I'm going to colocate with EFS.

I will get a leased server at www.penguincomputing.com or somewhere else (can you recommend something?) and want to colocate if at EFS.

I like them because of $1/gig:). I'm going to make 300-500 gigs of BW.

But I also need a REAL 24*7 support and as far as I know EFS has some problems with the support...

Reading this forum I saw lots of oppinions (good and bad) about their services, but how are they now?

As far as I know they are connected via Level3.


In general:
Compearing to other companies - how's EFS? Their prices are great but is this the only reasion to love them?

Theve had terrible lengths of downtime lately, in addition i hear their using cogent which is the cheapest bottom of the barrel bandwidth provider out there.

I think they used to be good, but all ive heard lately is bad things, theres a couple of threads just do a search on them.

Hey Steve,

Well the saying is, you get what you pay for. You should take a look at some recent postings about them:

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?threadid=22655

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?threadid=22339

Hope that helps!

cogent which is the cheapest bottom of the barrel bandwidth provider out there

What do you base this on? They do not push bandwidth traditionally. They use IP over Fiber Optics technology, meaning you get direct ethernet drops. I really wouldn't call them bottom of the barrel for doing something different. It is too new to say it is crap (bottom of the barrel).

Also, back in August you said you were getting Cogent drops, did you? How are they working out?

Actually cogent is basically bottom of the barrel they only peer with one company above.net which makes them as i said bottom of the barrel, they have purchased netrail which should allow them to peer with additional providers then they would be a viable choice, we do have connectivity to cogent but our not advertising service to them until i see additional peering...

Originally posted by cbaker17
Actually cogent is basically bottom of the barrel they only peer with one company above.net

cbaker, where are you getting this information from? I have personally seen traceroutes going from uu.net to cogentco, and also from home.net to cogentco. They may have only peered with above.net at first, but they certainly do have more peering than that now.

As i said in my above post that with the acquisition of netrail, they will start peering with other people...

Originally posted by cbaker17
As i said in my above post that with the acquisition of netrail, they will start peering with other people...

They have been peering with Verio/Sprint/Above.net Before this acquisition.

Not in the markets ive been following, they may be in certain markets but not network wide.... the 2 markets im watching they only peer with above.net and ive run extensive test, a lone peering arranagment is not acceptable to me or my customers which is why im looking forward to the netrail accquisition.

Originally posted by cbaker17
Theve had terrible lengths of downtime lately, in addition i hear their using cogent which is the cheapest bottom of the barrel bandwidth provider out there.

I think they used to be good, but all ive heard lately is bad things, theres a couple of threads just do a search on them.

Yes, I agree that there are lots of posts here, sayig bad things about them. BUT as far as I know they just "brought in a second 100 mb/s line and needed to set up BGP / multi-home routing to ensure network redundancy".

I mean that EFS is a big and pretty known company so I belive all these downtimes were temporary and they will fix it.

Originally posted by RackMy.com
Hey Steve,

Well the saying is, you get what you pay for. You should take a look at some recent postings about them:

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?threadid=22655

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?threadid=22339

Hope that helps!

I read it. My position is that every company has downtimes while upgrading hardware or/and connection.

Actually EFS is not a big company and their not all that well known, i too have heard they were bringing in lines for redundancy but wouldnt that stop downtime, not make it worse.

how's their support?
Is it REAL 24*7?

Does anyone has an experience contacting them?

BTW, do they really charge $100 for installing an additional HDD (for example) into my server?

Originally posted by Steve_B


BTW, do they really charge $100 for installing an additional HDD (for example) into my server?

If they say there are going to charge a fee I am sure they do.

Originally posted by Steve_B
BTW, do they really charge $100 for installing an additional HDD (for example) into my server?

Their business model seems to be one where they get you in the door cheap but add-ons and services get pricey, thus making up the profits on the back-end. Makes sense to some degree, but you should cost out your projected needs over, say, a one-year term and compare those costs to a more traditional colo arrangement. Does all that $100 go toward a drive installation? Of course not: part of it, if not most of it, goes to offset the buy-down rate you're getting on bandwidth, rackspace, etc.

No insider info here, just my observation. :)

They are indeed using Cogent, and Cogent does seem crappy. Here's a snip of the traceroute:

Hop 10:
gigabitethernet6-0.ipcolo2.SanFrancisco1.Level3.net
Location: San Francisco, CA, USA
Ping: 156

Hop 11:
66.28.28.82 (Cogent Communications)
Location: ?Washington, DC
Ping: 1210

From there it ends at an average of 1217ms.

More statistics:
Roundtrip time to www.efreeservers.com (63.211.153.68) average = 1217ms min = 1184ms max = 1300ms

Glad I didn't go into a 24 month contract with them :)

I may be missing some thing but below i see no (Cogent Communications) only Level(3) that they use that i know..


Tracing route to www.efreeservers.com [63.211.153.68]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 11 ms 71 ms 12 ms 10.104.144.1
2 50 ms 15 ms 15 ms HE6-Central-GSRB-P50.cfl.rr.com [24.95.225.86]
3 11 ms 11 ms 21 ms 24.95.224.10
4 16 ms 33 ms 18 ms acr1-sonet2-0-0-0.Miami.cw.net [208.172.99.201]

5 42 ms 80 ms 42 ms acr2-loopback.Washingtondck.cw.net [206.24.226.6
2]
6 43 ms 51 ms 43 ms pos6-3.core2.Washington1.Level3.net [209.244.219
.133]
7 47 ms 39 ms 39 ms so-4-1-0.mp2.Washington1.Level3.net [209.247.10.
77]
8 119 ms 135 ms 129 ms so-2-0-0.mp1.SanFrancisco1.Level3.net [64.159.0.
242]
9 124 ms 126 ms 128 ms pos8-0.core2.SanFrancisco1.Level3.net [209.247.1
0.230]
10 116 ms 121 ms 116 ms gigabitethernet6-0.ipcolo2.SanFrancisco1.Level3.
net [209.244.14.46]
11 120 ms 128 ms 124 ms 66.28.28.82
12 123 ms 140 ms 121 ms gigabitethernet.bgp4-QwestLink.Level3.net [65.56
.42.253]
13 120 ms 146 ms 121 ms www.efreeservers.com [63.211.153.68]

Trace complete.


Also there IP block is owned by Level(3) again not (Cogent Communications)

Level 3 Communications, Inc. (NETBLK-LEVEL4-CIDR) LEVEL4-CIDR
63.208.0.0 - 63.215.255.255
Econtinents (NETBLK-NETBLOCK-1-ECONT) NETBLOCK-1-ECONT
63.211.153.64 - 63.211.153.127


The for sure thing is there site www.efreeservers.com (63.211.153.68) is not hosted on Cogent but rather Level(3) unless i missed Trace route 101 and Arin Lookup 102.. :)

A close friend of mine that used to work with the guy that owns penguin computing told me he was a total BullSh*t artist...

Originally posted by rewdog
A close friend of mine that used to work with the guy that owns penguin computing told me he was a total BullSh*t artist...


Who is? I must of missed some thing..LOL Or do you mean the owner of penguin computing?

Hop 11:

Cogent Communications (NETBLK-COGENT-NB-0000)
1015 31st Street, NW
Washington, DC 20007
US

Netname: COGENT-NB-0000
Netblock: 66.28.0.0 - 66.28.127.255
Maintainer: COGC

Coordinator:
Cogent Communications (ZC108-ARIN) noc@cogentco.com
+1-877-875-4311

The owner..

Another note, my friend worked with him quite a number of years ago, things might have changed :rolleyes:

Why does hope 12 go back to Level(3) IP's thats a little odd i think.. Yea i missed that hope... Maybe they are doing the Rev. lookup for the next ip and making it look like Level(3) as it fooled me..


Level 3 Communications, LLC (NETBLK-LC-ORG-ARIN-BLK2)
1025 Eldorado Boulevard,
Broomfield, CO 80021
US

Netname: LC-ORG-ARIN-BLK2
Netblock: 65.56.0.0 - 65.57.255.255
Maintainer: LVLT

Coordinator:
level Communications (LC-ORG-ARIN) ipaddressing@level3.com
+1 (877) 453-8353

Domain System inverse mapping provided by:

NS1.LEVEL3.NET 209.244.0.1
NS2.LEVEL3.NET 209.244.0.2

So, is it mean EFS is using Cogent instead of Level3? I have a dedicated server with them. They seems to ok for today.

Anyone experiences slow in speed at peak hour or off peak hour?

I am not sure what they are using now.. LOL I thought they were level(3) only but that IP in there at Hop 11 is for sure Cogent Communications but then the next is Level(3) so i am not sure..