http://forum.rackshack.net/showthread.php?threadid=8790

Not that everybody cares, nore uses Rackshack... but a lot of people follow just about everything in the webhosting buisness... but.... Does anybody have any speculations about what this BIG announcement could be about?

Possibly something about a new DC?

Big announcement next monday... that's the very day that I won't have access to a computer. :(

I haven't got a clue what it could be about though.

Me too pls !

More tech support staff?

I'm wishing for colocation.

I suppose it will have something to do with the DC: http://www.rackshack.net/colo/updatesnew.asp

Hehe, finially new pictures of the dc for colocation. I remember seeing somewhere about Robert's attempt to cheaply buy a second datacenter so that they could still keep their current prices. I tried finding the thread again over in RS forums but I had no luck :(

I think that the announcement is that they have bought out a big datacenter, or that they are offering leased suites in a DC for companies.

Actually
I heard from good sources that Shawn J White has purchased RackShack and is moving all the servers to a top secret location in Area 51

That is not funny.

Peter

Its going to have to do with their daretocompare.net i bet. Probably moreso a marketing ploy than anything else.

-Brendan

Could be but I know they are hoping to have 10+ gigE links and host over 10,000+ servers by the end of this year. So with that in mind I'm thinking that they have some plans for aquiring a new dc.

Just my $0.02 ;)

I wonder what they will do with 10k obsolete servers a year from now. Thats gonna need a big garbage can. They can't have that much resale value by that time, and a year from now people will not be buying 1ghz celeron servers.

-Brendan

I am sure that with those older servers they will be easily be able to sell them. I don't know about 10k though ;) But if they really need to get rid of them they could sell them for a few hundred on ebay, or have specials, or even prize giveaways, etc.

Originally posted by phpcoder
I am sure that with those older servers they will be easily be able to sell them. I don't know about 10k though ;) But if they really need to get rid of them they could sell them for a few hundred on ebay, or have specials, or even prize giveaways, etc.


Schools buy crap loads of stuff like that..

Offer a few hundred to several schools and I'm sure you'd make a nice profit.. Espcially since in 1 year, they would have paid for the servers completely, and maybe a few times over :D

They would more likely to sell them off at a lower month fee?

What has happened to all the old Raqs... they are really outdated.

Sell the cheaply :D (As the previous 2 posts said).

Originally posted by MP2100
Actually
I heard from good sources that Shawn J White has purchased RackShack and is moving all the servers to a top secret location in Area 51

Sorry, Peter, but I thought that was hilarious.

I wonder how much it cost to run fiber out there :P

Originally posted by HRBrendan
Its going to have to do with their daretocompare.net i bet. Probably moreso a marketing ploy than anything else.

-Brendan

hmm, wonder what thats all about? On a side note, I didnt think RS did colocation? Or is that what wholesalecolo is ?

hmm, wonder what thats all about? On a side note, I didnt think RS did colocation? Or is that what wholesalecolo is ?
RackShack said the only time they'd do this is when they could acquire another datacentre at next to no cost.

HRBrendan: Of course it's a marketting ploy, that's why businesses have "big announcements" and "press releases" :D

-Matt

They probably bought another forum. :(

Rackshack has bought sitepoint forums = big announcement

Originally posted by chrisb


Sorry, Peter, but I thought that was hilarious.

agreed. i laughed out loud when i read it :D

I'm betting that at least part of the awaited announcement is the arrivial of their new Allegiance Gig-e...:look:

Originally posted by clocker1996


agreed. i laughed out loud when i read it :D

I a know peter what's wrong with you?.

I think it was pro hacker saying how the schools get the old crap, i that was funny also, my school still has zx81's.

Windows Ensim WEBpplicance Servers?

New Compaqs DL320 P4 coming in?

New Compaqs DL320 P4 coming in?
Not part of the announcement. We dumped the servers we use at RackShack for DNS & backups in lieu of these new babies. They're funkily fast!

-Matt

I meant more..

Remember HS said that they just got a small shipment in, and loaded those up.

I bet more are coming in.

Ever tried reading the yahoo news?

Its there about the new shipment, so I believe that is what this is.

Ok, ok own up. Who sold out to RS?

$1 that they've acquired another company.

Not guilty, I am pretty sure you can count SitePoint out of that too, unless they've decided to keep everyone who helps them run it in the dark.

Maybe they're going to start offering CPanel servers.

I can imagine it now, the first CPanel glitch and out comes the restore disk, not a nice thought.

Originally posted by phpcoder
http://forum.rackshack.net/showthread.php?threadid=8790

Not that everybody cares, nore uses Rackshack... but a lot of people follow just about everything in the webhosting buisness... but.... Does anybody have any speculations about what this BIG announcement could be about?

Possibly something about a new DC?

I wonder if Rackshack is taking advantage of the potential firesale! Deep Discount!
----------

Interliant in Dangerous Cash Position

July 22, 2002 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Web hosting firm Interliant Inc. (Interliant.com) said on Monday that, based on its recently revised business plan and the assumptions on which it is based, the company does not have sufficient cash to fund operations beyond the end of the third calendar quarter of 2002.

Interliant highlighted a number of reasons for the cash shortfall. One of the major causes, says the company, is that its revenue projections have been impacted badly by the continued weakening of market conditions since the company filed its Form 10-Q for the first quarter of 2002.

Another major reason, says Interliant, was the delay in the sale of one of the company’s divisions. Should the sale occur, the company expects the proceeds will be significantly lower than anticipated, and will likely not be received by July 31, 2002.

The company says it is considering all available options and has engaged Traxi LLC as its financial advisor to assist in exploring alternatives, including further restructuring, filing for protection under the bankruptcy code, or completing some other transaction.

http://www.thewhir.com/marketwatch/int072202.cfm

Hi All,

I think they are buying RackSpace and Moving the Tech support people over to RS! RackSpace is probably the best and nearest DC for HeadSurfer to buy! And that would give HS control of both the high end and low end of the server market!

I don't think RS has the money to buy RackSpace. I have heard some of the largest players have put in bids for RackSpace but they are not looking to sell.

Who knows, maybe they finally purchased the .com version of rackshack. I sure have seen the kayak shop by mistake several times. :)

I personally would find it halarious if they came out and said

"Rackshack is raising rates to $250 / month from the original $99 / month. You all are on 1 month contracts so blah blah" hehe

I would watch to love all the hosting companies pricing structures change real quick.

Yeah, that would be fun, would be interesting to watch the fall out of that.

If that does ever happen I am running to the closest computer shop and acting like the end of the world was going to happen. Grab all close parts and start building servers hehe.

The servers would still be cheap compared to RackSpace ;) .

Originally posted by jic
I personally would find it halarious if they came out and said

"Rackshack is raising rates to $250 / month from the original $99 / month. You all are on 1 month contracts so blah blah" hehe

I would watch to love all the hosting companies pricing structures change real quick.
hehe. Them so called "price freezes" would come under sudden pressure. :laugh: :stickout

Ever think that they might just lower their prices to attract more customers and get more total revenue from that? :eek:

I doubt it. :D

Originally posted by smidwap
Ever think that they might just lower their prices to attract more customers and get more total revenue from that? :eek:

I doubt it. :D


I'm afraid you can't get much lower than 100/month :D

Hey if they offered cpanel on their servers, I'd be right in line to buy one for 100/month :D

I think things like this post itself is one of the main reasons for it ;)

or http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=64222&perpage=10&pagenumber=2

Originally posted by The Prohacker



I'm afraid you can't get much lower than 100/month :D

Hey if they offered cpanel on their servers, I'd be right in line to buy one for 100/month :D

I was refering to the web hosts who purchase servers through Rackshack. Either way, you are right. :stickout

I think it's either cPanel, new DC, and/or colocation...

I am about 150% sure it isn't colocation.

Because the new DC shouldn't come online till December.

CPanel - too much money RS will waste on CPanel.
Colocation - RS isn't ready for this yet, nor their DC is yet capable of this, their new one, MIGHT. This isn't yet probable.

Only logical thing is new servers.... or Windows..
He did say he predicted Windows servers by August, I give credit to that, but again Windows is more predictable.

I still go with large shipment of Compaq DL 320 P4s coming in.

I bet $99 on that :)

Ack...I hope it isn't Windows. In my opinion, I do not see a big demand for it. And from what I've heard of, Windows Servers aren't as easy to administrate as *nix servers. Heh, I don't want to get off topic, so I'm still waiting for Monday. * Twitles thumbs, starts to sweat. * :stickout

Windows Servers aren't as easy to administrate as *nix servers.
My concern with $99/mo windows servers means every joe-user gets their game server online without the proper security patches. Code Red comes back and has a party through the NOC.

-Matt

Okay,

I rush home from the dreaded job, fire up the super powerful network. Rush to Webhostingtalk.com and rackshacks's forums and low and behold no big announcement! Anyone have any ideas?

You've got me. Rackshack's forums aren't saying anything. :confused: :eek:

heh, anything rackshack touches turns to silver, of course what does silver do when you dont take care of it? Tarnishes :)

It kind of sucks, that they didn't post the announcement today...

I'm pretty sure I know what it is. I was told when I visited their offices of some plans of theirs over 2 months ago. However, I will hold my tongue and watch the rest of you whine :D

Originally posted by Webdude
I'm pretty sure I know what it is. I was told when I visited their offices of some plans of theirs over 2 months ago. However, I will hold my tongue and watch the rest of you whine :D

How much of the facility were you able to see?

-Lamar

"The Headsurfer", that's me BTW, has taken a little time off and has not completed the preparations for our new announcement.

I know, I know, shame on me.

Lots going on and I'm behind. I'll try to get everything worked through in the next few days.

Please accept my sincere apologies for the delay.

Robert

Straight from their forums: http://forum.rackshack.net/showthread.php?postid=54297#post54297

Originally posted by Perfecthost


How much of the facility were you able to see?

-Lamar

I dont know how many floors RS takes up. But I saw 2 half floors. It was all cubicles for their support techs, and such.

Bah...why does the Headsurfer have to make it so dramatic :confused: ?

actually all headserfer says is it was supposed to be big, and everything he does he thinks is big..

To the defence of headsurfer (???) you guys are the ones making it dramatic :)

I thought this is supposed to be the big announcement, no?

http://forum.rackshack.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=9053

Peter

Haha :stickout . Don't think they could have planned that one though ;) .

I too am curious as to what the head surfer is doing. Our company isn't as large as the Shack but many of us consider them to be our toughest competition. I think we have the edge on support but they offer more standard bandwidth (400gb) than we do (300gb)....for now anyway. Granted, both are considerably more than most dedicated hosts offer. At least I know that they're not buying us! We're quite happy and look forward to healthy competition with them for many more years.

James Tillapaugh
james@fastservers.net

icq 119042586

Originally posted by HRBrendan
I wonder what they will do with 10k obsolete servers a year from now. Thats gonna need a big garbage can. They can't have that much resale value by that time, and a year from now people will not be buying 1ghz celeron servers.

-Brendan

Hopefully, they follow the # 1 rule in business: buy that which appreciates, and lease that which depreciates.

So if they did this, then it is the leasing companies problem what to do with 10,000 already outdated servers (if you can call celeron's, duron's, and sis type mobo's servers).

TomK

I'd like to see a server that appreciates..LOL. Think of what you may see in a 100 years in an antique store..heh

Originally posted by Webdude
I'd like to see a server that appreciates..LOL. Think of what you may see in a 100 years in an antique store..heh

Exactly my point, buying servers is crazy - leasing, if you can get the right terms, is the way to go.

TomK

Probadly RackShack goes out of business or a going out of business sale possibly a new data center or colocation who knows. Maybe they're offering interest free loans?

My guess is they start offering servers with Cpanel. Or that they start offering managed servers.

Hopefully, they follow the # 1 rule in business: buy that which appreciates, and lease that which depreciates.


By the time you finishing paying leases, you are not that much off what you would have paid for the servers. Of course a lease is better for taxes, but writing off depreciation is too. I think leases from Cobalt (things you can not upgrade) are great. But white box servers can be upgraded (however slightly) and can be put back to use.

Also, how long does it take to make money off a cheap ass server with big set up fees? A few months. Hell, in two years (that is what I think the shelf life is) donate these servers to schools and right it off.

Things that are expensive and not 'rented' to customer are leased. Routers, production servers, ect..... Cheap servers or basic shared servers are bought. Thats what we do anyway.

One thing about buying when you are the size of RS, you really start to understand why some of these companies fudged the books when it came to assets. :stickout


OK, Now for my guess on what HS at RS will release.

Headsurfer is going to go live to all his customers. He will announce he has built an underground "lair" protected by "sharks with lazer beams". He has decided to hold everyones servers hostage until he is paid - "One Million Dollars".

Yeah baby. Heah!

They are going to be providing Urchin http://www.urchin.com/ for all servers.

The problem with any "big announcement" at RackShack, is until they get support people that either know what they are doing or are willing to at least log into your server (even for a price) to execute the task of typing 10 characters at your verified request when something goes wrong (file corruption, etc.) that makes it impossible to log in to do any work or repairs on your server remotely, or be faced with a complete reinstall, they will (to me) remain worthless and nothing they announce otherwise would change my opinion of them at all.

Let's all hope they do that, but you can count on the fact that this isn't what this announcement in question is about. Perhaps they should consider on doing that, I know that it would persuade myself and many other's on considering them (again, or for the first time). Maybe they should pursue after some people in this particular web hosting community board to do (even involved, complex) support that doesn't require physical access? So Robert, are you guy's hiring? :-)

The knowledge of the techs has nothing to do with them obeying the company's policy, Rackshack clearly states they dont provide managed support and when you asked Rackshack to install software for you to fix a mistake that was not made by Rackshack, that falls under managed support. Even if you were hired tomorrow, you would be violating policy by doing this. If Rackshack fixed everyone's mistakes for them they'd have to hire a lot more people and charge a lot more money.

Originally posted by Patrick-EV1
The knowledge of the techs has nothing to do with them obeying the company's policy, Rackshack clearly states they dont provide managed support and when you asked Rackshack to install software for you to fix a mistake that was not made by Rackshack, that falls under managed support. Even if you were hired tomorrow, you would be violating policy by doing this. If Rackshack fixed everyone's mistakes for them they'd have to hire a lot more people and charge a lot more money.

Okay, here's the problem with your statements. You are either assuming too much, or you simply aren't reading what I said in the right way, or your statements are just inaccurate or unfair. Therefore I will make what I said clear.

Firstly, I don't know what your technicians are qualified for, so I apologize if my comment seemed to indicate they were unqualified. The thing is, we can't know.

Secondary, your TOS state "unmanaged", not "we won't touch it with a 10 foot pole no matter what, ever!". Your site never stated that you will only reboot or do a complete restore. This can leave people in some serious and troublesome water if a file goes corrupt. I had a server with Raskshack a few months ago, had it for about 3 or 4 months and was happy. That is, until a file was corrupted (likely due to a bad drive). Not anyone's fault, but I couldn't get someone to simply log in and type one command.

Finally, your company and this attitude (did I misunderstand you? Did you misunderstand me?) is the problem. When and who ever said that the issues I speak of are a result of anything anyone broke or did? Refer to the above scenario, which was a reality for me personally. Who do you get the idea that the issues I mention were a result of someone's "mistake"? That is an unfair comment and assumption. This sort of response is not encouraging. I apologize if I wasn't clear or my comments seemed unfair or untrue, but as you can see that is not the case. For you to comment like you did above, is what I would deem as both inaccurate and unfair to the issue I mentioned.

Understand that this is sometime important and vital to people running businesses on web servers. Sure, you get what you pay for, what do you expect for X amount of dollars, and so on. I've heard it all. However, without some type of service, it's just too risky and you are loosing out on a lot of qualified people hosting with you. People that would actually end up never needing support, unless the hardware had issues. This is what I'm speaking of, not when some unqualified person starts messing with things they ought not to.

I hope that's clearer now, although I'm glad that you made it clear in your response at least, that your company policy is strict on not helping people no matter what. I don't mean that as an insult, really, I simply mean that you should state that on your site. Basically, if any problems occur, you're out of luck unless a reboot can fix it. Also, so people don't blame the tech support people or maybe end up assuming they aren't qualified. Although I've got to admit and recognize that it might save RS even more money since they can literally hire completely unqualified persons, since they would get fired for helping someone anyway.

How about some type of paid support option, charge a lot, for when things go wrong to make it to where people can't log in, and it wasn't their fault (or "mistake")? Like you said above, it would cost a lot, so maybe see how many people would be willing? After all, charge a lot just for someone physically at the DC to log into a shell and type a few commands sounds pretty profitable to me. Do you know where I'm coming from? I'm honestly not trying to offend you or come off as petty or sarcastic. I think over all it's a good service, but without the vital other half needed for a web based business, it's simply worthless for $1 or $99 or $299/mo. Just a suggestion. Good luck.

My intention wasnt to alienate you, but here is the support policy:

Support Boundaries: RackShack, provides 24 x 7 technical support to our subscribers (except for few holidays and short company meetings when we close our center.) We limit our technical support to our area of expertise. The following is our guidelines when providing support: RackShack provides support related to your server or virtual site physical functioning. RackShack does not offer tech support for application specific issues such as cgi programming, html or any other such issue. RackShack does not provide technical support for YOUR customers. If you can email, we encourage you to email support@RackShack.net for assistance. If you are able to get online and have other questions, the answers may be on our home page at http://www.RackShack.net/support/ - we encourage you to check there first. Lastly, the Help files in the program you are using may have the answer to your question so please do investigate these resources before calling tech support.


It does state we only provide support for the server physically functioning ( hardware ) and no application specific support.

I completely understand where you are coming from and I admit I think I did misunderstand the original intent of your last post, you seem to be very reasonable. But paid support isnt part of Rackshack's model at this time. We've often had a soft heart and done things way beyond our scope as I've done so numerous times, because despite our policy, we dont want to intentionally lose any customers. But because we're staffed to fit our business model time doesnt always allow this.

Thank you for your comments and suggestions and I wish you success as well.

Originally posted by Patrick-EV1
My intention wasnt to alienate you, but here is the support policy:

Support Boundaries: RackShack, provides 24 x 7 technical support to our subscribers (except for few holidays and short company meetings when we close our center.) We limit our technical support to our area of expertise. The following is our guidelines when providing support: RackShack provides support related to your server or virtual site physical functioning. RackShack does not offer tech support for application specific issues such as cgi programming, html or any other such issue. RackShack does not provide technical support for YOUR customers. If you can email, we encourage you to email support@RackShack.net for assistance. If you are able to get online and have other questions, the answers may be on our home page at http://www.RackShack.net/support/ - we encourage you to check there first. Lastly, the Help files in the program you are using may have the answer to your question so please do investigate these resources before calling tech support.


It does state we only provide support for the server physically functioning ( hardware ) and no application specific support.

I completely understand where you are coming from and I admit I think I did misunderstand the original intent of your last post, you seem to be very reasonable. But paid support isnt part of Rackshack's model at this time. We've often had a soft heart and done things way beyond our scope as I've done so numerous times, because despite our policy, we dont want to intentionally lose any customers. But because we're staffed to fit our business model time doesnt always allow this.

Thank you for your comments and suggestions and I wish you success as well.

Thank you Patrick, I have a problem with speaking my mind sometimes and opening my mouth before I think about how it might be interpreted without making some points more clear.

Honestly, that TOS, I read it before I signed up. I truly did not get the impression that it meant you won't log into a shell at the console if needed. I.e., some problem not caused by the client. I certainly didn't ask for or expect any support in any other method. I only wanted a server and a network connection and the hardware. I can and do do the rest.

I will admit I was (and still am) upset that something not my fault wasn't able to be simply fixed. I don't know why, in light of the facts of the situation, that I couldn't possibly get ANY help and it was unacceptable and ridiculous, and I wasted a lot of money, not to mention couldn't get a refund on top of that because of the ticket system to request cancellation was off-line after I had enough (and then another week passed by and there went my time frame for that refund and I was charged another month on top of it -- just the icing on the cake, not the problem).

I had done a great many modifications and configurations on the server I had. I spent roughly 4 hours a day for two weeks programming interfaces for some services, etc. Things I backed up and could get back. However, the problem was that even when I offered to pay hundreds of dollars just for someone to log into a shell prompt and type in a maybe 30 line command to symbolic link one library files to another one (because I saw indications that it was corrupted when I was able to log in), no one would. I was offered a full reinstall (for a price).

Mind you, I don't expect anyone to fix my problems, but this wasn't anything I had done. I know enough about this field to tell you this confidently, not because I'm upset with the problem and want to blame someone for the hassle it created. This flatly scared me from the idea of hosting with RackShack. With clients or any business sites on there, it would take a lot of effort and time to get the system back to a good working order, properly configured, secure and complete.

The time it takes is not RS's fault either, but the refusal to touch it when I had problems with the drive (I had two drives, I could have logged in and executed a more up to date backup onto it), was upsetting. Especially since the data would be wiped out from the second drive too due to the image install (so I was told). I would have had to start all over again, and things you can't just restore from a remote backup.

I would have liked to have stayed, because this allowed me to give clients more resources for a lower price, as your network was pretty decent and I refuse to oversell. I've moved on and am happy, they will log into the server if needed and type one command if I tell them to if it's ever needed (even if for a price. Heck, I can tell them, they don't even need to know what it means). I can now offer similar prices, as it's a similar deal. I'll probably never have a problem and this is set up a bit more intelligently to allow for only a 2 to 5 minute downtime is the main drive crashes.

I was angry that I wasted a lot of time, money and effort and basically found out the hard way that your TOS means more than it clearly says. Believe me, this is not a managed support issue, this is something that will make you sick to think about if you were in a dedicated server client's position. The fact is, the terms are not clear. Unmanaged does not equate to "won't touch, ever!". I'm glad that you are sometimes willing to help a client out, even if it is there fault, and maybe I just talked to the wrong 20 people in support tickets, emails and phone calls?

Anyway, I lost a good amount of money and ended up having to leave, because these terms were not specific or clear. This was not an issue of an application I was having trouble with, it was not something I did, and it was not something I had control over. I just think you guys could offer a lot more and it would be far more attractive to experienced people. I state this as a suggestion, as the plans and services in this regards are truly not worth one cent, because in an instance you can be ruined as a business.

I think it would be profitable for RackShack to consider offering some type of service, even if it charges a lot and claims no liability for what the server owner tells them to do, and even if it's something that ends up being non fixable. I'm sure that there are some qualified people physically at the DC that would be willing to make $500/hr? I'm not sure what else to say, bu I hope that too also makes it more clear. Good luck!

Robert makes a very good point. To back him up, this is also the reason I'm leaving the network. I've loved the connectivity, despite what some seem to "know" about it. But the fact that I have no recourse should there be a small problem, but a full system restore, is disturbing. I understood that unmanaged meant that I'd be supporting the box myself. But without physical access to the server, a hand in the facility is sometimes needed. It's not hand-holding, it's completing the loop. You're really not providing a complete service. Part of co-location and dedicated access is that ability for someone onsite to do what you're not able to.

Brian

Originally posted by Brian S
Robert makes a very good point. To back him up, this is also the reason I'm leaving the network. I've loved the connectivity, despite what some seem to "know" about it. But the fact that I have no recourse should there be a small problem, but a full system restore, is disturbing. I understood that unmanaged meant that I'd be supporting the box myself. But without physical access to the server, a hand in the facility is sometimes needed. It's not hand-holding, it's completing the loop. You're really not providing a complete service. Part of co-location and dedicated access is that ability for someone onsite to do what you're not able to.

Brian

That is called 'Remote Hands'. This is not a free service. It is usually included in the purchase of a managed dedicated server. If a server is unmanaged, one would understand remote hands is not included and would be an additional fee.

While I do not understand how one can run a legite hosting company off a server that will not even offer someway to at least get connectivity to where an experienced admin can fix it remoely (like remote terminal service), I do understand where the line in the sand needs to be drawn. Understanding this, I fully understand where RS draws the line. It seems to be the ony place to avoid grey area. The line is between black and white right now. Easy for everyone to understand.

Originally posted by UmBillyCord


That is called 'Remote Hands'. This is not a free service. It is usually included in the purchase of a managed dedicated server. If a server is unmanaged, one would understand remote hands is not included and would be an additional fee.

While I do not understand how one can run a legite hosting company off a server that will not even offer someway to at least get connectivity to where an experienced admin can fix it remoely (like remote terminal service), I do understand where the line in the sand needs to be drawn. Understanding this, I fully understand where RS draws the line. It seems to be the ony place to avoid grey area. The line is between black and white right now. Easy for everyone to understand.

I think it comes down to different opinions on what managed servers mean to people. I certainly didn't expect them to do anything other than what I was to be provided with. The hard drive obviously had issues, I didn't change anything that would have resulted in that, and hadn't even touched anything for days at that point. I don't think it's unreasonable to have them log in, see if the drive is producing errors or just type in one command as a quick fix or last resort, rather than taking the time to do a complete reinstall.
Again, I didn't expect them to do me any favors or do it just because it was so simple, I expected it would be reasonable to request or expect if needed, in light of the situation as well as their terms were not clear in regards to how very limited the support would be. Besides, that's not support, that's hardware. Saying they'll replace hardware that goes bad, isn't support, that's hardware replacement. Well, to me it is anyway.

I'm not the only one that didn't get this impression of the terms, since they aren't clear, and I don't expect to be upset for not getting something that I never was supposed to get or that I agreed to. I didn't agree to that. Nonetheless, I completely agree that anyone that runs a web host with clients would be a fool to host at a place that only offered the reboot or restore policy. You see, I simply didn't realize that was the case. I moved when I found out (the hard way) and managed to effectively waste a lot of time, money and effort which upsets me.

Anyway, I'm not irrational or clueless, I know the facts about it, and I had to find out the hard way of what the terms finally meant. I just simply don't see the point. I won't discourage people from them, but I would never suggest anyone with a business or more than a personal or hobby server use them. Obviously they aren't for me and I've moved on. However I just don't see much worth in anything they can announce that would make myself or many other's I know that use them or have used them, find any reason to be impressed or see any improvement. I was just going to make an example with an analogy about that, but I even though I think it would perfectly sum it up, I think it would reflect poorly and would be seen as an attack on RackShack. That's about all I have to say at this point. Wishing everyone the best of luck!

patrick,
I've been considering RS for a while but now after reading 2host.com posts I dont see how anyone beyond a hobbyist could use your service....... Hardware issues are a fact of life and need to be dealt with better than just a total reinstall.... gee.... isnt that what microsoft answers every problem with....

d

Still no announcement??

Nope, but HS said it was a small creature from the sea and has a "U" in it!! :confused: :confused:

Still no announcement??

Co-location? custom control panel? Cpanel?

(*anything else beginning with 'c')

Originally posted by clearstr
patrick,
I've been considering RS for a while but now after reading 2host.com posts I dont see how anyone beyond a hobbyist could use your service....... Hardware issues are a fact of life and need to be dealt with better than just a total reinstall.... gee.... isnt that what microsoft answers every problem with....

d

Rackshack DOES support hard ware issues.

Originally posted by RFhost
Nope, but HS said it was a small creature from the sea and has a "U" in it!! :confused: :confused:



Someone on this thread already stated what it is. www.urchin.com

Originally posted by UmBillyCord


Someone on this thread already stated what it is. www.urchin.com

I hope that's not what it is... If so, I really wouldn't classify that as a "big" announcement. Its a freaking web stats program. Big deal. AWStats, Webalizer, Analog, etc - all free - all do the same thing.

CPanel, Colocation, Managed Servers, etc - that would have been big. :-)

Thanks - Brian

Originally posted by bteeter


I hope that's not what it is... If so, I really wouldn't classify that as a "big" announcement. Its a freaking web stats program. Big deal. AWStats, Webalizer, Analog, etc - all free - all do the same thing.

CPanel, Colocation, Managed Servers, etc - that would have been big. :-)

Thanks - Brian

When you consider the retail on the software is $600, that it is the best stats program around, and that it is a huge value-added multiplier, I think it could be considered big.

I just had a look at their website!! It really does look like nice software. A nice value added extra for the customers. ;)

Originally posted by clearstr
patrick,
I've been considering RS for a while but now after reading 2host.com posts I dont see how anyone beyond a hobbyist could use your service....... Hardware issues are a fact of life and need to be dealt with better than just a total reinstall.... gee.... isnt that what microsoft answers every problem with....

d

you get what you pay for... what do you want for $99/mo ?

Originally posted by UmBillyCord


When you consider the retail on the software is $600, that it is the best stats program around, and that it is a huge value-added multiplier, I think it could be considered big.

Yes, its nice, so is Webalizer and AWStats - I just don't see it being that much better than what's out there for free. Especially to justify $500 or $600 for a license.

If you are serving a site over load balenced servers and have more than one log file, maybe you need this kind of tool. I don't do that, so I have no need for it.

Take care,

Brian

Originally posted by UmBillyCord
When you consider the retail on the software is $600 [...]

Remember: Cost != Value.

;) I think may be announcement related to low price

HS already confirmed the announcment is all servers -- old and new -- will get Urchin free. They might charge a small setup fee to install on old servers.

Originally posted by amusive.com
They might charge a small setup fee to install on old servers. That sucks.

Originally posted by iamdave
That sucks.

I can kind of understand it -- I'd hate to hear Patrick has to install it on, what, 7000 servers :)

Originally posted by amusive.com


I can kind of understand it -- I'd hate to hear Patrick has to install it on, what, 7000 servers :) I guess..

phugo wrote:
>get what you pay for... what do you want for $99/mo ?

additional suport options on an as needed basis for a fee...
d

Originally posted by amusive.com
HS already confirmed the announcment is all servers -- old and new -- will get Urchin free. They might charge a small setup fee to install on old servers.

I hope they plan on asking if we want it first. (!) I really don't need someone installing software on my servers without my knowledge or consent...

Not to mention, I wouldn't want to pay for it if they did.

Thanks - Brian

Originally posted by clearstr
patrick,
I've been considering RS for a while but now after reading 2host.com posts I dont see how anyone beyond a hobbyist could use your service....... Hardware issues are a fact of life and need to be dealt with better than just a total reinstall.... gee.... isnt that what microsoft answers every problem with....
d
Yup, after reading this I can only say RackShack is a hobby hoster. I don't think that anyone with more experience than the average human being will accept complete reinstalls as the only cure to any problem. That is indeed so "Microsoft" ;)
I also think that RackShack doesn't give a **** about our comments and that they are really happy with all their clients that don't know better and are happy again when everything gets back up within a day (complete reinstall),
hehe, that's so lame and so like the following text -->
Anyone who has ever bought a piece of software in a store has had the curiously deflating experience of taking the bright shrink-wrapped box home, tearing it open, finding that it's 95 percent air, throwing away all the little cards, party favors, and bits of trash, and loading the disk into the computer. The end result (after you've lost the disk) is nothing except some images on a computer screen, and some capabilities that weren't there before. Sometimes you don't even have that--you have a string of error messages instead. But your money is definitely gone. Now we are almost accustomed to this, but twenty years ago it was a very dicey business proposition. Bill Gates made it work anyway. He didn't make it work by selling the best software or offering the cheapest price. Instead he somehow got people to believe that they were receiving something in exchange for their money
L8r,
Domenico

Urchin has a new product out that monitors a complete data center of servers. If im correct, which i may not be they will be able to see everyone of your guys's reports tell how much bandwidth each server has used.

Originally posted by cbaker17
Theres about a 99.99% chance that their using this to start charging everyone for bandwidth usage, Urchin has a new product out that monitors a complete data center of servers. If im correct, they will be able to see everyone of your guys's reports tell how much bandwidth each server has used.

More then likely this will end up being a very expensive free upgrade for all you rackshack users out there.

Of course i could be wrong :) lets hope so.

The Urchin Datacenter release is not out yet. Also, I am pretty sure RS uses a custom system that does just fine monitoring bandwidth.

I am sure Robert got Urchin server licenses for about $10/server like he did with Ensim. I think it is a nice freebie for the customers. :)

that could very well be the case, i had just heard something different, either way theres nothing wrong with charging for bandwidth overages, if you use it you should have to pay for it.

But i dont know if they have a custom solution as i heard theyve never charged for overages.

i decided to give them the benifit of the doubt, id like to know if they do use this for overages, how acur. it keeps track of bandwidth usage...

Urchins a very expensive stats program, either way you look at it rackshack users are getting a hell of a deal.

I thought it was kinda funny how some people complained even though their getting a 600.00 stat program for free.

I agree with Charles on that. It was funny to see people's responses like "That's the announcement!! What the hell!! Can I get rid of it?? :bawling: " . I am very happy about this because I have a server @ RS and have been looking for a good stats program for ages. I think it's a very good extra. Keep up the good work Robert!! ;)


I thought it was kinda funny how some people complained even though their getting a 600.00 stat program for free.

Originally posted by RFhost
I agree with Charles on that. It was funny to see people's responses like "That's the announcement!! What the hell!! Can I get rid of it?? :bawling: " . I am very happy about this because I have a server @ RS and have been looking for a good stats program for ages. I think it's a very good extra. Keep up the good work Robert!! ;)


I agree too. What's the problem with getting more free stuff? Especially a peice of expensive software such as urchin.

heh i was tempted to give away a free car, but i can just imagine how that will go over...

"WHAT, their giving away a free sports car, Its gonna cost a fortune to fill up" "how do i opt out of this free car thing" "theyd better not just have it sitting in my frontyard when i wake up"

:) hehe

Originally posted by cbaker17
heh i was tempted to give away a free car, but i can just imagine how that will go over...

"WHAT, their giving away a free sports car, Its gonna cost a fortune to fill up" "how do i opt out of this free car thing" "theyd better not just have it sitting in my frontyard when i wake up"

:) hehe LOL:stickout

"WHAT, their giving away a free sports car, Its gonna cost a fortune to fill up" "how do i opt out of this free car thing" "theyd better not just have it sitting in my frontyard when i wake up"

Dammit, I've been a customer for over a year and you have the audacity to give me a free car?!

Hah :)

-Matt

Urchin kicks ass.... that software is sweet..
I might host my main site on a RS box just for Urchin :)

Originally posted by diederik
Urchin kicks ass.... that software is sweet..
I might host my main site on a RS box just for Urchin :)

How does it work? Does it just analyze logs, or do you put in a image bug or what?

Originally posted by iamdave
I agree too. What's the problem with getting more free stuff? Especially a peice of expensive software such as urchin.

As a current customer of ( that no longer does business with ) rackshack, I can see where these people are coming from. RS should be spending there money on improving the service rather than spending it on things that are not actually required. Maybe perhaps a little more training for the staff? Just a couple of weeks ago, I had to convince one of the support techs that one of the bandwidth providers they used was Williams, as they seemed to have been having some connectivity problems. Thankfully, shortly after I informed them of this fact, they had the problem looked at and fixed. I could go on and on, but I will spare you all the soar eyes.

Originally posted by Haze


As a current customer of ( that no longer does business with ) rackshack, I can see where these people are coming from. RS should be spending there money on improving the service rather than spending it on things that are not actually required. Maybe perhaps a little more training for the staff? Just a couple of weeks ago, I had to convince one of the support techs that one of the bandwidth providers they used was Williams, as they seemed to have been having some connectivity problems. Thankfully, shortly after I informed them of this fact, they had the problem looked at and fixed. I could go on and on, but I will spare you all the soar eyes. I somewhat agree with what you said, but I also am in somewhat of a disagreement. It is true that some of their staff is not very knowledgeable, and that they recommend system restores for just about every problem, but you do not go to a place like RS for good customer service. You go there for their cheap pricing and their awesome network. RS cannot do the same hand-holding that other companies do because they have way too many servers (7,000 +).

I hope Urchin is better on *nix than Windows. We get a lot of customers looking for better solutions right after they buy Urchin :(

Originally posted by iamdave
I somewhat agree with what you said, but I also am in somewhat of a disagreement. It is true that some of their staff is not very knowledgeable, and that they recommend system restores for just about every problem, but you do not go to a place like RS for good customer service. You go there for their cheap pricing and their awesome network. RS cannot do the same hand-holding that other companies do because they have way too many servers (7,000 +).

I never said anything about handholding.. I don't need hand holding. I need service! Any business, no mater what prices they charge have to provide service!

Originally posted by Haze


I never said anything about handholding.. I don't need hand holding. I need service! Any business, no mater what prices they charge have to provide service!

I completely agree. Obviously there are a lot of people that expect too much, but it seems by the posts that people have an opinion that is too extreme one way or another. This seems to convolute people's perceptions and their comments are rather flawed in my opinion. This isn't about what do you expect for X amount of dollars or anything to do with hand holding. Anyone can hook up a system to a network and never touch it again. I don't call that any service, but if that's the essence of Rackshack, then I certainly also agree that it's not for any professional or business sites to be run on, plain and simple.

I don't have a problem with admitting either side of the RS aspect and what you can expect or get and for people to comment otherwise and claim it's "hand holding', just isn't fair at all to this discussion and I've purposely avoided getting involved in responding to such comments. Is this how people truly see these points being made as being relevant to that view? This is unfortunate. I think we can all agree that there's basically no service (the network isn't that "awesome", by the way), but that's just how it is.

I think the problem is more with DC's and how they are so extreme on their pricing. The profit margin is tremendously different for a DC that will do anything, compared to those that do absolutely _nothing_ and this is troubling. I was lucky enough to find a DC with similar pricing on bandwidth and system hardware, whom will at least do a minimal amount of service if it came down to it (perhaps more, but that's irrelevant). I don't assume anyone enjoys this reality, but I also don't enjoy spending $1,200 to $2,400 a month to have a 'decent" service where I can get the most basic, simple (physical) service if it came down to it and have a decent connection, just to make $800 per server to offer reasonable plans that seem to be the standard and not oversell everything to their point where I'd loose sleep hoping no one used what I promise them.

That is another issue, of course, but to whine about how people should expect absolutely no service, ever, is ludicrous. Not to mention that I was certainly not one of the clients that was on the cheap $99/mo. plan, nor uses the cheap Celeron/Duron systems, etc. I can understand where everyone is coming from, but people need to be a little reasonable about the defense. I don't care if the server is 99 cents a month or 999 dollars, no service is no service. Who here couldn't (provided they have the funds) simply buy bandwidth in bulk and hook up systems and never do anything again?

You see, I would think it's expressed (at the very least) that they would at least do _something_ if it came down to it and wasn't due to the client's neglect or action, rather than only a reinstall (which requires more effort and time anyway). Their terms in their contract need to be more specific to this reboot or reinstall policy, because no matter what excuses are mentioned or assumed, it does not whatsoever state this or express it to that degree. Not everyone using them is just trying to be a 'cheap skate' and not everyone that uses them is someone in need of hand holding.

There are real issues involved and this is why people agree that unless it's a personal or hobby server, it's too risky and, well, I better not comment any further about what I think. I just really don't see the point or value or how anyone in their right mind can see either in such a 'service' and use excuses like people need hand holding? If you like it for a legitimate reason, that's great, there's a lot there. However for serious minded people, there's nothing. I hope it works out for everyone. That is all I have to say on the matter. Good luck.

Well, i just wasted time reading 9 pages to find out that they didnt announce anything. Im not a customer of theirs, but if i were to find out that Urchin was their big news, well, i dont think its worthy of the title BIG news.... imho

Originally posted by MaB
Well, i just wasted time reading 9 pages to find out that they didnt announce anything. Im not a customer of theirs, but if i were to find out that Urchin was their big news, well, i dont think its worthy of the title BIG news.... imho

You just found out -- Urchin *is* the big news, HS confirmed that.

Where did they confirm it? After spending 9 pages here, i went to rh forums and read 5 pages there :) -ohh i see it now. Thast what you get for fast-reading forums

I do believe 2host.com is attempting to break "most longest informative post" record...

Originally posted by 2host.com


I completely agree. Obviously there are a lot of people that expect too much, but it seems by the posts that people have an opinion that is too extreme one way or another. This seems to convolute people's perceptions and their comments are rather flawed in my opinion. This isn't about what do you expect for X amount of dollars or anything to do with hand holding. Anyone can hook up a system to a network and never touch it again. I don't call that any service, but if that's the essence of Rackshack, then I certainly also agree that it's not for any professional or business sites to be run on, plain and simple.

I don't have a problem with admitting either side of the RS aspect and what you can expect or get and for people to comment otherwise and claim it's "hand holding', just isn't fair at all to this discussion and I've purposely avoided getting involved in responding to such comments. Is this how people truly see these points being made as being relevant to that view? This is unfortunate. I think we can all agree that there's basically no service (the network isn't that "awesome", by the way), but that's just how it is.

I think the problem is more with DC's and how they are so extreme on their pricing. The profit margin is tremendously different for a DC that will do anything, compared to those that do absolutely _nothing_ and this is troubling. I was lucky enough to find a DC with similar pricing on bandwidth and system hardware, whom will at least do a minimal amount of service if it came down to it (perhaps more, but that's irrelevant). I don't assume anyone enjoys this reality, but I also don't enjoy spending $1,200 to $2,400 a month to have a 'decent" service where I can get the most basic, simple (physical) service if it came down to it and have a decent connection, just to make $800 per server to offer reasonable plans that seem to be the standard and not oversell everything to their point where I'd loose sleep hoping no one used what I promise them.

That is another issue, of course, but to whine about how people should expect absolutely no service, ever, is ludicrous. Not to mention that I was certainly not one of the clients that was on the cheap $99/mo. plan, nor uses the cheap Celeron/Duron systems, etc. I can understand where everyone is coming from, but people need to be a little reasonable about the defense. I don't care if the server is 99 cents a month or 999 dollars, no service is no service. Who here couldn't (provided they have the funds) simply buy bandwidth in bulk and hook up systems and never do anything again?

You see, I would think it's expressed (at the very least) that they would at least do _something_ if it came down to it and wasn't due to the client's neglect or action, rather than only a reinstall (which requires more effort and time anyway). Their terms in their contract need to be more specific to this reboot or reinstall policy, because no matter what excuses are mentioned or assumed, it does not whatsoever state this or express it to that degree. Not everyone using them is just trying to be a 'cheap skate' and not everyone that uses them is someone in need of hand holding.

There are real issues involved and this is why people agree that unless it's a personal or hobby server, it's too risky and, well, I better not comment any further about what I think. I just really don't see the point or value or how anyone in their right mind can see either in such a 'service' and use excuses like people need hand holding? If you like it for a legitimate reason, that's great, there's a lot there. However for serious minded people, there's nothing. I hope it works out for everyone. That is all I have to say on the matter. Good luck. I agree with you, what I meant to say is that, most users want hand-holding, and when they don't get it they come here and make stupid threads. I also agree with you, when you say that they won't touch a server, unless you get a restore....

I think its going to be the new servers. Seeing as most of their compaq's are sold out!

Kaumil, did you read?

The big announcement is Urchin.

Peter

Wasn't as big as everyone was expecting . . .

Sure it's a big thing, but it wasn't the new servers, the cheaper prices, or the Windows Boxes that everyone was speculating.