Let me introduce myself. My name is Christian Henning and I am Director of Marketing of Dedicated Hosting for Catalog.com.

I am wanting to know what types of services, hardware, customer support dedicated customers are looking for.

Primarily, I invite everyone to visit http://servers.catalog.com before responding and take a look at our offering and make recommendations.

It is very important for us to know what customers are looking for. We wish to be the best in this industry and I feel this is the best way to find out.

Regards,
Chris Henning
Catalog.com, Inc.
http://servers.catalog.com

Hi Christian,

Here is my list of disadvantages of going with catalog.com:

1) Ip's are waaaaayy to expensive

2) Bandwidth over your alloted amount is $20/GB. Most dedicated companies are offering this for $3-$5 / GB.

3) I would like the option to add extra hardware to my server in the future. Let's say I purchase a package that comes with 128 megs of ram, and 1 10gb hard drive. I would like to be able to upgrade the ram or add a second hard drive for a reasonable fee. Check out dialtoneinternet's add on options (which I find very reasonable):

http://dialtoneinternet.com/services/tellmemore.htm

That's about it, for now... If these 3 points were addressed I would consider catalog.com for my next server

:)

Chris,

First, thanks for moving. You can see how my point was already getting lost in the other unrelated discussions.

Secondly, I agree with tabernack. While Cat. and DI start off very close in price on a base server, and I really like that you offer more secure programs, additional IP's can make Cat. really expensive and put it out of consideration. The same is true if one should exceed the alloted bandwidth.

Incidentally, I know Red Hat is shipping sudo with 6.2, which you use. Are you offering it as a replacement for su?

As I see it, Cat's strengths at this moment are better (more secure software) and a good control panel (Plesk). You do have a generous bandwidth allotment.

DI's strengths are more flexibility in system configuration, no charge for more IPs, and a moderate charge for additional bandwidth. They also use SCSI hard drives and Pentium III rather than Celeron processors.

Both of you could learn a few things from each other. As customers, we stand to benefit either way.

In my case, DI happens to be local. Since eventually I will move to a co-located server with them (at which point the software they offer won't matter), and Im happy with their service, I'm not interested in moving.

However, if I should even need an NT server, I would seriously consider Cat., especially if those IP and bandwidth prices come down.

It would help to have more detail on your site, like how the bandwidth works (i.e. what if it should have prolonged spikes over the alloted amount), and other things.

Another example, your site states:
Per hourly charge during business hours of $100
ALL non-business hour service billed at $250 per hour

yet neglects to mention what hours it applies to. Is the $100 from 9am to 9m CT?

It also states: e-Notify monitoring: 24 - 7 - 365
Any company can have 24/7 reporting. An answering machine and auto responder can take care of that and many smaller companies deliberately seek to deceive prospective customers. I would liek to see comapnies come clean and say "we have technicians in the building from x to y time, and which days" If no one is there 24 hours (other than the security guards), I don't want to be misled.

I respect those companies that tell me the truth rather than what they think I want to hear. A cleared coverage of that point, among others, would be helpful and appreciated.




[Edited by Duster on 09-10-2000 at 01:29 AM]

How is bandwidth measured at Catalog.com? 95 percentile?

Where are the support pages for dedicated servers at Catalog.com's website?

Why does Catalog.com not offer Pentium III processor with SCSI hard-disk(s)?

Christian,

I am in the market for a dedicated Linux server and have been for some months now. I have been carefully going over my options, with DI and Catalog at the top of the list.

I like your recent price offers on the "September Special" RH6.2 - Cel. 500 - 128MB 10GB HD - 50GB B/W. I hope those prices will remain static or go lower rather than rise at the start of October :-)

However, I concur with the others who have responded so far in that I feel supplying only 1 IP address, with the only option of one or two more being to "buy" a block at a high rate each month, very off-putting.

I do not have the need for numerous IPs - while DI offer "unlimited" IPs, I would only want probably 4 or 5 total. My server would be used to host my 2 business websites, together with a few associates, and I would require just 4-5 or so IPs. Any other hosting I would do would be limited and could be done as name-based hosting, but for the few critical business sites I run I would like seperate IPs. However, paying $50 setup and $30 EACH MONTH for a block of 8 IPs seems a bit much really.

As a person who is looking to run a fast, flexible and reliable website server for my business needs, I would buy your server tomorrow if you bundled say 5 IPs with the base package (instead of 1), and offered more reasonable overage rates on the bandwidth (like $3-$5 per GB as someone else has suggested, which seems to be the norm). These are the 2 issues that are keeping me from Catalog at the moment. If it wasn't for the uncertainty posed by the "95% bandwidth issue", I would be a customer of DI now.

If Catalog can offer improvements on IP and bandwidth rates, I think you will find a lot more customers like myself looking to host a minimal number of mission-critical business sites coming to you guys first instead of DI.

I do not need Pentium processors or SCSI disks or anything fancy like that. What I do need is a reliable and reasonably flexible server at a decent price.

If you can provide what I need feel free to email me! :-)
flying_fox@lineone.net

As a potential customer I would also like to see what your support pages look like. I don't know if you can arrange this on a one-by-one basis but I would like to see what you offer in that department. Unfortunately, DI don't let you see this critical part of their service until you have signed up. :-(

Chris


(PS: You don't use the 95% bandwidth measuring system, do you? Perhaps you could state one way or the other on your website.)

Hi Christian,
Nice to see you in the forums. As it has been expressed already you ought to do something with your IP policy. The word "unlimited" is a waste but I was thinking of a "8 IP's package" this would let the customer to have NS1/NS2 + domain and a few spare for "clients". Or the charge per IP drops a bit...

I think you read the bandwidth usage directly from the port (?) and the readings are I beleive of an exact usage and not the "95 percentile". This should be explained better on your site. People are worried about these things and if you had explained this better that you do not charge by this measurement, customers would have jumped over to you as we speak.

Your price is right but perhaps some more options in hardware?

Keep up the Good work.

First off, I want say thanks for everyones input. I have scheduled a meeting today to discuss IP's, bandwidth, support, pricing and all of the other great comments you have made.


Please keep the suggestions coming. Also, I will reply to all of the above topics after the meeting and let everyone know our new view.

Thanks,
Chris Henning
Catalog.com, Inc.

short one but I feel relevant...

If you're offering reselling in blocks, I'm not interested, nor are some others. The deal I have now is that I get 50% and my account grows per client. Every client I get increases my cost, but I don't have to worry about the 9 I DON'T have should I need to buy in blocks.

I figure if I get big enough to buy in blocks without fear I'll have enough to move onto my own server. It's not much of an incentive for newbies such as myself to get hit with 10 domains to fill before I make a profit (so to speak)

Greg Moore
http://www.akashik.net

I look forward to hearing the results of your meeting Christian. Please keep us posted.

Thanks :)

Would you guys be interested if there were a per IP price and you only purchased what you needed?

It seems to be a waste to give away 16 or 32 IP's since most people only use 3 to 4.

Regards,
Chris Henning
Catalog.com, Inc.

Yes, I think that is a good idea. Because people would have different needs this option is fair both for you and for us (the customer). This is a great thread, more of these please.

Originally posted by Christian
Would you guys be interested if there were a per IP price and you only purchased what you needed?

It seems to be a waste to give away 16 or 32 IP's since most people only use 3 to 4.



Exactly.. Unless I'm missing something fundemental here would't it be more of an incentive to only charge for accounts sold? Lets say for instance my master account costs me $30 a month. To place a block under it will boost my costs to $70 a month (if a block costs $40), before I sell a single account. Fine if it all works out fast and you resell at a good profit, but if things start slowly you're out on a limb before you start.

As I said earlier, I pay for my master account and get charged an extra amount per domain at 50% of the 'suggested retail'. To me that's a good deal. I don't have to rush things and as a result plan on getting everything right before going public. For now it's a great fallback for design clients looking for space.

Currently I'm attempting to build a support/faq area with mysql that should rival a few development websites for information (to reduce the need for tech support directly). This takes time, so I'm happy I'm not 'on the clock' needing to hock off sites asap to cover bills.

Greg Moore
http://www.akashik.net

Would you guys be interested if there were a per IP price and you only purchased what you needed?

It seems to be a waste to give away 16 or 32 IP's since most people only use 3 to 4.

Yes I would be interested in this. The ideal situation, for me at least, is to be provided with at least 3 IPs as part of the base package - that is, 2 for the 2 nameservers (so we can have custom NS on our own domain) and one other "spare" for another domain. Once that's been used, rent single (or block) IPs as and when we need them...?

Chris

Selling IPs per IP is a really good idea. As it is, IPs are getting scarcer each passing day. So, ultimately, the decision to sell IPs one at a time instead of in a block will become the NORM... and my guess is sooner than later.

Learner

I like the idea of buying on a per ip basis if the ip prices are not outrageous. I find tera-byte.com has very good ip prices, 30 ips @ $10 / month. I think this is a very reasonable price to charge for ips. Anything higher than that would make me think twice.

Guys,

Thanks for the input. We are going to a pay-per-ip solution from here on out. Pricing is yet to be determined. Our order forms will let you select the number needed.

Our solution should be up early Tuesday morning.

As for the other topics, I want to discuss them in detail.

How do you feel about bandwidth? What is a good amount to offer? What software do you recommend in monitoring it?

Regards,
Chris Henning
Catalog.com, Inc.

I think that 50 gb is a good standard amount to offer with you basic package. What worries me was that your bandwidth prices for going over your alloted amount were very expensive ($20/GB). Other companies charge $3-5/gb over. You have the option to purchase more bandwidth, but this is the same thing as bundling the ip's. If you don't need that much, why pay for it? So, you should have just a standard $3-$5 per gb over your alloted amount and leave it at that.

Originally posted by tabernack
I think that 50 gb is a good standard amount to offer with you basic package. What worries me was that your bandwidth prices for going over your alloted amount were very expensive ($20/GB). Other companies charge $3-5/gb over. While I'd agree that $20/GB is more than most providers, at least among those that are favorites here, it's really not fair to compare Dialtone's $3/GB (for example) to that. A "95th percentile" gigabyte is a whole different thing than a "measured transfers" gigabyte. Apples and oranges.

Well I dunno abt how much default bandwidth one should offer, but your charge for over the limit usage is really over the limit!! it should be about 5$/gb, max!! :)

Yes I would say 2.50$ to 5.00$ per gig would get you in the right market, as far as ips I think the choice to buy what ips you need as you need it would work best.
If you make a few changes like this I think you will sell alot of servers.
I know alot of people are looking including me :) get the prices right and ill take one this week.

I considered using catalog.com once, specially for the RAQ service, but the IP and unexpectedly high bandwidth + service charges put me off. the base price was excellent, but I am sure that would not have been the final price at all.

Christian,

I noticed a change in your IP charge, excellent! Good news for new customers. Your bandwidth price is good I think the way it's split 50GB and then 100GB. Your 100GB attracted me most as I think it is a great deal but as some people already have expressed it's the charge for additional GB's which is perhaps a bit high. Just make sure you don't start with this "95th" measurement... :D If I go for the 100GB I want 100GB transfer exact not 25GB real transfer.

Create a better support forum for your clients, let them help eachother internally. It looks like you are lacking some technical support.

I think at the end of the day your "flexibility" is your strong side (or will be) don't loose that, please.

Hi Christian,

your new ip price policy ($1/ip) and $5/gb bandwidth prices are a great change from your old prices. It is very nice to see a host come to these boards, ask for recommendations, and then implement our suggestions in such a short time. I am very impressed.

This will most definitely help your dedicated server sales.

Thanks again!

Yes, I agree with tabernack. It's nice to see that some providers do actually listen... Keep up the good work. Please keep the 100GB account heh? :)

You are doing a great thing christan!!
I think the best would be pay per IP and Pay per Bandwidth may be $ 2.5/ GB or maximum 3.5 / GB.
I think a dedicated server should have a good control for the buyer and his clients. Most of the people reliese later and spend Dollars on Contol Panel which you have.
Dedicated servers should allow to make sub-domains(I think it needs wildcards).
Some plans should also contain Miva features and CilliSoft ASP!
Can we ask for extra harddisks. Prices are not given in add-ons at your site.
You are doing a great job

Thank You

Rajiv Mehta

To everyone participating,

Thank you for the response! We had our meeting and agreed on the following:

$1 per IP - First 4 are free.
$5/GB NOT using the 95th % method - 50GB standard.

and the addition of a discussion board just like this one, but devoted to Catalog.com dedicated customers. (Will be online this afternoon) We want to create a community feel and improve our customer service.

I also made it easier to find the upgrade pages concerning Cobalts and Redhats.

We also launched exciting new NT offerings and our first PIII Redhat server. More are to come as we figure out the logistics.

It has been an extremely busy week, and I want to thank everyone for the response!

I would like to start another discussion regarding hardware offerings for redhat and nt. Would anyone be interested in participating in a discussion concerning these?

Regards,
Chris Henning
Catalog.com, Inc.

Sounds like a good idea to me! Start the thread Christian!

well i was about to go with catalog.com for a raq3 server on special back in April/May but the special ended 1 day before the deadline... i got no replies to my email asking why and whether the special was still on..

Yeah Christian, Go for it! No one in here will stop you :) I'll join in that's for sure... How bout your network, any upgrade soon?

Christian,

A question about the bandwidth options:

At the very bottom of the Red Hat order page you have a field for selecting the amount of bandwidth you want. It is labelled "Additional Bandwidth".

The options you provide are:
- 50GB Included FREE
- 100GB - add $200 per month

Could you please clarify for me whether the 100GB option is indeed 100GB of additional bandwidth (that is, total 150GB), or whether this is actually meaning just 50GB additional to bring the total bandwidth to 100GB?

I hope it's the former, as that is what is suggested by the field title. If it's the latter, isn't $200 a bit steep for an extra 50GB?

The inclusion of the "50GB Included FREE" option confuses the matter - if the option is for additional bandwidth then surely the "FREE" amount shouldn't be included here, but stated separately. This goes for the IPs as well - if the server comes with 4 anyway, why do we have to choose whether we want 1, 2, 3 or 4 which are all FREE??

Thanks for your clarifications.

Chris

Chris,

Thanks for your input. The 100GB is for 100GB total. And this is a discount of $50 over our $5/gb for anything over 50GB. We hardly see anyone do more than 100gb. Dallas Cowboys being the exception with over 450GB per month.

As for IP's, not everyone needs 4 IP's so we give them the choice of selecting what they need. If they select one and need 3 more in the future, those are free.

Regards,
Chris Henning
Catalog.com, Inc.

Chris,

Why not make the bandwidth issue perfect clear and label it something like:

upgrade to 100 gb (including base 50 gb)- $200 additional OR

100 gb (50 gb added to base 50 gb included with server) - $200

or something along those lines. Make it really hard to misinterpret.

Also, I would substitute the word "included" for "free" with the 50 gb that comes with the server. It isn't free, it's just part of the package.

I'll echo the sentiments of others in saying that it's a pleasure to see a hosting company respond to the needs and desires of prospective clients, and especially to do it so rapidly.

Christian,

Can you tell me if you install some sort of IP and/or name-based bandwidth monitoring software on a RH server as standard? If so, what is it?

Also, would you install modperl for a potential customer as part of the basic package?

Thanks

Chris

Just joined the forum

Why did the catalog.com thread stop dead on Sept 17th??

Either through a lack of responses or a person being unavailable because he took two or three days to canvass all concerns and report back to his superiors, with the end result hopefully seen in future pricing :)

Hi, this is Chris. I started the thread. I have not responded to anything because the moderator for webhostingtalk.com asked that hosting companies not start threads like these.

If you would like to talk, we have installed our own discussion forum at http://bulletin.catalog.com and can discuss all of these questions.

Regards,
Chris Henning
Catalog.com, Inc.