Q. What are Custom Branded Dedicated Servers?

Ans. Custom Branded Dedicated Servers are basically Dedicated Servers, as the name suggests, with “custom” whois information in the IP whois. As an example, please see below for the current eUKhost whois information.

netname: EUKHost-LTD
descr: Server Lan
country: GB
admin-c: PETE3-RIPE
tech-c: PETE3-RIPE
status: ASSIGNED PA
mnt-by: blueconnex-mnt
mnt-routes: blueconnex-mnt
source: RIPE # Filtered

Now, the idea behind Custom Branded Dedicated Servers is that we can swap EUKHost-LTD to match your company name. So, I’m sure many of you are now asking “Do I need it?”. For the vast majority of you, the answer is, quite simply, NO. The service of Custom Branded Dedicated Servers is mainly a service that would be offered to medium/large webhosting providers. For example, if you are a webhosting provider you may have good reasons for not wanting your customers to know, or easily find out, where your services are located. There is no deception involved here, it’s simple marketing. You don’t want your customers to know that they can get the same service with us directly. This can be for a variety of reasons. Such as, our service offerings may be cheaper than yours, offer more hard disk space, more bandwidth, more support. You have done the hard work by getting the client and it would be unfair for them to switch to us directly. We have no interest in competing directly with our clients or with taking their customers. This is the main reason that we offer Custom Branded Dedicated Servers. Another reason behind Custom Branded Dedicated Servers is the benefit of receiving abuse e-mails directly and not having to have us forward them to you. As an example, one of the websites you are hosting has been compromised and is sending out spam messages. In the current system we will either have to spend time contacting you directly and if we are not able to do so in a timely manner, we may suspend your account. obviously this would have serious implications for your business and may ultimately lose your clients. In this case, Custom Branded Dedicated Servers could prevent this from happening.

Okay, so we have given some example as to who Custom Branded Dedicated Servers are useful for. Now, let’s look into the type of client that definitely don’t need Custom Branded Dedicated Servers. If we are not providing the same service as you provide, there is no reason for you to consider custom whois information. Your clients could, in theory, see our name mentioned and then visit our website. If our website is not offering the same services, they will have no reason to consider moving. If you host a forum advising people on the best fishing spots in the UK, your visitors or customers couldn’t care less where your website is hosted from. If it’s a personal hobby site, again, your visitors don’t care where your website is hosted.

There are also some technical limitations involved. It’s not possible to offer Custom Branded Dedicated Servers on a small number of IP addresses. It’s also not possible to rename currently assigned IP address whois information, please keep this in mind. A similar service is not currently available on individual VPS services and it’s not currently possible for shared hosting. Costs can vary and as always subject to RIPE guidelines. Please contact sales@eukhost.com for more information.