» JEAH Communications, LLC
JEAH.NET is definitely one of the most well-known providers in the business. You may remember the raid that took down FOONET - JEAH is one of the few providers who "survived" that situation, and even thrived afterward. Their current datacenter is local to them.. in downtown Chicago. They're housed on multiple 1gbit connections to Cogent, Telia, and Abovenet. JEAH's denial of service attack filtering has blocking/limiting at both edge and internal sources. They offer BNC/proxy accounts, shell accounts, IRCD accounts, web hosting, domain registration, and merchant services. Prices are competitive, starting at $4.17/month. But I'd say JEAH's strong point is their virtual hosts for IRC. Their vhosts are short, clever, and utilize their bank of hundreds of domain names. Their customer service is also top-notch (a rarity) - you can always get in touch with the owner.. no matter what the time and what the need. JEAH accepts all major credit cards, money orders, checks, electronic checks, Western Union transfers, bank transfers, and US cash.

» Lomag Internet Services, LLC
Lomag is another "old skewler", having been around for nearly 10 years now. They lease their own dedicated multiple 100mpbs bandwidth space at AboveNet in New Jersey, which is within only a few hours driving time from their physical location. Lomag has a history of acquiring its competitors, having bought out several smaller providers. At one point, this allowed Lomag to boast 9 servers. They currently have 4. You choose the server which has the virtual hosts you desire - as their vhost domains are all spread out among the 4. For that reason, Lomag might not be your best choice in the vhost realm, but for a stable hub on a botnet, they definitely have the speed and connectivity desired. Lomag accepts US cash, money orders, checks, electronic checks, Western Union transfers, and Visa/Mastercard.

» KIRE, L.L.C. DBA KIRE.NET
KIREnet is also one of the "originals", probably totaling off the top 3 oldest actually. They previously had their own datacenter on-site in Dighton, MA, but have since moved to a colocation setup with T1 connectivity provided by Sprintlink in Virginia Beach, Virginia which is where their office is as well. At its peak, KIRE boasted 12 servers - currently having only 3. KIREnet features the ability to get an account on multiple servers in one package. On the subject of vhosts, I'd have to say theirs are scattered and resemble somewhat of an inside joke that I just didn't get. Also - they filter IRC connections from their machines, so you can only access certain servers on certain IRC networks. KIRE does offer toll-free sales, billing, and technical support, however numerous emails have reported that inquiries regularly go unanswered. They accept US cash, money orders, checks, eChecks, and all major credit cards.

» Reliux Internet Services
Once considered a newer provider, Reliux has been around since 2007 and can be considered established. They are actually hosted by Lomag at their AboveNet datacenter. Reliux prices are more than competitive, starting as low as $2.99/month. Their vhosts are limited, being that they unfortunately still only have 24 IPs to work with. Reliux's advantage would be in their speed - since they take use of Lomag's superior connectivity. Their shell server is also great - an Intel P4 3.2 GHz with 2GB DDR400 RAM and 2 250GB drives! There are many "fly-by-night" providers popping up and I am happy to report Reliux has shown it will not disappear like the rest. They accept all major credit cards via PayPal, as well as checks and money orders.

» Santrex Internet Services Provider
Like JEAH, Santrex has positioned itself to be a full-service provider rather than just a "shell account company". And like Reliux, I think the now 1-year old Santrex has shown staying-power. They offer shell accounts, web hosting, file server hosting, and brag the ability to separate each customer-type. That is, if you're a web hosting customer you don't have to worry about DOS from shell server clients. Santrex is headquartered in the UK and was originally co-lo'd in the Los Angeles area with their initial server, but now reports that they have 50 servers in places ranging from China to France to the US. I have to say, that sounds a bit far-fetched and we have not been able to verify this. They accept Visa/Mastercard, Western Union, PayPal and e-Gold.