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Hosted on a Comcast cable business account? That's not reassuring as far as availability goes. Updated: No info on the company, domain registration is private

Hosted on a Comcast cable business account? That's not reassuring as far as availability goes. Updated: No info on the company, domain registration is private, registered agent for the corporation is one of those "registered agent services" that lets the owner(s) hide their identity, and the physical address listed (edit: on their contact page) is a post office. Yeah, pretty sure I'm not uploading any files to you. Nice try, though; you get points for the attempt.

mtmail 9y ago
The company address is on the https://cloudbuddy.cloud/cgi-bin/contact-us_p1.pl https://cloudbuddy.cloud/cgi-bin/contact-us_p1.pl page (edit: oh, if it's a post office indeed my argument doesn't count). I agree, there should be (many) other assurances and trust signals.
- jlgaddis 9y ago
  Yeah, it's a box at the post office ("Unit 184" is "PO Box 184"). I'd wager the phone number is a (so-called) "virtual phone number" as well. It could be a totally legit business but there's a bit too much "secrecy" for me to trust them.
  - CloudBuddy 9y ago
    The phone number is a virtual one, your right. Being a legit business is solely in the eyes of the user/customer and that is why we automatically give the first 30 days free for all new users. The only personal info you have to give us to get this free account is your email address. That's it. If you want you can encrypt everything prior to storing it on our servers. If CloudBuddy does not meet your expectations within 30 days, you've lost nothing as there is no further action required of you. The account will be automatically deleted on the 37th day if you don't delete it sooner (which you can do at anytime).
    - jlgaddis 9y ago
      I'm sorry if in my earlier comments I sounded overly critical or like I'm "shitting on you" or something. I'm really not trying to. Please don't take the following personally -- maybe consider it "constructive criticism" -- but here is some honest insight from a potential customer: --- With your service, you are clearly targetting a specific type of user and I am fit, almost exactly, (what I think is) your target audience. I'm the type of person who would be interested in using your basic, no-frills service and wouldn't need any help whatsoever doing so. You wouldn't be getting any support e-mails from me with questions like "What's an SFTP client?", "How do I download my files with Microsoft Foxfire?", and such. The time you spend answering one question like that for a user is going to eat up any profits you might have made from them. So, your target user is advanced and technical. They will look at aspects of the business that the "average user" (I hate that term) won't care or even think about: Where is your service hosted? What's your upstream connectivity like? Where are your graphs showing your history availability? What's your backup/restore procedures and timelines (I accidentally deleted a file from your server and need it restored ASAP!)? Public SSH/SFTP servers are targeted all the time for attack. What have you done to harden/lock down your public-facing servers (if it's less than I've done to my own, you seem incompetent)? When I noticed very little information on your web site, I started looking elsewhere for it. I found out that the company is less than a year old, the registered agent is "hidden", your "physical address" is a post office, and so on. If I'm counting on you to securely host my files, I've got to be able to trust you. I understand why you did all of the things mentioned above (I've had LLCs w/ "hidden" registered agents because I didn't want my home address showing up in the public record, I also use a PO Box, etc.) but for a company I'm potentially trusting my sensitive data with, well, that's just not gonna fly. As a technically-proficient "advanced" user, I'm going to err on the side of caution and my paranoia is gonna cause me to say "Nope!" and quickly move on. Like I said, you may be totally legit and have only the best of intentions, but (and this is the key part) I have no way of verifying that. None whatsoever. For all I know, this is a weak attempt at social engineering people out of their data by some fly-by-night company, and your service is going to simply disappear in a month or two. Now, I'm sure that's probably not the case, but how can I know that? Ultimately, your target customers have to be able to trust you with their data... but how can they trust you when they don't know anything about you? I really do wish you the best of luck with your idea and hopefully you can understand a little bit better why I can't (currently) use your service. (Side note: if you make any changes and want my opinion or thoughts on them, I'd be open to giving it. My e-mail is in my profile if you want to reach out but -- fair warning -- I'm kinda slow at responding to non-urgent e-mails so please allow me a little time to get back to you.)
- CloudBuddy 9y ago
  It is true that it is a post office for us to receive and send mail. At this time we do not have a public facing office. This will change as we grow.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
Veratyr 9y ago
Also how is "$1 / 10GB / month" going to result in me paying "less" for online storage? S3 is $0.02/GB, or $0.2/10GB and $2/month gets you 100GB on Google Drive.
- CloudBuddy 9y ago
  We were not aware that these options had direct sftp access. We've used Google Drive in the past but we didn't find it to be particularly user friendly (we haven't used S3). CloudBuddy could save you some money if you have low to moderate storage needs that require sftp access.
  - Veratyr 9y ago
    Rsync.net has direct SFTP and rsync for $0.03/GB/month: http://rsync.net/products/attic.html http://rsync.net/products/attic.html And with the quality of service I expect from a service hosted on a Comcast connection, I'd say you're roughly comparable in reliability/quality to low end VPS providers like https://www.time4vps.eu/ https://www.time4vps.eu/. From them you can get a 40GB VM for $2.35/mo.
CloudBuddy 9y ago
Hi jlgaddis. It is true that we are using Comcast cable for business for our ISP. We have had good luck with them in the past. They certainly aren't perfect but for a new company like ours, they are a good fit. We plan to upgrade as we grow. Thanks for pointing out the lack of trust signals on our identify. We were so focused on getting this out that we completely missed how we had initially set this up. We will fix this. You apparently weren't the only one that had a lack of trust as this thread has been flagged (as spam?). Not sure who to ask to get this removed or even if it is possible.
- Veratyr 9y ago
  When you can get a full cabinet + gigabit transit for $400/mo I don't think there's ever an excuse to put a paid service on a Comcast connection.
  - jlgaddis 9y ago
    Yep. Even a co-located or dedicated server in a datacenter would be better than a Comcast connection (and probably cheaper) when just getting started. He could always "move up" later, when needed.
- jlgaddis 9y ago
  You got probably flagged because -- all things considered (see other comments) -- "CloudBuddy" seems pretty sketchy, to be honest. You do not inspire confidence or trust. At all. <rant> "We"? You keep saying "we" but, c'mon, we all know it's just you, running this off of a machine in your home office or garage or whatever. I don't know why people always try to make their little companies seem much larger than they really are but... you know what? It's perfectly fine! It's okay to be a one-(wo)man shop, doing everything, at home, by yourself, in your spare time -- especially here on HN!. That's how a large number of companies start out. It's not something to be ashamed of or to try to hide. This practice of trying to appear as some big large company is counter-productive. If you act like a big(ger) company, I'm going to treat you like one and call you out on things you should be doing (but can't, due to it just being you). If you stop pretending and just be honest -- "Hey, it's just me building this myself, trying to make a business out of it" -- then I'll cut you some slack and give you a chance. Apparently "fake it until you make it" is still a thing. </rant>

mtmail 9y ago

The company address is on the https://cloudbuddy.cloud/cgi-bin/contact-us_p1.pl https://cloudbuddy.cloud/cgi-bin/contact-us_p1.pl page (edit: oh, if it's a post office indeed my argument doesn't count). I agree, there should be (many) other assurances and trust signals.

jlgaddis 9y ago
Yeah, it's a box at the post office ("Unit 184" is "PO Box 184"). I'd wager the phone number is a (so-called) "virtual phone number" as well. It could be a totally legit business but there's a bit too much "secrecy" for me to trust them.
- CloudBuddy 9y ago
  The phone number is a virtual one, your right. Being a legit business is solely in the eyes of the user/customer and that is why we automatically give the first 30 days free for all new users. The only personal info you have to give us to get this free account is your email address. That's it. If you want you can encrypt everything prior to storing it on our servers. If CloudBuddy does not meet your expectations within 30 days, you've lost nothing as there is no further action required of you. The account will be automatically deleted on the 37th day if you don't delete it sooner (which you can do at anytime).
  - jlgaddis 9y ago
    I'm sorry if in my earlier comments I sounded overly critical or like I'm "shitting on you" or something. I'm really not trying to. Please don't take the following personally -- maybe consider it "constructive criticism" -- but here is some honest insight from a potential customer: --- With your service, you are clearly targetting a specific type of user and I am fit, almost exactly, (what I think is) your target audience. I'm the type of person who would be interested in using your basic, no-frills service and wouldn't need any help whatsoever doing so. You wouldn't be getting any support e-mails from me with questions like "What's an SFTP client?", "How do I download my files with Microsoft Foxfire?", and such. The time you spend answering one question like that for a user is going to eat up any profits you might have made from them. So, your target user is advanced and technical. They will look at aspects of the business that the "average user" (I hate that term) won't care or even think about: Where is your service hosted? What's your upstream connectivity like? Where are your graphs showing your history availability? What's your backup/restore procedures and timelines (I accidentally deleted a file from your server and need it restored ASAP!)? Public SSH/SFTP servers are targeted all the time for attack. What have you done to harden/lock down your public-facing servers (if it's less than I've done to my own, you seem incompetent)? When I noticed very little information on your web site, I started looking elsewhere for it. I found out that the company is less than a year old, the registered agent is "hidden", your "physical address" is a post office, and so on. If I'm counting on you to securely host my files, I've got to be able to trust you. I understand why you did all of the things mentioned above (I've had LLCs w/ "hidden" registered agents because I didn't want my home address showing up in the public record, I also use a PO Box, etc.) but for a company I'm potentially trusting my sensitive data with, well, that's just not gonna fly. As a technically-proficient "advanced" user, I'm going to err on the side of caution and my paranoia is gonna cause me to say "Nope!" and quickly move on. Like I said, you may be totally legit and have only the best of intentions, but (and this is the key part) I have no way of verifying that. None whatsoever. For all I know, this is a weak attempt at social engineering people out of their data by some fly-by-night company, and your service is going to simply disappear in a month or two. Now, I'm sure that's probably not the case, but how can I know that? Ultimately, your target customers have to be able to trust you with their data... but how can they trust you when they don't know anything about you? I really do wish you the best of luck with your idea and hopefully you can understand a little bit better why I can't (currently) use your service. (Side note: if you make any changes and want my opinion or thoughts on them, I'd be open to giving it. My e-mail is in my profile if you want to reach out but -- fair warning -- I'm kinda slow at responding to non-urgent e-mails so please allow me a little time to get back to you.)
CloudBuddy 9y ago
It is true that it is a post office for us to receive and send mail. At this time we do not have a public facing office. This will change as we grow.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]

Veratyr 9y ago

Also how is "$1 / 10GB / month" going to result in me paying "less" for online storage? S3 is $0.02/GB, or $0.2/10GB and $2/month gets you 100GB on Google Drive.

CloudBuddy 9y ago
We were not aware that these options had direct sftp access. We've used Google Drive in the past but we didn't find it to be particularly user friendly (we haven't used S3). CloudBuddy could save you some money if you have low to moderate storage needs that require sftp access.
- Veratyr 9y ago
  Rsync.net has direct SFTP and rsync for $0.03/GB/month: http://rsync.net/products/attic.html http://rsync.net/products/attic.html And with the quality of service I expect from a service hosted on a Comcast connection, I'd say you're roughly comparable in reliability/quality to low end VPS providers like https://www.time4vps.eu/ https://www.time4vps.eu/. From them you can get a 40GB VM for $2.35/mo.

CloudBuddy 9y ago

Hi jlgaddis. It is true that we are using Comcast cable for business for our ISP. We have had good luck with them in the past. They certainly aren't perfect but for a new company like ours, they are a good fit. We plan to upgrade as we grow. Thanks for pointing out the lack of trust signals on our identify. We were so focused on getting this out that we completely missed how we had initially set this up. We will fix this. You apparently weren't the only one that had a lack of trust as this thread has been flagged (as spam?). Not sure who to ask to get this removed or even if it is possible.

Veratyr 9y ago
When you can get a full cabinet + gigabit transit for $400/mo I don't think there's ever an excuse to put a paid service on a Comcast connection.
- jlgaddis 9y ago
  Yep. Even a co-located or dedicated server in a datacenter would be better than a Comcast connection (and probably cheaper) when just getting started. He could always "move up" later, when needed.
jlgaddis 9y ago
You got probably flagged because -- all things considered (see other comments) -- "CloudBuddy" seems pretty sketchy, to be honest. You do not inspire confidence or trust. At all. <rant> "We"? You keep saying "we" but, c'mon, we all know it's just you, running this off of a machine in your home office or garage or whatever. I don't know why people always try to make their little companies seem much larger than they really are but... you know what? It's perfectly fine! It's okay to be a one-(wo)man shop, doing everything, at home, by yourself, in your spare time -- especially here on HN!. That's how a large number of companies start out. It's not something to be ashamed of or to try to hide. This practice of trying to appear as some big large company is counter-productive. If you act like a big(ger) company, I'm going to treat you like one and call you out on things you should be doing (but can't, due to it just being you). If you stop pretending and just be honest -- "Hey, it's just me building this myself, trying to make a business out of it" -- then I'll cut you some slack and give you a chance. Apparently "fake it until you make it" is still a thing. </rant>