Hello All,

I'm looking to relocate a pile of servers over the next few months, and I've narrowed it down to RackShack and TranXact Global (though I'm open to more suggestions).

Here are my questions for those who have used them before or are using them now:

1. How long have these companies been around (read: are they financially stable?)

2. I've heard that RackShack won't customize servers for you - what they offer is all you can get. Is this true? I need more RAM, guys.

3. What's the support like? Some of these servers are mission-critical - if they go down, hundred of other sites around the Internet will have their pages hang or load incredibly slowly. If something goes wrong, how quick are they to fix it? How is support handled - forms, email, phone, toll free?

4. What's the network reliability like? I'm talking real-world experiences, not their marketing claims.

5. Anything else I should know about these two companies?


Thanks,

Darryl Ballantyne
AdProject.net

Also, what aboout account management/control panel functionality?

If they are mission critical get a server from a company that offers superior support and a superior network.

Thanks, but that really wasn't what I was asking.

I'm trying to determine the quality of service I'd receive from these companies, to decide if they are adequate or not - if you have experiences with them, please do share.

Darryl

I have one server at tranxactglobal now and quite happy with the level of services. I know they are getting lots of orders and support is a bit slow, but in overall, they seem to be very nice and professional. I got my kernel and OpenSSH upgraded to the latest versions for free after submitting a support ticket.

For mission critical sites, I'd suggest you to get a managed server from one of their partners, eservers.biz and pay an extra $100-$250/month.

I don't have any experience with Rackshack so I can't share anything.

Well, I am not a customer of the above mentioned companies, but I have rather good pre-support from Rackshack regarding reverse DNS questions... the guy named John replied very quickly... so this is a good sign.

As I said I didn't tried their or tranxactglobal service yet. Hope this helps a bit - you may want to consider reading some Rackshack forum

I have servers at both and am a happy guy at both. I'd say if you're doing a good many servers, Tranxact is a good place to go, as you'll be a bigger fish in a smaller pond. If you know what you're doing, you'll be fine at either locale.

Drew N

Rackshack is a big player, host thousands of servers. They are strong in the market. if you go after the price and bandwidth, then no one can beat them. But if you need good and quick service/support. mmmm... look somewhere else.

About transxact.. I do not anything about them but from reading some post here in the forum they seems to be pretty good in support too.

Originally posted by Darryl
Hello All,

I'm looking to relocate a pile of servers over the next few months, and I've narrowed it down to RackShack and TranXact Global (though I'm open to more suggestions).


removed my sleep induced question :D

Hi,

I have a server with eServers.biz, they offer the same as tranxact, and their support is really good (much better than reported about tranxact) I have recommended loads of people to go with eServers, friendly staff and 100% network uptime at the DV2 datacenter!

eServers and Tranxact are in the same boat at the moment with a huge surge of orders on.. I heard that eServers will start accepting orders again shortly. It may be worth while cheking out their forum for latest updates (or join in the natter)

Re. Rackshack, I haven't had experience with them, but they host alot of servers, you would be a drop in the ocean to them.

eServers can customize a server for you too...extra RAM and HDD no problems!

Regards,
Matthew

I just got my server at Rackshack for only 2 weeks when the defective software and hardware started to show. Support is
S-L-O-W, techs are I-N-E-P-T, but getting your money is F-A-S-T!

After I cancelled my account, they asked me if I wanted a server restore for another fee! ROFL I haven't even used my server, in those 2 weeks I only began adding my sites in Plesk and uploading files getting ready to get them online, now the server needs a R-E-S-T-O-R-E?

What kinda C-R-A-P and RIP OFF is this???

Fortunately my card company is working on this to reverse the initial payment i made to this... well...

RACKSHACK - Nothing beats our DEFECTIVE racks - ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

Originally posted by enchanted
I just got my server at Rackshack for only 2 weeks when the defective software and hardware started to show. Support is
S-L-O-W, techs are I-N-E-P-T, but getting your money is F-A-S-T!

After I cancelled my account, they asked me if I wanted a server restore for another fee! ROFL I haven't even used my server, in those 2 weeks I only began adding my sites in Plesk and uploading files getting ready to get them online, now the server needs a R-E-S-T-O-R-E?

What kinda C-R-A-P and RIP OFF is this???

Fortunately my card company is working on this to reverse the initial payment i made to this... well...

RACKSHACK - Nothing beats our DEFECTIVE racks - ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

Hahaha, when i read that i almost spit my sprite out. Everyone whines about rackshack, but you're the first one i've seen to do with some good manners and not going "you @*(#(($#(* @*#($*@#( will pay for this #@*($(*@(#$", bravo on keeping the level of decency up in this place :laugh: :D

Originally posted by enchanted
RACKSHACK - Nothing beats our DEFECTIVE racks - ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!
Can't say the same - I have a number of servers with Rackshack (got the 1st one in May 2001), and all is going quite well. It obviously helps if you know how to manage Linux servers.

As far as customizing servers go - Rackshack will install extra memory, but just make sure the server in question can actually be upgraded. They will not install software for you, but you'll be able to find somebody that can do that quite easily ...

Originally posted by enchanted
I just got my server at Rackshack for only 2 weeks when the defective software and hardware started to show. Support is
S-L-O-W, techs are I-N-E-P-T, but getting your money is F-A-S-T!

After I cancelled my account, they asked me if I wanted a server restore for another fee! ROFL I haven't even used my server, in those 2 weeks I only began adding my sites in Plesk and uploading files getting ready to get them online, now the server needs a R-E-S-T-O-R-E?

What kinda C-R-A-P and RIP OFF is this???

Fortunately my card company is working on this to reverse the initial payment i made to this... well...

RACKSHACK - Nothing beats our DEFECTIVE racks - ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

Haha my favorite Rackshack rant...

"Oh you say you can't get a perl script working? OS RESTORE!"
"Email bouncing? OS RESTORE!"
"Password for FTP not working? OS RESTORE!"
" 404 errors? <you say it>"
The idea of working through a problem and finding out why something (software wise) is not working is just not a solution, but by god an OS restore for sure is.

The #1 reason I moved (am moving) all my stuff locally. I have a problem I go down and figure it out (like yesterday, a server was rebooting spontaneously 3 times a day and problem solved without an OS restore hehe).

With their pricing model and # of customers, I guess troubleshooting really is too much overhead for any but the easiest to solve problems, and OS restore is such a quick fix to what ails you.

yes, but they offer unmanaged servers :) you pay what you get

(100post!! yes)

True but some things can't be done remotely (ooh bad reboot because the data center lost power TWICE in 15 minutes and now your harddrive is corrupt? OS RESTORE!!! and yes this happened to me after the screwdriver incident). Had I had that server local, or in a data center more willing to help and less willing to format and restore, someone could have run the proper fsck's and tried to save that data. That's what I'm saying and that's what opened my eyes to the fact I needed HANDS ON access to my servers to ever offer a level of service above "acceptable".

I pay more now, but I haven't had a single complaint that "ftps are slow" "I can barely ping the server" "my traceroutes die at tayhou".

But I guess I agree with you, you do pay for what you get, I opted to pay a little more and go with a local data center and just buy my hardware, that way I know exactly what I'm using and what brand is stamped on the parts.

From my experience, RS's support is getting better and more willing to try some different things pre-restore, like running a fsck (I've had them do that before for me when my server wouldn't boot properly, unfortunately I didn't notice the data problem until too late and the disk got badly corrupted before they got to it, but it was my fault).