I've been looking around at the Raq companies and have a question for people hosting at the Rackshack. I see their web site pricings are different depending on which page you choose and many options on the pages just plain don't work? If this company cannot even keep a decent web page up for ordering and display of products, it makes me wonder whether they would even be a good company to host with? Can anyone here comment on this?

I like their connection speeds, they have great ping results from various sources.

Another I was looking at was 4webspace.com, while I hear good things about them for support and such, they seem to have a pretty big problem with their connection. I see about a 20% packet loss right at their server since yesterday. Can anyone tell me if their network problem is something regular or something just lately that has created this situation and their overall impression of this companies product?

Thanks

They've been doing some work on their scripts (ordering, etc) lately - that might explain the differences you're referring to.

Maybe it is just me, but our server has been up ever since we've joined them, and their support people also appear to know what's cooking.

I reckon the time has come for Rackshack to state their own case? This forum alone must have cost them quite a bit in lost business - a bit unfair, don't you think?

rackshack is a excellent company, I would not use this forum as a reference for them, people just post the bad things.

they are improving on things every day also, they have had problems, but all companies have problems, especially because they are newer, but they fix the problems fairly fast and improve so that it doesnt happen again, soon there won't be any more problems to fix.

there support will get better in the future once they get a good staff that knows the systems inside and out.

I also have nothing but good things to say about RackShack at this point - customer for 2 months.
I was with RackSpace for a year and would gladly leave again to go with RackShack - even if the prices were comparable.

pings from the Netherlands (indeed the capitol of denmark).

rackshack average 150ms 0% loss

4webspace average 188ms 0% loss

both pretty good.

ckirby,

This wasn't meant to be a bash on Rackshack. I made a simple observation as a potential customer, this should concern anyone looking for a future host to trust with their server. Apparently there has been some bashing going on, I was not aware of this. That aside, this is the best place to ask questions about these companies, this is one reason many of us are here.

I do see that most everyone posting here seems happy with their servers at Rackshack, there is always going to be someone that is not, that's life. This is a good sign, I know they have an excellent connection, I just hope it does not get overloaded with growing pains.

I'm just not sure at this point if I want to go with the cobalt machine, this I've been going back and forth on. I'm not real happy with their 24/7 support plan, it's basically just an email if you have a server problem, charging something like 40 dollars for this seems a bit excessive to me. Otherwise, they seem to be one of the best deals going from what I can tell, gotta love their connection speeds.

Thanks all,




Originally posted by ckirby
rackshack is a excellent company, I would not use this forum as a reference for them, people just post the bad things.

they are improving on things every day also, they have had problems, but all companies have problems, especially because they are newer, but they fix the problems fairly fast and improve so that it doesnt happen again, soon there won't be any more problems to fix.

there support will get better in the future once they get a good staff that knows the systems inside and out.

I am surprised Rackshack uses IRC as an option for customer service. This must be very distracting. Although you may get excelent service in their chat room --- at least they have a chat room. Most companies rely on trouble ticket systems -- unless there is an urgent request. Also the nature of internet chat can make terse comments seem unfriendly.

Although I have not received definitive answers about a couple of things at Rackshack -- overall they provide an excellent value. And thus far, I am satified. (They even did a manual reboot for me without a charge because a guy just happened to be working at the co-lo facility -- pretty good I think.).

Originally posted by broken
I also have nothing but good things to say about RackShack at this point - customer for 2 months.
I was with RackSpace for a year and would gladly leave again to go with RackShack - even if the prices were comparable.

rackspace has lowered their prices if you sign under contract here is one of their promo deals ($150u.s a month):

http://www.rackspace.com/promo/150_linux.php

Aloha
I have been doing a bit of rackshack bashing in a few posts (you cna do a search for them)
I wrote a letter and set to everybody in the company
got a response form 2 people that seem to want to help out
interesting point on one of my trouble tickets that was set up by someone inside

6/6/01 9:48:03 PM After some research: 1. The domain 'nethappyfishdesign.com' is not a registered domain. Please be more careful in the future. 2. The domain is not pointing to our name servers. 3. The IP assigned to his domain is 216.12.209.25 not 216.40.195.66. As far as everything else, his machine is up, and the DNS is pointing. 6/7/01 10:21:36 AM the name is registered, but we have it misspelled here. it's just 'happyfishdesign.com'. closing escalation

now if some tech inside is writing down both the ip address adn the domain name wrong that is pretty sad of them to keep staff like that on

also I had a problem using there online dns mngmnt when I removed a sub domain they removed my whole account ????

this again is poor service

so the only good thing is I get very good times with them

I am going to be running my own dns off my raq I decided as I want to stay away form there system to do it

I just hope they do not for some reason decide to unplug it
and I have heard stories where they just disconnect people for using to much bandwith (but stillunder there 150 gigs a month they use soem excuse as it is hard on there equipment ?)

weagle,

The Rackspace offer you've posted is not for a Cobalt RaQ ...

I have to admit that I've been a bit quick on the trigger whenever RackShack suffered network outages or other problems.

I would just like to say that I would recommend them to anybody with reasonable experience with linux, and all in all, their network up-time is quite good.

For the price, nobody beats them. And unless you want to pay thousands of dollars per month, nobody will give you 100% uptime.

In my opinion it would be hard to match Rackshack anywhere for connectivity and speed. The only thing about the cobalt server in general is that it is still very much a developing system. And while some things are pretty easy, like installing SSL certs, etc. Some other things have led me into a mini-crash course in Linux config stuff, and for several days at-a-time of head scratching at that. They call the cobalt server an "appliance" but don't get this confused with a toaster oven or a vacuum cleaner. This appliance currently demands considerably more Linux expertise than, for instance, doing a dedicated hosting thing with VDI using Cpanel. Cpanel in certain respects is miles beyond the cobalt control panel. But of course you're probably going to have far better uptime with Rackshack than with VDI.

What has been a real lifesaver for me are the few very good RaQ support resources out there on the net, like this forum. And in a pinch, I have found that RackShack support definitely comes through.

In short, it has taken us a full five weeks longer to get up to speed with our RaQ than it would have taken with another UNIX/Linux box on more standard (or patched together) hardware. And we have been web mastering that has included moderate to heavy amount of scripting work for a number of years. So if you're a real beginner at this sort of stuff, as in, you have done little or no cgi work, little or no telneting, little or no manipulation of server config files, etc., I would not recommend you go out and get a dedicated RaQ from RackShack or anyone else.