I have noticed in the past 6 months prices for colocation has dropped allot. I see more and more providers, even ones that don't own their own data center compete and beat each others prices(in the adult site world mostly).

I have seen hosts offer dedicated server bandwidth as cheap out the gate if not cheaper than it costs me to colocate my own server now, really making my own machine a stupid investment which baffles me.

of course it comes down to network quality and their are tons of hosts that have their own problems from time to time and of course claim their network is the best blah blah.


But I have seen some hosts popping up using this cogentco place where from what I have seen they are buying bandwidth WAY cheaper. I have no experience with them but see people saying their network quality isn't up their.

So even if network quality is an issue how can the other guys compete with their own dedicated and colocated packages and especially paid services when hosts using this place can totally lowball you on the bandwidth costs no matter what host you go with?

I have read that cogentco bandwidth really isn't that bad. But to answer your question you are going after the wrong type of business, there is some business you want and some business you don't want. Focus your company towards clients that will make you money, don't try to compete on the fronts that you know you cannot compete with unless you come down to their level. If you want cogentco bw and a nice colo facility I would suggest affordablecolo.com they have cogent bw I believe live and pricing per rack at around $550 with power.

I know some people at cogentco from recent business work.

a) their bandwidth is impressive
b) their peering is impressive
c) their uptime has 100% -- at least high enough not to trigger my alarms. ;-)

All in all, as long as they dont' oversell their bandwidth or lose peering (or their backbone which is mostly owned by Williams) they are in good shape.

100mbit connection is $3000/month
1000mbit connection is $20000-$30000/month depending on how well you negotiate.


-davidu

Originally posted by jayglate
I would suggest affordablecolo.com they have cogent bwAffordablecolo still charges $2/Gig, when $1/Gig colo has been available for a while already (e.g. from E.FreeServers (colocation.efreeservers.com)). Taking into account Cogent's prices (www.cogentco.com/Fast/elegant_proposition.html) (100Mbps for $1,000 a month), which are 45x to 100x times lower than "traditional" providers, why do not we see colo plans with BW cost of, say, $0.02/Gig?

I am uncertain, as to AffordableColo having Cogent bandwidth. It may be available in their facility, where you would have to order a connection to Cogent, which would mean different pricing than that which is on their web site.

Also, If they are using Cogent, along with their other providers; they still need to able to make money to pay them.

Originally posted by JTY
I am uncertain, as to AffordableColo having Cogent bandwidth.

If my memory is correct, cbaker said that they had a connection from Cogent coming into their facility but they weren't going to use it until cogent's peering improved.

1. We do not use cogent at all, you have to order cogent to get it, we use only tier 1 providers right now NOT cogent.

2. Cogent does not have great peering davidU, I know all about cogent, and their peering sucks, but with the acquisition of netrail their peering should be getting good.

3. THeir bandwidth is not all that impressive as they dont have the greatest peering.

4. THey do in fact heavily oversell, in fact youll find that only about half of the bandwidth you buy will be available.

COgents getting better, but i dont think its fair to spread lies to people of this forum. I know from first hand experience what cogents like. THey have awesome prices and will soon have a nice network. Its getting better everyday but to say its the best or one of the better networks out there, well thats just funny.

dabystru,

YOu asked why were still at 2.00/gig. Number one we have a hell of a better backbone then efreeservers, efreeservers in fact uses cogent. We also bill at average billing method which gives you twice as much bandwidth for the same price. OVerall no matter how you look at it were the best and only guys in town....
Why do people not feel like they should have to pay for quality, you guys go with someone like efreeservers because their cheaper but what happens they have downtime after downtime and switch your bandwidth to cogent. You pay a little bit more you get alot more.

Well I think charles is right in many things.

I would never use cogent by any means. If your looking for cheaper bandwidth look into www.yipes.com .

I have been using them for about 7 months now, and they are very solid. Overall in 7 months, we have seen no network downtime, other then normal maintence. Actually we have seen better peering and what not over the last 7 months.

Yipes is not at cogent prices, but does offer serious quality. It took me a little bit of time to convince charles of that, but If you ask him he will probably agree with me now.

In any event, things that are too good to be true, usually are. If you want downtime, use cogent. If you dont, spend a little extra money, and make your customers happier

Joe

Originally posted by cbaker17
YOu asked why were still at 2.00/gig. Number one we have a hell of a better backbone then efreeservers, efreeservers in fact uses cogentThanks, this explaines their low pricing. I actually was wondering why nobody is quoting $0.02/gig. I guess it is possible with current Cogent proposal. The cheapest I found so far was $0.25/gig (or $150/600 GB).

Originally posted by cbaker17
1. We do not use cogent at all, you have to order cogent to get it, we use only tier 1 providers right now NOT cogent.

2. Cogent does not have great peering davidU, I know all about cogent, and their peering sucks, but with the acquisition of netrail their peering should be getting good.

3. THeir bandwidth is not all that impressive as they dont have the greatest peering.

4. THey do in fact heavily oversell, in fact youll find that only about half of the bandwidth you buy will be available.

COgents getting better, but i dont think its fair to spread lies to people of this forum. I know from first hand experience what cogents like. THey have awesome prices and will soon have a nice network. Its getting better everyday but to say its the best or one of the better networks out there, well thats just funny.

Charlie, I tend to like your posts but I don't think you read mine. I know probably just as much about them as you...don't underestimate my due dilligence on them. If you look them up in your route tables (telnet route-server.cerf.net) you'll see that they are in fact carrying a lot of transit now as well as their own bandwidth.

I never said they were the best or one of the better networks. I don't know where you pulled that from and saying I "spread lies" -- what do you mean? Please re-read my post.

I said their bandwidth is impressive. It in fact is. They are using a lot of williams fiber across their backbone and are slowly either a) switching to their own or b) buying it right out from williams.

I said their peering is impressive. We aren't talking about exodus here which makes it living on private peering -- we're talking about a new company which for being so young is actually peering at more then just the normal public peering points and PAIX's.

As to their uptime, it's been phenomenal on one of the boxes I used to manage. In fact, I have never noticed *any* downtime -- not that I would from an up-and-comming provider.

I also concluded with a caveat -- I said I that I hoped they didn't oversell bandwidth or lose peering. For such a young company they are doing quite well.

I hope you re-read my post and see what I was trying to say.

-davidu

DavidU, I tend to agree with you. From what I have seen and heard, they have a solid network for a *young* company. We are colo'ed at cari.net in SD. They just brought online an OC48 that will be used for Cogent BW. They are selling full racks for $2000 with a 10 Meg and $4000 for a 100 Meg connection. We are close to switching over to those drops. However, like Charlie eludes too, there are a few concerns. Hopefully a few months will help us decide.

Also, Charlie keeps referring to efs in a few of his post . All their problems weren't Cogent related.

damac, selling Cogent BW really isn't as easy as it seems. When they first launched, you could only get it by moving to a neutral facility like Switch and Data. To get it now at your colo, you need to commit to a large volume and the waiting list keeps growing. Charlie probably knows more about this.

Originally posted by UmBillyCord
DavidU, I tend to agree with you. From what I have seen and heard, they have a solid network for a *young* company. We are colo'ed at cari.net in SD. They just brought online an OC48 that will be used for Cogent BW. They are selling full racks for $2000 with a 10 Meg and $4000 for a 100 Meg connection. We are close to switching over to those drops. However, like Charlie eludes too, there are a few concerns. Hopefully a few months will help us decide.


Umm, you might want to call me. Switch and Data in Sorrento Valley has a far better price for 100mbits and rack.

All prices negotiable it's around:
$700/cabinet
$3000/100mbits

you're looking at similar prices, but why use a third party like cari.net and not just a carrier neutral facility. I know AT&T, Verio, and PacBell all have loops at that S&D facility and I'm sure qwest and alter.net (uu.net) are close by or already there.

As a side note, two things concern me about cogent. -- I never got a clear answer as to IP addressing. They never answered if they would advertise my routes if I had my own IPs and they never answered how many IPs they would give if I used theirs.

-davidu

Ok, everyone keeps mentioning cogent as being solid, and I compare them to Yipes who is also a very young company.

Yipes makes cogent look like nothing.


Yipes peering is global, and peered with Level 3 and UUnet. They are amazing with there hardware, using extreme networks.

I mean bandwidth from yipes is cheap and solid. As i said before Cogent just doenst do it in my book.

I compare yipes and cogent all the time, and cogent isnt even close.

Just my thought

Joe

Umm, you might want to call me. Switch and Data in Sorrento Valley has a far better price for 100mbits and rack.

Yes, I know. I have been through that NOC (as well as the InFlow NOC inside). The price is just for Cogent. I will soon be able to give my customers both Cogent and multiple-honed, standard BW, depending on what they want. Also, I am month to month with a compnay that has been profitable since day one. I can also say that after 2 1/2 years, the uptime is at 99.99%.

Another advantage. I get unlimited, manual reboots and all the power needed for that rack included.

I was very pleased with S&D. They have a nice noc. However, it was empty (~10 used at the time). With all the consolidation going on, I want to be with someone that won't pull the rug.