It is with great regret that we inform you of our decision to cancel bandwidth services with Qwest Communications. Both E.FreeServers and Qwest reached a mutual agreement that our bandwidth utilization at this time does not justify the needs to carry a third 100Mbps ethernet line. Our engineering team has made arrangement with Level 3 to add capacity to our current inventory to accomodate the transfer of your server to Level 3. The new IPs for your server are as follow:

The transfer will begin at 5:00 pm (PST) on Monday, February 4, 2002. Please take this time to update the DNS information for your domains to reflect the new IPs. We'll also need to you provide us with login information (including root password) so that our engineer can make these update on your server for you. To compensate for potential downtime during this transition, we will issue reimbursement up to 50% on your next invoice.

Our sincere apology for this unexpected announcement. We simply overestimated the demand for bandwidth from our customers and the cost factor of the current Qwest connection is not warranted at this time. As always, your continuing support is greatly appreciated.



Anyone else with efree get a similar message?

Originally posted by gagsplus
It is with great regret that we inform you of our decision to cancel bandwidth services with Qwest Communications.
[...]
We'll also need to you provide us with login information (including root password) so that our engineer can make these update on your server for you.
[...]

I'd be becareful with giving root to someone .... especially you should make sure, the email really origins from your provider, and then find a safer way to provide them with the needed information ...
Just to add .... I also don't see any need of giving them the root pwd, as you should be able to change the ip's on your own.

Greets

True
if anything
they just need to know who you are, and what your server ips are.

No root pass should be needed.

I wonder why they are getting more bandwidth from Level3, they push everything out Cogent? Hum...

Originally posted by RackMy.com
I wonder why they are getting more bandwidth from Level3, they push everything out Cogent? Hum...

Someone might want to tell them to update their network page. They mention Level 3, Qwest, and Telseon, but there is no mention of Cogent. I thought Mike had lost his mind, then I did a traceroute:

traceroute to www.efreeservers.com (63.211.153.68), 30 hops max, 38 byte packets
1 f4-1-rt2.minerva.net (206.131.224.1) 1.291 ms 0.466 ms 0.419 ms
2 f0-0-rt1.minerva.net (206.131.224.193) 1.499 ms 1.324 ms 1.289 ms
3 500.Serial1-11.GW4.TCO1.ALTER.NET (65.207.88.5) 3.453 ms 3.502 ms 3.036 ms
4 118.at-0-0-0.XR2.TCO1.ALTER.NET (152.63.39.26) 3.285 ms 3.885 ms 3.528 ms
5 292.at-1-1-0.XR2.DCA6.ALTER.NET (152.63.33.65) 4.603 ms 4.652 ms 4.980 ms
6 0.so-1-3-0.XL2.DCA6.ALTER.NET (152.63.35.118) 4.886 ms 6.146 ms 5.280 ms
7 POS7-0.BR1.DCA6.ALTER.NET (152.63.38.109) 4.510 ms 4.419 ms 4.538 ms
8 204.255.169.38 (204.255.169.38) 19.968 ms 10.952 ms 5.151 ms
9 ae0-54.mp2.Washington1.Level3.net (64.159.18.98) 5.187 ms 5.134 ms 9.742 ms
10 so-2-0-0.mp1.SanFrancisco1.Level3.net (64.159.0.242) 82.119 ms 82.140 ms 81
.991 ms
11 pos8-0.core2.SanFrancisco1.Level3.net (209.247.10.230) 102.493 ms 87.802 ms
100.254 ms
12 gige6-0.ipcolo2.SanFrancisco1.Level3.net (209.244.14.46) 75.184 ms 75.212 ms
75.244 ms
13 eContinents.demarc.cogentco.com (66.28.28.82) 80.053 ms 80.262 ms 79.979 ms
14 gigabitethernet.bgp4-QwestLink.Level3.net (65.56.42.253) 81.567 ms 84.097 ms
81.340 ms
15 www.efreeservers.com (63.211.153.68) 80.856 ms 81.113 ms 99.509 ms


I guess eContinents runs the data center where efreeservers houses their equipment (or they are a subsidiary, or whatever). But what is interesting is that on the eContinents network page they say:


OC-48 fiber-optic connections to multiple Tier 1 backbone providers (Level 3, Qwest, UUNET, MFS, etc).


I guess Cogent is an etc :D.

well, what did you expect they sell bandwidth for less than a dollar a gig, they most likley haave to be using cogent

Originally posted by 311
well, what did you expect they sell bandwidth for less than a dollar a gig, they most likley haave to be using cogent

Yea, but they also have a minimum 300Gig order. Based on the last quotes I have seen for Level 3, it is possible to make money with the types of minimum they charge. Of course a lot of that would be dependent on them playing the bandwidth game, of expecting most of their customers to not use the full 300 gigs.

good point ya got there

uuallan, someone posted here that eFree pushes everything out Cogent. They seem to make the incoming by making it look like Level3, but going out (which is the most important) is all Cogent.

Not saying it's good or bad. I don't want to get ripped on ;)

They shoudnt even list telseon, telseon is a "local loop" carrier iot doesnt provide internet access that im aware of, they should only have listed level3 and cogent, and they dont even advertise they have cogent.

So you guys are paying 2.00/gig?? (if my memory serves me right) for bandwidth that costs then .10 or .20 cents a gig when you factor in cogent)

I feel sorry for you. Seems as if their misleading current customers as well as prospective customers

I think they signed a 6month contract with qwest...then they went with cogent and started pumping it all out that, never even using the qwest....another link from level3? ha more like another line from cogent.

So you guys are paying 2.00/gig?? (if my memory serves me right) for bandwidth that costs then .10 or .20 cents a gig when you factor in cogent)

I really can't wait to see what these guys do when (if) Cogent goes under. No other gig-e provider comes close to the pricing Cogent gives. Their margins are going to shrink like me swimming in Arctic Ocean.

This is by no means a fear just with Cogent, but rather my greatest overall fear in this business. In fact, a fear I would have in any business.

When your suppliers are not profitable, it can't continue indefinitely. And, in this business, too many of our suppliers have never shown profitability-at least in the area they are supplying us. You might say...yes, but they support it with other profits. However, less and less are companies willing to do that...look at AT&T deciding to get out of broadband...Verio's cutbacks, the way AOL/Time Warner have cut back many of their divisions.

That is why we will never in this day and age commit to any single vendor for any service or product. We have 5 NOC's instead of 1 for just that reason. It is much like investing where the key is diversification. Except, here all the choices have some significant questions hanging over them.

We talk about the loss of Qwest as an option at efreeservers.com and that is justified as they have eliminated one carrier. However, others do come into the facility which is carrier neutral. But, Cogent vs. Qwest vs. Level3 vs. Time Warner vs. Savvis vs. Verio vs. whomever...as far as financial stability and knowing they will still be in this business and providing services for today's prices a year from now, frankly, I don't have an overwhelming confidence in any of them.

And, we are part of the problem. We want lower and lower and lower costs...which, legitimately, we must have to remain competitive as long as someone is providing them. But, this house of cards is sitting very dangerously in the wind. And, even though I have over 20 years experience at the CEO and CFO level, I can't even make a reasonable guess as to who will go when. For instance, Global Crossing just declared bankruptcy....but it wasn't too long ago USWest was going to acquire them and all was going to be wonderful.

So, guess we all just have to keep contingency plans ready for whatever takes place.

I agree with much of what your saying incognito and yes it is true any company can go out of business no matter how big or stable they seem. The problem with cogent though and why they have such an unstable business model, is they knowingly sell bandwidth at a loss. Their business model revolves around all their traffic staying on their network, and hope that the traffic that did leave their network wasnt more then they had available. Their selling a product on ifs and maybes which isnt the way to run a business, now their in a position where almost none of their traffic stays on their network, and their finding that their spending a ton of money on nationwide transit providers. Last time i heard specs and im sure their different now but they were making like 90,000.00 a month in revenue and spending like almost a mill...

Nothing wrong with using cogent, but their general business plan sets them up for loss... While their competitors like level3 qwest etc may not be making money, they have a viable business plan...

Agree with you partially.

But the proof is in the pudding.

And so far its difficult to call the others' business plans viable too. For instance, Level3 may be closer to profitability, but they are also closer to being out of funds...and not picking on them. I hope they all succeed. It will certainly benefit us.