I searched, found a thread from October where they were having some problems with a BGP upgrade but I don't remember seeing a negative or positive comment about them since then, except for one guy trying to get someone to take over his server in the sale forum.

They're offering me a nice deal, basically it's only $94 more a month than a Rackshack RaQ4i, it has 512 megs of ram and 2 30 gig drives (so it's a good bit more outfitted than a RaQ4i) and after 20 months I own the hardware.

Is anyone using or was using EFS for their site? If you are how do you like it, if you were but aren't now why did you leave?

How do they rate compared to RackShack?

Thanks

I set up a colo with them on Dec 15. I have had zero problems so far. The guy that runs the place, Jacques, has always been extremely helpful.

I faxed in my info this morning, how long did it take for them to set you up?

I've got a server at RackShack that has 5 new corrupted directories today it didn't have 3 days ago, 2 of them are "static" directories that aren't in use so I want to get this new server setup ASAP to get the customers off of the RS server and have it looked at.

Well, I built my own server (Supermicro) and took it up there myself, so setup was immediate. If you purchase the server through them, I have no idea how long it will take.

I have a server located with them. I have not had any problems the past few months after they got their bgp setup.

Went ahead and signed up today, I'm nearly done configuring the server already!

Everything has gone very well and very quick. I'm quite impressed, they've even already responded to my request for my IP to reverse dns to what I want it to. Much faster than RackShack who I am using for my other servers.

I hope it stays as good, so far I'm pretty impressed over all.

Please keep us updated.

Originally posted by RutRow
The guy that runs the place, Jacques, has always been extremely helpful.

You're spot on there. Very highly recommended.

Gary

He was very nice to me. Though I got put off when there was that downtime, also when they said i'd have to wait more than a month to get my server. Then last of all Cogent made that deal with exchangecolo, and routes started showing cogent hostnames. I'm not sure exactly if EFS were using cogent, or if it was something that happened to the internal datacenter hostnames because of the partnership. I never found out, it may have been discussed in another thread though.

Originally posted by NetXL
I'm not sure exactly if EFS were using cogent, or if it was something that happened to the internal datacenter hostnames because of the partnership.

EFS are using cogent and cogent only.

Originally posted by energy


EFS are using cogent and cogent only.

Correct me if i'm wrong, but doesnt this show that i'm being routed through Level3?


13 241 ms 240 ms 240 ms p1-0.lsanca2-cr2.bbnplanet.net [4.25.112.1]
14 220 ms 220 ms 231 ms pos6-1.core1.LosAngeles1.Level3.net [209.0.227.5
7]
15 241 ms 240 ms 240 ms so-4-0-0.mp1.LosAngeles1.Level3.net [209.247.10.
193]
16 231 ms 230 ms 230 ms so-2-0-0.mp2.SanFrancisco1.Level3.net [64.159.0.
217]
17 230 ms 231 ms 240 ms pos9-0.core2.SanFrancisco1.Level3.net [209.247.1
0.238]
18 241 ms 250 ms 250 ms gige6-0.ipcolo2.SanFrancisco1.Level3.net [209.24
4.14.46]
19 220 ms 230 ms 221 ms sfo-eci.bgp4-Level3.StreamNode.net [66.28.28.22]

20 230 ms 230 ms 241 ms gigabitethernet.bgp4-QwestLink.Level3.net [65.56
.42.253]
21 230 ms 231 ms 230 ms www.efreeservers.com [63.211.153.68]

Originally posted by NetXL


Correct me if i'm wrong, but doesnt this show that i'm being routed through Level3?

19 220 ms 230 ms 221 ms sfo-eci.bgp4-Level3.StreamNode.net [66.28.28.22]



66.28.28.22 is an IP on the cogent network. 66.28.0.0 - 66.28.255.255 belongs to Cogent.


Let me know if you want more proof.

One hop of Cogent would be a bit odd wouldnt it?

19 220 ms 230 ms 221 ms sfo-eci.bgp4-Level3.StreamNode.net [66.28.28.22]

The beginning of the hostname includes ECI too, econtinents. How does this work, if it was routed through Cogent, wouldnt it have a few more hops of cogent, and why would the hostname include ECI? I'm not trying to prove you wrong, just a little confused as to how they work.

Originally posted by NetXL
One hop of Cogent would be a bit odd wouldnt it?



No, it's not odd. My guess is that they have it all setup this way so people will not know that they are on cogent by just doing a traceroute.

Here is a traceroute from a server on the EFS network to you (4.25.112.1).

traceroute to 4.25.112.1 (4.25.112.1), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets
2 65.56.42.254 (65.56.42.254) 0.209 ms
3 f5.ba01.b003070-2.sfo01.atlas.cogentco.com (66.28.28.81) 3.404 ms
4 g1-4.core02.sfo01.atlas.cogentco.com (66.28.66.141) 4.106 ms
5 p15-0.core01.den01.atlas.cogentco.com (66.28.4.129) 64.263 ms
6 p5-0.core01.mci01.atlas.cogentco.com (66.28.4.30) 64.228 ms
7 p5-0.core02.ord01.atlas.cogentco.com (66.28.4.34) 82.173 ms
8 p6-0.core02.jfk02.atlas.cogentco.com (66.28.4.85) 82.095 ms
9 p14-0.core01.phl01.atlas.cogentco.com (66.28.4.2) 108.961 ms
10 sl-bb10-pen-6-1.sprintlink.net (160.81.202.17) 81.789 ms
11 sl-bb20-pen-5-2.sprintlink.net (144.232.5.17) 82.194 ms
12 sl-bb20-nyc-13-0.sprintlink.net (144.232.18.38) 82.150 ms
13 sl-bb22-nyc-8-0.sprintlink.net (144.232.7.106) 82.107 ms
14 144.232.18.206 (144.232.18.206) 81.929 ms 81.821 ms
15 p6-0.nycmny1-nbr1.bbnplanet.net (4.24.11.130) 82.051 ms
16 p15-0.nycmny1-nbr2.bbnplanet.net (4.24.10.210) 82.164 ms
17 p9-0.phlapa1-br1.bbnplanet.net (4.24.10.177) 83.805 ms
18 p9-0.iplvin1-br1.bbnplanet.net (4.24.10.182) 261.521 ms
19 p15-0.iplvin1-br2.bbnplanet.net (4.24.10.154) 76.898 ms
20 p9-0.crtntx1-br1.bbnplanet.net (4.24.10.213) 80.482 ms
21 p15-0.crtntx1-br2.bbnplanet.net (4.24.10.114) 80.483 ms
22 p9-0.lsanca2-br2.bbnplanet.net (4.24.5.61) 78.673 ms
23 p15-0.lsanca2-br1.bbnplanet.net (4.24.5.45) 78.759 ms
24 p1-0.lsanca2-cr2.bbnplanet.net (4.25.112.1) 78.853 ms

I've done programming work for a guy who has 4 servers hosted at EFreeServers.com. Their network is good and the price is good ($1 per GB for colocation, $300 minimum last I checked). My only complaint about them is that their NOC is *not* 24/7 staffed. If the server goes down and doesn't come back up on a weekend, he has to call EFreeServers and they'll get a tech into the NOC within 1 hour to fix it.

EFS does have a Level 3 connection which they're mainly using for incoming connections because they obviously don't want people to know that their outgoing traffic mainly goes through Cogent (for obvious reasons).
This hop:

19 220 ms 230 ms 221 ms sfo-eci.bgp4-Level3.StreamNode.net [66.28.28.22]
is mislabeled and I'm wondering why Cogent put up such a reverse DNS entry. Anyway, they're apparently routing their traffic from the Level 3 pipe to their router which has a Cogent IP.

This has the advantage that they can tell new customers that they're using Level 3, which they can verify with a traceroute, while not letting them know that the traffic that is sent from their network to the internet goes through Cogent. It's a simple but efficient trick which helps them save money as the outgoing traffic of a webhosting company is virtually always much higher than the incoming traffic, for which they gladly pay a few bucks to Level 3.

But it's a little misleading! :(

Our network is connected to a 100 percent fiber, OC-192 nonblocking global backbone via Level 3 and Qwest with diversely redundant and dedicated multi OC-48 Metro Area Network (MAN) rings. I don't see Cogent, do you?

Don't you guys think it's a kind of dishonest to their customer?

Originally posted by maxbear
Don't you guys think it's a kind of dishonest to their customer?

Let's face it, anyone signing up for 200G transfer for $199 probably can just guess that Cogent is likely involved somewhere :D

Here's hoping Cogent doesn't go dot-com on us!

For 1.00/gig it doesnt have to be cogent. Efreeservers is just dishonest.

Knocking on wood as I write this..

Ya, I am just a short timer with Efree, but so far I have had ZERO problems. Personally I don't care if they go through Cogent or Joe-schmoe-backbone. As long as the BW is there with no PL and no down time, I am happy. I especially like the fact that I pay for actual BW used, not the 95th percentile BS. Every phone call and email to Efree was quickly responded to. Oh yeah, and if things DO go sour, no contract for me... just month to month. The most I am out is one month service fee.

I am only a short hop from Efree, so my requirement are different than many of you. I can quickly move around if needed. I am not sure how I would colo if I had to ship my server somewhere, but I may be able to answer that question a few months from now.

It's really not necessary or appropriate to be calling competitors dishonest in the forum (regardless of how strongly you feel that is the case). Let others take the role of critic. Your company can certainly stand on its own reputation and thats the way it should be.

My momma once told me....when you put someone else down you take yourself down as well.

While I don't have any problem with customers of various providers offering both facts and opinions here, I will abstain (regardless of how much I want to make comments) from posting negative comments about my competitors.

Originally posted by cbaker17
For 1.00/gig it doesnt have to be cogent. Efreeservers is just dishonest.

Dishonesty implies they claim not to be on Cogent when they are in fact on Cogent.

http://www.efreeservers.com/network.htm

Hmm well they don't say they are on it either :D

Wouldn't using Level 3 for incoming and Cogent for outgoing be a good thing? At least your requests and dns lookups and incoming stuff is handled on the really quick (I hope) Level 3 network and then the data comes to you over the slightly slower Cogent which would at least alleviate some of the slowness people claim with Cogent?

Well there's nothing wrong with using Cogent. Cogent's got an excellent network, but has got a bad reputation because other hosts that are locked into multiple year contracts with the traditional carriers want to keep their business as well.

Actually using Level 3 for incoming traffic and Cogent for outgoing traffic has virtually no effect on your data's speed. Even DNS queries etc have to be returned by EfreeServers for which they use Cogent, so it's really just a marketing trick to increase sales.

Excellent network? Far from it compared to the big boys. But they do have an impressive network for being so young. Impressive doesnt exactly mean its fast, while some part of it are fast there are many cogestion points in their network. Furthermore what you should really be concerned about is their financial situation. I know what that is first hand, and it doesnt look good.

Cant really complain about cogent speed when your paying like 10.00.mbps but providers should advertise to their customers what their real network is.

Well there's nothing wrong with using Cogent. Cogent's got an excellent network, but has got a bad reputation because other hosts that are locked into multiple year contracts with the traditional carriers want to keep their business as well. Funny :)

Originally posted by maxbear
Don't you guys think it's a kind of dishonest to their customer?

Yes, and thats the number 1 reason I will never go with them. I was really looking at them for awhile, they have a really good deal according to there marketing. But I wont wont spend hundreds of dollars a month to a company I dont trust...

Has anyone thought of this?

The reason why there site may not say it is cogent is maybe they haven't updated their website because they are so busy filling orders. I know plenty of hosts on here that don't update their sites.

Here is what I can say about efree

I have a colocated server out there and we use around 200 - 250 gb a month. We are hosting a lyris mailing list server with over 800,000 members on the server. The server sends mail out at blazing speed, our server can send up to 100,000 messages per hour and right now it sends about 97K, when we were with another host we were lucky to get 65K-70K an hour. No changes in setup other than moving the server. Actually our other server was a rented one with dual processors, this one only has 1 and it is a slower processor.

You can check out http://www.2guys-ezines.com that is the domain that is hosted with efree.

I don't see any real lying going on, at least has anyone asked them "do you use Cogent" and recieved a negative reply? So far I have no complaints, I don't care who my data goes through as long as it gets to its destination and gets there relatively quickly.