so ... is that some kind of Managed Server-like thingy? Or do you still have to take care of all that nasty tidbits, like properly administrating firewall settings (eg. iptables) etc.?

In the "Managed (Virtual) Server" case - great! I'm promoting that as well. It's less expensive than a real server and everything is already taken care for. No more worries about obscure protection tools and ways, just get on with proper work and programming! :)

In the other case: So you are an administrator as well, no? If its fun to you, think about lots of folks - like me - who hate having to figure out this stuff all the time. Esp. if its NOT your main job, but work on the sidelines. Time wasted, which could be used more efficiently, like with figuring out why that bloody calll to this or that API doesn't return the full amount of data records, and so on.

cu, w0lf.