July 05, 2008 by sharky
If you’ve already sampled some of the various Seedboxes with TorrentFlux services, you may have been a little disappointed (just read the user comments). Most of them will not grant you access to the Admin Panel, so you’re stuck using the settings that they provide (Seedboxhosting.com is one exception that does give users full access to TorrentFlux). But by and large, essentially it’s just a reseller-type scenario, so you’ll never know how many users you’ll be sharing the bandwidth with on the server. Customer service, transfer speeds, monthly bandwidth, frequency of server reboots, max number of allowable torrents — all of these factors vary greatly from one provider to the next.
While this may be great for first-timers getting their feet wet in the world of seedboxes, real seedbox enthusiasts know better. If you’re gonna shell out mad dollars for a box, you might as well just do it yourself and get your own VPS or dedibox server — this avoids the "oversold TF accounts" conundrum. You’ll have the freedom to put TorrentFlux on it, or to further maximize memory/CPU efficiency, use Debian or Fedora (Linux) and run your torrents through rTorrent and libTorrent (or wine and µtorrent). After all, it is your server. If you’re a complete seedbox newbie, it may be best to order a seedbox with a Windows OS (Windows 2003 Server), although this usually costs a little more as an upgrade option, but you’ll be able to install µTorrent WebUI as a GUI.
Not all Webhosting companies are cool with their services being used for illegal torrent transfers, but there are many who turn a blind eye to these activities such as the ones listed below. We’ve compiled this data from some very trustworthy sources, including WebHostingTalk and the forums of some very prestigious private trackers - not to mention our own personal tests.
Dedibox, VPS and Seedbox Hosting Services
Thinking about setting up your own seedbox? Serious torrenters will look no further than the services provided here. The most common configuration consists of a Linux dedibox with Debian Etch or Ubuntu Desktop 8.04. Hehe2.net has published a great article related to 7 BitTorrent clients for Linux, and here’s a great post on how to configure & use rtorrent - arguably the best native Linux BT client. GUI frontends for rtorrent include wtorrent, ntorrent, n2hell, rTWi and rtGUI. If rtorrent isn’t your thing, there’s always the option to run uTorrent through wine, KTorrent, deluge, transmission - among other solutions.
Provider: SoftLayer
OS: All types and configs.
Type: Dedicated
Speed: Awesome speeds - full duplex 100MBit/s up to 1 GBit.
Price: Starting at $159/mo USD for the Pentium D Series plan.
About: Offers support via online chat and emails are usually answered within an hour (or less) during business hours. As one WHT members said, "Love Softlayer, they are hands down the best provider I’ve ever been with." Nothing but positive things to say about the services.
Provider: Vectoral
OS: Linux, Debian, Windows
Type: Dedicated
Speed: Awesome speeds & great servers - full duplex 100MBit/s.
Price: Starting at $30/mo USD for the Dosky plan.
About: Vectoral’s Dosky plan is very affordable, although it only comes equipped with a 10GB hard drive - certainly not enough space for any serious torrenting. We’d recommend at least bumping up to the "Rundgren" or "Smyrna" plan for $50/mo. for double the RAM, harddrive space and monthly bandwidth. Vectoral offers support via online chat and by email, and offers a 99.5% uptime guarantee, and no-fee setups.
Provider: LeaseWeb
OS: Linux, Debian, Windows
Type: Dedicated & VPS
Speed: 10-12 MB/s UL & DL tested (for "Express1" package) on a full duplex 100MBit/s.
Price: Starting at £29/mo (GBP) for the "Express" packages.
About: The Express1 is a great budget seedbox! A 160 GB hard drive and a 2,000 GB monthly bandwidth allowance should satisfy most torrenters. However, most serious seedboxers will avoid the Express plans, as they tend to be a little slower than the premium plans. LeaseWeb also offers 1GB full duplex servers, which kick some serious ass! (but are pricey). The ’support’ is somewhat expensive, so we don’t recommend LeaseWeb as your first seedbox.
Promotions: LeaseWeb is offering a 30-day money back guarantee for all seedboxes purchased between June 1st and August 31, 2008 - what do have to lose? If you plan on subscribing and then cancelling, be sure to NOT EXCEED the 2 TB transfer limitation, or you’ll pay for the overage.
Provider: JMH Services
OS: Linux (Windows Web 2003 servers are $20 extra a month)
Type: Dedicated
Speed: All servers are connected to a 100mb connection to a 25 gigabit uplink.
Price: Starting at $45/mo (USD) for Dedi-Base package (10 GB hard drive).
About: Great service and excellent speeds! JMH is a good idea for users who want to do some reselling to friends. Using one of their better servers, you’ll be able to easily set it up to run multiple accounts/logins. It’s a great idea for splitting the costs among friends, or even reselling a portion of the seedbox. JMH offers "DirectAdmin" (for an extra $13) - an easy-to-use web control panel for managing multiple accounts - check out this demo. JMH also guarantees a 99.999% uptime on all servers, and they are directly connected via a 100Mbps Full Duplex switched Ethernet Port. All of this means that you will have an extremely reliable, fast (100Mbps) direct connection to multiple Tier 1 Internet backbones.
Provider: LayeredTech
OS: Linux, Debian, Windows
Type: Dedicated
Speed: 10 Mbps - 100 Mbps.
Price: Starting at $159/mo USD for a Single-core dedicated server plan.
About: While not cheap, you’ll get a great machine. Awesome speeds including 1Gbit connection on their DataBank datacenter. No online chat for support, but answers emails fairly quickly.
Provider: OVH
OS: All types and configs (Windows 2003 Server is extra).
Type: Dedicated
Speed: Awesome speeds - full duplex 100MBit/s for "Kimsufi".
Price: Starting at £23.50/mo (GBP) for the "Kimsufi 08" server.
About: For a dedibox, OVH has to be the cheapest option of the bunch, although it’s been noted that you need to be in Europe to order the server. We can’t confirm this, as when signing up there’s an option to change the country to just about every available world location. Speeds from within the OVH network are zippy, indeed (i.e. OHV seedbox -> OHV seedbox) although many users are complaining of slower speeds (6 - 7 MB/s) when connecting to peers outside of the network. Also note that despite the 99.9% uptime, Kimsufi users are seeing their servers being restarted 3-4 times a day - not good. Still, it’s a very good deal for a 250 HD, unlimited traffic and £23.50 per month.
Provider: Ecatel
OS: All types and configs (Windows 2003 is free).
Type: Dedicated
Speed: Full duplex 100MBit/s for most plans (some are shared) - higher available.
Price: Starting at €90/mo (Euro) for the 5 TB/mo. server.
About: OK, we admit it’s not cheap - but servers are ready within 60 minutes of ordering. Support is 24/7 through their online Customer Care Center. They will never cap you, guaranteed at least 10TB a month, I have heard of as high as 22TB in a month - one user claims the UL/DL speeds average around 6 MB/s.
Provider: Hosting-IE
OS: All types - Windows server is free.
Type: Dedicated & VPS
Speed: Full duplex 100 MBit/s for most plans. Just "OK" speeds in testing.
Price: Starting at €39/mo (Euro) for an Intel dedicated server. VPS’ are cheaper.
About: Hosting-IE is a decent budget solution for a seedbox, although we’ve heard you’ll be able to run torrents on a non-dedicated server (VPS). It’s strongly advised to avoid their VPS servers. All plans are unlimited bandwidth, and VPS speeds peak at about 6MB/s down and 3MB/s up.
Cons: Lots of negative feedback about Hosting-IE - above all else, you get what you pay for. One dude wrote that it took them 5 weeks to set up his server (after he already paid), another suggested that their ‘30 day money-back guarantee’ doesn’t apply to the VPS servers. Read the forum thread of shame here, and draw your own conclusions. There’s no online chat support, and email inquiries can take anywhere from one hour to one week to get a response.
Provider: RapidSwitch
OS: All types and configs (including Windows Server 2008).
Type: Dedicated
Speed: Full duplex 100 MBit/s for most plans.
Price: Starting at £49/mo (GBP) for a "Value" dedicated server.
About: Check out their deals - there’s currently a £49 server being offered with a 160 GB hard drive. All plans come equipped with 4 TB a month traffic. One user says, "Was on a 100mbit port for a while, found new torrents would easily upload at 9-10MB/s, Upgraded to gigabit, does about 30-40mB/s peak, 20-25mB/s avg."
Provider: netdirekt
OS: Debian Sarge pre-installed: Apache, PHP, MySQL etc. (Win 2003 is €12.50 /mo. extra).
Type: Dedicated - servers located in Germany.
Speed: Full duplex 100 MBit/s. 10MB/s ‘real time’ torrent upload speed.
Price: Starting at €19/mo (Euro) for a "Special Offer" server (on a 12 month contract), €24/mo on a monthly contract.
About: Netdirekt’s budget system at €19 includes a paltry 500 GB monthly bandwidth, although the next higher plan at €29 comes with 1 TB a month. You’ll have no problems running torrents on it with decent speeds of 10 MB/s.
Provider: Sago Networks
OS: Debian, CentOS, Linux, FreeBSD, Fedora, Ubuntu (Win 2003 $20 extra a month).
Type: Dedicated - servers located in the U.S.
Speed: 10 / 100 MBit/s.
Price: Starting at $69/mo (USD) for a "Bargain Server" with a 320 GB drive.
About: Not a bad deal for "light" BitTorrent users, as the bargain plan comes with a 1 TB/mo. transfer limit. If you’re a seedwhore, you’ll need to purchase additional bandwidth (very expensive) or select a different plan. All systems are highly configurable. Be sure to upgrade your connection to the 100 MB port (for an additional $15/mo.). Excellent support that includes Live Chat - tickets are responded to within minutes.
Provider: VolumeDrive
OS: All types (Win 2003 $10 extra a month).
Type: Dedicated - servers located in the U.S.
Speed: Unmetered 10 / 10 MBit/s.
Price: Starting at $45/mo (USD) for a Low-end server with a 120 GB drive.
About: Very affordable, we must admit - although we’ve not heard too many great things about the speed. One users states, "You will get the full 10mbps down, but maybe 1/2 to 3/4 of that up. It’s unmetered at 10/10, but never came close to maxing it out". Perhaps they’re worth a try, since the price is great.
Provider: DediMove / Dedibox International
OS: All types.
Type: Dedicated.
Speed: Shared unmetered 100/100 MBit.
Price: Starting at €50/mo (Euro) for a 160 GB harddrive server.
About: Comes with unlimited bandwidth, and we’ve heard only good things. Amazing for the price, 11MB/s very often especially on new torrents - although the average is around 5 MB/s in both directions. Note: Bandwidth is shared, but it still seems very good for the low price of 50 euros.
Provider: Interactive 3D / i3D.net
OS: All types.
Type: Dedicated.
Speed: Amazing - max 2×1000 mbit
Price: Starting at €60/mo (Euro) plus €50 setup fee.
About: Regrettably, their base-model server only comes with a lowly 500 GB monthly transfer limit, so all that crazy speed is wasted, unless you step up to the €85 server (you’ll get a respectable 2,500 GB). One user claims to easily get 24 MB/s on torrents, and over 60 MB/s on FTP transfers. Believe it, since this site is primarily used for gameservers.
Provider: Micfo
OS: All types.
Type: Dedicated & VPS.
Speed: 100 / 100 MBit.
Price: Starting at $200/mo (USD) for a dedicated server (in the U.S.)
About: $200 seems expensive for a 1,500 GB monthly throughput cap (on their US-based servers) although you’ll get a little more bang for your buck if you run through a UK server. Their VPS hosting is much more affordable, although we can’t confirm if you’ll be able to do heavy torrent work on one (without getting banned). Heard great things about the speeds - 14-15 MB/s on torrents with a dedibox is not uncommon. Server account was set up in under 8 hours.
Provider: KeyWeb
OS: All types.
Type: Dedicated & VPS.
Speed: 100 Mbit switch port, bandwidth guaranteed (but shared).
Price: Starting at €39/mo (Euro) plus an extra €69 setup fee minimum.
About: Very affordable - all accounts now come with dFlat (unlimited bandwidth transfers). We recommend an upgrade to the €49 system - you’ll get 2 x 160 hard drives instead of the wimpy 80 GB drive with the €39 server. Users can expect to fetch upload (seeding) rates as high as 11 MB/s.
Provider: FDC Servers
OS: All types. Windows 2003 included on dedicated servers.
Type: Dedicated & VPS.
Speed: 100Mbit port - full duplex (shared).
Price: Starting at $139/mo (USD).
About: Expensive! $139 only gets you an 80 GB hard drive (you can forget about getting some of those nifty ScT movie packs, then!), and you’ll pay through the nose to upgrade to a better drive. Got a fortune to spend? Why not opt for one of their amazing 1 Gbit Burstable Unmetered servers - starting at a mere $639/mo. (that’s more than my rent!).
Provider: JustEdge Networks
OS: CentOS, Debian, FreeBSD, etc. Windows 2003 Web edition is $20/mo. extra.
Type: Dedicated & VPS.
Speed: 100Mbps (shared).
Price: Starting at $80/mo (USD) - 10% off promotion now on.
About: Seems expensive to upgrade to a higher line port - but if you have the cash… the hard drive on a base $80 model is 160 GB, with a monthly transfer limit of just one TB (not enough for serious torrenters). UPDATE: It would appear that torrenting is not allowed on their servers (read the comment below).
Provider: LeeWare
OS: CentOS.
Type: Dedicated & VPS.
Speed: 100Mbps port - Full Duplex.
Price: Starting at $55/mo (USD).
About: Very affordable - we can’t confirm the speeds, though. Typical setup times are less than 24 hours, and setup is free. The cheap plan comes with a 200 GB hard drive and a lowly 500 GB monthly bandwidth (extra throughput is cheap at just $10 per 1 TB block).
Provider: Core Networks
OS: All Linux and BSD OSes - Windows Web 2003 is $20 extra.
Type: Dedicated & VPS.
Speed: Shared, but specifics are not known.
Price: Starting at $25/mo (USD) for dedicated - although they’re presently sold out of ’starter’ servers.
About: Really affordable for a base server - the next higher plan at $50/mo. comes with a 120 GB hard drive, and with a somewhat small 1,000 GB monthly bandwidth limit - good for "light" BT users. Want to upgrade the unmetered bandwidth and/or the monthly throughput limit? No problem, but you’ll need to rob a bank first - this costs hundreds of US greenbacks a month. There’s no online chat support, but emails are answered quickly during (US) business hours.
Provider: Giga-International
OS: Fedora, CentOS, Linux Suse, Debian Etch - Windows Server 2003 is $25 extra.
Type: Dedicated & VPS.
Speed: Shared 100 mbits port.
Price: Starting at €55/mo (Euro) for dedicated - although they’re presently sold out.
About: You’ll get a 160 GB hard drive with unlimited monthly traffic on a decent server for €55. True torrent speeds are listed as "OK to good".
Provider: LayerShift
OS: All.
Type: Dedicated & VPS.
Speed: Shared 100 mbits port?
Price: Starting at $160/mo (USD) for dedicated. VPS servers are much cheaper.
About: You’ll get a 2 x 160 GB hard drives with a limit of 900 GB monthly transfer - seems low for the high price.
Check with WebHostingTalk.com for even more services, reviews, and user comments.
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