can anyone tell me who is better please and why they think they are better i like the look of both but rackspace costs more and you get less bandwidth but i think they have been around longer to trust so who is better please

I don't have any direct experience with RS, but I am currently with fastservers and they have the best customer support I've encountered anywhere on the web :)

I don't see much comparison here, Rackspace.com easily wins this. I've got several servers at Rackspace and manage a server located at FastServers.net... uptime at both companies are the same, but as you said, Rackspace have been in business much longer, they've also had 100% uptime for the past 12 months. Overall, remember that you get what you pay for, so even though Rackspace have a much higher cost, you'll be getting the best service possible for a managed server.

Obviously FastServers.net don't provide enough support, since my client has hired me to manage their server for them. They're not a bad company though, if you're on a budget, then FastServers.net would be a good company to go with.

Alan

I've only used Fastservers myself, so my opinion is ever so slightly lopsided (;)), but so far Fastservers has been great. I'm not using any of their management services, so I can't comment on them. There have been many threads here about both hosts, so do some searches for more information.

Edit: First two paragraphs deleted...it turns out I was wrong :blush:

Originally posted by no1v2
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but Fastservers offers what I'll call semi-managed servers, while Rackspace offers completely managed servers, so the two aren't really comparable. Their pricing reflects this.

My opinion, based on what is listed at both sites, is that you are incorrect. That is my opinion however. If you look at waht Rackspace calls managed, it isn't my definition of managed. What they do beyond what is listed on the site (term: managed), is not known to me.

Alan uses one provider, but not the other, so hard to really say that's a fair comparision.

Really, you have to determine your needs and see which 'managed' provider, provides that. I'd also shoot an email to anyone you are interested in, as they might be willing to go beyond what is listed at the site, within reason, though I'd define what's reasonable so there's no surprises.

We have 1 server with fastservers and their support is second to none. You get meaty replies to tickets and not just 1 liners. HE is a great datacenter. But they're not managed servers. You'll need to keep the server up to date with patches etc.

Alan uses one provider, but not the other, so hard to really say that's a fair comparision. True... that's why I could only really compare the uptime between the two networks and not their managed services. But with the low prices that you pay at FastServers.net, you can't expect to be able to ask them to do a LOT of things each month or they would be undercharging on the man hours.

Alan

I have servers with both. Bottom line is that both companies are great. But I don’t think fastservers.net offers full managed dedicated servers like rackspace.com does.

If you have the money are totally clueless then go rackspace.com. If you have a tight budged then go with fastservers.net. You should also consider servint.net. In my opinion they are on par with fastservers.net!

I just joined FastServers.net and up to now it's been great. They just set up my server today and I already received so many updates through mail it is amazing. Seeing that I definitely need more than 30GB/month than RackSpace.com is not even an option for me.... their prices are not even in the same league as the ones at FastServers.net so I would not be surprised if they could be better. But why pay double for a little better service/management if you could have 10x the bandwith for that!

Before I choose FastServer I did some thorough research of the threads here and I suggest you do the same. Seems that almost all their customers are really happy and there must be a reason for that. I have not found a single other company on this board that has a spotless reputation like they do.

Actually Fastservers.net does offer fully managed servers. The guidelines can be viewed here http://www.fastservers.net/dedicated/sla.shtml in section 1.1. Section 1.1.1 is what comes with all of our servers free of charge.

Chicken, I hope this OK to post this here, just had to get the facts straight. If not please let me know.

Assuming your colocating your own server, do both of them offer 24/7 access to your equipment? I wasn't able to find that answer on fastserver's site.

Fastservers.net only allows physical access to servers if you have a full rackcolo with them.
This is a security measure for the other customers who might be sharing rack space with you.

After all of the positive remarks here I decided to order a server from Fastservers.net last week. I received prompt replies to questions about their service and equipment so I'm thinking this looks like a great deal and placed an order. I Received an automated response with links to the various contract sections on their web site. Nowhere in the contract was there a listing of the equipment or services to be included so we requested that these be added to the contract. Once again we received a response within a few hours suggesting that we include any items we felt were needed in the contract then fax it to Fastservers.

We faxed a signed copy of the updated contract late Thursday night and waited....no response. Finally received a response late Friday afternoon that I should fax the contract. Sent an e-mail reply Friday night stating that we had already faxed the contract, attached a copy of the contract to the e-mail and received an e-mail that our mail with the attachment was garbled. E-mailed a 2nd copy of the contract and waited, again no response.

Finally on Monday morning I e-mailed asking if any copies of the contract had been received and got a response back about an hour later stating that they had received the Fax'ed copy and would get back to me within two hours to finalize the sale. Its now Tuesday night and I have yet to hear back from anyone.

I suspect at the prices they are offering that these are very busy folks but frankly, if they're too busy to properly service a new client during the sales phase it doesn't exactly inspire confidence in their ability to handle any problems in a timely manner. We've since decided to go elsewhere.

texas_tech,
Sorry to hear that, have you tried calling them to find out what is going on? They do have an 800 number for you to call. I recommend doing that, as FS is an awesome provider, and I don't have enough good things to say about them.

-Steven

I'm not saying that Fastservers.net isn't a good provider of hosting service, just that in my case they never completed the sale from their end.

I didn't try to call them since they had acknowledged on Monday that they had my original faxed contract and I assumed they would be able to complete the sale. I don't make it a habit of running after a company to make sure they sell me something.

Fastservers.net is good but nobody can beat the professionalism of Rackspace.com ,

You will hardly , i really mean hardly find anyone dissatisfied with them , Their sales , support billing everything is just very good.
And ofcourse their network too :)

I tell this from my personal experience with both these providers, I fact i really wonder will i ever find any other provider as good as Rackspace ever. I think not.

Regards,

fastservers had my server setup a few days ahead of schedule and made various contacts with me to assure everything was ok :)

Basically, yes, we're growing at a semi-breakneck pace. This is a good thing but is also something we have to keep manageable. There will be times when we have to back off and attempt to ease things along.... if we aren't as responsive as other phases in time it is only because we are attempting to stay on top of absolutely everything.

In our position, we have to make sure we have ample address space in-waiting, that bandwidth as a whole stays under control, that we have sufficient hardware waiting in the wings for emergencies.... etc. It's a daunting task but please understand we are growing as fast as we possibly can without destroying our support structure and responsiveness.

Things get pretty tight fairly fast certain weeks, and we have to make sure we are covering every aspect of our business or our level of service will plummet.

In a nutshell, it has been quite a ride so far, and hopefully things will continue to improve as the industry continues to turn around.

Rackspace have been in business much longer,

As I believe both of these are excellent providers, I did want to clarify this one point posted earlier. While rackspace has been promoting dedicated servers longer than "fastservers.net", the parent of fastservers is Powersurge which has been providing hosting services for years and may actually be older than Rackspace. However, the important point is simply that both have considerable experience as demonstrated by their customer satisfaction.

Greetings:

Rackspace.com hands down.

There are better than Rackspace.com.

However, when compared to most, Rackspace.com beats the majority without a blink of an eye.

Thank you.

Regarding Fastservers, I'm noticing rather significant increases in latency lately, starting at the he.net connection. Is this something to be concerned about? In the past, it's usually <50 all the way, though it seems these past couple of weeks, they're >150. And I'm on the West Coast:

IP: 216.x.x.x
Date/Time: 30/10/2002 1:32:40 PM

1 1 ms [192.168.2.1]
2 52 ms [24.x.x.x]
3 39 ms rd1bb-ge0-3.vc.shawcable.net [24.69.252.2]
4 45 ms rc1bb-pos15-0.vc.shawcable.net [66.163.69.70]
5 37 ms rc1wt-pos2-2.wa.shawcable.net [66.163.76.54]
6 78 ms rc1ch-pos1-0.il.shawcable.net [66.163.76.42]
7 80 ms [206.220.243.189]
8 191 ms oc3-pos2-0.7206vxr.chi.he.net [216.218.254.77]
9 192 ms gige-g4-0.gsr12008.fmt.he.net [64.71.128.182]
10 235 ms [64.71.131.174]
11 207 ms [216.x.x.x]

Thanks,

Hi.

Haven't heard anything widespread lately at all; it's been a fairly calm week!

Your latency starts here:

7 80 ms [206.220.243.189]
8 191 ms oc3-pos2-0.7206vxr.chi.he.net [216.218.254.77]


I'm not precisely sure where chi.he.net is in relation to our equipment, but you might want to send in a ticket either to our support desk or to HE's noc to see if they can determine a lag between those particular spots.

Certainly no widespread complaints at this time however.
Not that I know of.
:D

Just want to drop a quick line and say:

Got a new server with fastservers.net and thumbs up all the way, in every way. Sorry I cannot compare for you to Rackspace though, as only been with fastservers.net and other companies not mentioned. Fastservers has so far been the best of all of them.

I'm in Michigan and haven't have any considerable latency problems lately

15 95 ms 80 ms 132 ms 100tx-f6-1.mae-west.he.net [207.126.96.98]
16 90 ms 92 ms 87 ms gsr12008.fmt.he.net [216.218.130.6]