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  1. #26
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    NY
    Posts
    180
    i suggest servermatrix

  2. #27
    BurstNET and SM are run like professional, large hosting companies. From what I've heard, Managed is not. On that note, I wouldn't recommend Managed.

    Without looking at each network's past performance, I'd be inclined to say SM's network is substantially better than BurstNET's in terms of packet loss and uptime.

    BurstNET does have a good network, but they currently only have one connection. I think they don't get concerned about potential network problems as quickly as SM.

    Based on various reviews of SM and my personal experience, Nocster's support is either as good as or slightly better support than SM's. Specifically, important support issues tend to get resolved a little bit faster at Nocster than at SM. It generally takes about 1/2 hour for a reboot request; I've only seen one of my customers order an OS reinstall; that took about 2-3 hours. I don't have any basis to compare those times against SM (other than a few complaints on the forums- every provider gets those).

    The setup process at Nocster has a number of pitfalls; if you need to get the server up in less than four or five days, I wouldn't necessarily recommend them. (Although I haven't seen any posts about SM's setup times.)

    You can often get lower prices at Nocster by going through a reseller. I personally recommend HiyaCorp.com (Fred) and MainArea.com (Matt). ServerMatrix also has several good resellers that might be able to offer slightly lower prices, but I'm not familiar with any of them.



    (Disclosure: My opinions about Nocster may carry some bias; I resell Nocster several servers. However, 2/3 of my net revenue comes from shared hosting on a Nocster server, as well.)
    If the bigger hosts are fancy French restaurants, consider my service the friendly small-town diner.
    HostMidwest.com- you deserve honest, helpful, and reliable service!

  3. #28
    Originally posted by techmonkey
    Can I assume that all this praise for Server Matrix also applies to Theplanet.com? Same company, same people, same good service?
    Yes. I *think* the major difference is that ThePlanet.com offers more of a premium service. Namely, you probably get technical support via phone.
    If the bigger hosts are fancy French restaurants, consider my service the friendly small-town diner.
    HostMidwest.com- you deserve honest, helpful, and reliable service!

  4. #29
    Join Date
    Dec 2003
    Location
    Cincinnati, OH
    Posts
    933
    Ok, so both SM and Nocster have GOOD Networks... Just SM has a slightly better?

    As far as hardware it seems like Managed.com wins this according to RaineTech. But their other problems almost rule them out. It would be nice if SM and Burst offered things that told you what brand hardware was in your server. I don't mind having a server that's a "White box from nowhere" but it would be nice to know what kind of stuff they put in it. Hey I build my own computers too, and they seem to do better then my computers I purchased from huge corperations (Dell, HP, Etc) since I put only brands I trust in them.

    Also: My mistake on the free cpanel at SM. I only heard that because of another person at this forum's post (I believe it was in the BurstNet Cpanel price increase thread). Might be a rumor.

  5. #30
    I think the confusion with the free cpanel might come from their site. I'm not sure about SM - but a couple weeks ago when I looked at Theplanet.com's servers - Cpanel showed up in the options without a price - indicating it was available at no extra cost. Seems that they changed that and now it lists a price with the Cpanel option. A mistake perhaps?

  6. #31
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    Charlotte, NC
    Posts
    2,761
    Originally posted by affhosting

    BurstNET does have a good network, but they currently only have one connection.
    BurstNET has multiple bandwidth providers, but only one fiber line and transport provider at the moment. They will be installing XO fiber and transport service as a backup very shortly.

    With Managed.com's hardware, they use RackLogic servers, as RackLogic owns a major stake in them (as well as Steve, Steve's wife, and Curtis working there).

    -Josh

  7. #32
    Originally posted by Joshua
    BurstNET has multiple bandwidth providers, but only one fiber line and transport provider at the moment. They will be installing XO fiber and transport service as a backup very shortly.

    With Managed.com's hardware, they use RackLogic servers, as RackLogic owns a major stake in them (as well as Steve, Steve's wife, and Curtis working there).

    -Josh
    Josh,

    My concern is that BurstNET has been saying the second line in "is coming very soon" for months. At the same time, Nocster is very complacent when it comes to potential network problems until something *bad* happens.

    If you can't look at past network outages as an indicator of a provider's network, you'd have to look at attitude. BurstNET just isn't quite as obsessive as other providers when it comes to keeping a sound network. (OK, they did hire Alex...) If I had a mission critical website, I'd want the DC to act like its very survival as a business depended on avoiding major outages. BurstNET doesn't quite do that. In the last major outage, they claimed it wasn't their fault and gave everyone a token SLA refund.

    I'm not saying that Nocster's low prices don't justify their less-than-perfect network, but I don't think it's the best place to host if you absolutely can't afford any downtime.
    If the bigger hosts are fancy French restaurants, consider my service the friendly small-town diner.
    HostMidwest.com- you deserve honest, helpful, and reliable service!

  8. #33
    Originally posted by z280 Hosting
    Ok, so both SM and Nocster have GOOD Networks... Just SM has a slightly better?

    It would be nice if SM and Burst offered things that told you what brand hardware was in your server. I don't mind having a server that's a "White box from nowhere" but it would be nice to know what kind of stuff they put in it.
    Yes. I think that the majority of members on WHT, and possibly the majority of Nocster customers, would agree that SM's network seems better than Nocster's.

    Nocster often offers Dell servers... usually they cost a little more. Also, you're free to call up Nocster's sales department and ask them about the what brands of hardware they use.
    If the bigger hosts are fancy French restaurants, consider my service the friendly small-town diner.
    HostMidwest.com- you deserve honest, helpful, and reliable service!

  9. #34
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Location
    DC
    Posts
    3,643
    BurstNET uses cogent, verio and XO. Verio is strong, XO is "OK" and cogent is crappy.
    Actually PCCW/BTN replaced Verio, which is great for the US & amazing for international transit. They just sent the contract back for Level3 bandwidth, that will be coming shortly. GBLX may be added back as well in the future. I wouldn't call Cogent in PA crappy, it's actually quite good in terms of peering and connections in that area (speed too). XO fiber should be up soon, the contract was signed even before the March downtime, but it takes time to install new fiber.

    In terms of hardware, yes, Nocser & SM do build their own boxes. That doesn't mean that they don't use quality parts. One server that I have uses an Intel P4 processor, Western Digital HDs, Kingston (I think) RAM, and an Itel mobo. Not sure what SM uses, but the parts are probably pretty good as well. It doesn't make sense to buy cheap parts, since they'll need to be replaced which costs more money in the long run.

    I love Nocster's support. Got a server reinstalled started in 5 minutes 2 days ago, and got my kernel upgraded, GRSecurity added, and a conflicting piece of software removed within 15 minutes yesterday (thanks Lou & Salman!).

    - Matt

  10. #35
    Join Date
    Aug 2003
    Posts
    2,172
    I also believe that BurstNET's senior network engineer, alex, was fired a while ago and they have someone else controlling the network. It sounds logical, but am not 100% sure. The network has been doing well since alex has been gone...Someone correct me if this is not the correct information

  11. #36
    Join Date
    Dec 2001
    Location
    Above The Clouds
    Posts
    7,223
    Personally, I would never scrape the bottom of the barrel. How can you whine about support when you pay peanuts? And if you need that much support, maybe you need to rethink what you're doing and how you're doing it. Only have boxes at NAC and EV1, don't need support at all but when new hardware is needed or a ticket is submitted, it's responded to in less 30 minutes, reboots in 5.

    (Anyone can hile up prices on a server and say they are now offering FREE cpanel)
    Laurence Flynn @ HostNEXUS.com
    Managed WordPress Hosting Solutions
    Focused on speed. Obsessed with security.

  12. #37
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    Charlotte, NC
    Posts
    2,761
    Originally posted by RaineTech
    I also believe that BurstNET's senior network engineer, alex, was fired a while ago and they have someone else controlling the network. It sounds logical, but am not 100% sure. The network has been doing well since alex has been gone...Someone correct me if this is not the correct information
    Raine - You are misinformed about the situation. Alex left BurstNET on his own, and he's working on his own venture now. How do I know this? Alex told me .

    During his time at Burst, and after he left, Matt and I have spoken to him regularly. He's a consultant, and Burst can get him to work on issues for them on a consultant basis as needed. Alex restructured their network, implemented VLANs, and made some other changes. Has their network been running smoothly since he left? Yes. Have their providers had issues since Alex left? Yes. Did their network run smoothly through those problems? Yes. Did Burst drop Verio due to issues and install BTN without issue? Yes.

    Hopefully the network will stay at the current level thanks to the incoming fiber, more bandwidth providers, and Alex's changes.

    Quote Originally Posted by Affhosting
    My concern is that BurstNET has been saying the second line in "is coming very soon" for months. At the same time, Nocster is very complacent when it comes to potential network problems until something *bad* happens.
    They've been planning to add XO for a while now, but it takes time. I found out before anyone else (even Matt from MainArea) that Burst was going to add in XO fiber for redundancy. (see my post at http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showth...98#post1878798 ). They're getting another fiber line, besides just transport, so that takes time to setup. They did have a backup line through PPL in November, as they maintained connectivity through them while the CTSI fiber was cut. Not sure why they dropped PPL after that, though.

    -Josh
    Last edited by Joshua; 04-23-2004 at 10:39 AM.

  13. #38
    Join Date
    Dec 2003
    Location
    Cincinnati, OH
    Posts
    933
    Ok... What do you think of this?
    I am going to pay a third party to manage (and monitor) any server I buy. Except for things that can't be done remotely (to my knowledge only Hardware replacement and sometimes a reboot), everything else will be covered. So basically I just need a good fair priced network with either auto-reboot or a system where the monitoring company can reboot the server within a few minutes.

    Who should I use? I would like the best price possible without giving up having a very relaible nework. I was interested in SM until I found that for just a few bucks more I could get a dual Xeon at BurstNET (via a reseller).

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