Self hosted is easy
Definitions
What is Hosting
It is a service of providing resources to host information (data) on a server that is constantly accessible to the Internet.
VPS
A dedicated part of space on the server for a particular user with the rights of an administrator, where he can install various programs and configure them at his own discretion.
Hosting Provider
It is an organization that provides disk space and server capacity to host your website or other digital information on the web.
What is a self-hosted approach?
The self-hosted approach is about the deployment and use of software on the user's own server, rather than on the service provider's servers (as with cloud services, for example). This means that all data, applications and services are under the user's own control and management. With a self-hosted approach, you install software yourself on your own server and store your data there. This is important and useful for security and privacy.
How do "classical" VPN services differ from self-hosted VPNs?
With classical VPNs, you connect to common VPN service servers used by all users. You switch between them when you select a country, for example.
In the case of self-hosted VPNs, you create a VPN on your own rented virtual server. A VPN installed on your own server will work with only one IP address (that's your server's IP), and nobody can connect to it without your permission.
What do users of self-hosted solutions pay for?
In case of Amnezia, users of self-hosted solutions pay only for the server rental, which is usually not more expensive than a monthly subscription to a "traditional» VPN-service. The Amnezia VPN app is completely free. Moreover, it's a great opportunity to save money as you can share your own VPN with an unlimited number of users, but we strongly recommend sharing only with those you trust. So, for about $5 per server rental, you get a VPN for yourself, friends and family by becoming a small VPN provider.
Why is a self-hosted VPN more resistant to blocking by IP address?
Let's say I'm an authoirity representative and I want to find out which IP addresses belong to VPN services in order to blacklist them. With "traditional" VPNs it's not that difficult. For example, I can pay for a monthly period of any VPN, connect to all servers one by one and find out which IP I have. After that, I would just need to put the addresses on a blocking list. With self-hosted VPNs, this approach is almost impossible, because nobody except the server owner and his trusted persons can connect to the VPN deployed on his own server, including authorities.
Why is a self-hosted VPN more resistant to signature-based blocking?
The signature-based blocking method is used in Iran, China and Russia. It's all about the fact that unprotected from blocking VPN protocols such as OpenVPN, IKEv2 or Wireguard are easily recognised by DPI systems as their traffic is very different from normal web traffic. Once detected, regulators do the following:
Block IP addresses with VPN traffic. Block VPN traffic through local ISPs.
In both cases, Amnezia will help, because Amnezia has at least two VPN protocols - AmneziaWG and X-Ray Reality - that are now working in countries with the highest levels of internet censorship, such as Iran, Turkmenistan, Myanmar and China. This means that the standard VPN protocol recognition rules for DPI do not work in this case. The second important feature is Amnezia's additional functionality, such as KillSwitch (a function of emergency disconnection of the user from the Internet if the connection to the VPN is lost) and split tunneling. By tunneling, traffic is being splitted: blocked resources are accessed via VPN, the rest of traffic doesn’t go through VPN. This makes all your traffic less similar to a VPN and more secure from being recognised.
Can regulators block all IP addresses of self-hosted VPN hosting providers?
This approach is used in Turkmenistan. In more economically and technologically developed countries, this method has huge economic risks, as there may be different third-party resources on these hostings.
How Amnezia helps in this case: Let's say you have created a VPN on your own server and the Regulator has decided to block all IP addresses of your hosting provider. You always have a choice of hundreds of other hosting providers whose IP addresses are not yet blocked. Turkmenistan's experience shows that even if 85% of the world's internet is blocked, it is possible to find an unblocked IP address, although it is very difficult.
Is it difficult to set up a self-hosted VPN with Amnezia?
Amnezia is specifically designed to make it as easy as possible to set up a VPN on your own server. In the case of a "traditional" VPN, the user pays for a subscription, while in the case of a self-hosted VPN, the user pays for hosting. The app will create and configure the VPN for you. Amnezia also has step-by-step instructions on how to buy servers from different hosting providers right on the website - https://amnezia.org/starter-guide . The hosting provider can be completely different, it is important to consider only the minimal system requirements.
Which hosting provider to choose and why?
The choice of hosting depends on many factors. The Amnezia website contains instructions on how to buy VPS from different hosting providers. Let's consider the important factors for Russian users:
Jurisdiction of the hosting provider. Check in which territory your chosen hosting provider is registered, it depends to whom and according to which legislation it will store, transfer and collect your data. Make sure that you have access to the payment methods that the hosting provider supports. Pay attention to the data you need to enter when making a purchase. To achieve greater privacy, choose hosting services that can be paid with cryptocurrency and that do not require your exact address and phone number as confirmation.
I barely bought a server abroad while being in Russia, and the VPN in Russia has been blocked. Will everything stop working now?
In this case, you need to find out the reason why your VPN stopped working:
Make sure in your hosting provider's personal account that your server is still available, paid and has an active status, etc. Make sure that the VPN is not working for all sites and that it is the server that is the problem. Your ISP may have blocked a specific VPN protocol. Try to switch protocols; Amnezia supports X-Ray and AmneziaWG, which are not yet blockable in any country in the world. Your IP address may have been blocked. With most VPS providers, you can change the IP address and even the country of the server; all you need to do is contact their support with such a request. If none of the options helped, you can always buy another server from any hosting provider, because the payment for a monthly server rental is not high.
How to Pay for Hosting?
Paying for hosting is similar to any other online purchase. Simply visit the website of your chosen hosting provider, select a plan, enter your details, and pay using any available method. Due to sanctions, making payments from Russia has become more challenging, but there are many hosting providers that accept Russian cards. Some of these providers are listed on our website, along with a step-by-step purchase guide - https://amnezia.org/starter-guide.
What do we buy when we pay for VPS?
We pay for access to hosting (renting server space), usually for a specific period of time.
Where is my virtual server located?
A virtual server is a part or whole of a real server, but with a dedicated IP address. Physically it is located on the real server, but it is a separate entity as it has its own IP address and only the owner of that server has access to it.
Physically, the virtual server is located in the country that the user chose when purchasing the VPS. If the hosting provider did not provide a choice of server country when purchasing or you do not know it for some reason, the server country can be found out by checking the IP address.
