??

I just signed up for a racklocation box on Friday. They say the box will be up by wednesday so I can't give any feedback now, but I'll post again once the box is up as to how it went/is going.

I am at present. When I got it set up, it took a few days longer than they estimated.

They are good in my oppinion but I am new to them.

Fastest support response so far was about 30 seconds :-)

Unrealated
How do I make Smilies come up properly, the graphic?
I have not ticked disable Smilies.

Originally posted by _G_
I am at present. When I got it set up, it took a few days longer than they estimated.

They are good in my oppinion but I am new to them.

Fastest support response so far was about 30 seconds :-)

Unrealated
How do I make Smilies come up properly, the graphic?
I have not ticked disable Smilies.

you make your smiles all off-"standard". even in the channels i frequent on irc, i never see them made with noses. try using a normal smile like this one:
---> :)

:) ah that is what I was missing. it works as :-) in yahoo messenger.

Thank you.

_G_

what system did you go with? And what's your website address?


Thanks

I got RedHat 7.0 installed. The $99 a month deal plus extra IP's.

I haven't set up the server yet I will post the address when I have. At present it still has the standard apache page on it.

Which system have you ordered?

Originally posted by _G_
Which system have you ordered?

I don't believe he got one yet.. :)

Yes but I guessed he would know what he had ordered.

Actually I have got one from them and just wondered how everyone else liked their's so far as mine is ready just have to get the site transfered over on it.

By the way how did any of you set the user permissions? Did you go through webmin or from the command line?

Anyone know a good book on learning how to do this unix server stuff? Right now I have someone that does it for me but I would like to learn it myself.

I ordered 5 books after getting my RackLocation.com server... :) Being an Admin is easier when you're on a system with Plesk, but you have the opportunity to learn more when you're using Webmin.

I got these books:
Red Hat Linux 7 Unleashed - http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0672319853/
Professional Apache - http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1861003021/
Real World Linux Security: Intrusion Prevention, Detection and Recovery - http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/detail/-/books/0130281875/
Linux Apache Web Server Administration - http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0782127347/
Linux DNS Server Administration - http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0782127363/

I think anyone running their own dedicated server should have the first three as a minimum...

I have some Linux books and I have downloaded loads of instruction/Guides/HOWTO's off the internet. google.com always finds them and linuxdoc.org has lots to and you can download them gziped if you want to. I find the HOWTO's great when you have done it before but forgotten exactly how, they remind me.

I am working from the command line up as I want to know more :) Not sure what I will do when I understand more and the novelty of editing each file has worn off.

Haveing a go with sendmail at the moment but the configuration looks like there are LOADS of options.

By the way does anyone know how to set up reverse address reolution with racklocation (ie. IP back to domain). What do I put in my named configuration files. The only instructions I can find are if you have a whole class C of addresses which I don't have. I have emailed them and they are "looking into it", not sure how long this will take though. Guess it is similar if not the same as dialtoneinternet (their IP's). I follow how to do it with PTR records etc. but from what I read you can only have one reverse file per class C (is that right?) anyway hosts can forward requests to my box but I don't follow that bit.

If you know of a good explanation about it let me know.

Is http://www.racklocation.com site down right now?

I noticed it was down some yesterday too.

Yeah, it seems like their web site has been up and down today. My server has been up all day, though (I have QWK.Mon monitoring it...).

Rehan,

Whats your website?

And what system did you get?

I have a $49/month server with them. I moved my site to the server and then realized that I still have some configuration to do (CGI execution in Apache) before everything works okay, so I moved it back to its previous location. I'm using the new server for DNS, though.

My site should be on the new server in a couple of days, and I'll post the URL at that time so you can take a look.


Rehan

I noticed their site has been down yesterday as well as today but my server has been up. My ISP is less reliable as my cable connection is getting 2000ms pings at the moment (to the 3rd hop!). Usually less than 15ms. Hope the fix it soon.

I wonder if it is something to do with their site being on a netcolony server (they host netcolony).

Well, it's late Thursday night here and still no server :/
They say it "may" be set up today, though it's not looking good at the moment.
Is a week normal for setting up a dedicated server? That's what it'll be if the server isn't ready until tomorrow.

Ah well, let's hope I just got off to a slightly poor start - I've heard lots of good stuff about them so I'm willing to wait and see.

A week is definitely longer than normal...

As someone from RackLocation.com mentioned in another thread (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?threadid=5927), they were "getting killed with orders and new customers" (for the $49 plan).
Maybe they're still backlogged from that and working through getting all those orders set up.

If that's the case, it's fine - I just would have appreciated being told there would be a delay rather than me having to email them twice to get any information.
I'm not trying to put racklocation down - I've only heard good stuff about them - guess that's why I was surprised at the slow setup.

Hopefully I'll be posting again pretty soon saying how good they've been ;)

How do you set the user permission on Racklocation.com server through the webmin control panel?

If you mean user permissions for Webmin, see this thread: http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?threadid=5881

Well, we finally got the server about midnight GMT on Friday - a full week after paying. This was only after about 4 emails to them asking why it had been delayed and when I could expect it to be done - still don't know why it was delayed.

Today I emailed asking where the rest of the IPs we'd paid for were (only given 2, not 10) and we don't get those until Monday! Every question seems to take at least two emails to get a response, then hours for an actual answer after that - still waiting for the tech admin who is supposedly going to answer some questions I had about ftp and DNS. I was informed almost 5 hours ago that a tech support rep would contact me "a little later".

Is this what makes so many people recommend their support? So far I've lost a week of paid hosting and still don't have any web sites running on the server. I seriously hope this isn't the normal 'support' I can expect from them in the future.
If anyone from RackLocation is reading this, I'd really appreciate knowing what's causing all these delays - if there's a decent explanation I'm fully willing to forgive and (almost) forget.

I had to wait 1 week from order to getting the server, some excuse about a batch of bad processors. What was the excuse they gave you? I did tell them I was in no rush and they didn't bill me till all was well :)

They only gave me 2 IP's when I signed up and I had to email them to say I ordered more, after checking they aggreed. A couple of minutes for that reply. Then a few hours and the other IP's.

They worked when I bound them to my box (I think they did) then after about a week and a half they were bound to their box (racklocation.com came up on them). After a few emails they said they were "holding" them for me. To be fair my server had been down quite a bit (explanation why below). After a number of emails they unbound them and they didn't work but after a few more hours (I guess for the router things to update) they worked, and have continued fine. Shame they didn't tell me I had to tell them to unbound them.

I said my server was down quite a bit, that was my fault I was re-configureing it and my configuration didn't get on with their network card and it locked up after a bit of use.
Still working on that one. Intel Ether Express 10/100 any tips? It listed lockup bug and work around.


All of my IP's reverse resolve to ns.cr5000.net which doesn't exist. I have emailed them and on Monday they will have had a week to figure it out (they replied and said they were working on it). On Monday I will start asking why they haven't sent me a fix. Anyone know how to set up reverese resolution up with a racklocation server? (What to put in named configuration)

Anyone know how much Ip's are over 10?

My server receives loads more packets than it sends, I would assume a web server should send more than it receives. Seems logical to me, is that right? I seem to get 10x more RX than TX is that normal? They say my server is connected to a switch.
The load is often 0.0 so it isn't doing anything with these packets. The logs don't show anything strange.
Do you other users get more packets than you send? I would have guess getting more RX than TX is because of being connected to a hub but they say it is on a switch. Any ideas?

Feel free to ask if you want to know something about my racklocation server.

I will post the URL when I have finished fiddling with the Apache configuration as it will be on and off quite a bit while I work on it, or try to fix my previous alteration that stoped it from working.

Well I finally found a helpful tech admin at RackLocation last night. Unfortunately I didn't get his name so can't give him credit. Anyway, he was much more helpful, both in attitude and actions than some of the other people I'd spoken to and got 10 IPs set up for us.

Hopefully this will be a turning point in my experience with RackLocation, though I've only ever had anything done from midnight GMT onwards still. Ah well, here's to hoping ;)

I've moved my site to the RackLocation.com server... As I mentioned, it's running on a Celeron with only 64 MB RAM.

http://www.bluemango.ca/

Originally posted by _G_
All of my IP's reverse resolve to ns.cr5000.net which doesn't exist. I have emailed them and on Monday they will have had a week to figure it out (they replied and said they were working on it). On Monday I will start asking why they haven't sent me a fix. Anyone know how to set up reverese resolution up with a racklocation server? (What to put in named configuration)

In Webmin, you create a new master zone with these settings:
Type: Reverse
Network: 66.33 (assuming that's the start of your IP address)
Uncheck "Add NS record for master server?" and leave Master Server textbox blank

After the zone is created, add a PTR resource record ("Reverse Address" option in Webmin) to map the IP address to the hostname. Apply the changes and your part is done. You can test it out by typing "nslookup [your_ip_address]" from the shell prompt.

BUT... The 66.33.*.* range is managed by Dialtone Internet, and they're the ones that have set the reverse lookup to ns.cr5000.net for the IP addresses you now have. For the reverse lookup to be updated to the world outside your dedicated server, Dialtone Internet would have to either change their record or delegate the control for your IP addresses to your DNS server.

I'm still a newbie with all this stuff, so I apologize for any errors.

Thanks for your tips but I have altered named to run chrooted for security so I am not sure if webmin will still work with it, I will have a look. I need webmin to do it once so I can have a look at the config file to see how it did it.

Your sites goes to 66.33.25.230 and the revers of that is ns.cl0178.net so yours isn't set properly either.

Originally posted by _G_
I said my server was down quite a bit, that was my fault I was re-configureing it and my configuration didn't get on with their network card and it locked up after a bit of use.
Still working on that one. Intel Ether Express 10/100 any tips? It listed lockup bug and work around.


That's a bit disturbing that you've been given an Ether Express 10/100. Its an ISA slot card - so I'm wondering that its probably a bit old. Also, I don't think its level 1 supported. I've got an Ether Express 10/100 in an old PC that I run RedHat distro of Linux on. Its given me trouble and I wouldn't want to be using it in a web server.

Good luck.

It is definitely PCI, maybe I have got the name slightly wrong but it reports Intel Ether Express in the boot up.
I will post the exact description in a bit.

Found the details,

The card is
kernel: e100 - Intel(R) PRO/100 VE Network Connection
From boot messages

and
Intel(R) PRO/100 Fast Ethernet Adapter - Loadable driver, ver. 1.2.1
From dmesg

When using a new kernel I used the PCI Ether express drive which made it lock up after about 1 hour of use.

Any suggestions which driver I should use from the 2.4.1 kernel? it only lists 1 Intel PCI NIC and that is the Ether Express one I tried. (confused)

OIC - Yeah my card is the EtherExpress 16 - and you've got a EtherExpress Pro 100.

Unfortunately, I only know enough about Linux to get me into trouble ;)

However, have you looked up the Redhat hardware database at this page (you're using Redhat 7 distro right?) http://hardware.redhat.com/redhatready/cgi-bin/us/db-hcl.cgi

I think you want the eepro100.o module.

Yep that was the module I was using after looking at the RedHat page. I compiled it into the kernel though, rather than have it keep load and unload itself.