FortressITX/DedNow: Still Happy After Ten Months....
May 18, 2009
Toward the end of August 2008, I published this review as that week I became a customer under the DedicatedNow service line. In it, you'll read that I was more than pleased with the service quality I was receiving across-the-board. I prefer the personal control of a dedicated server over shared hosting, any day.
It's been approximately ten months since that review. My opinion of this company has not changed a single iota since I started service. I have since obtained additional services, including Applicure DotDefender, and am researching off-site backup solutions with Josh in the sales team this week.
Performance has been unsurpassed. My single core P4 went about its business for almost 300 days, and the only reason I had to reboot, was due to my own fault, mis-typing 'ip route del /' and hitting enter before specifying the proper address & range to unrestrict. So yeah, the only reason I had a service interruption is because I hosed it my darn self....accidentally.
The times I do work with their techs, I'm met with the same personable, professional individuals I've been working with since the beginning. I figured out the issue I was having with cpmove.
Boil it all down: I'm still thrilled with these guys. I cannot recall a single disruption that wasn't caused by my own ISP, and I love the early email notifications during planned maintenance. Looks like the prices are a bit lower nowadays, too.
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Dec 3, 2008
Currently we host with SoftLayer but are looking for other reliable providers also.
Which of the following do you recommend:
GNAX or DedNow
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Aug 27, 2008
I felt it necessary to offer a moment of praise to the team at DedicatedNOW.
I finally outgrew my quotas from the reseller provider I used previously, so for a couple days, I did some comparison shopping, looked at my options, and decided to give DedicatedNOW a try.
I decided to start with a machine from their "closeout" line, figuring I'd have my opinion of these guys within the first few weeks, and about 10 photographer/artist friends that have offered to switch over to me so we can test out this bad boy. I had it modified a bit; doubled the standard RAM and a pair of 250gb drives. Of course, I added the standards too; cPanel, Fantastico, RVskin, etc. I figured with these additions, server setup would take an extra half to full day.
I placed the order about 11pm this past Sunday night, knowing full well that they were closed. I received the Credit Card authorization forms by 10:00 the next morning and had them FAXed back by around noon. Within 10 minutes of sending the FAX, I received an email that my order was approved and pending processing! Wow!
I got an email saying that the server would be ready later on that evening. The server was indeed up and a login email was sent about 5:30 that evening. Since I hadn't used WHM in quite awhile, I emailed support a few times that night, and was met with a friendly response each time.
For a P4 and 2gb of RAM, this sucker flies around without issue.
The only thing that's irking me right now, is the fact that I can't get the cpanel->cpanel account conversion tool to work correctly in the MySQL department. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that these were created under WHM/reseller, and I think the naming/permissions of the dbs are somehow changed. Regardless, I sent in a support ticket, and I can see them logged in and checking now!
So, if they keep this pace up, I will be using DedicatedNOW as my provider for the higher-end servers with much more power. So far, so good. Very impressed!
Also, for verification, feel free to ARIN 69.72.171.130. FortressITX is a parent company of DedicatedNOW...or it could be the other way around. Just dig a tad bit further if you wish to check.
If anything changes, I'll be sure to post it here, but so far, they've done a SUPERB job.
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Jun 9, 2008
This review is posted voluntarily to praise the excellent experience I have had with Fortress ITX.
My primary business has been in business for over a year now. Having developed websites in the past and being involved in web development for over 9 years I have had my experience with webhosting and dedicated servers, having dealt with many different companies. I think it always came down to customer service, which I think is true for a lot of clients; we all want instantaneous response, and hopefully it’s not outsourced. During our start up, we quickly signed up with a promotion on WHT with what seemed to be a server reseller. Due to a number of hardware failures and no sense of urgency for fixing problems, I started my hunt for a new ISP. Due to a WHT post I was contacted by a Fortress sales rep, who was able to convince me that Fortress was the place for me.
Getting setup was quick. I paid for a management option so that they would help with any oversight as well as offer tech support via AIM if I needed it (which I highly recommend). It’s great to deal with real people one on one, especially if you have access to someone 24x7 who can help you right there on the spot.
I did have some downtime along with many others as Fortress had network issues. I remember scouring WHT and finding others who had their servers down as well. Honestly I may have had one or two issues with that, it was over a year ago, and it never happened again; it seems that their network infrastructure is flawless; I have had no more downtime issues.
As my business grew I started looking at true database clustering solutions.. I will be honest that at first glance I did not get the response I needed from Fortress regarding a solution. Looking back on it I think it was partly due to some miscommunication and the fact that with most ISP’s, load balancing and clustering are not your average run of the mill requests vs. the volume of just regular server orders; I had special needs that needed to be specifically tailored to me. Finally the CEO interceded and helped come up with a plan.
For 4 months Fortress worked with me to test several clustering solutions including working with outside cluster software companies, assessing my code, taking the time to give me feedback, work through problems, etc. Jay, the CEO had his head techs working with me weekly on finding the right solution. Everyone there knows me on a first name basis and Jay, the CEO, is available any time I need him. It was up until a few months ago that we finished our testing and figured out how we would scale. I worked with Josh Ewin in sales to order all the hardware I needed, all of it got delivered and setup without skipping a beat. Josh is sharp and I recommend getting in touch with him.
My cluster is awesome. It caters to exactly what I need. My sites run flawlessly. It is our new home. We have 15 servers, web, database and load balancers, of course everything all load balanced. We are using some of the most up to date hardware out there. I have had 0 network issues for as long as I can remember. I can talk to any of the head techs at any time, all on a first name basis. I am not Fortress’ biggest client, but they treat me as if I am. The CEO and I keep in touch almost on a daily basis. Jay really knows his stuff and has a very good operation going on. I honestly don’t know if you can find this type of opportunity anywhere else. They have their own datacenter, their own onsite staff and techs, everything is internal. And best of all, they will work for your business.
In closing, I have referred many friends and affiliates to Fortress, and recommend them to anyone looking for very customized support. They have my business locked in and I look forward to growing with them over the next few years. I am planning a trip back east to see the data center and meet everyone in person.
If anyone has any questions about Fortress ITX from a current client, please let me know.
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Apr 30, 2008
Recently we received reports of spam being sent out in massive amounts from an old IP address we had with DedicatedNow/FortressITX, apparently the IP still has reverse DNS setup for our domain name for some reason and we are still receiving spam reports.
I have sent them two emails/tickets, which were logged into their ticket system and have had no response from them in regards to this. They have not taken any action because I am still receiving spam reports from the same IP address, surprising they have not taken any action towards spam on their servers.
I have also requested that they remove the reverse DNS entry, no response to that as well.
Emails were sent with the spam reports from junkemailfilter.com.
Perhaps this will get their attention and they will look into the problem and put a stop into the spam issue.
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Mar 1, 2009
I don't think I've given my thanks to KH yet so here goes..
I've been with KH for over 2 years now and worked my way up from a regular VPS to a Hybrid VPS. Their costs are low for their high quality of service, product, and care.
They have always answered my tickets in a timely manner and been lenient in my times of financial crisis when I fell behind payments a few times. They even allowed me to keep my 10% lifetime discount when I upgraded to a Hybrid VPS just because I've been a member for so long. They also have scalability opportunities for members that need dedicated servers (which I will be moving to in a few months).
There really is no need to fatten this post up. Just take away from this that KH is the absolutely best hosting provider out there.
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Nov 5, 2009
We have about 4 colocated server and more than 10 rented dedicated server in giga-international.com in about 2 years.
We really like doing business dealings with giga-international too.
Good business and more and more in the further with giga-international is our heartily idea.
Its very recommend datacenter in europe.
We are very happy to use giga-international.com services.
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Oct 14, 2009
i want to post my experience with giga-international.
A month ago i was looking for a dedicated server to start a gaming community, at first i was looking for something cheap and simple, just for start and check how it was going until i get a better server.
Well, my first server with they was a Pentium 4, i've sent the payment on a saturday so i didn't expect an answer until the monday, and since they say at the website that usually takes 1-3 days to setup the server, i dont care too much about the time.
My surprise was, the monday at 7:52 GMT +1 i receive an email confirming the receipt of the payment, all ok, so i was like, ok, i must wait 3 days.
But no, 2 hours later another mail was at my gmail account with my login data, they had the server up and running in 2 hours when they say in the website that may take 1-3 days to complete the setup, that was a VERY nice start.
Since my gameservers was a huge succes, i have bough the server package with the Core 2 Quad Q6600 and 8GB of ram, same as above, they receive the payment and 2 hours later i was configuring my server.
Actually i host 4 Team Fortress 2 gameservers with 32 slots each, this morning with all the servers full the netgrap was reporting a 1-1.5mb/s continue data transfer rate and the servers running so fine.
The support team was very helpful, when i was thinking to get the quad server they have helped me about the SO choice mainly due the ram.
Also their Windows License offer is awesome, you dont pay the first 3 months of the Windows license, only a little setup fee (14€ for W2008 Web)
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Jun 6, 2009
Are you guys happy with LimeStone?
I like the offers they have ... lots of ram, solid CPU, nice HDD.
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Apr 1, 2008
I just wanted to let you know that based on your recommendations I ended up with HostGator.com. The good thing I like about them is simplicity. I purchased an account and it was active VERY FAST. Compared to my previous experiences, this amazing. I was able to upload and start working with my space. They have a great interface with a cPanel link. They have a guide teaching newbies how to start they even offered tutorials on how to add my DNS using namecheap.com! which is my domain-name registrar.
The speed is excellent and I was using a webbased file uploader. I will check using FTP it should get faster. I have so many things to do to test their other features. I would definitely upgrade to their dedicated plan if I get a better bandwidth for their plan.
Conclusion: Great experience. Fast, professional and convenient. I recommend it.
I will keep this page updated if I get anything extra to add. Cons or Pros.
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Mar 23, 2008
Is there any happy The Planet dedicated server customers? I read sooo many bad reviews on here, yet they continue to be the largest dedicated hosting provider and are growing leaps and bounds.
So I thought I'd see if there were any lurkers here that are actually pleased as a customer of The Planet.
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Apr 8, 2008
I see lots of bad reviews of Giga-International.
Is there anyone out there who are happy with their service, and can recommend them?
Or is it all just bad?
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Oct 5, 2008
I have to tell you about my not so happy experience with Geekstorage.
Let me make it short:
Slow loads, there are hours where it's barely loading, from anywhere in the world, I've sent in 1-2 support tickets, but the only answer I got was that it should be okay again (oversold?), no concrete answers at all.
Right now, I'm having a DB Error on my forum, been so for the past hour or so, still waiting for a reply to my ticket, marked as High Priority.
Support: Slow, just plain out slow, I was assured to get my tickets answered within a hour when I spoke to their sales dude, sadly, they havent been able to hold their end of the bargain within that one.
Overall: They are good if you want to have slow loading websites, fly by the day support answers, and in my shoes, a DB Error on my forum.
I am looking for a new host, anyone with any good recommendations ? Pref EU location, but will also be able to live with a Texas based location.
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Jun 13, 2008
I haven't seen any reviews on these guys so I thought I'd contribute. I started an account with them last 5 or 6 weeks ago and had a great experience.
setup:
was very very fast. It literally took 2 minutes. I paid with paypal and the server was made by the time I got the setup email to my gmail account. I got a town plan mostly for my new blog.
control:
this is very important for me. I like to be able to reinstall the OS without opening a support ticket. vpsville does this very well, you can choose any Linux os you want and its setup fast!
I was also able to set the rDNS without opening a ticket. That was a nice change.
speed:
the server is fast, so fast it seems like a dedicated box sitting beside me. my ping time is only 10ms from my house (Toronto, Rogers network) so that might be part of it.
Low ping time
was very important for me as I will use it as a game server. compiling code on the server is really fast and so is yum or aptitude. apache loads pages quick. No complaints at all.
support:
really good. No complaints. I asked about lots of stuff and I always get a quick reply. I was having some problems with iptables and they gave me a firewall script that does exactly what i wanted.
My site is [url]
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Apr 29, 2008
I am not an employee nor affiliate of Sagonet but I wanted to recommend a really good service I've had to date from them. I've been with them for about two years now, and as a large number of my customers are US based, we require a US hosting presence. Being in the UK, it's incredibly helpful to be able to speak to a real technician 24/7 if required. The service uptime has been constant and their prices are very good. I would definitely have no problem recommending them and I don't usually say that.
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Dec 28, 2008
when i odered the server i got the server in 4hrs-from this point iam very happy
support-is very good there reply are less than 5min,i must say special thanks to Alex Roman,Nicole Smith,Chris Manfre and Omar Ali they helped me in short out all my issues
uptime and network-there network is very good,i dont have faced any downtime in my 30days time
billing-still now no issue in billing part
Overall iam a happy client of gigenet
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Mar 31, 2008
I have had a dedicated server with Axishost for just shy of 2 years.
Before moving to Axishost, I had done the shared hosting account thing with a few companies and was never impressed with the performance or uptime. After realizing that most companies grossly oversell their shared servers, I decided that investing in a dedicated server was the best route for my company.
I recall researching and sending some 'test' helpdesk tickets to a few popular companies. None of the companies I emailed were very helpful. They just wanted to close the sale and sell me more server than I needed.
Tina @ axishost took the time to find out what my needs were and offered me a good deal on a dedicated box.
Overall, I just wanted a dependable server that I could put a couple dozen fairly low volume accounts on...have a company fully manage the box, and run a server that is Very reliable and fast.
Axishost delivered.
For about $170/month they supply me with a fast single core linux server running Cpanel.
They fully manage the box and provide all the support I need in a timely manner. Rsync backups are included.
My server is in Gnax/Atlanta and has done a fine job for 2 years.
Support ticket responses are always fast. If I put in an emergency ticket it is taken care of within minutes.
I am a happy customer, and I recommend Axishost to anyone looking for a fully managed cPanel server.
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Dec 29, 2008
After a tech support advisor helped me with my problem on heart internet, I replied to them "Thank you and Happy Christmas".
BUT!
I got NO reply. Surelly a little reply saying Happy Christmas back would not have hurt.
I mean after im paying them loads of money per month I would appretiate a bit of politness.
Options:
Maybe they're very busy? Well they should have an automated Happy Christmas reply system.
Maybe the technition doesn't celebrate Christmas? Well maybe a Happy Holiday reply would of done ok.
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Mar 8, 2009
Well I have to say to begin with, I never expected to be with one provider for so long. My sites are low volume enough that it would be a waste for a full dedicated server, but I wanted the control that a VPS provided.
Four or five years ago, when I first started trying to find a VPS, I floundered. Fpund more problems, and slow unreliable servers. I averaged about 3 host a year during that time. It was at this time I started reading about XEN, and the concept of it's method of virtualzation intrigued me, so I started searching for a host that offered this type of VPS.
My first experience was a big let down. Not really sure what the problem was, and cannot remember the name of the host, but that server was extremely slow.
It was then that I came to WHT and found the VPS offers here. There I saw an offer by ServerDave, signed up only to find there was a waiting list for new VPS. It originally took about a week (to my initial disappointment) to get provisioned. The VPS had 1 gig of ram allocated that was almost unheard of at the time. As soon as I started setting up I could tell the difference in speed and responsiveness.
I did have one problem, contacted support about it, and it was fixed within a couple of hours. Turned out to be a php misconfiguration. That was the last problem I ever had with my VPS. All my other contacts with support has just been a few general questions, and of course once to upgrade to a new VPS (newer OS) wich they provided me more than enough time to complete my move.
For most of the time, the only graphs they offered were network graphs, but just recently they have performed an upgrade and the graphs now chart - cpu - disk utilization - along with the network charts.
For a control panel I chose DirectAdmin, which I now love. And 5 dollars a month is a great price for it.
Uptime has been terrific. In my three years, my server has only gone down about four or five times for a short time. These all were for upgrades that was well announced before the downtime which was usually just a system reboot for a kernel update.
I use CentOS, and they do auto yum updates which makes it nice. I update my server software manually through directadmins custombuild scripts.
They do have another control panel for auto OS reloads, but this of course does not install your control panel. This is why when I moved from CentOS 4 to CentOS 5 they provisioned another VPS for me (free of charge).
All in all this company has been a pleasure to work with. I look forward to the next 3 years with them.
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Jul 11, 2009
Just wanted to give a short review of WebTHosting, an offshore hosting company.I am with them more than 6 months.
SO far the greatest hosting service I ever had. WebT Hosting is fairly affordable, with fast and reliable networks, and great support. Their uptime and server load is quite satisfactory.
One most important and the best thing is their live support and sales service. also the response of their support ticket is really fast.
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Aug 3, 2008
cant believe its almost been a year already, but like sand through the hour glass so goes the days of our lives. anyway, my almost year with imountain has been one of pure bliss. everyone on the imountain team needs to be commended cause they have consistently been there when i needed them and have truly bent over backwards to answer any remedial question i may pose or fulfill any request without hesitation. their support team is phenomenal and have truly gone above and beyond the call of duty and it has been truly appreciated.
uptime has been excellent. there has been only a few hours of downtime and most of that has been scheduled. even though they had to shut me down last week, but i truly couldnt be mad at them cause they did everything they could to rectify the issue. i run a music blog and some spider/bot was trying to download everything in my directories at one time which of course brought/slowed down the server i am on. i could tell that they hated taking me down, but business is business and i know i was affecting other people's businesses. in the end they tracked down the main offender and everything returned to normal.
in regards to speed, i think my site loads pretty quickly. i have not been told otherwise. people are quick to complain about other stuff and loading times has not been one of their gripes.
all in all i would give them a 9.5 out of 10 and will continue to recommend them to anyone who will listen.
my site is [url]
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May 5, 2009
have use iwebfusion for 3 months, write this review share with you.
iwf was a nice host provider,i buy a vps with their los angeles DC,
1 uptime 10/10
no downtime in 3 months.
2 support 8/10
2~6 hours, if not lucky, no more than 24 hours.......
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Apr 6, 2009
I'd been with hivelocity for 14 months by now and i'm thinking to continue my bussines on there.
I created a thread on the past, this is the thread:
[url]
And this is what i said:
Quote:
What can i say?
They just Rock, Dave and steve are just great.
Dave is my account manager he is helpfull, quickly and very efficient.
i would like to recommend people to join in hivelocity.
They are just more than fine, my server is working great and i had 2 issues resolved.
1 issue in less than 20 mins (another server in the rack was consuming a lot of bandwith)
the other issue was a little more complicated but it has been resolved too, thanks Dave
They have the same problem with support than sharktech (not managed), but if you talk to your account manager or Steve they will take care of it and get the problem resolved in a few minuts, that's just cool.
Service and support for me was really good in one week with they .. i will stay for a long time here if everything goes right.
and if we can, stablish a long term business based on trust (i'm a coder i can help)
Well from that moment to now i can say the following things:
No downtimes, only schedules (maintenence)
No support problems.
I upgraded my server to a quad2core and for 6 months payment, they gove me a second HDD!
I'm sending new customers to hivelocity right now, and trying to start reselling their servers.
¿why do i want to?
Because Steve and Dave, are responsable guys.
Because Network works fine.
Last server i bought for a customer: 1 day setup, no problems. I did a hardware check and it was OK, no HDD failures and TEMPERATURE was the right.
Because they understand if you have a problem.
Because support is there to help, even if you don't pay for "Managed services"
And i think that, they manage customers as well, that you can feel as a part of the company and not just another Argentinian customer.
So, watching the huge financial crisis, i want to give a good review about this company, and try to get more and new customers to they.
I would highly recommend to buy their services, this is not another company this is one of the best companies i ever knew.
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Oct 2, 2009
This is my first review regarding a dedicated server prodiver, so forgive me if i miss anything.
We are a small web hosting company located in Greece and after many years in a Greek Datacenter, we were seeking for a reliable provider with Managed Dedicated servers. After a lot of search here in WHT, we came through ServerBoost which is located in Holland.
Sales: Jelle was very patient during our talks, although we were just researching at the time being. A really nice guy and a true professional, answered all my questions as I was skeptic regarding the migration, or details of our contract and service. ( personal fears :p )
Support: They say the first impression is the most significant and I must admit that mine was pretty good. Starting from the Server migration ( From 2 old/slow servers to a brand-new Dell one. ) which went really smoothly from ServerBoost part, taking the downtime to minimal time!
Our SLA contract has a specific time window for support requests but it hardly takes over some minutes or 1-2 hours to get a response ( regarding the time of the day of course! ) and Jelle is always there when i need to ask something.
Hardware/Network: Our Dell server is running really good, and the network is really reliable as "promised". Good speeds and ping ( from Greece ) which is important for our customers.
Conclusion: For me, having dealt with only one foreign company in the past for hosting ( US ), ServerBoost is the ideal one to do business with, because they look really "caring" about our business and their flexibility is priceless.
I'm looking forward using ServerBoost for a long time, really satisfied! :-)
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Oct 14, 2009
I would just like to say that they surprise me for a shared host.
Support: 10/10
Uptime: 9/10
Speed: 9.5/10
Value: 8/10
Although I pay quite a bit I still think it's worth it. About $15/mth for 15GB HDD and 75GB transfer. My website handles ~300K hit's daily with only a few hiccups. It's uptime is something like 99.97% which is decent. The only big incident is when I first signed up I was transferring my domain which took a few days, but was resolved professionally. So far it's a big thumbs up.
[url]
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May 9, 2009
Decided to give a VPS a try back in November. Ordered through one the sales advertised in the offer forums, got set-up in less than 12 hours.
In terms of performance, the VPS works fine.
In terms of service, this is where the ball is dropped.
The issue is that they set me up in LA, and I'm on the East coast. So I've contacted support, asking if a move was possible. When they said yes, and I've confirmed that their offer to move it during the night was fine, I've even shut everything down to make things smoother.
The next morning, I receive an email telling me I will get another one once it's done... the following day, I receive an email that it can't be done, as I have a x64 OS and there is no space on the node.
So I let this slide, and decide that sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and decided to offer them to BUY another one, this time on the East coast, if they could offer me the same setup as I have on the West coast. They've agreed, and I did the order as they requested... That was around noon 2 days ago, and still nothing today...
For another example, I've requested a ticket because the /dev/tun wasn't configured properly in the container... I don't know what they did, but it corrupted my VPS so bad that I have to re-initialise it completly. Another example: I've posted a ticket that their gentoo image is faulty (no network support at all!), and to my knowledge this was still not fixed.
So yes, NYNOC has some cool ideas like an online chat, even offered an EYEOS desktop, forums, tips, and great prices... but for me now this ain't worth it much and will be canceling my accounts. I guess coming from VPSFarm has spoiled me (instant setup, quick support), and will be looking for a new provider.
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Oct 8, 2009
1. Month
I used 15 days of godaddy's shared hosting before FsckVPS. Due to unexpected traffic, I had to move to a VPS. So I chose FsckVPS's 512mb packet.
I was very sattisfied with them. Their servers were fast and the VPS got setup in just a few seconds.
The hacking incident happened this month. I was still pleased by the way they handled it. So I decided to stay with them. They decided to give 2 months free after the hacking incident.
2. Month and 3. Month
Everything was very smooth, running perfectly. Servers were still fast after I got switched to a new one after the hacking.
4. Month
This is the second time I paid to FsckVPS and I was pretty happy about it.
Then I have been informed that they will be switching servers. They told that it would take around 4 hours per vps.
So when I noticed that my vps was down for the first time, I didn't react and waited. After being down for about 8 hours, I sent them a ticket. The response came after 4 hours saying that it was now online.
I logged in to my vps and the first thing I noticed was how SLOW it was. After a while, it crashed and I couldn't reach to my vps anymore. I sent a ticket, they reset the server, it got a little better.
This happened about 4 times. Everytime I sent a ticket asking why this is happening, I only received a response saying it is OK now.
After 3 weeks of being like this, I decided to switch to a new VPS provider.
Now I am on my new VPS provider, hoping for better results.
My fsckvps will expire in 4 days and it is still very slow.
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Sep 24, 2009
After having a dedicated server for more than 70 days from WiredTree.com, I thought that it would be a good time for a review.
I came across them through good reviews in this forum and took the opportunity to get one of their special offers (Core i7). As a short summary in advance: I can fully recommend them to anyone seeking a managed dedicated box.
Sales:
I just had contact to Sales twice - Once as I tried to bargain for an even cheaper offer than the special one they already had (without success, by the way) and a second time when it came to an eventual server upgrade. Response time was quick, the answers were professional and friendly and there is nothing I could complain about.
Server Setup:
I was in a totally different time-zone than WiredTree while ordering the server. As they have the practice to call their new customers for identity verification, the call reached me at night time and I could not pick it up. So I called them in the morning and they called me back again. It must have been deepest night time in Chicago at this moment. From this telephone call on, it took less than 2-3 hours (as far as I remember) until the server was ready and online.
Another thing is their "ServerShield Server Hardening" that they perform before you get the box. I never received a dedicated server before with so many tweaking measures taken in advance. MySQL performance was improved, the firewall was well configured, security checks were already made, everything felt fine-tuned in advance. So, again, very good job done by WiredTree.
Hardware Quality:
You might say: "You've only been with them 70+ days. Of course, there was no hardware problem during that short time". Well, I read here at WHT about customers of other hosts who had the first failures already at the moment they received the new box. So - No hardware problems at all until now.
Support:
I am not very experienced in server management and tend to get nervous if something doesn't work and support takes more than 30min. to answer questions. I know that this makes me annoying sometimes, but at least I always try to be friendly. Fortunately, WiredTree seems very good prepared for nerve-wrackers like me... Support never took more than 15min. to answer my requests and in at least 2 cases, they even bent backwards to help me with problems that had nothing to do with them. Every single request got solved in a very short time. I contacted support at the most unusable hours of the day because I often travel between different time zones - They were always there, like an own IT-Crowd in your pocket. Two thumbs up for their support staff.
Network:
100% Uptime during the whole time. No hickups at all, no problem that I would be aware of. Fine speed all the time. There is really nothing negative that I could say.
Billing:
No billing issues at all. Everything worked correctly.
Their customer portal "Grove":
Well. Hmmm. Okay, one thing first: I saw several customer portals during the last 10 years. And none of them blew me away. I haven't seen SoftLayer's yet and was told that theirs should be even nicer than grandmas cheese cake, but the grass is always greener on the other side as long as you have never been there. Let's say that "Grove" is surely one of the better and nicer looking customer portals around. It bundles a lot of information and offers a good way of communication. The rest is a question of taste...
The bad news:
I cancelled the server today. The company I work for has rent several servers at another host and paid them 1 year in advance. One is totally unused (great planning, MnMgt!) and I was offered by my boss to use it cost-free for that period of time. Well, this is an opportunity I have to take... Saving $300 a month is quite a lot of money. But I am determined to go back to WiredTree as soon as my "free time" is over.
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Jan 17, 2009
I've been using SmoothVPS for about 4 months (and colleagues of mine have been using them for more than that) based on posts from WHT as well as recommendations from others in the industry. Bob @ SmoothVPS has been extremely helpful, very responsive, and is seemingly always online to help me with even the most basic of questions. He has bent over backwards to accomodate my random needs and helps me with specific server configurations that I can't figure out - even with third-party packages that he is not required to support!
I have three Linux-based VPSes with Bob and he has no problem configuring them to my specific needs with whatever version OS that I require. I plan on adding many more as I migrate all my servers to him - I've decided to give him my exclusive business due to how well everything runs and how competitive the price is. Billing is simple - Paypal subscriptions or regular invoices make it a snap to manage (even if I lose track, which I do - sorry Bob).
The bottom line is that SmoothVPS is the place to go for your VPS needs. I haven't needed Windows boxes there, but I will probably mess around with one in the near future to test some software. They're moving to a new DC in the near-future - and they're giving me 30 free days of IP migration to make sure the process runs smoothly. Just amazing.
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Feb 12, 2009
I've had a Krypt VPS for a few months now, started with the VPS400 package and moved up to VPS800 over time. Initially (I'm guessing they had just gotten into providing VPS's) the service was EXCELLENT! My VPS was located in their LA datacenter on the Level3 backbone. First two months the VPS was rock solid, I was running a full LAMP (no optimizations) install along with Webmin. By the 3rd month I started having issues with sluggishness, both on the site and SSH. Put in a support ticket which got responded to within 10 minutes as usual (fantastic support!) and their techs moved my VPS to a less loaded VMware node. Things were again pretty solid for about two weeks, then the same thing happened again. I let it be for a few days thinking it may just be a spike, but even after a week it was still pretty horrid. I had even turned off the LAMP install and Webmin in favor of a lone Lighttpd install to serve static html pages. Mind you by this time I had been upgraded to above their VPS800 package, yet I was still having performance issues. Put in another ticket and asked to be moved to another node, they said sure and asked a timeframe, I told them asap and let the issue be. After 4 hours of not hearing anything back, I update my ticket to find out that they were having some issues with the VPS, ok bad things happen, give them time. A few hours later I ask again and am told that they formatted the VPS without any authorization from me...Its a VMware host, they could at the least have attached the virtual hard drivei mage to the new install of my VPS, but they prefered to just delete it. I run several ESX servers at work and even with a nonbootable (according to them) image, the hard drive can still be mounted and recovery can be attempted. I was angry but I have a few dedicated servers with Krypt so I gave them another chance. I took the freshly installed VPS and started hunting down backups to restore from. Installed LAMP and Webmin, gave it a week and once again: slow. I'm fairly certain that CentOS repo apps and Webmin arn't enough to cause a VPS to dog down this bad, even with *everything* turned off (top shows 24MB ram usage) SSH and pages being served by lighttpd are taking 3-10 seconds to come up, as before they came up before I even let go of the button.
Ratings
Support: 10/10
Service: 6/10
VPS Quality: 5/10
Network: 5/10 (great in the beginning, after a week less than 400KB/s)
Overall they're a great provider, but they need to monitor their nodes more carefully and find abusers. It seems to me like they're either overloading their nodes or have something misconfugured thats causing issues. I was told a few times to restart my VPS which didn't help at all. Orderded a VPS with them about 2 weeks ago on a different account, havn't even touch it since I got it, as of right now, SSH is sluggish, apps like top take an average 5 seconds to come up, max throughput is ~300KB/s from Seattle (hit ~7MB/s when I first got it). Same issue as my other VPS. I'll provide my domain to the mods for authentication.
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Apr 23, 2009
I thought I could share my opinion on VolumeDrive after being with them for a few months. I always appreciated when I could find in-depth reviews from hosting companies when I was looking for one so I hope some peope will find this review useful.
First of all, here my plan with them:
Quote:
AMD Athlon64 3200+
1 GB DDR2 Ram
120 GB SATA Hard Drive
3000 GB of bandwidth on 100MB port
2 IP addresses
Ubuntu Server 8.04 Linux
This package costs me $49.95 per month.
It all started when I contacted them to have more information on their services and what they have to offer. They replied very quickly and sent me a document detailing every offer they have and how their plans work. It's a shame that all that information wasn't available on their website, they proposed roughly 3 different dedicated solutions on their order form when you can actually choose a bunch of other options. Anyway, I asked a few other questions (like if they could install Ubuntu even if it wasn't listed in the available OS, and they had no problem in doing this). Again, they replied quickly. I made my choice and as I made my first payment, my server was online 24 hours later, as stated in their e-mail.
Communication with Volumedrive's staff is always great, I've had an issue one time where my internet connection was realllllly slow. I e-mailed them and it took a few minutes before I received an answer to my e-mail with someone trying to find what was wrong. We exchanged a few e-mails trying to find what was the issue and the issue got resolved in no time. Aside from this problem, I've never had any network or hardware issue (still have a fresh new server though)
I also personnaly think that their prices are far superior to what other companies offer. Their plans are flexible and if I want a hardware upgrade for example I know I can just contact them and we'll work out the details.
The only downsides I can give them is that their website is missing a lot of information. When you are looking for a server you may not want to spend time contacting each company by e-mail to ask question and have more information, you rely on the website to give you a lot of details. Also, their invoice system is not so great. You receive an e-mail saying you need to pay them and they only accept paypal. When your payment is done, you don't receive any confirmation e-mail. It's not bothering me much for a 50$ server, but I'd want a more conventional billing system with automatic renewal if I had a big business going on with them.
All in all, I really like volumedrive! I'd recommend it for everybody looking for a low cost dedicated server, they're fast, professional and helpful. You just need to send them an e-mail to get the plan that works for you so tow thumbs up for Volumedrive!
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