thu Sep 06, 2012 11:56 pm

OK, so those guys aren't offering VPS services, but "anonymous hosting". We wouldn't have root on our server, nor would we be able to prevent our web server from keeping access logs. On the plus side, though, the Netherlands would be much more friendly to this site's content than the US, so extreme measures might not be as necessary.

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Re: Moving NONET to a VPS

Post by Xanatos » Fri Sep 07, 2012 2:24 am

As long as we're not posting CP we should be safe.
We are all books containing thousands of pages and within each lies an irreparable truth.
What is locked, can be opened. What is hidden, can be found. What is yours... can be mine.

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Re: Moving NONET to a VPS

Post by Secant » Sat Sep 08, 2012 1:13 am

You mean you don't have access to the CP forum? I thought all the moderators had... Oh shit, I've said too much!

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Re: Moving NONET to a VPS

Post by Xanatos » Sat Sep 08, 2012 6:37 am

Image
We are all books containing thousands of pages and within each lies an irreparable truth.
What is locked, can be opened. What is hidden, can be found. What is yours... can be mine.

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Re: Moving NONET to a VPS

Post by Roxas » Sun Dec 09, 2012 4:52 am

has this been followed through..? if possible id pitch in money
The problem with trying to be the bad guy, is that there is always someone worse

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Re: Moving NONET to a VPS

Post by The Atomic Fishy » Mon Mar 18, 2013 7:11 am

"Domain.Com" Hosts Hak5 and does VPS Solutions. i hear nothing but good things about them and they can help you get a signed ssl cert for https.

As for a cheaper solution, i run a hardened debian server that does nothing atm if you want to host a mirror or central site with me.
i will do it for free.

server info:
lunks encrypted hdd, 35/15 mbps Fiber internet, key based ssh/sftp access, 500gb hdd, 4gb ram, dual 2.5ghz processors, plus any extras we may want.

may move to hardend gentoo by end of month.


Other notes:
if we are super worried about being a government listed site we can host a direct mirror as a TOR hidden service, it wont keep the site out of government crosshairs in the normal web but will protect our users from becoming targets in the event of compromise.
in a society that has abolished all adventure, the only adventure left is to abolish that society.
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Re: Moving NONET to a VPS

Post by Secant » Sat Mar 23, 2013 2:01 am

The Atomic Fishy wrote:
As for a VPS host, I'm mostly looking for cheapness and location (that is, not located in the US). Domain.com has the cost aspect going for it, but it looks like they are US-based.

Thanks for the offer, but there's probably no reason to have a mirror for nonet: synchronizing the main site and mirror is nontrivial, I take regular backups anyway, and we can all live without nonet for a few days if something happens. That being said, if our current host (who has graciously donated some spare bandwidth and disk space) tells me nonet has to move, I'll look you up.

I'm intrigued by the TOR hidden service idea though. How does one set that up?

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Re: Moving NONET to a VPS

Post by SingleUseAccount » Tue Mar 26, 2013 7:12 pm

Secant wrote:I'm intrigued by the TOR hidden service idea though. How does one set that up?
https://pastebin.com/dTHFk0Pz

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Re: Moving NONET to a VPS

Post by vonunov » Wed Mar 27, 2013 1:24 am

http://anonym.to/?http://www.cotse.net

I use these guys for mail hosting. They have VPS and dedis too. They're a privacy-oriented service but still based in the US, so be aware of their obligations regarding law enforcement. Note that you can pay by mailing in cash; my real identity isn't tied with my services there in any way.
Meet me down by the railroad track.

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Re: Moving NONET to a VPS

Post by Secant » Tue Aug 27, 2013 3:09 am

Was referred to https://www.digitalocean.com by a friend. They're US based, but the performance is very good and they're dirt cheap. Anyone deal with them before?

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Re: Moving NONET to a VPS

Post by Secant » Wed Aug 28, 2013 1:56 am

Also, some bad news:

https://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtop ... &t=2152375

Our current server does not have php 5.3. If php can't be upgraded, we'll have to move in order to keep up.

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Re: Moving NONET to a VPS

Post by Xanatos » Wed Aug 28, 2013 2:00 am

Aww man, I just finished unpacking.
We are all books containing thousands of pages and within each lies an irreparable truth.
What is locked, can be opened. What is hidden, can be found. What is yours... can be mine.

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Re: Moving NONET to a VPS

Post by Absent » Thu Nov 28, 2013 9:15 pm

PRQ.se is by far the best option as far as security is concerned. Way too expensive though.
The next best thing imo is http://www.bahnhof.net/ They don't comply with any external country
requests, subpoena's or warrants. They don't comply with Swedish requests, either. They do
comply with Swedish subpoena's and warrants to the minimum degree, but Sweden has very good
privacy laws and freedom of speech laws so it's not really a problem. It's like 150 USD a month, but
given the amount of people here who are willing to chip in, that shouldn't be a big obstacle. I'm also
willing to chip in. If bahnhof.net is too sparse on info, their Swedish site bahnhof.se can be translated
with google translate from their browser.

Another consideration is the fact that a lot of countries that have servers in other countries are U.S based.
For example, vds6 has servers in the Ukraine and the Netherlands, but they are a U.S based firm so they
comply with U.S, Netherlands, And Ukrainian laws. Also I'm pretty sure they comply with simple requests which aren't legally
binding. E.g, they'll sell you out at the request of a government without needing to see a subpoena or warrant.
You have to be careful about that sort of thing imo. Reading the terms of service and privacy policy usually discloses
what they disclose, and if not, you can always email them and ask what their policy is. I've gotten hostile replies from
some companies which is NOT a good sign lol.

Also I personally host my own website and some stuff for two friends at my house on an old laptop as a server.
I've never had speed issues or anything, and the uptime atm is somewhere around 2 months since I last restarted
the server for some maintenance tasks. SSL / TLS is definitely something I'm looking forward to. Also actual disk
encryption would be awesome.

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Re: Moving NONET to a VPS

Post by Secant » Sat Dec 14, 2013 6:24 am

Bahnhof looks pretty solid in terms of privacy, but they are decidedly light on details. Where are you getting that $150/month figure? From what I can tell, their most expensive "elastic hosting" option is 69 EUR/month. Even their less expensive service is probably too expensive, though. Although there are many people who say they'll contribute, it's unreasonable to expect $1000 in donations every year.

Another option which would be cheaper (but more risky) would be to go with an ordinary US-based VPS provider, and then harden the VM as much as possible. Specifically, I had Digital Ocean in mind for this due to the low cost. I use their service for a few VPSes of my own and it's pretty good for the price.

Hosting at home is a possibility, I guess. Rather not though, residential ISPs suck even with a "business" type internet package.

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Re: Moving NONET to a VPS

Post by Absent » Sun Dec 15, 2013 5:16 am

Yeah, hosting at home is sort of like a last resort. My ISP blocks ports and shit, which I've found a way around but meh. Still a bit of a hassle. Being able to personally oversee encryption is nice though :)

Anyway, I don't remember where I came up with that figure lol. If it's too expensive than I guess that's not really an option... The U.S based idea sounds fine to me.

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