Stay away from HFB Server Hosting - Rust

If you guys are looking into using HFB server hosting I would check [URL="http://www.reddit.com/r/playrust/comments/1wz6wy/possible_server_provider_scam_beware/"]THIS[/URL] out first. If you are too lazy to look then I will give you the TL;DR version. HFB servers will crash all the time and the support will tell you that it's being DDOS'd. Funny how the server only goes down for 10-15 minute periods and then it magically works again for a while. I can elaborate on reasons why it isn't a DDOS attack but this is a TL;DR... They will offer to move you over to another server with "better mitigation" sometimes at an additional cost. Oh yea, and they won't offer refunds due to a vague ToS...

This is a little sensationalist. We have our server with HFB and have never experienced any downtime. The DDOS protection plan is offered but isn't mandatory. You can't blame them for trying to push extra products on you, it's standard sales. You can't generalise an entire company over one or two incidents. HFB are fine.

I rented a server from another company yesterday, and have not heard back and their website is now down :(

[QUOTE=een;43782723]This is a little sensationalist. We have our server with HFB and have never experienced any downtime. The DDOS protection plan is offered but isn't mandatory. You can't blame them for trying to push extra products on you, it's standard sales. You can't generalise an entire company over one or two incidents. HFB are fine.[/QUOTE] Glad to hear that you haven't had issues with them. My experience with them it completely terrible. If it is just the two of us then maybe it is an isolated incident, but I thought I would put this out there to see if maybe we weren't the only two. Thanks for posting that you haven't had issues with them.

Yeah, I get why you posted but warning the entire community off a company that is one of the few that can host the game right now is the wrong way to do it. Besides it's not cool for these companies to get bad reps from isolated incidents. It ruins careers. Hope your server issues are resolved from now on :) Good luck.

[QUOTE=een;43782769]Yeah, I get why you posted but warning the entire community off a company that is one of the few that can host the game right now is the wrong way to do it. Besides it's not cool for these companies to get bad reps from isolated incidents. It ruins careers. Hope your server issues are resolved from now on :) Good luck.[/QUOTE] I normally don't bother with stuff like this but since there are so few hosts I just wanted to let people know to watch out on hosting. This hosts issues aren't just with Rust either. If you dig around enough you will see. I disagree that it's the wrong way to handle this. That is the purpose of a community. If one has issues like this then the rest need to be warned, cautioning them in their decision. If it's an isolated incident then they should not be worried and it will not effect their decision. After all, what exactly is the right way to do it? As for it giving them a bad rep, well they brought that on themselves. The way they treated me, a customer deserves to be looked at. If I was someone who never used their service it would be different, but I was a customer. When you own a business you are subject to customer approval, it's just part of it. I know, as a previous business owner. My server issues were never resolved by them, this is why I went elsewhere with my hosting. Everything is perfect with the other host though.

I'm using HFB for my server hosting. I've had no issues. Completely pleased.

According to HFB we have been DDoS'd once in two months. It took 12 hours for them to migitate the attack (or it stopped by itself I don't know) and after that we continued to stay online without any problems. Only thing that got me worked up was the lack of communication. We had 150 people playing on our server, went down and they didn't respond to my ticket until it was over.. 12 hours later :') Bottomline is HFB is fine when it's working, and (like many others) may slack of when it's not.

[QUOTE=Mavajo;43782820]I'm using HFB for my server hosting. I've had no issues. Completely pleased.[/QUOTE] Me too.

[QUOTE=MindlessMe;43782813]I normally don't bother with stuff like this but since there are so few hosts I just wanted to let people know to watch out on hosting. This hosts issues aren't just with Rust either. If you dig around enough you will see. I disagree that it's the wrong way to handle this. That is the purpose of a community. If one has issues like this then the rest need to be warned, cautioning them in their decision. If it's an isolated incident then they should not be worried and it will not effect their decision. After all, what exactly is the right way to do it? As for it giving them a bad rep, well they brought that on themselves. The way they treated me, a customer deserves to be looked at. If I was someone who never used their service it would be different, but I was a customer. When you own a business you are subject to customer approval, it's just part of it. I know, as a previous business owner. My server issues were never resolved by them, this is why I went elsewhere with my hosting. Everything is perfect with the other host though.[/QUOTE] Telling people to avoid a company altogether because you had issues is really not cool. Saying you had these issues and telling people who the hosting provider was is fine. Everything is in the wording to make your post go from informative to hostile. The others in the thread seem happy with HFB.

[QUOTE=een;43782864]Telling people to avoid a company altogether because you had issues is really not cool. Saying you had these issues and telling people who the hosting provider was is fine. Everything is in the wording to make your post go from informative to hostile. The others in the thread seem happy with HFB.[/QUOTE] I'm honestly glad that you guys aren't having issues. I hope you never have the issues that I had with them.

[QUOTE=MindlessMe;43782691]If you guys are looking into using HFB server hosting I would check [URL="http://www.reddit.com/r/playrust/comments/1wz6wy/possible_server_provider_scam_beware/"]THIS[/URL] out first. If you are too lazy to look then I will give you the TL;DR version. HFB servers will crash all the time and the support will tell you that it's being DDOS'd. Funny how the server only goes down for 10-15 minute periods and then it magically works again for a while. I can elaborate on reasons why it isn't a DDOS attack but this is a TL;DR... They will offer to move you over to another server with "better mitigation" sometimes at an additional cost. Oh yea, and they won't offer refunds due to a vague ToS...[/QUOTE] I want to clarify the post on reddit (I will also be posting there). We do Not offer advertise DDoS protection anywhere, nor have we, as such every game service we sell is sold without any DDoS protection, most of our providers will however mitigate small ~1gbps attacks. With that being said we do have a few (not on site advertised) DDoS protected locations We offer Dallas 20gbps DDoS protected servers for $50/mo as stated in the reddit post. This is 100% optional and no one is EVER forced to pay for it. We offer Quebec DDoS protected servers Free of Charge and any clients are welcome to move there a simple ticket can be submitted and we will be happy to move a client there. We offer France DDoS protected servers Free of Charge, and once again, clients are welcome to move there if they like. We have also NEVER DDoS'd a client as the reddit post suggested to make an extra $50, not only is this a ridiculous behaviour but it would only cause us more support load, and more issues/complaints from clients, and issues with said server provider where the original server is located as well most DC's do not like DDoS attacks. It simply does not make sense to DDoS our own server to make $50 We are working to offer lower cost DDoS protection solutions in more locations like NY, LA, and Chicago in the future, however once again, with that being said, they would be completely optional, no client is forced to pay for an upgrade.

[QUOTE=HFBServers;43782949]I want to clarify the post on reddit (I will also be posting there). We do Not offer advertise DDoS protection anywhere, nor have we, as such every game service we sell is sold without any DDoS protection, most of our providers will however mitigate small ~1gbps attacks. With that being said we do have a few (not on site advertised) DDoS protected locations We offer Dallas 20gbps DDoS protected servers for $50/mo as stated in the reddit post. This is 100% optional and no one is EVER forced to pay for it. We offer Quebec DDoS protected servers Free of Charge and any clients are welcome to move there a simple ticket can be submitted and we will be happy to move a client there. We offer France DDoS protected servers Free of Charge, and once again, clients are welcome to move there if they like. We have also NEVER DDoS'd a client as the reddit post suggested to make an extra $50, not only is this a ridiculous behaviour but it would only cause us more support load, and more issues/complaints from clients, and issues with said server provider where the original server is located as well most DC's do not like DDoS attacks. It simply does not make sense to DDoS our own server to make $50 We are working to offer lower cost DDoS protection solutions in more locations like NY, LA, and Chicago in the future, however once again, with that being said, they would be completely optional, no client is forced to pay for an upgrade.[/QUOTE] You can refer to my tickets about the problems that I had. I am not sure what all the Reddit OP discussed with you guys, but at no point have I openly accused you guys of DDOSing my server.

[QUOTE=HFBServers;43782949]I want to clarify the post on reddit (I will also be posting there). We do Not offer advertise DDoS protection anywhere, nor have we, as such every game service we sell is sold without any DDoS protection, most of our providers will however mitigate small ~1gbps attacks. With that being said we do have a few (not on site advertised) DDoS protected locations We offer Dallas 20gbps DDoS protected servers for $50/mo as stated in the reddit post. This is 100% optional and no one is EVER forced to pay for it. We offer Quebec DDoS protected servers Free of Charge and any clients are welcome to move there a simple ticket can be submitted and we will be happy to move a client there. We offer France DDoS protected servers Free of Charge, and once again, clients are welcome to move there if they like. We have also NEVER DDoS'd a client as the reddit post suggested to make an extra $50, not only is this a ridiculous behaviour but it would only cause us more support load, and more issues/complaints from clients, and issues with said server provider where the original server is located as well most DC's do not like DDoS attacks. It simply does not make sense to DDoS our own server to make $50 We are working to offer lower cost DDoS protection solutions in more locations like NY, LA, and Chicago in the future, however once again, with that being said, they would be completely optional, no client is forced to pay for an upgrade.[/QUOTE] Oh please. Mostly can stop 1gbps ddos attacks? Have you guys bothered to read about DDoS attacks that are actually small scale taking down enterprise level DDoS protected websites and servers? I don't think you have. My service has been out for over 15+ hours and your only response was "Oh yeah, the node was being attacked so we can't determine if it's just your server or their directed / intended route for attack so we null routed your ip until it's either been mitigated or filtered or stopped." I put in multiple responses and your response times range between 2 and 4 hours. Your customer service has gone from decent to horrendous in a matter of days. You want to continue keeping our money? Focus on your customer service area more and less on posting on these forums and telling us you've never offered it. Let me be very clear: If you offer DDoS Protection at one location, you should offer them at all. Even entry level DDoS protection would far better protect you against this problem. Not to mention, a server being down for 15+ hours? I hope to God you intend to credit all the people on your Seattle node that are without service right now with reasonable compensation, or move them to Dallas and waive the DDoS protection fee in order to satisfy. As it stands, not only am I out of service, but so are a few others... and to be truthful... we're pretty fucking pissed about it. I see you responded to this 28 minutes ago but haven't responded to my ticket that's almost an hour old now. Where the fuck are your priorities at HFB? [editline]4th February 2014[/editline] [QUOTE=MindlessMe;43782984]You can refer to my tickets about the problems that I had. I am not sure what all the Reddit OP discussed with you guys, but at no point have I openly accused you guys of DDOSing my server.[/QUOTE] Seems you and I are in the same boat. Dealing with our servers being out at the moment. I'm curious, are you on a Seattle node as well?

Our HFB server has been down 5 days continously now, and has been up and down for 10 days due to either issues, or DDOS. We left HFB. That server should still be up, but it's not.

Oh god, the HFB fanboys are out. We had a server with HFB. Performance was okay, maybe slightly worse than our Multiplay servers. Unfortunately the HFB server spent a significant amount of time down. Then I discovered some really shady terms in their TOS, and we bailed. As for this nonsense: [QUOTE=een;43782769]Yeah, I get why you posted but warning the entire community off a company that is one of the few that can host the game right now is the wrong way to do it. Besides it's not cool for these companies to get bad reps from isolated incidents. It ruins careers.[/QUOTE] That's how reviews work. People post reviews based on their experience. This is a community where people are encouraged to participate and that means people will do exactly that. Based on the threads here, this is by no means an isolated incident. I'm sorry someone insulted your favorite GSP, but you shouldn't take it personally.

[QUOTE=aNtiPatt3rN;43783162] Seems you and I are in the same boat. Dealing with our servers being out at the moment. I'm curious, are you on a Seattle node as well?[/QUOTE] When I had the server is was operating in the Kansas City region. Like you most of my tickets took 8+ hours to get a response. When your server is dying for a indeterminate amount of time, and multiple times within that day it becomes ridiculous. It wasn't until I have conversed with them multiple times that they "decided" my server was being DDOS'd... I have the server with them stopped right now due to the issues I had so I have no clue if it's suffering at this point. My other host is having zero issues at the moment though.

I'm not getting dragged into a flame war with you. Firstly, I'm certainly not a fan boy for any hosting company. Regardless of who the OP had mentioned my response would have been the same. It's not fair on any company for people to say things like that. Reviews are fine, openly telling people to stay away from a provider in the title aren't. Reviews are meant to be constructive accounts of people's experiences of something. Not an all our "Do not use this" slinging match.

[QUOTE=MindlessMe;43783240]When I had the server is was operating in the Kansas City region. Like you most of my tickets took 8+ hours to get a response. When your server is dying for a indeterminate amount of time, and multiple times within that day it becomes ridiculous. It wasn't until I have conversed with them multiple times that they "decided" my server was being DDOS'd... I have the server with them stopped right now due to the issues I had so I have no clue if it's suffering at this point. My other host is having zero issues at the moment though.[/QUOTE] I'm looking into killing my server with them if they can't get their shit in order and their priorities straight in terms of customer service and quicker issue resolving. MPGS.co seems to be the easier solution to go with in comparison to this. Wonder how they're going to feel if I take my business elsewhere since I did consider renting multiple servers with them. This will be a major dealbreaker if they cannot seem to get anything fixed in under 15+ hours. DDoSing can last multiple days, understood, but none the less... you can blacklist ip addresses using simple Linux bash scripts. I found one that would block an entry level attack (which is most likely what it is and they're saying it's large scale lol) by blacklisting the IP and denying every communication method possible. Blacklisting the ip address tables will mitigate a major portion of the attack. It's sad how I can look this shit up in a matter of minutes and apply it for the sake of testing and they can't seem to do this. It's like I said before, even entry level ddos would prevent servers from going down due to their supposed "large scale attack(s)" that continually happen.

My Server Status is Unknown right now. I dont know why. And i'm they take ages to reply.

[QUOTE=een;43783256]I'm not getting dragged into a flame war with you. Firstly, I'm certainly not a fan boy for any hosting company. Regardless of who the OP had mentioned my response would have been the same. It's not fair on any company for people to say things like that. Reviews are fine, openly telling people to stay away from a provider in the title aren't. Reviews are meant to be constructive accounts of people's experiences of something. Not an all our "Do not use this" slinging match.[/QUOTE] You clearly do not understand how reviews work. Just give it up. It's plenty fair that we post it in the titles, or even express our frustration with them if it's an ongoing issue. To be completely open about this: It's completely fair on every company. Why? If their service has been horrible to you and not others, you're entitled to your opinion about the company and telling others to stay away and posting as to why to stay away. Just because you feel it's unfair doesn't mean you understand the concept of reviews and customer satisfaction.

[QUOTE=aNtiPatt3rN;43783278]I'm looking into killing my server with them if they can't get their shit in order and their priorities straight in terms of customer service and quicker issue resolving. MPGS.co seems to be the easier solution to go with in comparison to this. Wonder how they're going to feel if I take my business elsewhere since I did consider renting multiple servers with them. This will be a major dealbreaker if they cannot seem to get anything fixed in under 15+ hours. DDoSing can last multiple days, understood, but none the less... you can blacklist ip addresses using simple Linux bash scripts. I found one that would block an entry level attack (which is most likely what it is and they're saying it's large scale lol) by blacklisting the IP and denying every communication method possible. Blacklisting the ip address tables will mitigate a major portion of the attack. It's sad how I can look this shit up in a matter of minutes and apply it for the sake of testing and they can't seem to do this. It's like I said before, even entry level ddos would prevent servers from going down due to their supposed "large scale attack(s)" that continually happen.[/QUOTE] I killed mine after about a week of dealing with it. When you are running a server it's rather hard to keep members if you are down all the time. We lost 10+ regular members due to our server going down all the time. Doesn't sound like a lot, but that was in a 3 day period... I would just be careful on hosting because some of these "shell" sites will use the same server companies to host with. Be sure to do your research before you commit again. The thing about companies like this is they are used to dealing with average joes that want to host a server. The problem happens when they get customers that are in the same field as them. That's when the petty explanations don't work. It's hard to dupe a customer that is used to dealing with the same stuff on a daily basis.

[QUOTE=MindlessMe;43783344]I killed mine after about a week of dealing with it. When you are running a server it's rather hard to keep members if you are down all the time. We lost 10+ regular members due to our server going down all the time. Doesn't sound like a lot, but that was in a 3 day period... I would just be careful on hosting because some of these "shell" sites will use the same server companies to host with. Be sure to do your research before you commit again. The thing about companies like this is they are used to dealing with average joes that want to host a server. The problem happens when they get customers that are in the same field as them. That's when the petty explanations don't work. It's hard to dupe a customer that is used to dealing with the same stuff on a daily basis.[/QUOTE] True. Starting to wish Gameservers.com offered Rust servers. I know they aren't a reseller and they at least have an idea of how to run servers and a network as well as offer entry level DDoS protection without advertising it. I ran a few CS servers through them back when CS was the most popular game and DDoS attacks were prevalent when your server did well compared to others. I had a few kids render DDoS attacks on mine and Gameservers informed me about it right away and mitigated the attacks within the hour. I was only null routed once because of a massive attack in which they had completely filtered and mitigated in under 2 hours and service restored. Never had issues past that point. [editline]4th February 2014[/editline] Here is another reason I'm not happy with HFB after this: [quote]Hello ---snip---, We are working with the datacenter to have the null route removed, and expect service to be restored within 12 hours. I have moved up your next billing date to compensate for the downtime[/quote] So essentially my server will be down past 24 hours for a small DDoS attack which they call 'large' and dont bother to actually think twice on. We'll see how it goes afterwards. If service is interrupted again I'll be cancelling and going to MPGS. I'd rather pay the extra 9 bucks for 50 less slots, no branding, but a better and more reliable host. Everyone I've seen with MPGS is happy.

I'e had a server from them for a few weeks now. Initially I had some problems. The hardware was bad on the first machine the server was hosted on. Then I had a few hours downtime. Since then I havent had too many issues. Uptime has been excellent. The major thing that HFB is lacking in is communication. They do not use their twitter well, they dont email of scheduled downtime or any other issues. I would be a lot more supportive of them if they just sent a damn email when there's an issue instead of me coming on here trying to find out what's going on.

[QUOTE=HFBServers;43782949]I want to clarify the post on reddit (I will also be posting there). We do Not offer advertise DDoS protection anywhere, nor have we, as such every game service we sell is sold without any DDoS protection, most of our providers will however mitigate small ~1gbps attacks. With that being said we do have a few (not on site advertised) DDoS protected locations We offer Dallas 20gbps DDoS protected servers for $50/mo as stated in the reddit post. This is 100% optional and no one is EVER forced to pay for it. We offer Quebec DDoS protected servers Free of Charge and any clients are welcome to move there a simple ticket can be submitted and we will be happy to move a client there. We offer France DDoS protected servers Free of Charge, and once again, clients are welcome to move there if they like. We have also NEVER DDoS'd a client as the reddit post suggested to make an extra $50, not only is this a ridiculous behaviour but it would only cause us more support load, and more issues/complaints from clients, and issues with said server provider where the original server is located as well most DC's do not like DDoS attacks. It simply does not make sense to DDoS our own server to make $50 We are working to offer lower cost DDoS protection solutions in more locations like NY, LA, and Chicago in the future, however once again, with that being said, they would be completely optional, no client is forced to pay for an upgrade.[/QUOTE] oh please fix your horrible hosting we went away after 3 weeks of horrible service, 9 out of 10 cloudflare fails or just due to your unresponsive game panel. it either loads forever or failed in 8 out of 10 times. it took me almost 4 hours to finally get 10 prompts that worked properly HFB is a huge joke on the market edit// check their ToS: [quote] You also agree that you will Not attempt to slander or post negative reviews for HFBServers LLC on any online medium including but not limited to review websites, game forums, clan forums, youtube videos and more as a result of a move or load balance. [/quote] ever heard of free speech? i guess not but feel free to take me in charge because your ToS is not even affecting me in my country!

[QUOTE=idonthinkso;43785613]oh please fix your horrible hosting we went away after 3 weeks of horrible service, 9 out of 10 cloudflare fails or just due to your unresponsive game panel. it either loads forever or failed in 8 out of 10 times. it took me almost 4 hours to finally get 10 prompts that worked properly HFB is a huge joke on the market edit// check their ToS: ever heard of free speech? i guess not but feel free to take my in charge because your ToS is not even affecting me in my country![/QUOTE] Terms of service agreements have absolutely no affect whatsoever regarding stifling freedom of speech and to form an opinion. Good luck prosecuting anyone for that HFB. Hey "idontthinkso" -- I gave them a piece of mind as well. Feel free to read what I've posted for them. [quote]I sincerely suggest you guys get some basic entry level DDoS protection in the Seattle data center. There's really no reason I, or any other clients should be null routed to avoid others being affected for over 24+ hours. I'm aware of how DDoS works, but most attacks made by children who are angry from a ban via Rust, can only DDoS using basic entry level DDoS 6pps attacks. Those are very easily mitigated using a simple Linux bash script. For more info regarding the bash script for your software / network engineers, see this: [url]http://deflate.medialayer.com/[/url] Execution: netstat -ntu | awk '{print $5}' | cut -d: -f1 | sort | uniq -c | sort -n Installation: wget [url]http://www.inetbase.com/scripts/ddos/install.sh[/url] chmod 0700 install.sh ./install.sh Uninstall: wget [url]http://www.inetbase.com/scripts/ddos/uninstall.ddos[/url] chmod 0700 uninstall.ddos ./uninstall.ddos I know you guys are running my server via Linux, seeing as next to it there's a PID (Process ID) and I run Linux Mint 16 on a separate drive (SDB) for programming purposes. Please look into this as it could very well save your customers and earn you better reviews.[/quote]

I think the OP of this is just an annoying customer. I doubt HFB has anything scam-related going on. ALL GSPs are having issues with DDoS on the servers. That being said, I am not an HFB fan boy by far. I ordered my first server from them. 72 hours later I had no server and I was forced to e-mail them to inquire why. Then it took then 24 hours longer to reply to tell me they were out of stock. That isn't how you treat a customer, so I cancelled and ordered elsewhere.

I'm not in this to ruin anyone's career or anything. If I'm dissatisfied with someone's services, I just take my money elsewhere. With that being said, from a corporate standpoint, I think HFB is suffering from lack of personnel coverage. I really think that an investment needs to be made on their part into technicians and engineers that can maintain and protect the network as well as fending off DDoS attacks. When you run a business like this, you HAVE to invest money into personnel to keep the "house of cards" you've built upright and steady. Without that, the thing keeps falling down and then you have nobody that wants to live there. And if you have nobody to live there, then you have no money to pay the personnel. And then the business crumbles and fails altogether. You must provide a solid and steady infrastructure FIRST, then the clients will come to you. Honestly, I don't mind if the shit hits the fan. I understand that we're all human and mistakes will happen. However, the lack of communication and perceived lack of sense of urgency is what my issue is. My server was down for 9 hours yesterday. And it wasn't until I sent an email to the GM that it miraculously got repaired. I had already secured services with another provider, but because you guys finally went and fixed it, I cancelled it. I can say that if this happens again and I get the same lackluster response, it's a no brainer. [QUOTE]You also agree that you will Not attempt to slander or post negative reviews for HFBServers LLC on any online medium including but not limited to review websites, game forums, clan forums, youtube videos and more as a result of a move or load balance.[/QUOTE] Regarding this in their ToS, there have already been a few cases in the US where companies have sued people for doing just this after having something like this in their respective ToS and it doesn't hold up in court. It never will.

[QUOTE=Blucifer;43785889]Regarding this in their ToS, there have already been a few cases in the US where companies have sued people for doing just this after having something like this in their respective ToS and it doesn't hold up in court. It never will.[/QUOTE] It definitely won't hold up, and in fact by placing garbage like that in their terms, they're risking pissing off the small claims judge who hears whatever case they might have. They're also empowering any counterclaim for bad behavior on the part of HFB. There's no law that says "you have to be nice to your customers", but most judges (especially small claims judges) don't like companies who aren't.

[QUOTE=tekkitan;43785824]I think the OP of this is just an annoying customer.[/QUOTE] I am a very annoy[B]ed[/B] ex-customer.