# CloudAtCost Oversold, Underpriced, What to do? Launch new "Feature"



## drmike (Sep 8, 2014)

This is legendary.   CloudAtCost who sold a bunch of of low priced and often lousy performing VPS instances now has come up with a solution to their mass oversell hell.  (yeah I believe they sold flat cost LIFETIME VPS services too)

The feature is to shut down your VPS for inactivity - lack of logging in every 7 days.   This is what they are setting all accounts to and requires you to now go in and disable this "feature"...

Cause you know, open terminals are security hazards... Right...

rm -rf'ing hell.

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Cloud At Cost System Message:

09/07/2014 11:19 AM

​CloudAtCost has a large user base who uses our servers for learning programming and linux. With this comes a great chance of poorly secured servers and code which leads to servers getting hacked and users loosing all their work.

 

We have implemented server run modes which will allow a new server to be used for 7 days then shutdown to prevent users from leaving their servers and programming projects unattended. This default mode is called "Safe Mode". If you are running a service you can login to the panel and click "Change Run Mode" and set to "Normal" which is the always on Mode.

 

At this moment ALL servers are set to "Safe Mode" which gives you a week to login and change this to "Normal" where you see fit.

 

CloudAtCost recommends leaving it on "Safe Mode" if you are not using this server to serve anything on the internet. 

 

You can view your "Current" server run mode by clicking the Blue info Icon for a server.

You can change the run mode by Clicking "Modify -  Change Run Mode"

 

 

If you have any questions please let us know.

Cloud At Cost 2014


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## MannDude (Sep 8, 2014)

Woah, what? Does it actually terminate your instance or just sort of power it off and spin back up whenever you decide to want to use it again in the future?

Does 'logging in' mean logging into your VPS control panel with them, or do they monitor servers for 'activity' such as BW usage that would indicate it being used or being idle? I'm confused as to how this is implemented.


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## drmike (Sep 8, 2014)

AS stated, they are setting all VPS instances to terminate / shut down the VPS after 7 days of not logging in.

You can override this by going in there and flipping the setting supposedly....

But for those that have instance running on autopilot, here comes inevitable outage.

I guess they are somehow pulling last log into the terminal info.

Real feature if they wanted to help IDIOTS would be some option for some firewall or hardening information for customers....


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## Chuck (Sep 8, 2014)

Just got the email. Glad that I only wasted $17 on this crap.


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## DomainBop (Sep 8, 2014)

> users *loosing* all their work.


Spelling and grammatical errors in terms of service, contracts, or customer communications are always an indication of a quality provider.  



> The feature is to shut down your VPS for inactivity - lack of logging in every 7 days.


That would require them to monitor logging on the VPS itself.

The wording of their message seems to imply that "safe mode" will automatically turn a VPS off 7 days after it is powered on.  The 7 day login period is to login to the control panel (not the VPS) and change the run mode to "normal" before the auto shutdown occurs on day 7.  I'm assuming that a server in safe mode will automatically power down on day 7 regardless of whether you've logged into the VPS itself during that period, and if you power it on after the auto shutdown occurs the 7-day clock will start ticking again.



> We have implemented server run modes which will allow a new server to be used for 7 days then shutdown





> If you are running a service you can login to the panel and click "Change Run Mode" and set to "Normal" which is the always on Mode.


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## Francisco (Sep 8, 2014)

So hold on, do you still have credit for an instance so you can make another one? Or is this their way of cleaning up the corpses and continue this "service"?

Francisco


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## Jasson.Pass (Sep 8, 2014)

The irony with the name of CloudAtCost lol


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## Steven F (Sep 8, 2014)

Where does it say terminate? It says shutdown. Everyone is jumping to this conclusion that it's going to terminate you.

You can also shut this off. I think it's a great idea, if they've seen a large number of hacked VPS due to people just leaving them.


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## Wintereise (Sep 8, 2014)

Reading comprehension, tsk tsk.


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## SGC-Hosting (Sep 8, 2014)

I know many of you frequent reddit as well -- has anyone else noticed a significant increase in referral spam across reddit?  I see it almost everyday on a different subreddit from different accounts

edit:  Also, from what I'm reading, it looks like it's a "feature" that you can disable, I don't see anything about terminating accounts.


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## Aldryic C'boas (Sep 8, 2014)

@drmike nailed it.  This has _nothing_ to do with security, and is just a bogus move to try and keep VMs spun down to reduce the strain from how tightly packed the nodes are.


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## D. Strout (Sep 8, 2014)

While I think some people would like this feature if it were just something they started offering, the way it almost seems to be forced should make those people suspicious. You have to wonder how long this "feature" will be "optional". No question that it's a move to free up resources. At least they're not _destroying_ the VMs.


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## souen (Sep 8, 2014)

(Hi all, first post, came from LET a while back but been mostly just reading.)

OT, I don't mind this change as long as this safe mode remains optional. Granted, they could've handled it better, I didn't get any email about it and might've had downtime as a result. Some people don't log in to the CP often once they've set up the vps, except maybe to reboot if there was an issue.


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## wlanboy (Sep 8, 2014)

DomainBop said:


> That would require them to monitor logging on the VPS itself.
> 
> The wording of their message seems to imply that "safe mode" will automatically turn a VPS off 7 days after it is powered on.  The 7 day login period is to login to the control panel (not the VPS) and change the run mode to "normal" before the auto shutdown occurs on day 7.  I'm assuming that a server in safe mode will automatically power down on day 7 regardless of whether you've logged into the VPS itself during that period, and if you power it on after the auto shutdown occurs the 7-day clock will start ticking again.


I would not take a ssh connection as a save sign that a vps is used.

Monitoring if a customer really logs into the vps via ssh does only make sense if they check if the login was successful.


I would not support such a deep inspection of my vps.

It is not a bad idea to force customers to login into the control panel within the *first* seven days.

But their way to implement it and their way to communicate it is simply stupid.


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## raindog308 (Sep 8, 2014)

I could see a service where you trade off very cheap price for having your instance shut down if not in use...

...if it was still 2006.

The problems here are 


That not the way when they sold it.  
In 2014, I can get a VPS for so ridiculously cheap that this tradeoff no longer makes sense from a marketing point of view.

The security stuff isn't entirely bogus - imagine a Wordpress installation from years ago that has a hole.  However, I agree the motivation is more around saving  CPU on grossly oversold nodes.


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## Kris (Sep 8, 2014)

Looks like it's simply 'shutdown after 7 days'  :lol:


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## Francisco (Sep 8, 2014)

Kris said:


> Looks like it's simply 'shutdown after 7 days'  :lol:


They should've done it opt-in, not opt-out.

Francisco


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## drmike (Sep 8, 2014)

Steven F said:


> Where does it say terminate? It says shutdown. Everyone is jumping to this conclusion that it's going to terminate you.
> 
> You can also shut this off. I think it's a great idea, if they've seen a large number of hacked VPS due to people just leaving them.


Well if my VPS is running and shutdown and doesn't come back to life, that's a terminate.  I mean container still there and all, but effectively offlined until I go hoop jump.

This is different than a perma terminate where they crumple the container.  Symantics I realize 

Very strange approach to have to opt-out to have a container continue running.  Totally backwards as @Francisco mentioned.


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## Kris (Sep 8, 2014)

Francisco said:


> They should've done it opt-in, not opt-out.
> 
> 
> Francisco


It's Safe Mode... for the hypervisors.

Otherwise it would've been opt-in


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## Ishaq (Sep 8, 2014)

I'd understand if this was a free service, but really? Paying "lifetime" customers?


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## drmike (Sep 8, 2014)

Ishaq said:


> I'd understand if this was a free service, but really? Paying "lifetime" customers?


They've done a few models as far as I know.

First was like $1 per month on the smallest plan.

Then they offered it at annual reduced cost pre paid.

Then they rolled out $35 lifetime.

I never saw a free offer.  Unsure if they did such.


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## GreenHostBox (Sep 8, 2014)

drmike said:


> They've done a few models as far as I know.
> 
> First was like $1 per month on the smallest plan.
> 
> ...


I doubt they'll come up with a free offer since lifetime VPS is already troubling enough.


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## Chuck (Sep 9, 2014)

Ishaq said:


> I'd understand if this was a free service, but really? Paying "lifetime" customers?



Where did you see free service?


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## Serveo (Sep 9, 2014)

GreenHostBox said:


> I doubt they'll come up with a free offer since lifetime VPS is already troubling enough.


Cost driven cloud services ;-). Lifetime offers already proven to be a failing businesscase. Its a like a pyramid structure.


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## zed (Sep 9, 2014)

It's cheap lifetime vps that are probably hugely under-utilized, seems like a spark of genius to spin them down if unused. Interesting redefining of the word "terminate" there though, way to be dramatic.


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## drmike (Sep 9, 2014)

zed said:


> It's cheap lifetime vps that are probably hugely under-utilized, seems like a spark of genius to spin them down if unused. Interesting redefining of the word "terminate" there though, way to be dramatic.


Well let's think about this rationally.

Say I order a VOIP line and pay for a year.  Then 3 months in I decide to make a call.  No dialtone, call won't go through, etc.  I then have to go to support and determine this inactivity thing booted me.  Did they render the services under the agreement in place at the time I bought?

I'd call that terminating my active services as they kill / close / etc. the active container and this is the default setting.

Big picture, wait and see if this "feature" shows up now or ever in any of their pre-sales literature.   I doubt it will.  It's a scam to maximize oversold ratio.

I know some will say, but yo' fault fo' missin' da email.  Yeah, right  real businesses don't slide stuff in randomly via email.   Tech companies recent decade though are notoriously scammy like that.

More interesting is I bought one to test start of this year.  Went to check it, and it wasn't running.  So whether or not they've been doing this, meh.  Certainly haven't been restarting stuff post fails/reboots/etc. which is moderately unappealing to me.


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## k0nsl (Sep 9, 2014)

Customers are having issues with the new feature from CloudAtCost (*should be:* CloudAtACost). See: « _Of course it does not work ... I changed my two servers to the "Normal" mode. But the setting keeps flipping back to "Safe Mode"._ »
I linked this topic  

*Edit:*

Fixed the formatting.


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## souen (Sep 10, 2014)

I haven't had this problem so far ... just checked and server should still be in normal mode after setting it two days ago. When it's in safe mode there's a yellow "!" sign next to the vps name. Will see if it stays on after a week.

Can't recommend them currently, service had degraded over the past 2-3 months in terms of dd and network uptime. I put a blog on it (which has barely any visitors) and most times I check it's online, so for a personal project or similar it works, I guess.


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## zed (Sep 10, 2014)

drmike said:


> Well let's think about this rationally.


lifetime accounts man, who does that? ain't no rational in this


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## switsys (Sep 16, 2014)

I've had two 512MB VMs with them for about a year now.
The total amount that I've paid for them is $29.50.

So they've paid for themselves already.

They also do what's expected of them perfectly.

And I had no problem whatsoever switching from "Safe Mode" to "Normal Mode" and they're staying in the latter.


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