VPS questions

[Dallas]

Yes, thats fine, you could (and many do) even run automation from several VPS and trade manually from multiple PC's at home/office at the same time.

Thanx Dallas. Good to know that. Any tips to a newbie for security? It's an antivirus required on the VPS?

Also I saw questions like "Can that server owner that rents a VPS to me or any others access my data and source code of my app?" .... It's that possible? Nobody wants to see bets placed from their account. Probably it's safe to use VPS if it's a good company, but as always security it's important.

I think an romanian VPS service it's requiered, my account works only with betfair.ro

Its certainly worth doing some research before buying one (cheap is not always the best), and the VPS owner should be able to advise of the best anti virus for their servers.

I've always used the ones supplied by Bet Angel which will of course been fully vetted and checked, I'm not sure if Romanian users could use a BA VPS as they have UK IP addresses, the only reason that you wouldn't be able to is if Betfair.ro only allowed connections from Romanian IP addresses, it would be worth asking them the question unless any other Romanian users on here already know the answer.
If they would allow connections from outside Romania then my recommendation would be to use a VPS from Bet Angel.

[Bog]

Its certainly worth doing some research before buying one (cheap is not always the best), and the VPS owner should be able to advise of the best anti virus for their servers.

I've always used the ones supplied by Bet Angel which will of course been fully vetted and checked, I'm not sure if Romanian users could use a BA VPS as they have UK IP addresses, the only reason that you wouldn't be able to is if Betfair.ro only allowed connections from Romanian IP addresses, it would be worth asking them the question unless any other Romanian users on here already know the answer.
If they would allow connections from outside Romania then my recommendation would be to use a VPS from Bet Angel.

Thx Dallas for suggestions. I remember when betfair made the transition from .com to .ro for romanian customers, I asked romanian support if I can login to betfair.ro from outside the country and they said it can't be done, only works from Romania.
It was 3 years ago.That's why I was thinking for an romanian VPS service. I will ask them again to see what they say. Cheers.

[ShaunWhite]

Yes, thats fine, you could (and many do) even run automation from several VPS and trade manually from multiple PC's at home/office at the same time.

Thanx Dallas. Good to know that. Any tips to a newbie for security? It's an antivirus required on the VPS?

Also I saw questions like "Can that server owner that rents a VPS to me or any others access my data and source code of my app?" .... It's that possible? Nobody wants to see bets placed from their account. Probably it's safe to use VPS if it's a good company, but as always security it's important.

I think an romanian VPS service it's requiered, my account works only with betfair.ro

The VPS provider can't access your system other than by the standard ways to access it...which you secure. Nobody should expect you to run any 'special' versions of anything which I would see a security risk. That said I think the BA VPS forces you to run the special VPS version of BA. The std version of BA works fine on all non BA VPSs but if you try and use the VPS version of BA on a non-BA VPS it crashes. I haven't been able to get a satisfactory reason why this is the case but it's not an issue for me as I don't use the BA VPS so use the std version of BA on my VPS.

As for security/setup I always do the following...

1. Install all latest Windows updates
2. Create a new login which has admin privileges (do this under Admin Tools > Computer Management > Local Users and Groups > Users
Add to Administrator group
3. Disable the Administrator account (otherwise people will know that's a valid username)
4. Make sure the Windows Firewall is On
  - If it is on, then the default settings are fine
  - If it is off, then be very careful when enabling it for the first time, since you must check that Remote Desktop access is allowed, otherwise you'll cut yourself off and not be able to get back in without tech support
5. Under Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Local Security Policy > Account Policies, set Account lockout threshold to 5 incorrect attempts, lock it out for 30 mins, and reset count after 30 mins. That will prevent brute force attacks.
6. Under Local Security Policy > Local Policies > Security Policy > Accounts:Administrator account status. Add Administrator to the "Deny log on through Remote Desktop Services", but that's probably unnecessary if you've disabled the account already
7.Start >run> gpedit.msc > Computer Configuration >Windows settings --Security Settings -- Local Policies -- Security Options > User Account Control: Run all administrators in Admin Approval Mode - Set to Disabled. (otherwise when you try and move files with batch scripts you'll get the confirmation prompt which will halt the execution.
8.Reboot

I haven't found it necessary to run any 3rd party security but obv that's your choice.

(I can't be responsible for errors in the above but I recently set up another VPS, following my own notes and all seems fine)

[Dallas]

That said I think the BA VPS forces you to run the special VPS version of BA. The std version of BA works fine on all non BA VPSs but if you try and use the VPS version of BA on a non-BA VPS it crashes. I haven't been able to get a satisfactory reason why this is the case but it's not an issue for me as I don't use the BA VPS so use the std version of BA on my VPS.

You can run any version of Bet Angel on a VPS supplied by Bet Angel but can only use BA Pro server edition on a Bet Angel VPS.

There are no differences feature-wise, its because the BA VPS setup, configuration and location etc is already known that the server edition has also been set up and configured so that it runs optimally from those servers.

[Bog]

The VPS provider can't access your system other than by the standard ways to access it...which you secure. Nobody should expect you to run any 'special' versions of anything which I would see a security risk. That said I think the BA VPS forces you to run the special VPS version of BA. The std version of BA works fine on all non BA VPSs but if you try and use the VPS version of BA on a non-BA VPS it crashes. I haven't been able to get a satisfactory reason why this is the case but it's not an issue for me as I don't use the BA VPS so use the std version of BA on my VPS.

As for security/setup I always do the following...

1. Install all latest Windows updates
2. Create a new login which has admin privileges (do this under Admin Tools > Computer Management > Local Users and Groups > Users
Add to Administrator group
3. Disable the Administrator account (otherwise people will know that's a valid username)
4. Make sure the Windows Firewall is On
  - If it is on, then the default settings are fine
  - If it is off, then be very careful when enabling it for the first time, since you must check that Remote Desktop access is allowed, otherwise you'll cut yourself off and not be able to get back in without tech support
5. Under Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Local Security Policy > Account Policies, set Account lockout threshold to 5 incorrect attempts, lock it out for 30 mins, and reset count after 30 mins. That will prevent brute force attacks.
6. Under Local Security Policy > Local Policies > Security Policy > Accounts:Administrator account status. Add Administrator to the "Deny log on through Remote Desktop Services", but that's probably unnecessary if you've disabled the account already
7.Start >run> gpedit.msc > Computer Configuration >Windows settings --Security Settings -- Local Policies -- Security Options > User Account Control: Run all administrators in Admin Approval Mode - Set to Disabled. (otherwise when you try and move files with batch scripts you'll get the confirmation prompt which will halt the execution.
8.Reboot

I haven't found it necessary to run any 3rd party security but obv that's your choice.

(I can't be responsible for errors in the above but I recently set up another VPS, following my own notes and all seems fine)

Wow, great info Shaun! Thanx a lot , that was a good reading. I'm sure all these info it will help me and others interested. Cheers

If I want to do a test, 1 vCPU, 2GB RAM, 3TB Bandwidth (similar to Bet Angel VPS Basic) it's enough for one month?

[ShaunWhite]

its because the BA VPS setup, configuration and location etc is already known that the server edition has also been set up and configured so that it runs optimally from those servers.

Are you just talking about default BA connection settings or something more fundamental? If so, what?

[ShaunWhite]

If I want to do a test, 1 vCPU, 2GB RAM, 3TB Bandwidth (similar to Bet Angel VPS Basic) it's enough for one month?

Glad you found it useful. That spec should be enough if you only want to run 1 or 2 instances. I don't actually run BA on my VPS so can't really comment with any great certainty.

[Dallas]

its because the BA VPS setup, configuration and location etc is already known that the server edition has also been set up and configured so that it runs optimally from those servers.

Are you just talking about default BA connection settings or something more fundamental? If so, what?

Connection settings, as you'll know every PC is different and Bet Angel has communication settings to allow users to get the best performance from their own individual set ups, but with the VPS's supplied by BA the performance/internet connection/ping times etc are all known so the server edition is already tuned to be as optimised as possible.

[ShaunWhite]

Connection settings, as you'll know every PC is different and Bet Angel has communication settings to allow users to get the best performance from their own individual set ups, but with the VPS's supplied by BA the performance/internet connection/ping times etc are all known so the server edition is already tuned to be as optimised as possible.

Sounds reasonable but I can't think why that would crash a different server, especially one that's a higher spec & with a 1ms ping to the BF data centre. And why a whole different version rather than just different settings? It's only academic really as I don't/can't use it but I've never come across anything that will run on one vps, but crash on another using the same OS. I'm fishing for the actual difference so that I can apply the same 'optimisation' to my own software tbh. That and the fact that mysterious errors are always a source of fascination. Can anyone from the dev team shed any light?

[Balmus]

What VPS are you using that is giving you a 1ms ping to betfair? Thanks.

[Kafkaesque]

As for security/setup I always do the following...

1. Install all latest Windows updates
2. Create a new login which has admin privileges (do this under Admin Tools > Computer Management > Local Users and Groups > Users
Add to Administrator group
3. Disable the Administrator account (otherwise people will know that's a valid username)
4. Make sure the Windows Firewall is On
  - If it is on, then the default settings are fine
  - If it is off, then be very careful when enabling it for the first time, since you must check that Remote Desktop access is allowed, otherwise you'll cut yourself off and not be able to get back in without tech support
5. Under Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Local Security Policy > Account Policies, set Account lockout threshold to 5 incorrect attempts, lock it out for 30 mins, and reset count after 30 mins. That will prevent brute force attacks.
6. Under Local Security Policy > Local Policies > Security Policy > Accounts:Administrator account status. Add Administrator to the "Deny log on through Remote Desktop Services", but that's probably unnecessary if you've disabled the account already
7.Start >run> gpedit.msc > Computer Configuration >Windows settings --Security Settings -- Local Policies -- Security Options > User Account Control: Run all administrators in Admin Approval Mode - Set to Disabled. (otherwise when you try and move files with batch scripts you'll get the confirmation prompt which will halt the execution.
8.Reboot

I haven't found it necessary to run any 3rd party security but obv that's your choice.

(I can't be responsible for errors in the above but I recently set up another VPS, following my own notes and all seems fine)

I know from a past thread on people's background, there's a fair few - like Shaun - with a background in computer science in one form or another. If someone can concur that this would be an overall good security protocol, then I really think this would be a good candidate for a tagged post (in a new thread) to keep it at the top of whichever sub-forum the admins here feels it belongs in.

[ShaunWhite]

What VPS are you using that is giving you a 1ms ping to betfair? Thanks.

I'd rather not say. After months of trails and tests it would be a bit wreckless to just give away any small advantage I might have gained given the significant amount of time and money I've invested in the research.

TBF it's only a small niche area where milliseconds have any real advantage and you'd probably need to write your own software to get into that arena. There are many many people doing perfectly well on most VPSs including the BA VPS. Speed is often thought of as being a magic fix for not doing well, but usually said without any firm tangible evidence. It never comes with any sort of proof and you can be first to a bad price as well as a good one. Having the most horsepower can see you spin off into a ditch just as easily as setting lap records, unless the whole package of software and strategy is in place too.

What I won't do (and not just because it's a BA forum), is suggest that BA VPS is in any way inferior because it's not. My choice is informed by the fact that I like to have a little more flexibility around on-demand sizing and tools for creating temporary server instances which I might only use for a few hours. If I didn't do things like that then the BA server would be on my list.

[ShaunWhite]

If someone can concur that this would be an overall good security protocol,

I'd be happy for comments & amendments too. Assuming you're right is the surest way to fail and the last time I configured a serious system the manual was in Latin, Windows Server MDLXVIII I think.

Btw you can't just post my comments as a sticky, I hear the going rate for reproducing comments and advice as an ebook is 20 quid.

[ShaunWhite]

What VPS are you using that is giving you a 1ms ping to betfair? Thanks.

I've just run my tests again and it's 1ms to the internet backbone and in the region of 10ms to the exchange. Sorry to have misled you, it's while since I did it and misremembered. My correction means you won't spend the next 6 months looking for the impossible.

[Bog]

If I want to do a test, 1 vCPU, 2GB RAM, 3TB Bandwidth (similar to Bet Angel VPS Basic) it's enough for one month?

Glad you found it useful. That spec should be enough if you only want to run 1 or 2 instances. I don't actually run BA on my VPS so can't really comment with any great certainty.

Cheers Shaun. For the 3TB bandwidth, it's there any recommended way to keep track of how much its left in a particular month ?