Just thought I would let those of you who are considering getting a server at rackshack know about something.

Earlier yesterday our server became overloaded and crashed, and upon requesting a reboot I was informed that our server had been pulled off the network because of a 'Networking Issue'.

As you can imagine I found this quite odd, seeing as how I was just on, and I was the one who request the reboot (it's a old RAQ4I serving 40-100,000 php/sql impressions per day, you can see how it could become overloaded) when it crashed.

Well either way, I responded with another trouble ticket asking what was going on, and basically they told me some gibberish about ACK requests (assuming someone was dosing my server, or a whole subnet? Im no networking guru) and asked me to respond with my root username/password. I did so, even though it was already lsited on the form. I'm assuming they are looking at it now.

What troubles me is the fact they just yank a server (or so they say) without any warning, explanation or any advance notification. Not only that, but the downtime is approaching 48 hours now, and the trouble ticket is still open - even though we did nothing wrong and there is no actual problem with the server aside from a 'network spike' which is how the trouble ticket is now labeled.

I just find this disturbing, and as good as Rackshack has been the past 6 months, I would not recommend them to people who have a critical uptime. Good price, decent servers and a decent network, but no customer deserves to have the plug pulled without having first been told why, and having either their server put up on a different IP for them to get backup data (if need be) or in some way allowing them to access data.

Needless to say I will be cancelling my rackshack subscription once I am able to get the latest database backups (backs up daily, but on the server which im not able to get now, doh)! This isn't to say their service isn't good, but I just can't afford this kind of BS downtime anymore :(

Guess we're one of the lucky ones.

If someone was attacking your server, i dont blame them for pulling it offline without contacting you, but after its disconnected you should have been informed, and you should have been updated on a regular basis on what they were doing to correct the situation.

Originally posted by Jeff Booth



What troubles me is the fact they just yank a server (or so they say) without any warning, explanation or any advance notification. Not only that, but the downtime is approaching 48 hours now, and the trouble ticket is still open - even though we did nothing wrong and there is no actual problem with the server aside from a 'network spike' which is how the trouble ticket is now labeled.


You would have us leave the server on the network and be a threat to our network and possibly other people's networks until you had time to OK us to pull it?

i think you missed the point patrick

What troubles me is the fact they just yank a server (or so they say) without any warning, explanation or any advance notification. Not only that, but the downtime is approaching 48 hours now

he never said leave his server on the rack , he just wanted to know that it was removed , why , and when it will be back up , isnt that a valid concern ? But insted you rather reply with a rude , condescending post . Let me remind you , its your customers that made you who you are , they'll also be the ones that break you . Maybe the customer could have been more easy going with his topic , but you always need to keep a professional attitude , regardless if you agree with it or not . I know this is an open forum , but it seems more and more people are getting pissed off at RS daily , a new thread about your lack of services pops up at least once every 12 hours. Lets see what RS can do to change this recent trend , i know you have the knowledge , and money to do so , impress us

I apologize if it seemed rude, it wasnt meant to, it was meant to emphasize how important it is to get a server offline once it's launching an attack or is being attacked.

We've recently tightened our network and drastically increased our ability to catch people doing these things so coming with that we're developing a system to handle them quickly as well, there are now people trained on all shifts to investigate and make a decision regarding violations and attacks, failing that they know my cell phone number.

Originally posted by Patrick-EV1


You would have us leave the server on the network and be a threat to our network and possibly other people's networks until you had time to OK us to pull it? Oh no, certainly not, if something funny was happening with my server it should have indeed been pulled, but it would have been nice to receive notification fo what was happening, instead of having to go through 3-4 trouble tickets to find out what is even going on, then another who knows how long to get the situation resolved. Not to mention every ticket response is just 'investigating', I have no idea what is going on or how long this will take. Now I realize I'm far from a 'big client', and you have thousands of others to take care of, but simply letting someone know what is going on isn't too much to ask for.

I'm not trying to dump on your business, I've been happy with RS for 6-8 months, but I just get flustered when things like this happen. Not to mention that I find it hard to believe that my server was attacking anyone or anyone was attacking me (these are 'entertainment' sites I use to promote my main business), unless a root-kit was placed (which wouldnt be that far fetched on a raq, I suppose), but does it really take xxx techs this long to discover if something like this has taken place?

Anyway don't mind me, I'm just disgruntled, it seems like this week has been nothing but trouble, and I thought I would share my experience just in case someone else might find it informative. I think thats the point of these boards, no? :)

I admit that me saying 'oooh Im going to cancel my subscription', blah bah was innapropriate and just trying to be spiteful, and I'm sorry for that - but (this isn't meant as an attack for you) it seems as if much of the time putting your 'money where your mouth is', seems to be the only way to get results. Regardless, that wasn't proper for a public forum.

I absolutely agree, they had investigated it earlier and not updated the ticket, so I've instructed them to be sure to give status updates immediately because servers being offline is not a light business.

Glad to be of help patrick :) hehe