I have many problems over Problems with the Rackshack-Server


I had problems to reach my server from Germany and had opened tickets to solve the problem, but everyticket was closed with a reboot, or that my server is running ("What problem?").


It is very frustating, to see 3 Server downtimes last weeks. My Serveruptime is dropped to 76%


My Story so far:

*1st Down: HD-Crash. The RS-techs formatted my Backup-HD and swapped it to Boot position ! (All DATA lost, including Backups) Thank, you RS-Tech for a week additional work!!
*2nd Down: HD-faulty and HD-Crash during a Additional HD-Upgrade for Backup porposes ! (All DATA lost)
*3rd Down: Server does not respond........ Not resolved .....

Rackshack techs go and rebooted the server several times, it comes up and techs said: "all up and running" - But the server dies a few hours later without a load (disabled apache)....

Thats not funny for a $399/Month Compaq ....
They billed me the $399 Setup, because i was one of the first (now setup is $99), and after 2 month my business was nearly destroyed....

The only Server which is running and running and running is the little Cobalt.


My RS Number: RS-3525


PS: Yes, I opened a TT and Yes i posted this at RS-Forum additional hoping to reach the RS-Techs.

PS: some short traceroutes:
.............
11 202 ms 202 ms 202 ms ge-1-1-1.a03.hstntx01.us.ra.verio.net [129.250.30.216]
12 202 ms 202 ms 202 ms ge-0-0-0.a03.hstntx01.us.ce.verio.net [128.241.2.102]
13 tayhou-223-37.ev1.net [207.218.223.37] host not reachable
.............
.
.

12 190 ms 180 ms 191 ms ge-1-1-0.a03.hstntx01.us.ra.verio.net [129.250.30.216]
13 191 ms 200 ms 210 ms ge-0-0-0.a03.hstntx01.us.ce.verio.net [128.241.2.102]
14 * tayhou-223-37.ev1.net [207.218.223.37] host not reachable.

Wow yet another good report of Rackshack's quality support. :angry:

Ensim screwed up on one of my servers (NOT RS's fault) and nothing worked on the server at all. Less then 1 hour later it was restored and everything was working again.

I guess it's 1-1 now :stickout

Originally posted by Tobias

The only Server which is running and running and running is the little Cobalt.


as a huge Cobalt fan that brought a tear to my eye :bawling:

THE Story Continues:
Rackshack Answers and closed the Ticket:
---------------------------
---------------------------
5/17/02 03:02:35 AM
traceroute to 193.158.144.21 (193.158.144.21), 30 hops max, 64 byte packets
1 ev1hou-2600-1.ev1.net (207.218.193.1) 8 ms 4 ms 1 ms
2 tayhou-223-13.ev1.net (207.218.223.13) 5 ms 14 ms 15 ms
3 tayhou-223-1.ev1.net (207.218.223.1) 6 ms 5 ms 6 ms
4 tayhou-223-4.ev1.net (207.218.223.4) 5 ms 11 ms 6 ms
5 ge-0-0-0.a03.hstntx01.us.ra.verio.net (128.241.2.101) 7 ms 6 ms 7 ms
6 ge-0-1-0.r00.hstntx01.us.bb.verio.net (129.250.30.209) 6 ms 7 ms 6 ms
7 p4-1-0-0.r01.atlnga03.us.bb.verio.net (129.250.2.46) 26 ms 33 ms 26 ms
8 ge-1-2-0.r00.atlnga03.us.bb.verio.net (129.250.5.245) 27 ms 27 ms 27 ms
9 p16-5-0-0.r01.mclnva02.us.bb.verio.net (129.250.2.48) 43 ms 44 ms 43 ms
10 p16-0-0-0.r02.mclnva02.us.bb.verio.net (129.250.5.254) 42 ms 42 ms 51 ms
11 p16-7-0-0.r02.stngva01.us.bb.verio.net (129.250.5.46) 47 ms 59 ms 49 ms
12 p16-0-0-0.r00.stngva01.us.bb.verio.net (129.250.5.14) 43 ms 44 ms 43 ms
13 p4-0.dt.stngva01.us.bb.verio.net (129.250.9.198) 43 ms 47 ms 44 ms
14 Vienna-gw12.USA.net.DTAG.DE (62.156.131.173) 181 ms 265 ms 201 ms
15 H-SA2.H.DE.net.DTAG.DE (62.156.131.181) 138 ms 137 ms 137 ms
16 H-SA1.H.DE.net.dtag.de (62.154.49.157) 152 ms 137 ms 138 ms
17 K-SA1.K.DE.net.dtag.de (62.154.0.118) 136 ms 137 ms 139 ms
18 K-EB1.K.DE.net.dtag.de (62.154.55.86) 137 ms 146 ms 146 ms
19 K-rg1.K.net.DTAG.DE (193.158.7.175) 137 ms 137 ms 137 ms
20 193.158.144.21 (193.158.144.21) 138 ms 138 ms 140 ms

5/17/02 03:03:24 AM
they connect
-----------------------------


WHAT THE HELL MEANS THAT ??? THAT I AM LYING ???

The Server is not Reachabel on either port fron either location !!

RS tested from another Location (not tayhou-223-37.ev1.net) to reach someone who had gotten my ip from some hours ago.

They made a traceroute from
"1 ev1hou-2600-1.ev1.net (207.218.193.1) 8 ms 4 ms 1 ms
2 tayhou-223-13.ev1.net (207.218.223.13) 5 ms 14 ms 15 ms"

to the dailup-ip

But my traceroute said:
...........
11 178 ms 176 ms 178 ms ge-1-1-0.a03.hstntx01.us.ra.verio.net [129.250.30.216]
12 178 ms 177 ms 178 ms ge-0-0-0.a03.hstntx01.us.ce.verio.net [128.241.2.102]
13 * * tayhou-223-37.ev1.net [207.218.223.37] Host not reachable

Is that a reachable host ??

Rackshack look at your own Service Monitoring in the Members section !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

5/17/02 7:14:00 AM :: 1 - FTP SMTP HTTP POP3 - Down
5/17/02 7:12:00 AM :: 1 - FTP SMTP HTTP POP3 - Down
5/17/02 7:08:00 AM :: 1 - FTP SMTP HTTP POP3 - Down
5/17/02 7:00:00 AM :: 1 - FTP SMTP HTTP POP3 - Down
5/17/02 6:58:00 AM :: 1 - FTP SMTP HTTP POP3 - Down
5/17/02 4:24:00 AM :: 1 - FTP SMTP HTTP POP3 - Down
5/17/02 4:17:00 AM :: 1 - FTP SMTP HTTP POP3 - Down
5/17/02 4:14:00 AM :: 1 - FTP SMTP HTTP POP3 - Down
5/17/02 3:00:00 AM :: 1 - FTP SMTP HTTP POP3 - Down
5/17/02 2:05:00 AM :: 1 - FTP SMTP HTTP POP3 - Down
5/17/02 1:58:00 AM :: 1 - FTP SMTP HTTP POP3 - Down
5/17/02 1:54:00 AM :: 1 - FTP SMTP HTTP POP3 - Down
5/17/02 12:37:00 AM :: 1 - FTP SMTP HTTP POP3 - Down
5/16/02 11:46:00 PM :: 1 - FTP SMTP HTTP POP3 - Down
5/16/02 11:15:00 PM :: 1 - FTP SMTP HTTP POP3 - Down
5/16/02 10:40:00 PM :: 1 - FTP SMTP HTTP POP3 - Down
5/16/02 10:34:00 PM :: 1 - FTP SMTP HTTP POP3 - Down
5/16/02 10:28:00 PM :: 1 - FTP SMTP HTTP POP3 - Down
5/16/02 10:17:00 PM :: 1 - FTP SMTP HTTP POP3 - Down
5/16/02 9:57:00 PM :: 1 - FTP SMTP HTTP POP3 - Down






I THINK: The Server was sold as a true unlimited/unmetered Bandwidth Server. But i made them too much traffic ! They want me to go and keep the $399 setup fee.

Wow sounds like your getting hosed! Time to call their support and force them to help you. Dont let them transfer or put you on hold...its one shuffleboard pass to the next dummy technician.

Originally posted by Tobias
I have many problems over Problems with the Rackshack-Server


I had problems to reach my server from Germany and had opened tickets to solve the problem, but everyticket was closed with a reboot, or that my server is running ("What problem?").


It is very frustating, to see 3 Server downtimes last weeks. My Serveruptime is dropped to 76%


My Story so far:

*1st Down: HD-Crash. The RS-techs formatted my Backup-HD and swapped it to Boot position ! (All DATA lost, including Backups) Thank, you RS-Tech for a week additional work!!
*2nd Down: HD-faulty and HD-Crash during a Additional HD-Upgrade for Backup porposes ! (All DATA lost)
*3rd Down: Server does not respond........ Not resolved .....

Rackshack techs go and rebooted the server several times, it comes up and techs said: "all up and running" - But the server dies a few hours later without a load (disabled apache)....

Thats not funny for a $399/Month Compaq ....
They billed me the $399 Setup, because i was one of the first (now setup is $99), and after 2 month my business was nearly destroyed....

The only Server which is running and running and running is the little Cobalt.


My RS Number: RS-3525


PS: Yes, I opened a TT and Yes i posted this at RS-Forum additional hoping to reach the RS-Techs.

PS: some short traceroutes:
.............
11 202 ms 202 ms 202 ms ge-1-1-1.a03.hstntx01.us.ra.verio.net [129.250.30.216]
12 202 ms 202 ms 202 ms ge-0-0-0.a03.hstntx01.us.ce.verio.net [128.241.2.102]
13 tayhou-223-37.ev1.net [207.218.223.37] host not reachable
.............
.
.

12 190 ms 180 ms 191 ms ge-1-1-0.a03.hstntx01.us.ra.verio.net [129.250.30.216]
13 191 ms 200 ms 210 ms ge-0-0-0.a03.hstntx01.us.ce.verio.net [128.241.2.102]
14 * tayhou-223-37.ev1.net [207.218.223.37] host not reachable.

I'm investigating your complaint right now, I will tell you, out of a 1000 compaqs, if this one is bad, it would only be the second one that was bad due to hardware. ( First was a bad power supply )

I currently have the load average at:
4:24pm up 34 min, 1 user, load average: 73.96, 66.21, 37.63
USER TTY FROM LOGIN@ IDLE JCPU PCPU WHAT
admin pts/0 216.40.193.229 4:08pm 0.00s 4:05 0.02s w


Still purring away..

I would also like to point out it's not like we're ditching your tickets without wanting to help you, exerpt from one:
5/17/02 8:51:50 AM
server is back up and pingable. can also access through telnet. cannot access through browser. sending ticket to webtech to look into this and to look into why the server keeps crashing.

Looks to be an Ensim bug that has a patch, it's been installed, server's still roaring away with an 80+ load average.

80+!?

goodness.

Didnt you read their reviews, rackshacks fix to everything has always been a reload of the operating system.

Originally posted by cbaker17
Didnt you read their reviews, rackshacks fix to everything has always been a reload of the operating system.

Did you even read the posts above? Patch installed, by us, problem solved.

If someone messes up their server, yes, they have to reload it, we're not managed support, we dont claim to be managed support.

Is it your style to resort to something as petty as your last post?

Originally posted by cbaker17
Didnt you read their reviews, rackshacks fix to everything has always been a reload of the operating system.

Well, you get what you pay for .. support is limited to that ;)

Originally posted by Patrick-EV1
. . . . . . . Is it your style to resort to something as petty as your last post? :eek: Apparently you've never read any of his posts. :D

Originally posted by SoftWareRevue
:eek: Apparently you've never read any of his posts. :D
:laugh:

Charles, what happened to this?
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=46964

Also ive learned the hard way guys that its never good in the public eyes to comment on a competitors lack of service

I wasnt attacking rackshack.net if patrick and you took it that way im sorry. Was simply posting a fact. Its a well known fact at that, not a speculation, not a attack, not a slam. Perhaps we should not be so fast to jump to conclusions. If i wanted to attack, i could come up with 101 ways to. If you call your offical company policys for handling non managed servers petty feel free to, came out of your mouth not mine.

Patrick, I don't understand how as an employee of EV1, you could behave in such a manner. "Is it your style to resort to something as petty as your last post?"

As I marketing professional, I am dismayed by your lack of customer service. Clearly, some of these clients have a viable complaint with your products and services. I understand you are working hard on solving such problems. Perhaps you should exhibit some understanding as to why they are so frustrated. Remember, it costs 5 times more to bring in a new customer than to keep an existing one!

Let me know if you need any help--in this economy, it's an expensive time to lose customers.

And Tobias-Viel Glueck mit Deimem Computer!

Thank you Patrick for your help.

The Server is up now for 2 hours, the sequences before are 3 and 4 hours. We will wait and see.


I won't attack Rackshack, but the easily closing of TT's changing the subject from: "server not reachable" to "rebooting" the x's time makes me seriosly angry.

It's not a game, thats a buisiness and TT's are better taken more serious....


I had updated the Ensim last Time, could be that it got lost during the last HD-swap (written above as "down #2") with a fresh format.

Hint:
Where are the informations about the neede patches on the RS-Forum ? Looks like they are lost in posts, not easy to find even over "search". So it will be better to make a FaQ or a php-nuke site for update suggestions. Only a hint.

Originally posted by jwelch
Patrick, I don't understand how as an employee of EV1, you could behave in such a manner.

As I marketing professional, I am dismayed by your lack of customer service. Clearly, some of these clients have a viable complaint with your products and services. I understand you are working hard on solving such problems. Perhaps you should exhibit some understanding as to why they are so frustrated. Remember, it costs 5 times more to bring in a new customer than to keep an existing one!

Let me know if you need any help--in this economy, it's an expensive time to lose customers.

And Tobias-Viel Glueck mit Deimem Computer!

Last I checked cbaker is not a customer of ours', he's merely a competitor who attacks us most chances he gets. The customer is Tobias, cbaker's just someone who chimed in, that response was to cbaker.

Originally posted by cbaker17
I wasnt attacking rackshack.net if patrick and you took it that way im sorry. Was simply posting a fact. Its a well known fact at that, not a speculation, not a attack, not a slam. Perhaps we should not be so fast to jump to conclusions. If i wanted to attack, i could come up with 101 ways to. If you call your offical company policys for handling non managed servers petty feel free to, came out of your mouth not mine.

I was pointing out that we didnt 'recommend a restore' to the above customer, though we dont offer software support, I still installed the patch and have been monitoring his server for hours because of the trouble he has had. No one asked you to post about that, this thread wasnt about Rackshack's policies regarding support, he was posting about his specific problem.

And for anyone interested in Tobias' problems:

8:44pm up 4:54, 2 users, load average: 0.52, 0.33, 0.23

Seems to be still doing ok, going to monitor it until I leave tonight to be sure.

Originally posted by Patrick-EV1
. . . . . . . this thread wasnt about Rackshack's policies regarding support, he was posting about his specific problem. . . . . This thread is titled, "Rackshacks $399 Compaq-Crap !"
Which I was shocked to see. I'd never heard anything bad about those servers.
Of course, his post quickly eludes to RackShack's support. Which does seem to be a common issue among dissatisfied customers.

Just thought I'd mention something for no apparent reason. :)

Originally posted by SoftWareRevue
This thread is titled, "Rackshacks $399 Compaq-Crap !"
Which I was shocked to see. I'd never heard anything bad about those servers.
Of course, his post quickly eludes to RackShack's support. Which does seem to be a common issue among dissatisfied customers.

Just thought I'd mention something for no apparent reason. :)

The compaqs have been phenominal IMHO, very few problems with them at all.

@SoftWareRevue:

I write this title, because I' very angry about the troubleticket managment. And i want, that anyone more qualified RS-employee will read this.

I take back my aggressive title, if i can.

Rackshack isn't so bad, but the inhouse organisation has to be improved.

Thank you for reading this.

Originally posted by Patrick-EV1


The compaqs have been phenominal IMHO, very few problems with them at all. That's all I've ever heard about them. Until I saw the title of this thread.

Originally posted by Tobias
@SoftWareRevue:

I write this title, because I' very angry about the troubleticket managment. And i want, that anyone more qualified RS-employee will read this.

I take back my aggressive title, if i can.

Rackshack isn't so bad, but the inhouse organisation has to be improved.

Thank you for reading this.

Anger's understandable, I've been on the receiving end myself many times from other places ( Before I worked @ RS I had many shared accounts, webhosting accounts and even a couple dedicated servers from places I wont mention ) That's why I like to do whatever it takes to help someone.

Originally posted by Tobias
. . . . . .Rackshack isn't so bad, but the inhouse organisation has to be improved. . . . . . . That's something that isn't argued much around here. But, I'm sure that RackShack is aware and working towards a solution.

I actually READ much more than I post. :) But, sometimes, I just have to say something.

The thread was an interesting read. Keep us updated, though.

umm patrick perhaps your misinformed, im not a competitor, i manage affordablecolo.com last i checked you dont run a colocation service, we dont even advertise dedicated servers anymore unless we have some extras in stock or if a customer asks for it in particular, our business model is colocation. Perhaps you should do a little home work.

What I AM is a person who sits back and sees how happy your customers are, and then makes a informed judgement based on these, and then attempts help help educate and inform current and potential customers of rackshack.

I wouldnt get so upset patrick.... perhaps you need a couple day vacation to some remote island, where no ones ever heard of the Internet.

*** EDIT - Just ending it now.. dont want to waste my day reading this thread ****

* jepp, any Mod can close this thread- The server is now on a fast running. *

** Problem solved **

I have always stayed away from these sorts of topics but I think I've seen enough RackShack complaints to notice a pattern.

Typically someone comes on the board and complains about some incredible combination of delayed customer support and catastrophic handling of hardware issues.

The typical response from RackShack defenders is something to the effect of, "It's an unmanaged server. If you want managed, don't buy from RackShack."

While this statement in and of itself seems valid, I don't think it address the real problem. What actually seems to be going on is not that a customer is unhappy about the unmanaged aspects of a RackShack server but rather that they are unhappy about the aforementioned delayed customer support and/or catastrophic handling of hardware issues.

This customer's complaint is a perfect example of the latter. If a technician suspects hardware failure, replacing the hardware and rebuilding the OS is one thing, but using the customer's backup HD for this purpose seems downright negligent.

Note that the customer didn't expect RackShack to restore their data from the backup drive, they really only expected not to have their backup compromised. Is this too much to ask?

So to get to the point. It doesn't really seem that RackShack's bad rep is completely related to a misunderstanding of services provided. Although this carries some weight, the broader issue seems to be a mishandling of the level of support that they claim to provide.

There have been problems, but I think due to certain reasons that we all know, we in particular get more of our dirty laundry aired to the public than most companies, you never hear anything about Verio ( Just an example of a large company ) but I know they've had a TON of angry webhosting customers, I used to deal with them at another product support desk. But I think recently the number of complaints per every hundred new dedicated customers ( Usually in a few days, 40 already today, nothing bad so far today ) has gone down drastically.

Also I dont believe it's the quality of the people on the staff, there are a lot of intelligent people doing support, but more of keeping up with the numbers, one of the problems with a very rapidly growing company, but I know I'm personally always interviewing new people everyday for the Datacenter to keep up with everything ( upgrades, hardware tests, reboots, restores and the deployment of hundreds of servers )

So to sum it all up, we're not blind to issues we do have, but I think we have more than our fair share of them aired, very often the first time the problem gets escalated by the customer is when it's posted here, which can be understood, but should also be kept in mind by the viewers. It's not like most the threads start with "I've talked to management and gotten no satisfactory response." It's "I've talked with support and this is what they keep telling me" and as management we're trying to improve their level of support and service so that it doesnt have to go to management in the first place, but they're good people, and all in all, we're all human which can be lost sometimes in a world where we communicate with text.

I said solved too early.....

**** The Server is down again - ~4,5 hours uptime like before ****

I want only, that the server is reachable and stays up - all other things are my issue ......

Please reply to the ticket if you dont mind. :)

Originally posted by cbaker17
Didnt you read their reviews, rackshacks fix to everything has always been a reload of the operating system.
This is a fact? I don't lease servers there, but if I had to guess that even if this is a frequent reply to a problem, it isn't always the 'fix to everything'. Just a guess...

Originally posted by cbaker17
umm patrick perhaps your misinformed, im not a competitor, i manage affordablecolo.com last i checked you dont run a colocation service, we dont even advertise dedicated servers anymore unless we have some extras in stock or if a customer asks for it in particular, our business model is colocation. Perhaps you should do a little home work.
You had and advertisised extra dedicated servers just a week ago: http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=49246

Between this post and the one about them stooping so low for blocking... (and a slew of other posts you've made regarding RS, etc.), you certainly haven't:
Also ive learned the hard way guys that its never good in the public eyes to comment on a competitors lack of service
You are close enough to competitors and I find your little (and big) digs on other providers to be entirely in poor taste. If I had a server with you, I'd be pulling it ASAP as you can't even understand that you're being a donkey (amazing how one could somehow miss that).

Sorry Tobias, if you have further troble, your best bet would probably to open at thread at RS forums so you can interact with support directly, or email them (use help desk, etc.) to get this resolved. I don't feel like removing all the posts in the middle of the thread so this will just be locked.

Those of you in the same industry should support your fellow peers and the situation, *or* at the very least, keep negativity out of a thread that doesn't concern you. I'd think this is what you'd expect in return.