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The Free VPS Offer We Didn't Run

Nick LimLast week, there was a thread that popped up on LowEndTalk that seemed just like the thing for our audience.

A provider with no connection to our community was offering a VPS with IPv6 only…for FREE.

And everyone loves that word.

The offer didn’t last long, probably because posting it on LET opened the flood gates.  The original post was on a cryptocurrency forum’s classified ads section, which doesn’t get the same exposure as someone throwing this kind of red meat to our audience.

Soon it was no longer free, but cost a penny.  The difference between free and a penny is stark: in the former, you can be completely anonymous; with the latter, you have to pony up a lot more info because you’ve got to make a payment.

And as of today, it’s $1/month.

At that price, it’s no longer such a great deal.  You’re only getting 512MB, and you’re only getting IPv6.  You can find better deals with more RAM and IPv4 on our dollar VPS page.

Vanwa Tech

Vanwa Tech is the company and the name comes from their location: Vancouver, Washington, though their offer is in Dallas.

Vanwa was founded by Nicholas Lim, who may be the only lowend provider who has his own Wikipedia page.  Lim got his start at the age of 19 specializing in free speech hosting.  If you think about some of the most noxious sites in the world – Kiwi Farms, Daily Stormer, etc. – it’s not surprising that many have problems finding hosting.  First, a lot of companies just don’t want to host them, which is their right.  Even those who will may drop them if faced with unending DDoS attacks.

Lim started a company to provide hosting for sites that are not illegal per se – though of course this sites often skirt or cross the line – just unwanted.  How profitable this is, I don’t know.  I’m sure KF and DS have some coin to spend but is it enough to fend off the entire Internet?  They were hosting KF in Sep 2022, but KF was on LET in November asking for help…?

From what I’ve read – which isn’t exhaustive by any means – Vanwa is operating from a free-speech-maximalist viewpoint rather than a we-support-hate-speech goal.

Still Want It?

I think there are better options, but that’s the beauty of LowEndTalk: someone sees a deal and posts it and the community weighs it.  Some of the performance comments were rather disappointing – then again, back when it was free, you really can’t complain.

raindog308

5 Comments

  1. TimC:

    I jumped on the offer when that initial post went live, placing an order which went through. It ended up in a status of “Pending” and has been in that state since then. The whole thing feels sketchy. And having them associated with KF only makes me want to just wash my hands of it. Caveat emptor.

    January 7, 2023 @ 2:31 pm | Reply
  2. Susan:

    Got in time for the FREE offer and handed over my email address and all else. The service was put into pending mode and guess it still is. No reply from owner about status.

    I feel they were on collecting emails so they could push offers to them.

    I think it would be best to avoid this person/company. Run Forest run!

    January 7, 2023 @ 2:48 pm | Reply
    • Tim:

      @Susan I used a custom email address, so it will pretty obvious if strange things start coming there. But yeah, getting all manner of sketchy vibes from this offer.

      January 7, 2023 @ 3:17 pm | Reply
      • Susan:

        Hi @Tim! Yes sir, I use a custom script to generate addresses for such offers that forwards to real addy.. Something I would recommend to all.

        January 7, 2023 @ 3:30 pm | Reply

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