DDOS protection for instant messenger server

Question

I developed an instant messenger which uses TCP ports for its communication, and hosted the server application on a VPS account from some hosting company, but the first day I got attacked by a distributed dos attack, and the VPS hosters told me that the attack was of about 750 mbps.

The VPS hosting providers told me about a protection service against such attacks but they only provide their services for websites, HTTP and HTTPS ports. I searched and found some VPS services who provide DDoS protection but they are fairly expensive and my service has just started so I cant afford them.

How can I protect against DDoS without using an expensive service?

Answer 1

The problem with a Ddos attack is that you need to intercept/filter the traffic before it reaches the destination (your IM server). This means you will indeed need a service similar to cloudfare or increase your capacity. There is no cheap way to do this I'm afraid.

Answer 2

You need to understand that DoS is not always a weakness of a solution or design to me its just comes to physics, you put enough noise in the pipe and your customers stars getting annoyed. As lucas pointed above you need to filter hence the concept given by arhbor network CLEAN PIPES.

If there was one easy solution's you would never hear major internet sites like youtube or cnn getting dos'ed.?

For effective solution you need to put some kind of blocking at egress with the logic that its not your parameters device doing the filtering for you ; like core-firewalls instead have it done from a dedicated box ; like DoS prevention check arbhor networks for that matter.

Answer 3

Unfortunately, it may be impossible to fight with complex ddos attacks on free basis.

DDoS Protection is usually expensive. Some companies can offer such services for a bit cheaper price than others, but it's really not easy to mitigate ddos attacks yourself. Nobody will do this for you just for free, because it's risk for their network infrastructure, and (almost) every ISP in this world is paying for every received byte of network traffic received. Add an expensive technology and equipment price.