Choose providers allowing custom firewall configurations like UFW on Ubuntu or Windows Firewall Linode doesn’t block UFW letting you run
ufw allow 22
to secure SSH Verify this by asking support if iptables or UFW rules persist after reboots—some hosts override them with proprietary firewalls On CentOS check for firewalld support while Windows VPS should allow
netsh advfirewall set allprofiles state on
Look for hosts with pre-configured rules (e g HTTP open) but editable via CLI or panel Flexibility ensures you can tailor security for MySQL (port 3306) or FTP (port 21) without conflicts