I'd like to rent a cloud server to use for a private IRC for some twenty people . . reddit / irc ---------------------------------------------------------------------- AnythingAnthingAnthi · 2020-04-18 23:45 Can anyone advise? I'd prefer it if were fairly cheap, and it has to be secure. I'm investigating also running an IRC server on one of my own computers - and I've got some way with that (with UnrealIRC) - but much of it is proving problematic. I do not fancy merely renting something in the cloud and setting up my own IRC installation on it, for I'd have to administer it all over SSH and I'd worry about security (have I got the right firewall rules? is fail2ban working? should I check the logs? etc.). Also, I am short of time. I could so some administration of a remote setup, but not that much. I am in the UK. UPDATE (edited): I have tried, and given up on, the 'homesever' (rented server) version of Riot and am currently inclined to use something called LeapChat (which has poor instructions and a slightly irritating minimal UI but is simple to use and secure). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ne7split · 2020-04-18 23:50 It seems like you might be better using an existing network and just setting up your own channel there. As far as I'm aware there aren't any public "out of the box" automated network setups for IRC networks. Using an existing network you could use a private channel for access control. Otherwise, you have to rent a VPS and set up an IRCd like InspIRCd or Unreal. A simple firewall is fairly set-and-forget - just disallow everything other than IRC ports (6660-6669 and 6697) and SSH from your home IP. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SqualorTrawler · 2020-04-18 23:55 Confused about what you're looking for: > Title: I'd like to rent a cloud server to use for a private IRC for some twenty people . . (self.irc) > Text: I do not fancy merely renting something in the cloud and setting up my own IRC installation on it, for I'd have to administer it all over SSH I assume you mean, can you rent some kind of cloud IRC server that is already set up and configured. I have not heard of such a thing but perhaps someone has. You have some options: * The cheapest Digital Ocean droplet ($5 US a month) should be sufficient for an IRC server with 20 people but that definitely involves the things you say you want to avoid. However, it is unclear to me what kind of difficulties you are likely to have with a private, otherwise unannounced IRC server. In any case administering something like this over SSH isn't really much different from doing it locally and Digital Ocean provisions its "droplets" (virtual machines) with login only via SSH key, which is pretty secure. From there I'd use iptables to ghost the rest of the ports. One other benefit of services like DO (Linode is another option) is they have servers all over the world. If you know where your users are located you can provision the server located nearby, which roughly means better connection speeds. (I know DO can provision in a datacenter in London, for example). **This is probably what I would do.** I've used DO for years for all manner of experimentation and hosting (though not an IRCD) and I have had no problems or security issues at all. * It is not IRC and perhaps it is out of the question for you but it is trivial to set up a Discord server, comparatively. * Use an existing IRC network and create a private, invite-only channel. I'm honestly surprised how many people insist on running their own private servers when this would cover all but the most sensitive needs, but you may have your reasons so I just mention it as an option. To me, running an IRC server when you're interested in having 20 people in one place seems overkill, but balancing your needs vs. complication is up to you. The two things you mention - the firewall and fail2ban - seem trivial to get working compared to dealing with any troublemakers on your IRC server itself. Most troublemakers target public IRC networks though there is broad scanning for IRC servers but I track what ports are scanned or otherwise probed or people try to connect to. For me, 6667 is the 56th most scanned port; it's not much of a priority compared to others but your mileage may vary. This is from Feb 22 - Mar 31st (more than a month), to give you an idea of what you'd be looking at in terms of random people (or scripts/worms) looking for IRC servers. +-------+---------+----------------------------------------------- ----------------+ | Port | Hits | Description | +-------+---------+----------------------------------------------- ----------------+ 23 9623 telnet 1433 4372 ms-sql-s - Microsoft SQL Server 80 2288 http www - WorldWideWeb HTTP 8080 1973 http-alt webcache - WWW caching service 22 1640 ssh - SSH Remote Login Protocol 443 1212 https - http protocol over TLS/SSL 88 631 kerberos kerberos5 krb5 kerberos-sec - Kerberos v5 389 570 ldap - Lightweight Directory Access Protocol 123 546 ntp - Network Time Protocol 53 488 domain - Domain Name Server 21 375 ftp 3306 372 mysql 8081 371 tproxy - Transparent Proxy 8088 330 omniorb - OmniORB 465 283 submissions ssmtp smtps urd - Submission over TLS [RFC8314] 111 274 sunrpc portmapper - RPC 4.0 portmapper 587 262 submission - Submission [RFC4409] 5432 253 postgresql postgres - PostgreSQL Database 5353 202 mdns - Multicast DNS 1434 194 ms-sql-m - Microsoft SQL Monitor 10000 186 webmin 19 176 chargen ttytst source 7001 174 afs3-callback - callbacks to cache managers 1194 168 openvpn 5060 152 sip - Session Initiation Protocol 110 150 pop3 pop-3 - POP version 3 2000 146 cisco-sccp - Cisco SCCP 993 141 imaps - IMAP over SSL 102 140 iso-tsap tsap - part of ISODE 69 137 tftp 143 137 imap2 imap - Interim Mail Access P 2 and 4 6000 137 x11 x11-0 - X Window System 995 135 pop3s - POP-3 over SSL 7000 133 afs3-fileserver bbs - file server itself 873 123 rsync 623 118 asf-rmcp - ASF Remote Management and Control Protocol 808 113 omirr omirrd - online mirror 5222 112 xmpp-client jabber-client - Jabber Client Connection 444 110 snpp - Simple Network Paging Protocol 5061 110 sip-tls 7002 107 afs3-prserver - users & groups database 990 106 ftps 6001 106 x11-1 500 105 isakmp - IPsec - Internet Security Association 5050 89 mmcc - multimedia conference control tool (Yahoo IM) 631 87 ipp - Internet Printing Protocol 992 82 telnets - Telnet over SSL 554 80 rtsp - Real Time Stream Control Protocol 1701 77 l2f l2tp 2049 77 nfs - Network File System 636 76 ldaps - LDAP over SSL 8140 72 puppet - The Puppet master service 20 70 ftp-data 520 70 route router routed - RIP 2121 67 iprop - incremental propagation 6667 66 ircd - Internet Relay Chat ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2020-04-19 00:21 [deleted] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2020-04-19 01:36 [deleted] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2020-04-19 01:48 [deleted] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- LameBMX · 2020-04-19 02:42 20 peeps, created a protected channel on existing irc network. Or host with your own PC, setup free DNS on like afraid.net or something. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2020-04-19 03:08 [deleted] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2020-04-19 09:48 [deleted] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- fjearful · 2020-04-19 17:31 There are several. What virtualization do you prefer? You could try [buyvm.net](https://buyvm.net) which is kvm. they have lv, ny, and luxembourg locations available. You need to check in their stock from time to time: [https://buyvmstock.com/](https://buyvmstock.com/) They do crypto if that matters. the owner frans is a good guy. You could get support via IRC. Ddos protection costs more. You can install your own OS via vnc even. I also like prgmr, they use xen with good support. I am not sure about ddos protection. they're $5 a month or something like that. Others: vultr, lunanode, ovh, blazingfast (don't care for it), linode is good... there's plenty of them out there. OVH is a good option, but their support isn't that great but for price and you get excellent ddos protection. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- LameBMX · 2020-04-19 23:46 Dont need static ip, just an app the updates whenever you get a new IP. Which for most ISPs is fairly rare. afraid.net provides free sub domains to make things easier ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2020-04-19 23:48 [removed] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2020-04-19 23:50 [deleted] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- LameBMX · 2020-04-20 00:14 Yea, an app that would update the afraid dns to point to the new IP address. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2020-04-20 00:29 [deleted] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- LameBMX · 2020-04-20 00:30 Better off creating a channel gonna established network.