Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 25 of 33
  1. #1

    What do you think about rackshack?

    What do you think about rackshack? I have heared they have bad support but anything else you people dislike or like about them?

    Please only post if you have owned or own a rackshack server. I would rather not have a bunch of speculation, only truth.

    Thank you for your time.
    Cory Cone
    www.XstreamHost.com

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Dec 2001
    Posts
    1,194
    I personally dont like them, and think they are going to make it hard for companies with an excellent service to make a profit because they will have to compete with there rediculous pricing structure which simply cant be done and provide quality.

    This is just my opinion though because there are those that will say that rackshack is an excellent place, so i suppose its a matter of a opinion in that case you wont know until you try personally, but my opinion is that they are not good for mission critical information.

    However they would be perfect for something that is not of extreme importance, hobby server, storage maybe, etc..

    just my 2cents
    www.boxedhost.com
    COMING SOON!
    A Resellers Dream, In a Box

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2001
    Posts
    1,029
    They're horrible.

    They're inflexible:
    - They don't provide custom hardware configurations.
    - They won't install the operating system of your choice. You're stuck with Red Hat.
    - They do not provide remote hands. If you need something done at the console, they won't do it, even if your life depended on it.

    They're costly:
    - Memory and hard drive upgrades are monthly fees.
    - IP addresses are expensive, and you're limited to 32.
    - You can get more flexibility and more for your money at many other places these days.

    They have improved though. I can remember 8 months ago when their connectivity was not that great. It's much better now. Support response times have also improved dramatically. Also, quite a few of their AMD servers had hardware problems, but they're not selling AMD servers anymore, so that's no longer an issue. I think they're great personal or non-profit web sites, file storage, and maybe game servers, but they have much room for improvement.
    ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Location
    San Francisco, CA
    Posts
    103

    Re: What do you think about rackshack?

    Originally posted by homeiss
    Please only post if you have owned or own a [insert name here] server. I would rather not have a bunch of speculation, only truth.
    How true. This should be in the forum rules

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Nov 2001
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    1,963
    Originally posted by ToastyX
    They're horrible.

    They're inflexible:
    - They do not provide remote hands. If you need something done at the console, they won't do it, even if your life depended on it.
    not true. example: They have reset root paswords for me.


    Originally posted by ToastyX

    They're costly:
    - Memory and hard drive upgrades are monthly fees.
    Uhm, There are plenty of places that charge a monthly fee for hardware upgrades.


  6. #6
    Join Date
    Nov 2001
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    1,963
    I have several rackshack servers. I think that if you know what you're doing, rackshack is good. Since I know what i'm doing, rackshack has been great for me.

    As long as you make sure there are no hardware problems, then you should be fine.

  7. #7
    I use rackshack AMD server for a month now
    beside the fact that they use cogent as bandwidth provider ( ) they are great .
    no network downtimes, the techs on IRC is very helpfull (in network\hardware issues\question's).
    no hardware failures.
    if you now your steps in server administratoring, rackshack is just fine.

  8. #8
    I can say I have had absolutely TERRIBLE experiences with Rackshack. No matter what anyone else has said they have directly LIED to me, even over the phone, and it is pure 100% bull****.

    It pisses me off so much. But then I got a P4 1.7Ghz 600GB Transfer deal, and that server is running fine...

    I say if you know how to run your own server and don't need any technical assistance, or upgrades to your server (hardware), they are fine.
    Blue Optic .:. Web Solutions
    http://www.blueoptic.com

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Posts
    309
    Hi have a rackshack server since 2 month then nothing to complaint to date ...

    Got 100% uptime,
    Have submited a ticket for reverse dns done fast, same at start for the missing key for plesk...

    Else i can get a 10/10 to rackshack....
    Only bad is the upgrade monthly fee i think this was a stealing, but not only rackshack do that unfortunately...

    But for sure theyre support is limited to hardware & network but as a newbie whit linux, then couple of week of work/search, i,M able to maintain my server whitout prob...
    So not to bad, after some error from me ;-)

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Apr 2002
    Location
    Philadelphia
    Posts
    2,278
    Originally posted by ToastyX
    They're horrible.

    They're inflexible:
    - They don't provide custom hardware configurations.
    - They won't install the operating system of your choice. You're stuck with Red Hat.
    - They do not provide remote hands. If you need something done at the console, they won't do it, even if your life depended on it.

    They're costly:
    - Memory and hard drive upgrades are monthly fees.
    - IP addresses are expensive, and you're limited to 32.
    - You can get more flexibility and more for your money at many other places these days.
    Come on.... you try housing 10,000+ servers in your datacenter. Are you going to do custom configurations, do remote jobs, etc?

    They need to make money somehow, so the extra fee's are what covers part of that.
    Last edited by phpcoder; 09-29-2002 at 02:51 PM.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Location
    Oklahoma
    Posts
    825
    Originally posted by phpcoder


    do remote hand jobs, etc?

    Devon Dunham (Owner, Sharpnet/DDoS Host)
    Advanced DDoS Mitigation and Server Management Solutions

    Protecting your online infrastructure.

    Est. 1998.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Feb 2002
    Posts
    2,120
    there are other good companies out there....

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Apr 2002
    Location
    Philadelphia
    Posts
    2,278
    Originally posted by DD-SNC


    Who knows what I was thinking about when I posted that

    /me runs off and hides

  14. #14
    Originally posted by apollo
    there are other good companies out there....
    Ok, ok, so what would you people that have talked smack about it recomend as a good alternative?

    Thanks for the responses.
    Cory Cone
    www.XstreamHost.com

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Location
    Perth, Western Australia
    Posts
    227
    Lets say I use to have a server with them. If you decide to join them, have fun!

    Let us know how the server is going.
    <<Please RTFM for signature setup>>

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Location
    San Luis Obispo, CA
    Posts
    818
    Originally posted by phpcoder



    do remote hand jobs, etc?
    Originally posted by DD-SNC


    the remote reach around?
    Nick Twaddell
    WebSpace Solutions - Custom E-Solutions
    Fast, Reliable, Affordable Web Hosting

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Dec 2001
    Posts
    1,194
    yes www.fastservers.net
    or www.rackspace.com

    I would stay away from
    rackshack and serverbeach.

    The above suggestions are of course assuming you need mission critical solution, if not then rackshack may be great for you.. Im not slamming rackshack im just saying they are obviously not for every cusotmer and solution.
    www.boxedhost.com
    COMING SOON!
    A Resellers Dream, In a Box

  18. #18
    Join Date
    Feb 2002
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    3,098
    phpcoder, no more porn for you!

  19. #19
    Join Date
    Feb 2002
    Posts
    848
    I've had a P4 server at RackShack since the spring (got one of the P4 1.7 with 2 60 GB hard drives and 600 GB of bandwidth for $140/month) and it's been a great server for me so far. I've had 100% uptime as reported by a few free remote server checkers, though I should note these only check every hour or so, so it's possible there have been a few minutes here or there of downtime, but I have yet to catch the server or network down myself or with these checkers.

    The one time I had to use their trouble ticket system to get RDNS entries it was a little frustrating (took around a dozen tickets to get them to set them up) but other than that it has been a good experience.

    Given the hardware, bandwidth, and 100% network uptime on my network segement as far as I can tell, I'm very satisified for $140/month. Providing you realize that they are selling 100% unmanaged servers and providing you don't expect the kind of service/support you get for $1000/month for $100/month, you'll be very happy. Just realize that you may have to put in more time later on to get something resolved. For example if the RAM goes bad in your server, don't expect them to be monitoring/troubleshooting your server and alert you - you have to figure it out and request them to change the RAM. Things like that.

    I guess in conclusion, what you get is a very very solid network (in my experience at least) and pretty good servers (though I'm skeptical about some of the compaq's they're offering right now as they may be desktop boxes which IMHO are &$@# rather than servers - be careful and research before ordering) but what you sacrifice is that if there is a problem later on it may take some extra time to resolve and it's all up to you.
    Dedicated Servers at Steadfast Networks and Softlayer : Virutal Hosting at FutureQuest : VPS at FutureHosting

  20. #20
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Posts
    72
    rackshack's business model:

    selling faulty hardware at cheap price

    cheap price to draw you in and then you would want to cancel it one month later due to problems on hardware. Then they sell harware to next victims with setup fees again.
    Also,people use less bandwidth in the first month. This makes them oversell alot.


    by this way, they are very profitable


    I had hardwares problems with them. It took me 48 hours to make them get into investigations and then 48 hours again to swap hardware. I do no think any your customers can stand 96 hours down time....

    rackshack supports: 0/10
    hardware drawbacks rate: 60%

  21. #21
    I haven't delt with them first hand but we do have a handfull of customers that have come from there.

    complaints that I remember are:
    no choice of operating system
    faulty hardware(more than one on this one)

    i had one customer tell me that a rackshack tech support person tried to get them to move to a different webhost.

    Does anyone know if rackshack outsources support?

    ----------
    Sam
    Infinet Hosting

  22. #22
    agreed on faulty hardware
    Blue Optic .:. Web Solutions
    http://www.blueoptic.com

  23. #23
    FWIW....
    I've been with them for about 6 weeks now.... I picked up one of their "daily deal" (fka bargain basement) servers for $1 setup and couldn't be happier.

    I can't talk much about tech support as I haven't required it as of yet, but additional IP's were setup within 3 hours and PTR records were established within the same timeframe.

    Based on what I've read here, I wouldn't consider them if I didn't know my way around a linux box, but if you don't need much hand holding, you can't beat the network quality / price ratio.

    John

  24. #24

    Re: What do you think about rackshack?

    Originally posted by homeiss
    What do you think about rackshack? I have heared they have bad support but anything else you people dislike or like about them?

    Please only post if you have owned or own a rackshack server. I would rather not have a bunch of speculation, only truth.

    Thank you for your time.
    The truth; No serious business site should be hosted on them. You can be highly skilled at running a server, but if you have one file corrupted and just ask them to log in and type one command, they will refuse and say they can only do a complete reinstall. That is a real world example, I tried them months ago just to see and it happened to me. I didn't intend to run a hosting business on them, and that concern was why. That concern is a reality and it's ridiculous they will not touch your system at all. There's a big difference between "what do you expect for ___ per month!?" and "we don't even look at it other than to reboot or restore, go to hell otherwise". The problem is, they don't state clearly about their reboot or restore policy on their site, and they'll claim they said "We don't support 3rd party scripts, etc.", but that doesn't equate to only reboot or reinstall.

    I lost a lot of time and money, but I was told how bad it is, I gave them a chance and they are a JOKE. The other problems are how they set up the install images, all the directories on one giant / root partition, which is incredibly amateur. You need to change a lot of things around and if one file gets corrupted, backups or no, you have a lot of works and downtime before you are back where you were and who's to say it'll not happen again. If you have a personal site and need a lot of bandwidth and don't care about your data or the reboot or restore policy, they might be a reasonable choice. For a business site or hosting clients, you'd have to be retarded to use them, or just simply have no idea what you're doing and that risks exist.
    Robert McGregor
    URL: http://www.2host.com
    Email: robertm@(nospam)2host.com

  25. #25
    Originally posted by clocker1996
    I have several rackshack servers. I think that if you know what you're doing, rackshack is good. Since I know what i'm doing, rackshack has been great for me.

    As long as you make sure there are no hardware problems, then you should be fine.
    Sorry, but that's not true at all. Now don't misunderstand me and take this to mean I'm saying you don't know what you're doing, but some of us certainly do (I sure do) and because I do know what I'm doing, I can tell you without a doubt that it's an incredibly foolish idea to use them for anything of a business or hosting site. Simply because you got lucky to have someone do _something_ for you, doesn't mean they'll usually or ever touch a system for anyone else.

    This has nothing to do with knowing what you're doing and I've seen people try and claim that it's okay as long as you do, which people that do and had problems anyway will resent hearing. I can do anything on a server and I don't believe I've ever made a mistake and locked myself out or messed up a configuration file. I've been working on Linux web servers since Linux was first introduced. I still have copies of the first Apache versions on my system somewhere. I'm not a newbie and I can tell you without doubt that they are not a good option for any web host, no matter what you know.

    If you do know what you're doing, you'll make a lot of changes and installs. You'll need to change the partition scheme, you'll need to do things on the file system and on the software and configuration end of it. You will also backup your data too. However, if you have to get a system reinstalled because of one corrupt library file that can be resolved in one command, or have them not reinstall over the second backup drive locally or do anything at all you ask them to save you from one or two days of downtime to get everything back in working order, than they are a joke for anyone serious.

    Therefore, there is absolutely no way, other than the luck of a technician willing to do you a favor or offer some skeleton of assistance at the console, that Rackshack could be a viable option for any serious web site. Consider yourself very lucky, since no one else (including myself) that's used them was.
    Robert McGregor
    URL: http://www.2host.com
    Email: robertm@(nospam)2host.com

Page 1 of 2 12 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
  •