# free 35 minute vps's



## willie (Jun 10, 2013)

I have nothing to do with this, and it frankly kind of scares me: http://instantserver.io/

It's a free 614mb ec2 micro instance that expires after 35 minutes (unless you pay for it).  Suitable for quick tests and that sort of thing, according to the description.  Posted for your information.


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## D. Strout (Jun 10, 2013)

Interesting... It works, but I'm having trouble figuring out what you'd do in 35 minutes (an arbitrary time period, if you ask me). And this:



> Why shouldn


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## nunim (Jun 10, 2013)

D. Strout said:


> Interesting... It works, but I'm having trouble figuring out what you'd do in 35 minutes (an arbitrary time period, if you ask me). And this:
> 
> Spinning up a server at DigitalOcean isn't "complicated", and you can keeap it as long as you want.



I played with one for 35 mins, it's not a bad setup but the interface was a little confusing,  its much easier then spinning up an EC2 instance myself though.  Seems like it runs by some guy from MIT, wonder what kinda deal he got with funding it as he doesn't seem to be asking for donations or anything.  

I think it could be useful from time to time when I need to build a package or test something on Ubuntu, quicker then reformatting an OVZ VPS.  DigitalOcean isn't free though?  You could spin up an EC2 micro and use it for a year but I hate Amazons management console.


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## D. Strout (Jun 10, 2013)

nunim said:


> DigitalOcean isn't free though?  You could spin up an EC2 micro and use it for a year but I hate Amazons management console.


At a penny an hour, DigitalOcean might as well be free for that quick test. I agree about Amazon though. BTW the IP you're given does not respond to pings (times out), as I found out when I tried to set up a HE IPv6 tunnel.


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## Mike (Jun 10, 2013)

I can't imagine 35 minutes being useful for anything unless it's a quick DDoS, SPAM bot or some kiddie thinking they could hack it.

Suppose it makes a good trial motive?


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## D. Strout (Jun 10, 2013)

I'm doing a little digging right now. I just clicked the "get 5 more minutes" button on one, and no AJAX request went out to the server (one went to Google Analytics, but not to instant-server.io), which makes me wonder if the destruction is triggered client side. If that's the case, then it could be delayed. Admittedly it seems unlikely, but I'm keeping an eye on it as it ticks down.


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## D. Strout (Jun 10, 2013)

Unsurprisingly, the termination is not done client side, although I'm unsure how it is done. The VM stays up for another 30 seconds or so after the timer runs out, after which it's terminated. I imagine this is both a client and server side grace period, counted down on both simultaneously until the server terminates the VM and the client displays a "terminated" image, with no interaction or confirmation between them that I could detect. I'm still curious how the extra five minutes are allocated, unless it is somehow through that Google Analytics request. Anyway, not really important. An interesting service overall, though not _that_ useful.


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## NodeBytes (Jun 11, 2013)

Their peppy boxes. These will be great for admining my servers when I don't have access to terminal on someones pc. I can just open terminal on here!


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## 365Networks (Jun 11, 2013)

Thought I would jump on to take a look, they seem to be more of a shell then a VPS but good for testing!


```
CPU model :  Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU           E5430  @ 2.66GHz
Number of cores : 1
CPU frequency :  2666.762 MHz
Total amount of ram : 589 MB
Total amount of swap : 0 MB
System uptime :   4 min,
Download speed from CacheFly: 30.4MB/s
Download speed from Coloat, Atlanta GA: 10.5MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, Dallas, TX: 4.83MB/s
Download speed from Linode, Tokyo, JP: 3.33MB/s
Download speed from i3d.net, NL: 4.85MB/s
Download speed from Leaseweb, Haarlem, NL: 5.67MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, Singapore: 2.23MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, Seattle, WA: 3.59MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, San Jose, CA: 5.65MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, Washington, DC: 25.8MB/s
I/O speed :  32.0 MB/s
```


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## HalfEatenPie (Jun 11, 2013)

Yeah that was my first assumption, that it was a shell account.  But meh we'll see how it goes.


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## Supicioso (Jun 11, 2013)

This is a very interesting business model. I wonder how it does. Can't imagine it doing too well, with those prices. They're extremely high for the specs.


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