VPS is for protection only right? does it have anything to do with hosting? Please note I am currently using no-ip
service to point to my home computer. The router is configured to accept incoming connections. The URL I type
in the browser now is in the format: "http://.myname.ddns.com:12345/" (12345 is the port number opened on the router for incoming connections)
With that URL I can access the b4j server and use the database from anywhere or any network.
VPS stands for Virtual Private Server.
Unlike shared hosting, you can install software inside the server which run on the operating system provided to you. This is the server you need to run B4J server app.
Absolutely. It stands for Virtual Private Server, and it's a way to slice up a hardware machine in smaller pieces and make them all seem like individual servers. You can read more about it here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_private_server
There are even cheaper options. Recently, I put servers in B4J on mikr.us. For 9$ a year, we have a small server where you can easily handle the API. There is an option for 16$ and 33$ a year. A small downside is that we get IP6, but you can connect to Cloudflare and it works beautifully. It gives 5 external ports after IP4. You can buy from 8$ 120GB of disk space. There are also a few other flavors to improve the service. Unfortunately, the portal is only in PL, you can manually translate it with a translator. If I help something.
Also, have in mind SSL certs... at least a custom/created by you (and share the .cer at clients), or lets encrypt...
Create Firewall rules, fail2ban, leave specific ports open that really need - avoid ssh/sshd/email servers/ftp servers (use them only at begin)... and get a lot of backups !
Monitor the Bandwidth, the login tries (!!!!)... brute force attackers never stop !