I am very interested in rackshacks services. Has anyone used them that would like to make some comments on their support and uptime? Please I only want to hear from people with personal experiences. I would have searched the boards but like most hosting companies they have progressed over time so I want some comments on their services recently. Any comments at all are appreciated. Thanks!

Originally posted by fractiousws
I am very interested in rackshacks services. Has anyone used them that would like to make some comments on their support and uptime? Please I only want to hear from people with personal experiences. I would have searched the boards but like most hosting companies they have progressed over time so I want some comments on their services recently. Any comments at all are appreciated. Thanks!

Rackshack Breakdown:

Prices = Out of this world!
Uptime = Pretty Damn Good
Support = You better know what your doing because they dont.

Pretty raw breakdown, but it is much appreciated ;) Anybody else?

I would have to second OKIHost, that just about sums up our experience.

To add to that these servers are unmanaged meaning that you must do all server admin tasks. But lucky for you they do a lot of things not covered by there TOS and actually (but rarely) help you and sometimes go into the "managing" category. Free of charge as well... other companies charge in $100s per hour...

Even if you don't have a decent knowledge of Linux but are willing to learn than you can most likely handle... be sure to go with the systems that come with a control panel though...

Search the boards. RackShack is quite a major topic of discussion.

Our whitebox with only 20+ sites and with server load range from 0.00 to 0.10 crash almost every 8 hours. We had make 10 reboots in 1 week. We had check all the error,access log and messages. No weird script events or anything we notice. I do not see any reason why the server crash so much. Our cobalt are much much stronger that the whitebox. Until now, i do regret getting a whitebox from rackshack.

Well, this post may be somewhat biased as I've just spent the better part of two days in their support IRC channel.

Rackshack has excellent service as far as network connectivity and stability is concerned. I've been a customer for almost a year now, and I've not seen a dropout for more than an hour or two. I also run two Quake3 servers on one of the boxes, to which players get excellent ping times. Transferring files over the internet, I see my servers getting over 500kps outbound.

One of the nice things, in my opinion, is that you're not paying for huge licensing fees for webbased control panels. In fact, just recently they put some new packages online that don't even use a control panel--it's a straight RedHat 7.1 installation. This would be great for me, since I prefer the versatility of working straight in the config files rather than being limited to what a particular control panel would allow and not allow you to do.

The major downside is this: Rackshack makes their money from high setup fees and no service contracts. As a result, they probably have a high customer turnaround. People go in thinking, "hey, I can be a webhosting company too" but end up realizing they don't know anything about linux, and damn if the support techs will help you.

What it comes down to, as mentioned in an earlier reply, you're essentially on your own. The moment you login and start configuring the system to fit your company, they are unable per company policy to recommend or help resolve any problems you might come across. That is, if you're questions aren't being ignored in the first place.

Even that is managable though. What is not, and getting back to the subject at hand, is when there is a hardware fault. The problem I'm trying to work through right now, is my third server I purchased through them was broken from the very beginning. Only thing was, it was an intermittent lockup, and I couldn't reproduce the problem. And no amount of talking to them on the phone, through IRC, or through trouble tickets could convince them it wasn't something I screwed up. Two weeks and a dozen reboots later, I finally gave in to them and got a software restore so I could at least prove that it was acting like this when I first leased it. Wouldn't you know, it crashed again.

I believe that the problem here is that many of the technical support people are undertrained, overworked, or just generally don't care. I might be wrong on that last part, but this is just the impression I'm getting. The solution to everything is a trouble ticket, which ultimately gets forwarded on to the Data Center, which the customers have no direct contact with. In effect, the technical support team has no power whatsoever. They'll quickly glance at a ticket, shrug it off to another guy, where it will go up a ladder as Somebody Else's Problem until the ticket is closed without any of the required work being completed. This is so frustrating when you think something is about to be fixed, but then the resolution response is completely different than what you asked for. Just to be fair though, they're excellent at doing restores, reboots, or adding new IPs.

I write this as hour eight draws on, waiting to hear some form of reply as to what is happening with this machine. I was told on the phone that the best way to get this fixed quickly would be to cancel the account and open a new one. Yes, new setup fees apply. No, no refund on the previous account. The sad part is, I'm not even close to being the only one with this problem. Even during the offhours tonight in the IRC support channel, there have been five seperate people telling the same sob story as this one. It seems to be very hit or miss with the AMD Duron Packages I, II, or III. I've got one that functions, and one that doesn't. This is just one problem in many; I've had another issue with them I've been passing trouble tickets at for months, and I doubt it'll ever get fixed. I don't foresee this one ever easily getting fixed, either.

Any potential customers, I recommend sitting in the IRC support channel for awhile and seeing what you're getting into. If you like what you see, great. Keep a running tally of exactly how many voiced or opped people actually resolve something versus support garnered from other customers who are idling bored in the channel. In the end, hosting with RS has a lot of nice rewards, but it can also be a complete nightmare.

-td

Originally posted by tbdye
I write this as hour eight draws on, waiting to hear some form of reply as to what is happening with this machine. I was told on the phone that the best way to get this fixed quickly would be to cancel the account and open a new one. Yes, new setup fees apply. No, no refund on the previous account.

That's out and out fraud. You never received what you paid for.

The sad part is, I'm not even close to being the only one with this problem. Even during the offhours tonight in the IRC support channel, there have been five seperate people telling the same sob story as this one. It seems to be very hit or miss with the AMD Duron Packages I, II, or III. I've got one that functions, and one that doesn't. This is just one problem in many; I've had another issue with them I've been passing trouble tickets at for months, and I doubt it'll ever get fixed. I don't foresee this one ever easily getting fixed, either.

Normally I wouldn't say this about RS, as I generally respect them and what they've done for the industry (serious competition is a seriously healthy thing; not just for end users, but competitors, too. people are happier and more alive when challenged, even if they hate to admit it!). BUT... your above comment about their 'recommendation' of you double paying for their fraud was too much. Too many people have hardware problems, and if they're going to start recommend stuff like the above to customers with problems, to hell with them. You do NOT have to pay again, without refund, to get what you originally paid for. That's illegal in the U.S. If this keeps up, and if what you're saying they told you is true, then I'm going to start recommending people talk to the FTC (Federal Trade Commission), in fact. Enough BS, RS.

When hardware is bad, swap it. It's pretty simple to do. All the biggest computer vendors do that, so can Rackshack. If you don't, then you haven't sold a service, you've sold a 'bill of goods' and nothing more. And no terms of service get around the uniform commercial code, anti-fraud laws of U.S., and it's respective states.

All reputable computer vendors swap bad hardware, even if they KNOW sometimes it'd not bad. That's okay. At least it lets the customer know, without doubt, that they caused the problem. Simple enough. Then you can resell the goods. And unlike a computer vendor, you can resell/release your dedicated without taking a loss for it being 'refurbed'.

"Buy another if it's broken" isn't even something CANDY BAR companies try to get away with, even though it costs almost nothing to buy the replacement product yourself. Even Hershey will replace bad product, to keep customers happy, and to remain clear of the fraud, or the appearance thereof, and the very serious liability it carries.

Could you PM me your RS#? The response you got to your hardware issue is absolutely not Rackshack's stance on those kind of issues, I assure you of this. Generally if you put in a ticket with enough information such as, crashes with no load, crashes quickly when you use a cpu intensive program, specific errors, etc.. we're very quick to replace the hardware that is causing the issue, but it's actually not up to the Datacenter technicians to do the research and you should be informed of this on the first step rather than having them pass on the ticket. The datacenter's duty comes in once a hardware problem has been identified, not when there's a possibility of a hardware issue. So in other words, the more info you can provide up front, the better off you'll be. We absolutely dont want you to just sign up for a new one instead, and we dont want you stuck on a dead box.

Much better. Lord, I hope no one at RS ever says that again. Actually, I hope they never said it in the first place.

Now if only everyone at RS was Patrick.

Someday, someday... via genetic cloning. :)

On a more practical note, perhaps Patrick should get a job re-assignment, and spend 50% or more of his working hours actually duplicating himself via training. I say only 50%, so he still remains fresh and sharp. Sort of like famous scientists, like Dr. Richard Feynman. He spent roughly half his time teaching, even basic courses (he said he had many of his best revelations by teaching the very basics). He spent the other 50% doing well... what a famous physicist does! Famous physicist stuff. you know. Not to mention being wacky and fun. That's perhaps what he's best remembered for.

Anyway, yeah... an expert at anything should be 50/50ing between actual doing/experting, and training/teaching. I hope Hadsurfer takes that heart, modifies his position a bit, and gives him a pay raise and/or a good (or better) bit of profit sharing, to boot.

If RS tech have such good attitude like Patrick, i will be very happy. Just too bad that the response i got in the trouble ticket is very ridiculous. They keep asking me provide evidence. They should have see that i have more than 10 tickets open mainly for reboot in just 1 week. Right now, they agree to switch a new server for me. Godbless me. I hope i will get a workable and fine server. Else i am a goner.

Rack shack brian is funny and will be your friend between the hours of <instert hours he works at rackshack >. lol :-D

Support = You better know what your doing because they dont.

LOL, they suggest a system restore for just about every problem... But their Network, Prices, and Uptime are excellent. I am a newbie to Linux Server Adminstration, so I have made big mistakes on me server, and RS-Tech SUpport isn't the place to look to for help...I ask for help RS Forums, Plesk forums, and of course WHT.

I don't get it..... RackShack offers unmanaged servers, as do most hosts. Why on earth would think that their support help you with anything on your server unless it was reboot?

They are prolly over welmed with this type of BS support calls.... "why doesn't my cgi script work"... "I installed webalizer 2 and now my cron is broken"... "how does ssh work" ... "what's a 'shebang'" ... "how do i change my default 401 page" ... "what's localhost".... etc etc

You have to know what you are doing to get an umanaged server..... from any provider!!

tbdye.... sound slike you got a bad box. Did you post any info about this to the RS forum?.... there is a really sharp community there.

True! But when locked out of your server, and you get a responce 'we recomend a restore' it does piss you off. I accidentally got locked out while setting up a firewall...they hassled me over it... I agree, however, that it is unmanaged, but some tech support would be appreciated.

Well, I will just post my most resent experience with RackShack. First of all we ordered some IP's on the 19th, after waiting for our "instant setup" server ( which took 3 days to get up ). We have yet to receive a responce in regards to the IP's. HeadSurfer ( CEO ) asked me and another party to email him in regards to another matter, and I am yet to receive a responce to that as well.

My main beef at the moment is this. We recently got a Ram upgrade to 1 GB on our AMD 1700 XP. When we logged in after the upgrade, I noticed the cpu speed was wrong. It was saying 1 GHz rather than the 1.4 that it actually is supposed to be. It was fine before the RAM upgrade. Anyways, I sent a ticket to RS, and about 3 hours later, they updated the ticket for me ( not responded, updated ) saying my CPU was 1 GHz, and it should be set to 1.7 (Which is completely wrong, and would be over clocking my CPU ). I jumped in the IRC Chat room and tried to point this out to the techies with very little help at all. Eventually I was told that I would have to wait until 7am in the morning as nobody can handle it untill then.. thats about 7 hours away for me. I have my doubts if it will be fixed by then anyways. And if it is fixed, it will be set to 1.7, causing more even more problems for me.

So basically, I don't have the IP's necissary to run my business, and my server cpu speed is messed up. Because of this, my server has been useless for the past week now since we faxed them the order last friday, and its friday today.

Now, I don't expect RackShack tech to be the best, especially at the price I pay. But I do expect them to fix the problems they create on my server, and in a timely fashion. Is that to much for me to ask of them? I think not.

I have been a customer of Rackshack, since about September of last year. I have experienced good support and bad support. I have seen there best, and now I have seen there worst. I for one, think they are growing to fast, and stomping on there clients on there way.

While I was in the chat today, I witnessed a customer that was having a problem after a ram upgrade as well as me. Rackshack did very little to help this customer, as they did me. It just seems like a growing trend with them.

Anyways, you ask about Rackshack.. thats my experience.

We have your ticket in our queue and we'll be looking into it as quickly as possible, it's rather unusual, and no, we wont just set it to 1.7, it's only supposed to be at ~1400 anyway. I'll update your ticket with any further information we find.

I should hope so. BTW, We made a phone call ( our third ) regarding IP's and were told it could take up to 8 days. Why are we given different numbers by others? We were told, 3 days max earlier by another RS tech. Either way email and phone support have been useless to us regarding that matter and our server is basically useless 1 week later. Have you ever played Pong? I feel like our company is that ball thats constantly being tossed around mate. This is just wrong.. This WHT user has asked for opinions, and I feel ours is extremely valid in his desicion to choose RS.

Look, im not saying that RS is a bad company, heck, I have received outstanding service in the months we have been with them ( since approx. Sept last year ). Its just recently that things have taken a serious turn, and I hope this is just a serious glitch.

PM me how many IPs you needed and why you need them for me?