Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast
Results 1 to 25 of 58
  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    Nothing but, net
    Posts
    2,064

    Many months and many servers :: A dedicated server review (revisited)

    On December 4th 2003 I posted a review of 6 dedicated server providers I had had services through.

    You can find that here:
    http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showth...hreadid=213791

    Now 8 months later I'd like to revisit one review and add two more to the mix.


    LiquidWeb review (revisited)

    Liquidweb.com is a gem among providers. Unlike other providers Liquidweb.com is very laid back and an extreme pleasure to do business with. I believe I have had an account there for the better part of a year now and so far everything has been great.

    Support wise they stand out among the rest. If I need help with my server not responding to pings or SSH because I got the tweak bug at 3AM on a Sunday (this has happened!) I can pick up the phone and have my server back up within minutes.

    Summary: Liquidweb.com is a bit more expensive than the discount kings but, the level of service there isn't even comparable. Liquidweb.com is way out in front in terms of service and support.

    JVDS.com/Vpscolo.com Review

    Note: We use this provider for a fully dedicated server, not a virtual dedicated server.

    For the past few months I have been using JVDS.com/Vpscolo.com for another dedicated server. Rus (owner of JVDS/Vpscolo) is very professional and very helpful. He runs a tight ship and can provide you with whatever custom solution you need. With fast setup and extremely competitive pricing, Rus has just about anything you could need.

    Summary: A+ Provider with all the trimmings, professional fast service that leaves nothing to be desired.

    HiVelocity Review (honorable mention)

    I can't really give an honest total review of HiVelocity but, I can give a good review of their support and sales. About three weeks ago when I first spoke with Kevin at HiVelocity in sales about their 10mbit unmetered offerings I was pleasantly surprised at the attention to details. I have to say in terms of responsiveness to customer concerns their sales/support really are on the ball.

    Summary: While I haven't ordered any servers from HiVelocity I have spoken with their sales and support staff a number of times at different hours of the day. They have always been available and willing to help in any way they can.

    FastServers Review

    This review is hard to write as I really hate giving a scathing review of something I have just started to use but, I will tell it like I see it

    On July 19th 2004 at 3:10 PM (GMT -6) FastServers.net posted this offer.
    http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showth...hreadid=298445

    I was in the market for a dedicated server to run a fairly large gameserver off of and by my math a celey box would cover it nicely. The offer from FastServers was as good as I was looking for and was on Internap bandwidth so I placed the order. The billing confirmation and charge came to my credit card at 4:10 PM (GMT -6). I called shortly after to confirm everything with Aaron, the order was correct and I was set to get my server.

    It is now the 21st and I still have no server. I may be unreasonable to expect someone to take a server out of a box, put an OS on it then put it live in less than two days but, maybe that is me.

    Summary so far: FastServers seems to have a good sales staff but, maybe their operation is a bit disorganized. The right hand may not know what the left hand is doing so to speak.

    I will be updating this thread with more about FastServers as it happens.


    <<< edited by request >>>
    Last edited by SoftWareRevue; 07-22-2004 at 05:25 PM.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2002
    Location
    Philadelphia
    Posts
    2,278
    Great reviews! Just so you know though, a setup time of 2-3 days is not uncommon. I would suggest e-mailing them and asking if they have any ETA

  3. #3
    Join Date
    May 2003
    Location
    Kirkland, WA
    Posts
    4,448
    We have had a Fastservers.NET server for the better part of 3 years I believe (maybe 2). I wasn't around for the setup, however I can tell you the server has been a gem. The only times I have to contact support is when there are network issues at HE...they are usually resolved fairly quickly.
    Nick Nelson
    Sr. Director & GM, VAS
    Demand Media
    425.298.2282 nn@demandmedia.com

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Location
    DC
    Posts
    3,643
    Zach - 2 days setup is really nothing. Did they give you any sort of setup guarantee?

    - Matt

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Mar 2004
    Location
    Minnesota
    Posts
    1,274
    I just spoke with their live chat, they said there is a 48 hour setup garuntee.

    -Greg
    hm what should I put in my sig?

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    Nothing but, net
    Posts
    2,064
    Really I hold FastServers.net to a higher standard than other providers such as ServerMatrix or Nocster.

    Originally posted by nickn
    We have had a Fastservers.NET server for the better part of 3 years I believe (maybe 2). I wasn't around for the setup, however I can tell you the server has been a gem. The only times I have to contact support is when there are network issues at HE...they are usually resolved fairly quickly.
    I'm not saying that they are overall good or bad, I just said so far my experience with them is not as good as I think it should be.

    Originally posted by phpcoder
    Great reviews! Just so you know though, a setup time of 2-3 days is not uncommon. I would suggest e-mailing them and asking if they have any ETA
    They gave me an ETA, I'm just not happy with it and I feel the servers should be setup faster.

    Originally posted by mainarea
    Zach - 2 days setup is really nothing. Did they give you any sort of setup guarantee?

    - Matt
    See below.

    Originally posted by ChaosHosting
    I just spoke with their live chat, they said there is a 48 hour setup garuntee.

    -Greg
    In order to meet that they currently have less than 40 minutes if you count the 48 hours from the minute all monies are paid. Which I am doing.
    Last edited by LP-Trel; 07-21-2004 at 04:33 PM.

  7. #7
    First. I do appreciate the need to produce servers as quickly as possible and the need to get up and running in a timely manner, but our setup procedure is a little different than most companies.

    All of our servers go through a 24 hour burn in process before they are racked. This has provided us with less than 1% hardware failure on all of servers in the past 4 years.

    We don't and have rarely guaranteed setup times on servers. We do mention that we have a 48/72 hour turnaround time and will do our best to meet it. Additionally when we do server specials our overall workload increases about 5 times more than normal. What we do try is to give you the best turnaround time possible and with every server. Each customer gets a ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival) usually 72 hours from the time the order is placed. Our entire team works hard to meet this and unless something goes wrong during the process we do a good job.

    FastServers.Net always strives to do our very best, setup times are sometimes delayed while customer support issues, hardware verification, and more advance setups take up time from our admins to make sure we do the job right the first time.

    There are many providers that will give you this quick of turnaround time, but this is not something we have fine tuned and are unwilling to cut corners in a mad rush to cycle out boxes left and right. I do apologize if this does not meet some customers expectations, but the overall wait and process we go through provides us a stable environment with long terms relationships with almost all of our customers.
    Aaron Phillips
    Chief Marketing Officer
    www.monarx.com

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    Nothing but, net
    Posts
    2,064
    Hi ap_surge,

    I don't feel I'm unreasonable by wanting a setup time less than 72 hours. According to Shane I was one of 15 that ordered within the first hour. Even if one person was working at a lazy pace they should be able to setup 15 servers in 8 hours. As for a 24 hour burn running the machine for 5 hours or 24 hours has the same effect. Hardware fails that is just life.

    Thank you for your reply but, I'm still not happy about the setup time. So far FastServers isn't comparing very well to Liquidweb.com in terms of service or speed.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Dec 2002
    Location
    Kingsport, Tennessee
    Posts
    253
    I am considering LiquidWeb. Thanks for your post.
    Jake Necessary
    ServerMotion
    If you need any help just ask me. See Profile for IM Info.

  10. #10
    Originally posted by LP-Trel
    Hi ap_surge,

    I don't feel I'm unreasonable by wanting a setup time less than 72 hours. According to Shane I was one of 15 that ordered within the first hour. Even if one person was working at a lazy pace they should be able to setup 15 servers in 8 hours. As for a 24 hour burn running the machine for 5 hours or 24 hours has the same effect. Hardware fails that is just life.

    Thank you for your reply but, I'm still not happy about the setup time. So far FastServers isn't comparing very well to Liquidweb.com in terms of service or speed.
    zach,

    i feel you are being unfair. 24 hour and even 48 hour burn-ins are *the way it should be*, we do the same thing ourselves. hardware does indeed fail sometimes and yes, c'est la vie, but that is precisely the reason the burn-ins are necessary - clients generally prefer that the hardware failure not happen *after* they've put the machine into production. a certain percentage of hardware will die within the first 24-48 hours and a burn-in process allows the provider to deliver a system that has a better chance of living a long happy life to the customer.

    the fact that fastservers take their time to do this does not mean they are wose than someone who doesn't - it means *exactly the opposite*. in fact, the others probably can't be bothered.

    paul
    * Rusko Enterprises LLC - Upgrade to 100% uptime today!
    * Premium NYC collocation and custom dedicated servers
    call 1-877-MY-RUSKO or paul [at] rusko.us

    dedicated servers, collocation, load balanced and high availability clusters

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    Connecticut
    Posts
    3,038
    A few providers take extra precautions such as burn-in testing which is a plus but on the flip side unless you are ordering something custom it doesn't make me feel all warm and fuzzy knowing the provider can only provision one unit at a time.

    Maybe someone can expand on this as maybe I am missing something but generally the way we do it anyway is purchase/lease a few machines at a time and have them in a staging area at the NOC so when an order does come in it is just a matter of installing the OS and handing it off. I don't see a reason not to have the best of both worlds. Burn-in testing AND fast turnaround times.

  12. #12
    the fact that fastservers take their time to do this does not mean they are wose than someone who doesn't - it means *exactly the opposite*. in fact, the others probably can't be bothered.

    paul [/B]
    No offense intended, however I find it to be flawed logic to assume other providers do not follow proper burn in procedures simply because they are able to delivery a product expediantly.

    Intelligent providers burn machines as they are built in staging, and do not wait until a single order is filled to try and cobble together hardware. I also understand it is often a question of scale, as smaller operators simply cannot stock large amounts of hardware.

  13. #13
    Originally posted by X-Gaming
    A few providers take extra precautions such as burn-in testing which is a plus but on the flip side unless you are ordering something custom it doesn't make me feel all warm and fuzzy knowing the provider can only provision one unit at a time.
    who said anything about a single unit at a time? the talk was of 24 hours just for the burn-in procedure, which is of course automatic.

    paul
    * Rusko Enterprises LLC - Upgrade to 100% uptime today!
    * Premium NYC collocation and custom dedicated servers
    call 1-877-MY-RUSKO or paul [at] rusko.us

    dedicated servers, collocation, load balanced and high availability clusters

  14. #14
    Originally posted by BitError
    No offense intended, however I find it to be flawed logic to assume other providers do not follow proper burn in procedures simply because they are able to delivery a product expediantly.
    no ad hominem intended, your english teacher is turning over in her grave =]


    Intelligent providers burn machines as they are built in staging, and do not wait until a single order is filled to try and cobble together hardware. I also understand it is often a question of scale, as smaller operators simply cannot stock large amounts of hardware.
    if providers have the requisite parts in stock and assemble based on the orders they receive, i see nothing wrong with the procedure. this has nothing to do with intelligence, but rather with product positioning. when i go to a steakhouse, i always ask for medium rate with gravy on the side and would never go back to a place that refused to do this for me, while others do just fine ordering straight from the menu.

    paul
    * Rusko Enterprises LLC - Upgrade to 100% uptime today!
    * Premium NYC collocation and custom dedicated servers
    call 1-877-MY-RUSKO or paul [at] rusko.us

    dedicated servers, collocation, load balanced and high availability clusters

  15. #15
    Originally posted by rusko
    no ad hominem intended, your english teacher is turning over in her grave =]
    Me fail english? that's unpossible. She must be buried next to your shift key.

    Seriously though I was merely attempting to state that it's inproper IMO, to make assumptions about other providers based on their ability to deliver promptly, at least in this case of published and predictable products. Quality and expediancy need not be mutually exclusive.

    More complex solutions certainly do require proper testing and are much more difficult to deliver in such time frames.

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Jul 2004
    Posts
    314
    Originally posted by LP-Trel
    Hi ap_surge,
    ...
    As for a 24 hour burn running the machine for 5 hours or 24 hours has the same effect. Hardware fails that is just life.

    Thank you for your reply but, I'm still not happy about the setup time. So far FastServers isn't comparing very well to Liquidweb.com in terms of service or speed.
    5 hours burn in has same effect as 24 hour burn in?
    what a ********.
    this just shown that you have no idea what you are talking about.
    if i would be the www.fastservers.net manager i would just cancel contract with someone who posts such crap about my company.

    if you need a server setup immidiately, than ask the company *before* placing the order if they are able to do so.
    and when they tell u it takes 72 hours and you dont like this just go somewhere else.

    making a burnin of 24 hours i would value as plus for this company, since this shows that they take quality serious.
    if for you fast setup is more important than best quality, that is ok, but than choose the company accordingly, and dont whine around when you find out that you picked a company which has set priorities different than you.

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    Nothing but, net
    Posts
    2,064
    I've not insulted anyone or said anything uncivil, I'm merely expressing my opinion as I have the right to do.

    As for the 5 hours vs 48 hours burn in, someday hardware will make you eat those words and it could be multiple servers right in a row. I understand the burn in but, in my experience if hardware is going to fail it will just fail.

    I've now received my server and the network seems fast. There is no visable latency in SSH. With all the "special" attention my server was supposed to be receiving I expected it to have an updated kernel, it didn't. It is currently 9 patches behind for the version is it is running and was put into production anyway. To their defense however, no provider I have ever signed up with has updated a FreeBSD box. I suppose they are all afraid of something harder than up2date -f kernel.

    Summary of FastServers to date: Slower than acceptable (in my humble opinion) setup time, above average network and friendly sales/support staff.

  18. #18
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    Connecticut
    Posts
    3,038
    Originally posted by rusko
    no ad hominem intended, your english teacher is turning over in her grave =]



    if providers have the requisite parts in stock and assemble based on the orders they receive, i see nothing wrong with the procedure. this has nothing to do with intelligence, but rather with product positioning. when i go to a steakhouse, i always ask for medium rate with gravy on the side and would never go back to a place that refused to do this for me, while others do just fine ordering straight from the menu.

    paul

    To expand on your metaphor if I may.

    You likewise I presume would not care to wait an extra 2 hours for the same exact meal you could get somewhere else in 15 minutes?

  19. #19
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    Chicago, IL
    Posts
    657
    I'd just like to add that we extensively burn-in/stress test all of our servers, and we still take pride in our quick setup times.
    Zac Cogswell / CEI
    Formerly known as WiredTree Zac

  20. #20
    Join Date
    Jul 2004
    Posts
    314
    Originally posted by LP-Trel
    I've not insulted anyone or said anything uncivil, I'm merely expressing my opinion as I have the right to do.

    With all the "special" attention my server was supposed to be receiving I expected it to have an updated kernel, it didn't.
    No this case is different.
    On their website it is clearly declaired that setup takes "48-72 Hour".
    So you knew in advance that it takes so long, so if you do not have liked that you just should have not signed up at that company.

    And as you stated yourself, you posted only to bring some "special" attention to your box and hoped to get a special handling just for you.
    Whats that?
    I am happy that that company did not failed into this and gave you same handling as every other customer too.

    Every company has different offers, and its the customers job to find out that company who has just that offer which he wants.
    Thats like buying a Chevrolet Metro and than go to a car forum and cry arround that the car can only drive 180 while you expected that it can drive 250.
    If you want to drive 250 you need to buy a Viper or something like that.

    Same here they clearly stated that their offer has 48-72 hours setuptime.
    so you knew about that.
    ne need to go to a forum and cry around "i expected immidiate setup but this bad company failed".
    man thats cheap.
    if you want fast setup then its your duty to pick up a company which offers that.
    i.e. 15minutesservers.
    faster setup is most likly more expensive since then serves must be keept on hold which costs money.
    so you had the choice when you picked the company.
    you picked the one with 48 hours setup.
    so you must also wait 48 hours

    what comes next?
    will you cry around that you only got a single processor box as you have ordered instead of a dual prozessor box as you expected??

  21. #21
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    Nothing but, net
    Posts
    2,064
    alexmue that post doesn't even deserve a response but, I will anyway for the sake of answering every question. I did not post this to give my order "special attention". I will admit that the order and slow setup time did spark this post a bit earlier than I intended to post it but, I have not stated anything other than my honest opinion here.

    FastServers has a good crew but, things need to improve and that is all I want to say here. They have competition like Liquidweb.com that has their business together like FastServers should.

    I have a few thoughts I would like to add to this discussion though:

    1) Before posting the special where they knew they would receive a new batch of orders, why wasn't the hardware sent through burn in first?

    2) Before anyone gives me the reason of, "What if upgrades are ordered?" does that mean when I order another set of ram chips or another hard disk to be installed it hasn't been tested first?

  22. #22
    Join Date
    Jul 2004
    Posts
    314
    >> They have competition like Liquidweb.com that has their business together like FastServers should.

    nonesense.
    every company has different offers, and i am happy about that.
    there is no valid reason why fasservers should offer exactly the same as liquidweb.
    every company shows their offers and then the customer chooses what he wants.
    if you are happy with the product at liquidweb, so why dont you just stay there.

    liquidweb my be faster in setup, but on the otherhand fastserver has also points where it is dramaticly better than liquidweb.

    did you ever read the SLA's of these companies.
    fastservers SLA is much better than liquidwebs.
    i.e. fastservers guarantees that hardware failures are fixed within 24 hours, if they take longer you get refund.
    ok, 24 hours looks much (the planet has only 2 hours), but liquidweb does not at all give such a guarantee, so even when it takes a week you get no refund.
    also in other points fastserver sla is much better.

    so i would prefer 48 hours setup and better SLA rather than fast setup and worser SLA.
    so for me the company to choose would be fastserver (if only these 2 would be available).
    for you fast setup is more importent so go with liquidweb.
    thats the cool thing with free market. many offers out of which customer can choose!
    if you want that all companies offer the same you may want to go to kuba.

    but dont cry arround after choosing the wrong product. thats your fault and not the companies fault

  23. #23
    Join Date
    Apr 2002
    Location
    Philadelphia
    Posts
    2,278
    Originally posted by LP-Trel
    As for the 5 hours vs 48 hours burn in, someday hardware will make you eat those words and it could be multiple servers right in a row. I understand the burn in but, in my experience if hardware is going to fail it will just fail.
    Then I ask you this question -

    Would you rather a 24 hour stress test that shows a good chance of faulty hardware, and then hardware swapped before you even get the server. Setup time takes 3-4 days.

    OR

    Would you rather have a 4 hour stress test that shows hardware is in good condition. Three weeks into having the server and 50+ websites on it, hardware fails. Now you have downtime, need to swap hardware, etc. Setup time takes 24 hours.

    We stress test all of our servers for AT LEAST 24 hours before they go live. Trust me, even with the best providers... you still can find faulty hardware

  24. #24
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    Nothing but, net
    Posts
    2,064
    I'm glad you've mentioned SLAs alexmue. FastServers does have excellent SLAs for hardware and network, perhaps what they need now is a setup time SLA.

    Now on your comparison between Liquidweb and FastServers' SLAs it is true Liquidweb doesn't have a hardware replacement SLA. From my experience they don't need it. They don't replace hardware within 24 hours, they replace it now.

    This is my experience with their no SLA:
    I was experiencing some problems with my primary server at Liquidweb a few months back and I thought it was a bad hard drive. I sent in the request and it was replaced within 45 minutes of the ticket being sent in and part of that was my being slow confirming I wanted it done right then. To their credit though it turned out to be a problem with the ATA controller and the version of FreeBSD I was running, no bad hardware.

  25. #25
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    Nothing but, net
    Posts
    2,064
    Originally posted by phpcoder
    Then I ask you this question -

    Would you rather a 24 hour stress test that shows a good chance of faulty hardware, and then hardware swapped before you even get the server. Setup time takes 3-4 days.

    OR

    Would you rather have a 4 hour stress test that shows hardware is in good condition. Three weeks into having the server and 50+ websites on it, hardware fails. Now you have downtime, need to swap hardware, etc. Setup time takes 24 hours.

    We stress test all of our servers for AT LEAST 24 hours before they go live. Trust me, even with the best providers... you still can find faulty hardware
    I would rather it be sent through a good 24 hour stress test then put aside with other servers done the same way. The servers would be ready to setup right after the offer was posted that way.

Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •