[tor-relays] DigitalOcean pricing (Re: tomhek - the (new) biggest guard relay operator)

[Alecks Gates]

On 09/13/2016 11:19 PM, Petrusko wrote:
> Hey, Since 1-2 months I'm using a VPS on this provider, don't want > to advertise here, but only share my little experience: >
https://www.pcextreme.com/aurora/compute Starting price is 3€/month >
for a virtual machine - 20G SSD - 512 RAM - (Have to check >
bandwidth... hosted in a datacenter, so...) Bandwidth : fairly use... >
For a relay, never got a mail from them. About an exit, I don't > know.
> > I've imported a debian.iso in the web-interface, and possible to
boot > a custom install. Or of course you can use VPS templates... > >>
Well, if $5 a month is high for you, I don't know what to say. >>
I think it's worth pointing out that DigitalOcean has one of the best
interfaces and APIs out there.  A lot of people (myself included) have
encountered it quite a bit out in the wild and it's gained a really good
reputation at least in the US.  Whether or not that matters specifically
for Tor hosting is another matter.

I've had one complaint so far from an exit node within the last couple
months -- they were awesome about it and have given me no trouble.  Just
gave the usual "this is a tor exit node" reply.  See below for the
example complaint.


Dear User,
We are contacting you because of unusual activity coming from your IP
address towards the IT infrastructure of the European Commission.
In specific, since 10/08/2016, IP *.*.*.* of Digital Ocean, located in
the USA, has submitted a significantly large number of invalid VAT
number requests as compared to the total number of requests (91,83%)
towards VAT numbers of a multiple of EU Member States (MS) through the
VIES on the Web service (http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/).
For more information on Invalid VAT number requests please refer to FAQ,
questions 7, 11, 12, 13 and 20 of the VIES on the WEB site
(http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/faq.html).
The scope of our team is to monitor on a daily basis the performance of
the VIES-on-the-Web (VoW) service in order to ensure its performance in
accordance with the standards agreed upon between EU's Directorate
General for Taxation and Customs Union (DG TAXUD) and the EU Member States.
Our objective is to secure constant and uninterrupted availability and
flow of traffic (requests for VAT validation) at all times.
Under this framework, our team intervenes whenever there is out of the
ordinary, unusual and potentially suspicious use of the system that
violates the rules of use as they are stated in the Specific disclaimer
for this service, which is available at the VoW site
(http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/disclaimer.html).
Consequently, in order to allow flawless use of the service, we were
obliged to block the access to VIES on the Web for the IP address *.*.*.*.
Following our action, we would like to know if you are aware of this
situation. Furthermore, your cooperation and contribution is necessary
in order to determine the reason for this occurrence.
Please inform us if this behaviour is normal and if such, how often it
should occur; we would then take action to unblock the traffic coming
from the corresponding IP address assuming you will agree to follow a
set of rules as guidance for future use of the service.
 Best regards,
 ITSM VIES/Web Team

-- 
Alecks Gates

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