Okay, something has just comeup to my attention that has me quite concerned.

I am leasing a cobalt raq4 system from a company who shall at the moment remain nameless (due to leagalities), but my dilema is this, I am leasing a raq4, and as far as I know the raq4 has a 450mhz processor. Okay, I telnet into the box and issue a dmesg command and am shown that the processor is not a 450mhz processor but a 300mhz processor.

As I now understand from reading up on this in the cobalt list group, you can indeed use the raq4's restore cd on a raq3, making it appear for all purposes that it is a raq4, unless you do a diagnostic dump in the control panel or do a dmesg in telnt to see what the cpu is, which in my case states that it is a 300mhz cpu.

Im now at the point of high frustration that I am being led to believe that my server is a raq4 (which again should come with a 450mhz processor) when in reality it seems that my server is only a spoofing raq4 and really a raq3 by looking at the processor speed.

If anyone on here has a true cobalt raq4 or at least believes so, could you do a diagnostic dump and see what the processor speed says. I'd be interested in hearing from a few cobalt server owners to see what the general concensus is about this issue and whethere *any* of you that think they have a raq4 has a processor speed higher than 300mhz.

Thanks for the assist.

Best to all,
Bbox

The raq4's all have a processor speed of 450mhz, ive never run across any diagnostic that says its a 300mhz, only on the raq2's and 3's. SO to cut this short, theres a 99.99999999999999 percent chance you have a raq 2 or 3 if thats the case please let us know what company you bought it from as soon as possible, so others dont make the same mistake.

Okay heres what my diagnostic dump states, and I may have misread it or dont know how to read it, but here goes:

CobaltDiag::cat /var/log/dmesg
Linux version 2.2.14C11 (root@adrian1.cobalt.com) (gcc version 2.95.2 19991024 (release)) #2 Wed Jun 28 00:55:51 PDT 2000
Ignoring bogus EBDA pointer 3FFF000
Detected 298812989 Hz processor.
Calibrating delay loop... 596.38 BogoMIPS

Doesn't this mean that I have a 300mhz processor?

Before I go naming any names Im awaiting a response from the hosting company regarding this matter as well as any other party on here that has a raq4 and is willing to tell us what theirs says!

But am I reading it correctly, doesnt the above statement refer to the cpu processor?

Okay Im now ready to state who my hosting company is:

COBALTRACKS.COM

Heres what I have found out, on a true raq4i someone did the cpuinfo test and got the following:

processor : 0
vendor_id : AuthenticAMD
cpu family : 5
model : 8
model name : AMD-K6(tm) 3D processor
stepping : 12
cpu MHz : 448.210
cache size : 64 KB
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
sep_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 1
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr mce cx8 sep mtrr pge mmx 3dnow
bogomips : 894.57
temperature : 33.5


I did the same command: cat /proc/cpuinfo

And received back:

[root admin]# cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
vendor_id : AuthenticAMD
cpu family : 5
model : 8
model name : AMD-K6(tm) 3D processor
stepping : 12
cpu MHz : 298.812989
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
sep_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 1
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr mce cx8 sep mtrr pge mmx 3dnow
bogomips : 596.38
temperature : 23.5

This tells me that what cobaltracks is doing is using the restore cd from a cobalt raq4 on my and possibly others raqs that are actually raq3's because of the cpu speed. This means not only are they ripping me off, but they are ripping off chiliasp since that is installed on my server, andif my server is truly only a raq3, then I am obligated to pay out $800.00 for a license to chiliasp to use it on my server. While I can not say that I am 100% positive that indeed cobaltracks.com is using the restore cd from a raq4 on raq3's to make them look like raq4's I can say that there are more than myself that have signed up for a cobalt raq4 and have a server with a 300mhz processor.

This is totaly uncalled for and fraud, they are advertising raq 4i's not raq 3's. I am down right pissed off at the moment and will consider legal actions against them for consumer fraud, perhaps some sor tof class action is necessary for all parties involved as they do have quite a few servers over there, who knows.

Im off to look at some other hosts right now, Im pulling my account from these scammers right away, this is ridiculous, I advise any other CR customers to telnet into your boxes and issue the command listed above and see if you signed up for a cobalt raq4i or 4r that you are getting what you are paying for, I can only truly speak for myself, and I am not getting what I am paying for!

Bbox

-yes you can use a raq4 restore cd on a raq 3
-no you can not upgrade the cpu in a raq 3
-yes the dmesg you have is from a raq 3
-that has got to be the slimest thing ive ever heard of from a host.
you might want to contact Paul O'Rourke [paul@cobalt.com]
he is the north west regional sales manager for cobalt, but he does care about what is happening with cobalt. im sure he would put a stop to something like that asap, as it wouldnt reflect well on Cobalt if their systems are being used in such a way.

Steve

Thanks Keeg for the email address of paul, I have just now left a message on the sales phone number for Cobalt Racks explaining that I think it's fraud that they took my money knowing good and well that I signed up for a 4i and put me on a 3i with the 4i software installed. I am awaiting a response from them, If I hear nothing by Monday afternoon I will write to paul at cobalt and explain the situation to him and see what he has to say.

Best regards,
Bbox

WOW! I was going to tell you do cat /proc/cpuinfo, which you have already done.

I can't believe a host would be so naive to think that someone wouldn't explore their server and find this out. The first thing most people do when they get a dedicated server is check the specs. So if they have done this on purpose, then not only are they slimy, but they are stupid as well.

I hope you figure all this out and let us know how it goes. Please post any response you get from CR.

Thanks, I have to think that when 5 others have the same exact situation as evidenced on the cobalt users list, that this was an intentional "oversight" on their part!

Im sure that they will be all more than willing to move us to the proper server, but no way Jose, you tricked us, we dont trust you, we will never trust you again, you deserve to end up in court for fraud. To me this is a serious offense, to take someones trust and throw it away.

It will certainly make me extremely leary to find the next provider which Im looking for now. I only thank my lucky stars that I only have to move 20 sites to a new server, it could have been so much worse, I could have found out after we put 150 clients on the server.

I'll let you know if CR comes up with anything of interest.

Bbox

I personally have never heard a single good thing about cobalt racks, I think just about every thread on here has been negative. Im just suprised they could think they would actually get away with it...

I've run the tests on our "RAQ4i" with cobaltracks and got the same results as you and the others who have been posting on the cobalt list.

Based on the information here that the CPUs on a RAQ3 cant be upgraded, that would make the accusations flying around sound believable to say the least.

I'll be talking to cobalt on Monday regarding MAC and serial numbers to hear what they say on the allegations floating around.

I have just got off the phone with cobalt.com and their tech support department.

They investigated my box, they logged into my admin panel, and at first stated that I have a raq4, I asked how they came to this conclusion, and the lady said that she went to the admin panel, then the control panel and the install software and it states that i have a raq4 system release.

I explained to her that I have done a cpu info test, and that it reports that I have a 300mhz processor. She put me on hold, and came back and stated that I am on a raq3 not a raq4.

She also stated that if Im signed up for a raq4i then Im not getting what Im paying for, which is a raq4i, she went on to state that it's the hardware that you are paying for when you lease or purchase a raq4.

She also said that my system is running excessively slow. I explained to her that that is normal, afterall it's 9am here in california and it IS cobaltracks.com who is my provider and they do run slow multiple times per day.

So the end result is that they (cobaltrack.com) advertises a raq4i on their home page for 99.00 per month for the first three months, then 199.00 thereafter, and you are not getting a raq4i, you are getting a raq3 with the software to a raq4 put on it.

She is going to report it to the sales department, dont know what will happen with that, she has given me a ticket number to document the conversation and results should I need one, should I decide to follow through and sue them for consumer fraud.

My solemn advise: Steer way clear of cobaltrack.com and or cobaltracks.com as they are misrepresenting what you are getting. I have received quite a few complaints from others that have done the cpu info test and gotten the same results.

I have also put in a call to cobaltracks.com to see what can be done to rectify this situation to avoid bringing up charges of fraud and another lawsuite. I only managed to get Tom Surmiaks voice mail. He has till 3:00pm pst today to return my call before I signup for a server at 4webspace.com and move all the sites over there and proceed with other options that may be available to me.

It's pretty lame that you call a sales department and get voice mail, that is the sign of an unorganized understaffed company, that should IMHO not be operating at all.

Bbox

[Edited by brainbox on 12-04-2000 at 01:30 PM]

I also signed up with CobaltRacks for the RaQ4 3 month special. I have been testing the system with NetMechanic's Server watch and had results from bad to fair. Mostly bad. It registers in the bottom 20% of all their monitored servers.

I am now going to check my server stats to see if I also have a RaQ3 disguised as a RaQ4.

But I'm curious as to what happened to anyone who discovered they were ripped off this way. Did Cobalt nail them? Did anybody nail them? Did anybody get their money back? Or get switched to a true RaQ4 server? Did anybody get satisfaction? Is CobaltRacks still operating this fraudulent way?

Thanks,
Maxine

p.s. I'm now looking at 4webhosting.com as they have a similar price. I read all the posts about them and they seem to be Ok. Any more thoughts on them?

As far as I know, they admitted their mistake to cobalt, blamed it on some automation problem, and that was the end of the afair with cobalt and cobalt racks.

I do know that theydid switch over anyone that found out that they were on a raq3, when supposed to be on a raq4.

Personally, I left them, got a full refund (well, I assume I got a full refund, I still havn't checked my cc statement), and moved over to 4webhosting.com's raq3 server.
While a raq3 admin panel isn't nearly as complete as the raq4's you can still do what you need via telnet and hand editing the conf files necessary to do what you want.

I am very happy with the service (though Im one of those people that rarely needs tech support, unless something major comes up, or at least in the beginning to figure out what makes the server tick), but their tech support Steve, is superb in answering quick questions and I've always gotten back replies from him, sometimes it seems in the middle of the night, perhaps he's a nightowl like myself, often times working well into the dawn.

In any event, For a while CR pulled the raq4 special and replaced it with a raq3 special, perhaps they knew that they now had an abundance of raq3 servers laying around and needed to put the special on them.

I dont know what the pricing is on the raq4 from 4webhosting.com since they didnt offer one when i signed up a couple of months ago.

I do know that even though my server is up in Canada and Im in So. California, I get excellent ping and tracerts to my server, often times even heading down below 100, whereas with my old server on CR, i was lucky to get a ping or traceroute less than 240.

If you happy with the CR server, then stay with them, if not then shop around, 4webhosting.com (while I fully endorse them) are not the only ones around, though in my opinion are the best priced and best supported service for hosting.

Bbox