Thank you for this excellent forum. It's overwhelming!!!

I currently have a dedicated server with Interland and I want to leave and purchase my own servers. I'm going to buy two Dell servers (a 4U and 2U) for SQL / Web from Dell (6450 / 2550).

I don't care where in the US the collocation provider is, however Dallas would be towards the top of the list.

Can you please rank the top 5 recommended collocation providers that you recommend?

My needs:
[list=1]
Host a 4U and 2U server
good bandwidth (i.e. 100mbit connection, but good speed)
50GB bandwidth allotment or greater (150GB preferred)
Reputable, secure, redundant
Price range of <= $600/month
[/list=1]

Thanks in advance for any advice you can shed. I'm new to collocation, just spent the last hour + reading these forums, but it's just a ton to digest!

Neal

http://www.affordablecolo.com hosts some servers in dallas and have a good rep.

For more expensive http://www.rackmy.com seem to be excellent.

VenturesOnline :)

http://www.venturesonline.com/hosting/colocation.html

http://www.venturesonline.com/network/network.html

http://www.venturesonline.com/network/noc.html

never had problems with VO support :)

VO seems very nice and you do hear great things about them here, but you might want to wait until they move out of Verio and get all the kinks worked out in the new place :)

Four providers you might search throughout the forum for info on are affordablecolo.com, lightone.net, efreeservers.com, and venturesonline.com.

<<MOD NOTE: There was a post removed, which the below was a reply to>>

Hmmm, they don't look good to me, they even state their business is web site design, so they are not even committed to colo as a business! Probably just taking on people to offset their data center costs. I don't know, I'll inquire, but first impression is not good.

And now that I've read your signature block, I can read even more into this, good job with the attempted advertising, looks like it backfired on you this time!

I would recommend rackmy.com. I've had a ton of problems in the past with hosting companies, and was skeptical of the service I would receive colocating.

The service has been incredible, the bandwidth plentiful, and the uptime has been great. (unlike some of the other places advertised here).

Their pricing is great. Going with a cheaper host would be a bad idea, and probably cost you more money in the long run.