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Thread: Sentris - 1 month review (?)
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08-26-2009, 12:07 PM #1Newbie
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Sentris - 1 month review (?)
Hi,
I needed a dedicated server for a development project that I had going, which requires a powerful server - so I went through a couple of dedicated server providers, to see who could offer an affordable high-end server. I found Sentris through Webhostingtalk, and this might have been the worst decision I have ever made. The experience was (yes, I am no longer an customer) terrible, to give you a clear image of how they deal with their customers, this is the way I was treated.
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1) Packet Losses / Network Issues - I bought a server, around mid-July, and I had to wait for the hardware to be shipped to Sentris. I was perfectly fine with that, they pre-announced it, and they clearly said that they had to ship it. I was informed, and I accepted it. They also stated, that the billing period would start only after the server was up and running. I got the server around the 21st, July.
I was up that night, installing softwares, such as database management tools, and so on - and I was connected to the server, however I noticed, tasks, took longer - and after a while my server went inaccessible - so I ran a PING check and I noticed, huge delays. I thought it was due to firewall configurations, so I requested a OS reload. I experienced this issue from time to time, so I realized this can't be right, so I started running some tests, and I took the test IP given, and I realized this was a issue on a network-level.
I ran ping checks from various boxes, some in Hetzner, Leaseweb, FDCServers etc. I also provided them with traceroutes. I must point out, that during this procedure they were prompt to respond, but I can't say the answers were what I expected them to be. I was told this issue had been fixed about five-six times, until they realized they were facing a large issue. I was not sure where the issue was, but what I knew was that this issue was on a network level, as you may have heard that Sentris provides various backbones - Level3, Mix, Cogent, etc. All their backbones were affected, so this had to be an issue on their end.
It took them about a week, to have this issue resolved. A week may, or may not be very long for some, but we are talking about a network wide issue, which in my opinion, as a dedicated server provider, should be resolved in hours. If the issue was isolated to a server specifically, then of course, the same requirements are not set, but on a network-level, that is unacceptable (at least in my opinion). We're talking about hours of downtime, hours of ping response times (500ms PING results).
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2) Server wasn't delivered as advertised - When I first got this server, it came with 8GB of RAM - however, I purchased 16GB. I didn't realize this after a few hours, but when I did, I asked them why the server was displaying only 8GB of RAM. They told me, that if I ordered 16GB RAM, there should be 16GB RAM. They checked it out, and returned to me and said, that there was some faulty RAM, and that they needed another week to get another 8GB of RAM. The billing period had already started (even though the server wasn't what I paid for, I didn't mind it at all).
Another week went, and they asked me if it was OK for them to take down the server, to install the extra 8GB RAM. So they did, and they replied to my ticket, saying the extra 8GB of RAM had been installed. I went in, and checked ("12 GB of RAM"). I replied to that ticket, saying something is not right here. I had waited, a week to get the server the way I wanted it to be, and the server was still not delivered. They replied and said, that they would find a local shop, and buy an extra 4GB RAM. They did, and installed, and then the server displays 14GB RAM. Even after, the billing period ended, I had only been with 14GB RAM, to be honest, I don't mind it, but the product is not as advertised, 2GB of RAM can play a major role.
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3) Ignorance - I feel that, I as a customer was being ignored. I understand that they are an unmanaged provider, but my tickets were never created about that, or anything related to that. I always created the tickets when there was urgent matters, or something related to the hardware, and network. I requested, access to a portal where you can monitor the bandwidth usage, this was almost thirty days ago. Only way to truly contact them, and it depends on their mood - is through the emergency section. All other departments will take more than 48 hrs to reply, in my case, some open enquiries have not been responded to for weeks.
I would guess, that in today's economy - companies would try and offer better services, and improve their weak points, I know I would. If you want to maintain a long term business you'll have to think about your customers, I think we can all agree, having customers that only sign up for a month, is not really worth it. If you want to keep your customers happy, you'll have to provide them with the support they require (when you submit a ticket to an emergency department, you expect those tickets to be prioritized first. Waiting hours, is not really an option? It doesn't really make any sense, to advertise 24/7 support, if you can not reply to an emergency ticket within a hour).
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On top of this, I requested a OS reload a few days ago, because the 32-bit version of Windows 2003 Enterprise was running into bluescreen errors, BSOD. I didn't mind having the OS reload done, this OS reload took a long time to perform, and the billing period had to be renewed at the 21st of August. Now, here is the catch. They replied on the 20th that the OS reload had been done. Hours after their reply, I found my server offline? It wasn't the 21st yet, and I was about to start transferring my files, as the databases are quite large. I am located in Europe, GMT+1, and the US is in the minus-zone, so really it doesn't make any sense, how they can justify cancelling a server before the period ends. What's even worse, is that I have no way of accessing my files, the issue is, that I had automated backups made, but not of the files - so there is no way for me to have them restored. I have been asking them for days now, I tried submitting a ticket, but I have no luck, my ticket is left ignored - and there is no reply, we are talking about files, that I have spent developing for a year now.
I have given them every chance in the world, and they don't bother getting back to their customers. I think they should understand, that whether a customer decides to leave (in my case, I left due to all the issues I had encountered). I have been in this field for a very long time, with lots of providers, to name a few, WebNX, Netdirekt, Leaseweb, Hetzner - and never had any issues, because I rarely submit tickets - and do not either require any assistance on a server-level, as long as they keep their promises. I usually don't either write any reviews, and I know this review is pretty long, but I wanted to cover everything.
Meti
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08-26-2009, 12:40 PM #2Temporarily Suspended
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Thank you for your review.
Sorry to hear that Sentris was not good for you
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08-26-2009, 12:59 PM #3Web Hosting Master
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thanks for the honest review
good luck with the new providerHostNotch Hosting Services 99.9% uptime Shared Hosting, Reseller Hosting
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08-26-2009, 01:34 PM #4WHT Addict
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Thank you for your review. I am a believer in their being two sides to every story so it would be nice if Sentris replies. However I will say this, usually most people play the victim role & do not prevent a fairly accurate portrayal of events. This review seems to be well thought out & detailed.
I think it is legitimate to say you never received what you paid for. It is inexcusable for you to order 16GB of ram & get anything less. Mistakes do happen so the first time could be understood but the repeated failures can't.
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08-26-2009, 01:43 PM #5Email Expert
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08-26-2009, 10:46 PM #6Temporarily Suspended
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I experienced the same thing with them too. One of the servers I ordered had defective cpu and then defective mobo. I waited 2 weeks + for them to replace the defective parts and get the servers running. The only difference is I got my servers on a highly discounted price so it's really hard to complain. But after my contract I might change DCs and go with Burst or FDC.
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08-27-2009, 12:30 AM #7Web Hosting Guru
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I'm curious how many people really work there? The info on their webpage has some statements that I have a hard time believing, such as:
Our 387,823 square feet data center can host over 200,000 servers and is monitored by our 24x7 on-site tech staff.
Maybe it's just me but I'm sick and tired of small companies trying to look big while having a website littered with spelling errors, broken links and contact email addresses @hotmail.com
There's nothing wrong with being a small business, in fact many people prefer working with them if they're honest and stable. In fact my favorite host is on the smaller side but I absolutely love them!
Good luck in your search!
Best Regards,
Jerret Kinsman
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08-27-2009, 12:35 AM #8Temporarily Suspended
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RelativeDesign, in fairness to Sentris, from what I can tell Sentris really does own the area. They even have a picture of their office. They own their datacenter
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08-27-2009, 12:51 AM #9CEO & Leading Designer
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Thank you for the review and I'm sorry to hear about your negative experience. Best of luck to you!
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08-27-2009, 01:34 AM #10Email Expert
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08-27-2009, 02:00 AM #11Web Hosting Guru
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I'm not trying to be unfair and I'm not claiming to know for sure but I'm pretty darn sure they don't own 387,823 square feet of DC space.
Compare this to a couple other providers:
LiquidWeb has roughly 44k sq/feet between two DCs
Rackspace had 177,371 technical square feet of data center space at the end of 2009 (http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=22533)
In college I drove a forklift in a 65k sq/foot warehouse so when I saw the 387k number it just seemed a bit unrealistic.
Cheers,
Jerret
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08-27-2009, 03:26 AM #12WHT Addict
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Bingo!
You bring up excellent points. I feel it is inexcusable in this day & age for hosting companies to have poor websites. I think it is also ridiculous when you have to PM to order special deals, etc....
If you are doing some sort of marketing, just make a special section of your website & provide the ability to order online. Have the typical questions answered for everyone to see. I could careless about how sexy your datacenter looks if you won't go into detail about your network & such.
I have & never will run a webhosting business but even I could execute some of these things better. A lot of it boils down to basic business common sense irregardless to what industry you are in.
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08-28-2009, 06:10 AM #13Junior Guru
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Hi Meti, I 'm sorry to hear your negative experience, I met same things at turbovps.com, anyway, lets pass it, you know life has to be continued.
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08-28-2009, 06:54 AM #14Aspiring Evangelist
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That's very unfortunate, I'd be interested to her Sentris's reply.
However @ OP good luck with finding a new host, all the best with your new host!
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08-29-2009, 02:30 PM #15Junior Guru Wannabe
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This guy, we've been doing the best we can to accommodate all his requests, his server was canceled on the 22nd after midnight, and we've reinstalled countless times, per his requests. First he's insisted the packet loss problem was due to the firewall he got installed, so we reinstalled his w2003 64-bit to 32-bit version. Then he said still packet loss, so we investigated further with our custom backbones and they took care of that. We did try to reroute him through another custom providers we have, but he said the ping time was higher than the other custom he was on, 220ms vs 170ms, so we moved him back.
Sure he had problems with the ram and we did apologize for that, but we had no control over any hardware issue, we've done our best to fix that. We never ignored him. His was the old 16 sticks of 1GB DDR ram, and we no longer stock them up. So if they're defective, we had to get them replaced with the vendor. We even tried getting 16x1GB DDR sticks from local store here, but none of them were compatible with the tyan motherboard he had.
We've warned him from beginning that w2003 32-bit do not work well with his cpu/mobo combination, he needed w2003 64-bit, but he's insisted on 32-bit. And then sure enough, the OS crashed and we had to reinstall again, 32-bit w2003. Then another BSOD, we reinstalled again. Up until the 20th, we've done nothing but reinstalling w2003 32-bit for him. And each reinstall took at least 4-6 hours and sometimes we just left it overnight. With so many hours and days we had to spend to support him, we'd be better off not having him as a client. He did ask to get another lower end server but it's good for us too that he did not go through with it. Best of luck to him with his new provider. Sorry things don't work out between us.Sentris Network LLC - Since 1997 - 1-877-SENTRIS (206-686-3353)
www.tophosting.com | www.rentvps.com
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08-29-2009, 03:19 PM #16Newbie
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Hi,
And how do you justify the other points I phrased? All of the points, are genuine. I have been with other providers in my past, and current providers, and never ever requested more than a OS reload. The issue is, your HARDWARE and your SERVICE is causing this, it is not my responsibility - I needed the server to be online.
It is your own responsibility, as a provider to make sure the box is running smooth, and stable. It is not mine, my task is to administrate the box, but how can I do that if the box is unavailable most of the time?
So basically you are fine with delivering products that are not as described? A box that will have 12 GB of RAM, instead of 16GB RAM is fine, even though the customer paid for the RAM, and it is not there? I guess, we truly are in separate fields. You are obligated to deliver the server as described, if you fail to do that, in the real world, most of the users would be demanding a refund.
Sentris, I see the way you are thinking of putting the fault at mine, but I can tell you, the fault is at your end.
7. Free unlimited reinstall, within reasons. We can't reinstall for free everyday of every week.
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You were informed of the server being unavailable on the 20th, you didn't really have to perform a OS reload (as you seem to have imagined) all you really needed to do was boot the box, but I guess, even that was too 'much of a time loss'.
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08-29-2009, 03:44 PM #17WHT Addict
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If the OP requested a OS that he was clearly warned would not be compatible with his box, doesn't that put some of the fault on him?
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08-29-2009, 04:09 PM #18Newbie
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Yes, I understand. Let me clear this. I requested a OS reload, even though it was not recommended. What they did not mention is, the server was properly working with that OS for a couple of days, but then BSOD errors started again, so I requested a OS reload to 64-bit, right?
This was done a day before the due date even though requested days before, now, the thing is, that OS (64-bit) is suppose to work PERFECTLY FINE - but, guess what, it didn't. The errors started (BSOD, i guess?) again, now I don't know whether this was truly an error, or was intentional.
If they told me about this warning before I ordered the server, I would not have proceeded with the order, but I wasn't, I was told this after they had the hardware shipped. I don't say they are not a good company, but my experience was very bad. It's just a customers' opinion about a experience, I am not here to judge them, but sharing my experience.
I told them, that 64-bit would may be cause my applications to malfunction, but I agreed, to a test, and most of my applications managed to run fine, but some crashed constantly, and with 32-bit they don't.Last edited by Meti; 08-29-2009 at 04:09 PM. Reason: Rephrasing
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08-29-2009, 09:44 PM #19Aspiring Evangelist
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Why would you want 16GB of ram on a 32-bit OS?
Anyhow, I will chime in. I've had a server with Sentris (aka Host4You.net) back in 2005. I experienced all the issues you've had. Poor network connection, consistent packet loss, unstable server which required a hard reboot nearly 3 times per day, and incorrect hardware setup. I was supposed to get a Athlon XP 2500+ but received a 1700+ instead. Don't get me started with tickets... as they were slow and don't update. When I request a reboot they would reboot it some hours later, without updating the ticket saying "The server has been rebooted" etc.
Looks like they haven't changed one bit!
At the time Sentris was my very first dedicated server experience (check my join date). I've now gone through well over a dozen different hosts, and to this day, Sentris has been the worse experience by far.Servers proudly hosted at... WebNX (10) - Netelligent (6)
Also enjoying services from DreamHost, Hyperspin
(#) indicates number of servers - 16 total
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08-29-2009, 11:06 PM #20Web Hosting Guru
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I've been with Sentris since July last year and they've been pretty much great with me. We have a number of servers with them at current and are going to be buying a fair few over the coming months due to some new services we're going to be launching.
All of our requests have been responded to quickly, any emergency tickets even moreso. Since July being with them normal tickets have been dealt with within 30mins-1hr, now all of the tickets over the past month though, have been dealt with even quicker (seems some of their staff are employed more).
They've always been very accommodating in requests of ours, from custom quotes of things they do not offer to support issues to billing issues.
The only major problem we have had them was about a month ago when they had some network problems, which resulted in some downtime. When they upgraded their hardware and added some failovers it was back running smooth again.
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We've had a good business relationship with Sentris and look forward to continue using them as one of our providers.ClanDrive Hosting | The No Fuss Webhost
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08-30-2009, 12:57 AM #21Junior Guru Wannabe
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There's nothing wrong with the hardware, as you were using it fine for days with the 64-bit w2003. And the same server now been given to another client for a week now, with no single issue.
You started getting BSOD after you got firewall installed and then you asked us to reinstall 32-bit instead. And installing 32-bit w2003 on this server is not an easy task. But you requested it, so we just did what you asked for. No matter how hard or how long it'd take us.
It is your own responsibility, as a provider to make sure the box is running smooth, and stable. It is not mine, my task is to administrate the box, but how can I do that if the box is unavailable most of the time?
So basically you are fine with delivering products that are not as described? A box that will have 12 GB of RAM, instead of 16GB RAM is fine, even though the customer paid for the RAM, and it is not there? I guess, we truly are in separate fields. You are obligated to deliver the server as described, if you fail to do that, in the real world, most of the users would be demanding a refund.
Sentris, I see the way you are thinking of putting the fault at mine, but I can tell you, the fault is at your end.
Since you preferred 32-bit w2003, we even offered you to just get a low end server that works with 32-bit w2003, and we could then just move the data you needed over there. You'd been asking us to price match a competitor dual xeon for $69, and we said sure, but then you came back saying you could only afford $50/mo. Well...sorry but we just could not do that.
Your policy states differently. I understand you can not reinstall for free, but listen to what I have to say, what benefits do I have of requesting a OS reload (the way you describe it) - if each reload takes more or less, 48 hours with you? I'm paying to go through downtime? It just doesn't make sense.
You were informed of the server being unavailable on the 20th, you didn't really have to perform a OS reload (as you seem to have imagined) all you really needed to do was boot the box, but I guess, even that was too 'much of a time loss'.
Anyway, I think we've said all we can say about this matter. You moved on, we move on, life goes on.Sentris Network LLC - Since 1997 - 1-877-SENTRIS (206-686-3353)
www.tophosting.com | www.rentvps.com
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08-30-2009, 03:58 AM #22Web Hosting Master
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I have to say, that this issue has played out and is old news. According to Sentris you were informed that you would have incurred issues with the 32bit OS, and they did more than enough to fix the issue. If you were informed of the issues that 32 bit would have caused and still chose to continue with a 32 bit OS, all of the blame falls on your end without a doubt in my mind.
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08-30-2009, 04:11 AM #23Junior Guru Wannabe
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Obviously it is very common to see negative views against providers here, because some are one man type companies, some don't have the greatest networks, etc. There are tons of providers out there, it's all of a matter of finding the best pick for your needs.
Good to see both sides of the situation here. As Sentris said, you're moving on to a new provider, they're not loosing any sleep over your business - good luck with your new provider!█ EQHosting - Experience the Difference
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08-30-2009, 11:03 AM #24Newbie
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Sentris,
I don't recall saying I needed the server with 32-bit in the last reboot. I thought you were going to install 64-bit, to avoid these issues, as all I really needed the server then, was to backup the files, and I had no problem with having 64-bit then.
Besides, 32-bit or not, Win2k3 Enterprise is capable of handling much more than 16GB of RAM, again, it is not really the OS that is causing these issues, as I have another box with 16GB of RAM with a 32-bit OS, just like this, and it runs well.
Also keep in mind, while I understand this OS issue may also be my own cause - but if they informed me before and not after - the order would not go through. It is as simple as that, my applications malfunction with Win2k3 64-bit - and it is really that simple, the server has absolutely no use if it cannot perform well with my applications. The thing is, when I bought the server, my requirements very clear - and whether they knew it would cause issues or not, they should have informed their customer.
OS issue was only one of the issues, the other points are being ignored - I still like to hear why a customer was being ignored for days, and why tickets are left un-answered, and why a global network issue took days to fix, even though they were informed. Some of the network issues someone mentioned in this thread, started with having lots of ping delays, nearly 50% packet losses, and so on.
In fact this server purchase, was more or less, a loss of money for me, as the box was only running on a public environment for a week, in total - and this is what I am trying to prove, I have a box now with another provider, and I have not requested a OS reload, because I don't need it, they keep their promises, and they hold their word, and unlike Sentris, they are willing to go the extra mile for their customers', that is how a business should work.
There is no excuse Sentris - I take responsibility partially for the 'OS issue' but this was not the CAUSE for the other points - maybe, as you said, we live in different areas, and the way we view things are completely separate. "Customer is always right", is a good business practice, but it is even better, when companies honour this 'policy', but I think we can all agree, that customers are not always right, but I have been in this field a long time to know whether I was right, or not.
Good to see both sides of the situation here. As Sentris said, you're moving on to a new provider, they're not loosing any sleep over your business - good luck with your new provider!
Again, I want to demonstrate that this is only my opinion, I don't say you should judge an entire company over a review, but this is my own experience, and as I have said, they need to improve certain aspects, whether they choose to improve those aspects or not, is their choice, but I am not going to stick around with a host, that gives me constant headaches. Usually, when you go dedicated you expect to get a stable server, and a stable network overall, and these are the two points, I didn't get (OS issue, may have been my responsibility too, but as I explained before, 64-bit is not really a solution, and if I was informed before the order, I wouldn't have gone with them).
- Meti
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08-30-2009, 11:15 AM #25Temporarily Suspended
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