I've been building a new services over the last two month and needed a server to host it. I've initially ordered a server at an other provider (which will be getting a very bad review shortly) but after three weeks I still didn't get the server.
While desperately browsing these forums looking for a replacement I noticed a few posts by a server.lu staff member, I've heard some good things about them in the past so I decided to send them a pm with the question if they could deliver a server with the specs I needed. Within 5 minutes I got a response (it was past 00:00 at that point, talk about service). And I think it was about 30 minutes later my server was up and running.
And as an added bonus it was a quad-core instead of the dual-core advertised. What the other provider failed to do in 3 weeks server.lu had done in a matter of minutes.
To see if that was just a lucky coincidence I ordered a 2nd server yesterday and again it was setup with a few minutes.
Server.lu is off to a very good start, my 2 month review will tell you if they can keep it up.
I'm going to use this thread as a my home for an ongoing review of wholesaleinternet.com
Before Signing Up
I've been stalking wholesaleinternet for a few months now, mainly because they are the closest datacenter to my house with reasonable prices. In fact, they seem to actually be one of the few datacenters that price their servers at a level that will make them a profit, while still beating everyone else out there.
Before actually signing up with them I wanted to test their datacenter, mainly ping times, etc... So instead of getting a dedicated server with them, I went through a few other companies who colo with them.
Over the past three months there was only one issue, a bad switch. However, they had it fixed as fast as they could and kept everyone updated via WHT.
So after that I decided it was time to get a server with them.
Initial Contact
Aaron (the owner) was quick to respond to my emails and has always been very helpful. He worked with me on a custom setup, which is quite frankly, the best deal I have ever received on a server, ever.
The Setup
They work fast. I had them install CentOS with partitioning for OpenVZ and RAID1... There was only a couple of hours between the time I paid and the time my server was online.
The server is exactly what I ordered (in fact, it's more than I ordered), which is rare for me. Maybe I just have bad luck, but I seem to get misconfigured servers from other datacenters and it takes hours/days to get it fixed.
I was at the planet for the last several years and decided to make the switch based on reviews on this forum and talking with their reps.
First off, Mike with the sales live chat was VERY helpful and answered all of my questions.
Answered questions about power, # of uplinks, average hardware replacement time etc. All were satisfactory to me.
In the end we went with the Celeron 352/2 GB ram/80GB SATA for 64.99 a month. I will be saving 25 a month off my dedicated server over the planet. A killer deal! Plus we have double the ram now. I couldn't convince my partner to go the X2 4000+ route for 10 more a month . We really don't need the power.
Initial impressions of the client panel are good (rokstar or something). Now for them to turn the power on .. 15 minutes and counting..
I searched around for hours and found ones close but not quite what I wanted for close to the same price. I finally placed my order at around 4:00pm CDT and had the forms filled out and faxed in by 4:30pm CDT
Yesterday I got no contact except for a reply from billing confirming they received my forms(in reply to an email I sent them).
This morning I had an email from billing stating they couldn't read my handwriting on my credit auth form(I have bad handwriting). I resent the form with the information typed in. I found out later that this delayed the setup of my server. (Hour 53 now)
I will say their Live Chat was not very helpful nor was phone support, nor my account manager. I got no response from my account manager, and live chat kept telling me to conatct my account manager and phone support directed me to email sales@iweb.com instead of jeanluc@iweb.com. In desperation I started scouring google and came across WHT and saw some of Martin(atchooo)'s response to other customers problem and was impressed, so I followed the link to his blog and found his (creative) email address. I sent him an email detailing the issues I was having. Within 10-20 minute he had responded letting me know he would look into it, about 10 minute after that I got this response ....
While talking to as many people as I could find and comparing prices I decided to go with webnx.
I am currently hosted with iweb but my current p4 is getting slaughtered by my users so I needed to upgrade.
First result was I clicked live chat and asked to talk to support to help me pick out my server, I talked to dan for probbly 3 hrs discussing options and different setups that we could do.
I decided on : Dual opteron 254 ( 2 processors 2 cores (one processor is faster then our current setup)) 2x 146gb 10k rpm scsi drives (mirrored) 4gb ram
I am just waiting on my bill now but if this impression I received from the company based on Dan then I am sure I will be happy, I will post next week with setup time, and then next month on uptime.
I recently picked up an account with Downtown Host to host my dad's site and wanted to start a thread that I will update as time goes by. I know there's a "honeymoon period" with most hosts and sometimes, like my wife (LOL.. kidding *hides*), things change as things progress..but I have been very impressed.
So, to get things started...
Ordering Process
Easy as it usually is these days. Although the space isn't really needed, I picked up their Bronze plan for 6 months and it worked out to be about $50 USD thanks to a handy coupon. This is the first time I have ever had enough preliminary confidence in a host to go for 6 months up front (outside of getting a ridiculous deal) and I hope to not to be disappointed and regret the decision.
DTH does use a phone call fraud verification system on new orders which I appreciate. I think it shows that they are proactive in sorting out bad purchases and is one of the nicer fraud-detection interfaces I have come across. I believe Wirenine is the only other host I have used that employs a similar system.
Jorge (Jedito on WHT) was very helpful in the ordering process which, again, I appreciate and was pro-active in helping me getting me on board quickly even going so far as to drop me a line welcoming me aboard.
Initial Transfer, Etc.
Once again, very easy. There were a few hiccups that were issues on the previous host's side in terms of creating cPanel back ups so things could get moved over. Both techs were extremely helpful and kept me updated throughout the process, notifying me of even the slightest issue (again, none on their side) in getting files moved over for two domains, some of which included add-on domains.
One of the sites I moved over included a wordpress blog that was previous its own account under a reseller plan so I had a question regarding the process of switching over the MySQL database information to ensure the blog worked off the tip. Again, DTH was very helpful and gave me instructions on what I needed to do to make sure there was no interruption in serving the blog. They certainly didn't have to help me with the changes so it was really nice of them to do so.
Performance
In a word - fast. Once the nameservers switched over for the main site (cincihost-dot-com), I entered the address and *bam*. No lagged delays with larger-sized images, they just popped up. Previously, the page loaded somewhat "in order". Not anymore. I hit "Enter" and it was there. Nice.
cPanel loads fast and in checking the server load here and there, it is always below 1.00.
Support
As I have alluded to above, support is fantastic. The first ticket I submitted took a bit to be responded to which was worrying. Who knows what happened, but it was responded to, oddly, shortly after I mentioned it to someone. From that point, support has been lightning fast. As I think happens a lot of times, I have submitted a few tickets in order to get everything set up and going and they have all been responded to or updated within 15 to 20 minutes. I recently submitted a ticket to have my cPanel theme changed (it default to a RVSkin which I do not like) and it was resolved in, literally, one minute. Fastest support I have ever experienced.
Summation
Really the only thing I didn't like was that cPanel loads the green RVSkin which seems cartoony to me and I much prefer the original x3 theme. This was quickly changed so no biggie.
Everything else has been absolutely fantastic as you can probably surmise.
I look forward to being hosted with DTH and have a good feeling that my father and I will be with them for a long time to come.
Thanks to Jorge, Sebastian and everyone at Downtown Host!
Although the domain was registered in 4/15/08, I could find next to nothing on WHT or the ‘net in general in the way of reviews on FiveBean. Saw a lot of specials and things they have been running off and on at different venues and boards, but couldn’t find a review to save my life. I did search pretty thoroughly. No web cache on web.archive.org either.
So, I’ll be the first to post one (that I know of), with a special they are offering, it’s very affordable, if the service turns out to be good enough, then I have another node at a great price J. The more, the merrier. Win / Win 4 all. (FiveBean also offers shared hosting, so not exclusively a VPS provider.)
Hardware nodes – From their site: “VPS Nodes are built with Intel Core2 Quad Processors, Premium SATA Disks and RAID Protection powered by CentOS 5.x and MoxieVM. Each VPS server is backed up daily and we provide 2 full backups to our customers.”
Although I never rely on provider’s backups, it’s good to see them offered as standard. Could come in handy.
They offer 5 plans; I ordered the middle-of-the road “Starter”. All VPSs appear to be OpenVZ based.
Ordered Plan - 512M / 1G burst 40G HDD 450G BW 1 IP CentOS 5 for initial load
Initial order, small issue - Placed order at about midnight, got my welcome email at 7:40 AM. One issue was, I did not receive any emails from their ordering system, other than the PayPal-originating receipt. The emails were listed under the Client Area, so I still had access to read. Since I own and admin my own mail servers, I checked logs - Emails from ordering system were sent from a non-FQDN domain. From SMTP logfile: RECEIVED: MAIL FROM:<fivebean@kona> SIZE=3560 Mail server rejected because of the incomplete domain. This appeared to be an issue with the sign-up process only. All support ticket replies came from a FQDN. I described this problem in a support ticket, curios to see if they really do look @ and fix. Maybe on my second order? Everything initially ordered during the process was delivered, with no follow-ups required to correct anything. That's a little rare, from my experiences.
They offer online chat support, but have not caught it online as of yet, although I haven’t checked before 9PM on any given day, so not a fair eval on that aspect. FWIW.
- On to the goodies -
Control panel - Apparently, FiveBean previously used HyperVM, but has since disabled and rolled out their own self-spun VM manager, "moxieVM". It's a simple, yet effective, web interface that allows me to do everything I need to, and everything works. That's always a good plus! moxieVM control panel contains the following: VPS list facility / user profile control / pass reset VPS Controls -- Reboot / Start / Stop / Rebuild OS / Set Reverse DNS Report (simple) shows -- OS currently installed / Monthly BW Usage total / Current Memory Usage / Action Log of previous control commands
Noteworthy - when you select "reboot / start / stop" there is no confirmation, action is queued and executed immediately. Good info to know.
Rebuilds - FiveBean offers 13 OS rebuild option w/ 6 Flavors - Ubuntu / Suse / Slackware / Fedora / Debian / CentOS, 32/64bit in most. Reload of OS (From CentOS 5 to Fedora 10) took about 4 minutes. Note - keep your original root login password! On OS reload, the pass is reset to the original you receive in your VPS welcome email, NOT whatever you have currently changed it to. I can see this being an issue if it’s been a while since you have reloaded and end up digging out the old email. A little different than HyperVM.
Network - Ping times are consistently 15-16ms from/to Austin, 21ms from/to Atlanta, 12-18ms from/to Kansas City, MO. Traceroute to node (69.162.118.226) puts them behind Limestone Networks in Dallas, Tx. One thing I can report, their network seems to be very peppy. I've had a hard time hitting anything from / to the VPS with more than 20ms. I haven't seen a 30ms yet. From anywhere. An I have VPSs from coast to coast.
VPS / Initial Order- Hostname was set properly right off the bat, both initially and on OS reloads. Reverse DNS PTR self-set worked without having to put in a ticket, a first for sure! I just entered the rDNS PTR I required, waited about an hour, and it was set and propagated, ready to go. No muss, no fuss. Although I haven't put any load on the system, the CLI is responding very fast, and pings / traces / nslookups are very quick (as stated above). The only issue at all so far was the aforementioned order response email non-FQDN flurb. But, stuff happens. Small beans (pun intended).
AUP No porn, excessive violence, hate, deception, illegal IRC that causes no disturbances is allowed. I really prefer non-IRC networks, but they have a long lecture about it in the AUP, so it appears they watch activity pretty close.
Nuts n Bolts -
Benchmark (benchmark is on newly loaded system, minimal install FC 10, no load) ------------------ INDEX VALUES TEST BASELINE RESULT INDEX
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Conclusions – so far, so good. I’m actually pretty impressed with everything I’ve seen up to this point. I’m planning on putting the server under load as a backend node of a busy website’s load balancer. I’ll post follow ups as we go along.
Yesterday LT pulled the plug because of a DoS that took place on my server. I asked LT to bring back my server online so that PSM can investigate. PSM did that and then said that they had cleaned out all the tmp directories, and scanned my server with rkhunter and that it was clean. LT got the message and problem was fixed...or so I thought.
Today I got another email from LT saying that DoS is an ongoing issue with my LT server and that they will unplug my server and do a mandatory server reload if I don't do something about it and provide documentation of what was found and removed. Again, I contacted PSM about this and they investigated, only to tell me the same thing that they had cleaned out the tmp directories, and that if this continues they would have to disable common server functions. Doesn't sound too good.
Anyway, is it really hard to find out and fix this DoS problem? My server has modsecurity but no phpsuexec is installed. LT recently offered a DDOS protection server for my server and don't know if it's really necessary, is it?
Here's part of the log file that LT sent to me. There's a whole bunch of the following:
For the last month I've had problems with my VPS being blacklisted, and it always seems to be around the same time of day.
Anyway, the VPS is managed, but it's a right pain the backside getting support to deal with the problem for me and sort it out. I get answers like "Its a PHP script", and when I ask which script they say they can't find out.
After getting advice from people on this forum, I asked support to setup exim so that it recorded the folder of any scripts sending out mail, but when I run grep so show any exim_mainlog entries with cwd= there is very little appearing appart from genuine mails being sent by contact forms on websites.
I managed to get evidence of a mail which caused the server to be blacklisted and sent this to support, who said the mails are being send via header injection on contact scripts, so I've got through the contact scripts and changed them, but again, still blacklisted.
I may be wrong here, but surely if someone was doing mail injection then I would be receiving copies of the mail myself as the website mails me with the enquiry, and also surely the exim_mainlog would so the folder containing the script as sending mails...but it doesnt.
I'm completely lost here, somehow mail is being sent from the server, whether it be via a script or what, but I can't(and neither can support) determine the exact script that is sending mail.
Here is a snippet of the exim_mainlog from around the time the evidence mail was sent.
Code: Aug 25 21:59:40 awt spamd[5164]: spamd: checking message <16291601c7e75a$d5a016e0$0d4cb34c@ALLEN> for thegran:32010 Aug 25 21:59:46 awt spamd[23731]: spamd: connection from localhost [127.0.0.1] at port 47366 Aug 25 21:59:46 awt spamd[23731]: spamd: setuid to libraifa succeeded Aug 25 21:59:46 awt spamd[23731]: spamd: checking message <494307824222.548029453854@flcjn.net> for libraifa:32006 Aug 25 21:59:48 awt spamd[5164]: spamd: identified spam (17.1/5.0) for thegran:32010 in 7.7 seconds, 1050 bytes. Aug 25 21:59:48 awt spamd[5164]: spamd: result: Y 17 - BAYES_99,DATE_IN_PAST_06_12,FORGED_MUA_OUTLOOK,INVALID_MSGID,RCVD_IN_BL_SPAMCOP_NET,RCVD_IN_PBL,RDNS_DYNAMIC,STOX_REPLY_TYPE,URIBL_BLACK,URIBL_RHS_DOB,URIBL_SBL scantime=7.7,size=1050,user=thegran,uid=32010,required_score=5.0,rhost=localhost,raddr=127.0.0.1,rport=47347,mid=<16291601c7e75a$d5a016e0$0d4cb34c@ALLEN>,bayes=1.000000,autolearn=spam Aug 25 21:59:48 awt spamd[28500]: prefork: child states: IB Aug 25 21:59:52 awt spamd[23731]: spamd: identified spam (12.3/2.5) for libraifa:32006 in 6.4 seconds, 6742 bytes. Aug 25 21:59:52 awt spamd[23731]: spamd: result: Y 12 - AXB_XMID_1212,BAYES_60,EXTRA_MPART_TYPE,HTML_IMAGE_ONLY_04,HTML_MESSAGE,MIME_HTML_MOSTLY,MPART_ALT_DIFF,RCVD_IN_PBL,RCVD_IN_XBL,RDNS_NONE scantime=6.4,size=6742,user=libraifa,uid=32006,required_score=2.5,rhost=localhost,raddr=127.0.0.1,rport=47366,mid=<494307824222.548029453854@flcjn.net>,bayes=0.654621,autolearn=no Aug 25 21:59:52 awt spamd[28500]: prefork: child states: II Aug 25 21:59:53 awt pop3d: LOGIN, user=andrew@myhomeonthe.net, ip=[::ffff:212.159.101.86] Aug 25 21:59:56 awt pop3d: LOGOUT, user=andrew@myhomeonthe.net, ip=[::ffff:212.159.101.86], top=0, retr=39944, rcvd=56, sent=40746, time=3 Aug 25 22:04:12 awt spamd[5164]: spamd: connection from localhost [127.0.0.1] at port 48176 Aug 25 22:04:12 awt spamd[5164]: spamd: setuid to libraifa succeeded Aug 25 22:04:12 awt spamd[5164]: spamd: checking message <E1IP2ng-0002eI-Eg@wear.readytogo.net> for libraifa:32006 Aug 25 22:04:20 awt spamd[5164]: spamd: clean message (-2.6/2.5) for libraifa:32006 in 7.6 seconds, 1827 bytes. Aug 25 22:04:20 awt spamd[5164]: spamd: result: . -2 - AWL,BAYES_00 scantime=7.6,size=1827,user=libraifa,uid=32006,required_score=2.5,rhost=localhost,raddr=127.0.0.1,rport=48176,mid=<E1IP2ng-0002eI-Eg@wear.readytogo.net>,bayes=0.000000,autolearn=ham Aug 25 22:04:20 awt spamd[28500]: prefork: child states: II Aug 25 22:09:29 awt spamd[5164]: spamd: connection from localhost [127.0.0.1] at port 49145 Aug 25 22:09:29 awt spamd[5164]: spamd: setuid to gbtravel succeeded Aug 25 22:09:29 awt spamd[5164]: spamd: checking message <putcgcbfbhamfer@fruitpads.com> for gbtravel:32017 Aug 25 22:09:39 awt spamd[5164]: spamd: identified spam (12.6/5.0) for gbtravel:32017 in 10.2 seconds, 5003 bytes. Aug 25 22:09:39 awt spamd[5164]: spamd: result: Y 12 - BAYES_99,HTML_IMAGE_ONLY_32,HTML_MESSAGE,LOCALPART_IN_SUBJECT,MSGID_SPAM_LETTERS,SPF_PASS,TVD_RATWARE_MSGID_02,URIBL_BLACK,URI_NOVOWEL scantime=10.2,size=5003,user=gbtravel,uid=32017,required_score=5.0,rhost=localhost,raddr=127.0.0.1,rport=49145,mid=<putcgcbfbhamfer@fruitpads.com>,bayes=1.000000,autolearn=no Aug 25 22:09:39 awt spamd[28500]: prefork: child states: II Aug 25 22:10:06 awt pop3d: LOGIN, user=andrew@myhomeonthe.net, ip=[::ffff:212.159.101.86] Aug 25 22:10:07 awt pop3d: LOGOUT, user=andrew@myhomeonthe.net, ip=[::ffff:212.159.101.86], top=0, retr=0, rcvd=12, sent=39, time=1 Aug 25 22:11:27 awt spamd[5164]: spamd: connection from localhost [127.0.0.1] at port 49520 Aug 25 22:11:27 awt spamd[5164]: spamd: setuid to libraifa succeeded Aug 25 22:11:27 awt spamd[5164]: spamd: checking message <000601c7e75c$894ed180$0100007f@fpviosw> for libraifa:32006 Aug 25 22:11:36 awt spamd[5164]: spamd: identified spam (16.3/2.5) for libraifa:32006 in 8.5 seconds, 19328 bytes. Aug 25 22:11:36 awt spamd[5164]: spamd: result: Y 16 - BAYES_60,HTML_IMAGE_ONLY_12,HTML_MESSAGE,HTML_SHORT_LINK_IMG_2,RCVD_IN_BL_SPAMCOP_NET,RCVD_IN_PBL,RCVD_IN_SORBS_WEB,RCVD_IN_XBL,RDNS_NONE,SHORT_HELO_AND_INLINE_IMAGE,URIBL_BLACK,URIBL_JP_SURBL,URIBL_SBL,URIBL_SC_SURBL scantime=8.5,size=19328,user=libraifa,uid=32006,required_score=2.5,rhost=localhost,raddr=127.0.0.1,rport=49520,mid=<000601c7e75c$894ed180$0100007f@fpviosw>,bayes=0.726583,autolearn=spam Aug 25 22:11:36 awt spamd[28500]: prefork: child states: II Aug 25 22:16:17 awt spamd[5164]: spamd: connection from localhost [127.0.0.1] at port 50217 Aug 25 22:16:17 awt spamd[5164]: spamd: setuid to sr8 succeeded Aug 25 22:16:17 awt spamd[5164]: spamd: checking message <984907979.55364767348457@utsc.utoronto.ca> for sr8:32004 Aug 25 22:16:26 awt spamd[5164]: spamd: identified spam (12.9/5.0) for sr8:32004 in 9.3 seconds, 9431 bytes. Aug 25 22:16:26 awt spamd[5164]: spamd: result: Y 12 - DATE_IN_FUTURE_03_06,FH_HELO_EQ_D_D_D_D,FUZZY_CREDIT,HELO_DYNAMIC_IPADDR2,HTML_MESSAGE,HTML_OBFUSCATE_10_20,MIME_HTML_ONLY,RCVD_IN_PBL,RDNS_DYNAMIC,TVD_RCVD_IP scantime=9.3,size=9431,user=sr8,uid=32004,required_score=5.0,rhost=localhost,raddr=127.0.0.1,rport=50217,mid=<984907979.55364767348457@utsc.utoronto.ca>,autolearn=spam Aug 25 22:16:26 awt spamd[28500]: prefork: child states: II Aug 25 22:19:29 awt pop3d: LOGIN, user=andrew@myhomeonthe.net, ip=[::ffff:212.159.101.86] Aug 25 22:19:29 awt pop3d: LOGOUT, user=andrew@myhomeonthe.net, ip=[::ffff:212.159.101.86], top=0, retr=0, rcvd=12, sent=39, time=0 Aug 25 22:20:33 awt spamd[5164]: spamd: connection from localhost [127.0.0.1] at port 51016 Aug 25 22:20:33 awt spamd[5164]: spamd: setuid to thegran succeeded Aug 25 22:20:33 awt spamd[5164]: spamd: checking message <21ecc01c7e75d$bbd32420$2f01a8c0@windowsa607f1d> for thegran:32010 Aug 25 22:20:41 awt spamd[5164]: spamd: identified spam (17.5/5.0) for thegran:32010 in 8.1 seconds, 1174 bytes. Aug 25 22:20:41 awt spamd[5164]: spamd: result: Y 17 - BAYES_99,DATE_IN_PAST_06_12,FH_HOST_EQ_VERIZON_P,FORGED_MUA_OUTLOOK,INVALID_MSGID,RCVD_IN_BL_SPAMCOP_NET,RCVD_IN_PBL,RCVD_IN_SORBS_DUL,RCVD_IN_XBL,RDNS_DYNAMIC,STOX_REPLY_TYPE,URIBL_RED,URIBL_RHS_DOB scantime=8.1,size=1174,user=thegran,uid=32010,required_score=5.0,rhost=localhost,raddr=127.0.0.1,rport=51016,mid=<21ecc01c7e75d$bbd32420$2f01a8c0@windowsa607f1d>,bayes=0.999360,autolearn=spam Aug 25 22:20:41 awt spamd[28500]: prefork: child states: II Aug 25 22:26:21 awt spamd[5164]: spamd: connection from localhost [127.0.0.1] at port 51946 Aug 25 22:26:21 awt spamd[5164]: spamd: setuid to gbtravel succeeded Aug 25 22:26:21 awt spamd[5164]: spamd: checking message <264166.236793146.1188032962@ourfirststep.net> for gbtravel:32017 Aug 25 22:26:30 awt spamd[5164]: spamd: identified spam (7.1/5.0) for gbtravel:32017 in 9.2 seconds, 6091 bytes. Aug 25 22:26:30 awt spamd[5164]: spamd: result: Y 7 - AWL,BAYES_50,HTML_IMAGE_RATIO_04,HTML_MESSAGE,HTML_TAG_BALANCE_HEAD,MPART_ALT_DIFF,SPF_PASS,URIBL_BLACK,URIBL_JP_SURBL scantime=9.2,size=6091,user=gbtravel,uid=32017,required_score=5.0,rhost=localhost,raddr=127.0.0.1,rport=51946,mid=<264166.236793146.1188032962@ourfirststep.net>,bayes=0.592462,autolearn=no Aug 25 22:26:30 awt spamd[28500]: prefork: child states: II Aug 25 22:34:09 awt pop3d: LOGIN, user=mike@camberleydrivingschool.co.uk, ip=[::ffff:86.13.153.74] Aug 25 22:34:10 awt pop3d: LOGOUT, user=mike@camberleydrivingschool.co.uk, ip=[::ffff:86.13.153.74], top=0, retr=2252, rcvd=50, sent=2521, time=1 Aug 25 22:51:28 awt spamd[5164]: spamd: connection from localhost [127.0.0.1] at port 55911 Aug 25 22:51:28 awt spamd[5164]: spamd: setuid to libraifa succeeded Aug 25 22:51:28 awt spamd[5164]: spamd: checking message <3235985408.20070825170556@qmuqybrxw> for libraifa:32006 Aug 25 22:51:35 awt spamd[5164]: spamd: identified spam (9.8/2.5) for libraifa:32006 in 7.2 seconds, 836 bytes. Aug 25 22:51:35 awt spamd[5164]: spamd: result: Y 9 - BAYES_99,RDNS_NONE,SPF_HELO_NEUTRAL,SPF_NEUTRAL,URIBL_BLACK,URIBL_JP_SURBL,URIBL_SBL scantime=7.2,size=836,user=libraifa,uid=32006,required_score=2.5,rhost=localhost,raddr=127.0.0.1,rport=55911,mid=<3235985408.20070825170556@qmuqybrxw>,bayes=1.000000,autolearn=no Aug 25 22:51:35 awt spamd[28500]: prefork: child states: II Aug 25 22:54:30 awt spamd[5164]: spamd: connection from localhost [127.0.0.1] at port 56343 Aug 25 22:54:30 awt spamd[5164]: spamd: setuid to sr8 succeeded Aug 25 22:54:30 awt spamd[5164]: spamd: checking message <8678967196.190217665470@yahoo.com> for sr8:32004 Aug 25 22:54:37 awt spamd[5164]: spamd: identified spam (14.0/5.0) for sr8:32004 in 6.9 seconds, 847 bytes. Aug 25 22:54:37 awt spamd[5164]: spamd: result: Y 14 - FORGED_YAHOO_RCVD,RCVD_IN_PBL,RCVD_IN_SORBS_WEB,RCVD_IN_XBL,RDNS_NONE,REPTO_QUOTE_YAHOO,URIBL_BLACK,URIBL_JP_SURBL,URIBL_SBL scantime=6.9,size=847,user=sr8,uid=32004,required_score=5.0,rhost=localhost,raddr=127.0.0.1,rport=56343,mid=<8678967196.190217665470@yahoo.com>,autolearn=spam Aug 25 22:54:37 awt spamd[28500]: prefork: child states: II Aug 25 22:57:06 awt spamd[5164]: spamd: connection from localhost [127.0.0.1] at port 56732 Aug 25 22:57:06 awt spamd[5164]: spamd: setuid to thegran succeeded Aug 25 22:57:06 awt spamd[5164]: spamd: checking message <1IP4?n-000NOC-YL@pool-72-82-6-40.prvdri.east.verizon.net> for thegran:32010 Aug 25 22:57:14 awt spamd[5164]: spamd: identified spam (13.8/5.0) for thegran:32010 in 8.3 seconds, 1185 bytes.
I have been hosting (reseller account) with HostGator for about 1-2 years now. While I have had no problems with any of my own personal domains, some of my clients for whom I provide hosting are reporting email problems.
One client is a company that hosts about 15 email addresses on the server. They have complained that they don't receive all their emails. People tell them how they sent them a message, yet they never received it. The problem isn't consistent. Also, not all messages they send are being received. After much fussing with this, and looking into every possible solution, we came to learn this scenario:
- Someuser@hotmail.com sends an email to johndoe@mycompany.com
- Hotmail looks for an MX record for mycompany.com and finds it’s IP to be 10.10.10.1
- The Hotmail server contacts 10.10.10.1 and delivers the message
- John Doe receives the email fine
- John Doe then replies to the email back to someuser@hotmail.com
- Mail server at mycompany.com looks for an MX record for hotmail.com, finds the IP, and delivers the message to it
- Hotmail, because it does spam checking, uses reverse lookups as one of it’s spam checks. It takes the IP that sent it the message, 10.10.10.1, and looks for a PTR record. It finds one and it maches ‘astra.websitewelcome.com’ instead of ‘mycompany.com’. As a result, the spam check fails and the message is dropped
- Some User never receives John Doe’s response
I asked HostGator about this.
HostGators response: "Unfortunately that IP a ddress is a shared IP address and so you will run into issues such as this, however, we have quite a number of other accounts that use this sort of setup without any issue and are able to send to Hotmail. *Another issue would be that ultimately the IP address that is sending a the message to them would not be from the server that you are on, but on one of our gateway systems, however, this should be overcome with the SPF record that you have in place."
Since then, another one of my clients (this time a Hotel that needs to receive it's reservation requests) is beginning to report the same problem. Some (not all) emails just don't make it to the inbox. Customers call and report that they had sent an email; but said email was never received in the first place.
I have again consulted with HostGator who have not been able to help because they don't see any of said emails on server, so what can they do? Nothing, I guess.
So what can I do about this. Do I need to switch to another host? Do you know of any hosts with whom I can be sure not to have this problem?
In looking at new webhosts, I have begun to consider VPS options. However, I am afraid that if I get a VPS server I will have to configure all of these MX Records, PTR Records, SPF records, and so on. I don't want to have to deal with all of these technical details. I am a website developer who sometimes provides hosting. I don't have time to learn the ins and outs of hosting and email server configuration.
I recently decided to upgrade to a VPS from shared hosting. I have decided to give VPSLand a shot, even though I am a little skeptical after reading a few negative reviews.
I will be providing an in-depth ongoing analysis of my experiences with them for the benefit of the WebHostingTalk community.
I signed up for the "Windows-EZ VPS Value" package. RAM: 768MB (a great vlaue) HDD: 8GB Transfer: 300 GB Price: $29/month ( with 50% off first month coupon my total was $14.50 )
After completing the sign-up process, I checked my email and noticed I had received 6 automated e-mails from them during the process
The order was placed at 9:46am. They e-mailed me that my VPS was created at 10:10am (nice) The followup e-mail with my server information arrived at 10:20am. For a total of 34 minutes from sign-up to server access. So far I am very happy.
I stumbled on a webhost today. icdsoft.com. Looks like a solid host. They do not have phone support, which left me hesitant. A newbie without phone support. OH MY GOD! I tested them and asked few questions via e-mail. My questions were answered in 10 minutes! Reviews are nothing but favorable, and they have been around for over 3 years.
They are also very reasonable (under $10, 1GB disk space, 20GB bandwidth). One note they do not supprt ASP or JSP.
07.10.2009 - 13.37 i need additional 2 IP address please.
07.10.2009 - 14.25 (Server.Lu Response) For what do you need them ?
07.10.2009 - 14.44 2 sites with SSL support.
07.10.2009 - 16.39 you there ?
07.10.2009 - 17.11 (Server.Lu Response) Hello, i will create an invoice for these 2 IP's. These will cost you 10€ setup and 2€ per month each. Please confirm so we can create the invoice. Best regards
07.10.2009 - 17.37 ok, its fine
07.10.2009 - 19.23 can i have the ips today ? ...
08.10.2009 - 00.44 Im not interested in the IPS, this take too long for a simple 2 IP request, thanks, and the server is DOWN ...
08.10.2009 - 00.10 My Server is dead, no reboot no rescue console works
08.10.2009 - 00.13 (Server.Lu Response) We are looking after this. This is not a server issue, but we see alarms on that particular cisco switch serving your box.
08.10.2009 - 00.27 whats going on ?
08.10.2009 - 02.02 this is awesome, server not respond, do you say its some issues related with 'Cisco Switch' and no one can say anything more, i dont interested in your services, please give me a refund, your company is caothic
08.10.2009 - 09.55 (Server.Lu Response) Hello, your server is running again. There will be no refund. Please remind that you opened a ticket at night so respond times are higher than during the day.
when i was able to acces the server after 11 hours i did single "uptime" , uptime 55 minutes, well they lied about the cisco switch or i dont know, but the NEW server without any use was started their first problems.
They refuse to do a refund because they not offer any Refund Policy and they dont offer any Support or any other guarantee, just their Network Uptime.
I looking to find a way to get my money back, because i dont want to be in a company who cant handle fine the products they sell.
They refuse to do a refund and well im working with paypal to do a clamin in the EU with Root S.A.
For the time I had their services, I was very pleased. Every time I had a slight problem with my services, they were ontop of it. I'm proud to be a customer of Server Hostage, and if I still decided to keep my website, I'd continue to use them. My forum is/was MyBB and when I needed my modifications and themes installed, they handled it within minutes. This is definitely getting what you pay for. The other thing I loved about Server Hostage, was its uptime. My site was never down, and I think that's hard to come by. Thank you Server Hostage. My site is under ground wrestling . net with out the spaces.
I recently was looking for a good place to colocation some servers and new clients! Bought a P4 from "JSCL" and the story starts out like this....
Jason and I had talked (yes he and me are two different people) on AIM for about 1 hour and then I decided Jason had the right DC for me and my clients!
So far each question I've had about network, price, data, etc has been fulfilled within 12 hours or less! The day I had my P4 colocated it took a few days because they had a mass order so that time took a little bit but it was quick, faster then what I had expected though!
Jason has given me the best prices for colocation! Now I can offer my clients the best services on the net, I truly do not think there is a cheaper spot that fits my needs!
WOW When I started to play on the server I thought it was a quad core because the network is so DARN FAST! I truly am happy that I had found Jason when I did! I have already managed to have a few people talking to me about getting colocation with me!
It was quite funny because I was nagging at him for a while and I felt really bad because he should be sick of me but ya know he wasn't! Best darn support I have ever seen!
This is only a week review I'll review more after one full month!
They make me wait no more than 15 minutes for support responses and I have experienced no downtime whilst being with them. Why does everything have to be so good?
Now, being serious about it:
I ordered my VPS with them two months ago because I wanted to cut down on the amount of servers that I leased. The deployment was completed within about 8 hours, had to wait for good old Otto to be deployed onto the world wide web.
I submitted some issues regarding a bit of drag in the network, slow response times etc and they responded promptly explaining the current packet loss issues with Limestone and all seemed to be resolved within an hour or so.
The ONLY issue I had is that their WHMCS, which might I say is nicely designed right now, forgot to invoice me! Other than that, superb experience all round!
When we first got our server (named Angelina) from Burst we were very happy with the server and managed service. However, for the last few weeks we have been experiencing downtime almost daily and sometimes twice daily. Now it has become daily and for hours at a time.
There reason is another server was flooded and was causing the others on the same block to fail. Seems reasonable enough and everyone makes mistakes and has problems. But almost every day for a few weeks now and still no permanent fix?
Our clients are threatening to leave us and we are losing money because of this. I've lost sleep debating whether to post this or not. Since we know that we will not be reimbursed for our losses we hope to prevent others from falling into the same trap.
We are currently looking for a new server/datacenter to more all of our clients from that server. We actually tried to purchase another server from them awhile back but was told they we could not keep up with orders. I'm glad we didn't get it. We cannot continue to let our clients experience this.
I ordered a vps from servercomplete 2 months ago and it is great..Top Speed, Awesome Network and Great Customer Support ..Just ordered another vps from ServerComplete.The VPS performance has been excellent.Server loads are always low.It’s always responsive and has had excellent uptime.
Communication: 10/10 Support: 10/10 Server performance: 10/10 Uptime: 10/10 - Overall Rating 10/10. I'm very impressed with the service I've received. The owner Daniel is a great guy who always seems to be improving things for us somewhere and is amazingly down-to-earth.My order was flagged by maxmind.He approved my order manually.I hope this post will help for all of you guys who are planning to change your vps providers or buy new vps.I highly recommend them.
I've been with serverpoint.com for over a year now and my experience has been overwhelmingly positive. Last year I negotiated an excellent price for a dedicated box with serverpoint via PM. They delivered my server promptly and even upgraded my CPU since they were out of stock on the one I had ordered. The few times I’ve had to call support (due to issues on my end) they’ve been prompt and professional.
My only real complaint is I can’t setup automatic bill pay online. They want my to send a photocopy of my CC and a photo ID, which I’m leery of.
I suppose this is a boring review, but in and ideal world isn’t that the way it should be? Who wants a lot of drama with a host provider?
I am aware of the horror stories and pretty much 99% negative rating for 1&1 on this forum – where its related to lack of high level support I agree most other relating to billing I believe the majority is user error (aka incompetence).
With that disclaimer out of the way here is my review
Currently 6 dedicated servers with 1&1 for 1 year now
Downtime in 1 yr due to 1&1 network (less then 1 hr – 0 downtime in last 6 months+) – not sure there is an ISP on this entire board that could claim/match that
Support – have used on occasion and yes it is horrible and virtually non-existent. My theory has always been that in a critical/helpless situation support will cost me $99 which is the setup fee for a new server with them and I will use current backup to restore failed server. In this 1 yr and across 6 dedicated servers (all windows server 2003) I have had one such critical – machine down situation that appeared to be hardware/OS related. Well it was about 5AM in the morning and I panicked and thought OK here we go I am going to be paid back for all this time putting my trust in 1&1 (this occurred about 1 month ago). I thought OK let me at least give support a try (I had not spoken to them in months) – I checked and found out they had a new number so I though OK new number maybe there is a glimmer of hope. Called it spoke to Philippines, calmly explained the server down situation – they verified it and said it would be sent to data center and I would here back via email – not real comforting but I decided to at least breathe easy for an hour or so. Within 15 mins I noticed via my serial connection (an awesome 1&1 feature) that someone was on my server and attempting a rescue image restore, I was kind of stunned with the response time so just waited and monitored it.
Cut to the chase within 1 hour my server was back online no lost data OS running fine and I was informed via email all was restored, no explanation but hey this is 1&1 how much do you expect. I have since called on another non-critical issue and noticed I got right through to a semi-high level technician in USA so maybe just maybe things are turning the corner in this regard.
1&1 PROs after 1 yr experience
-Features/power available in 1&1 control panel – yes I know most hate it and its not the most intuitive but once you find your way around boy does it have some power not the least of which is the immediate hardware reboot option not only to a normal reboot but to a rescue image if needed. This has been a life saver for me countless times. -Direct serial access to server at all times – once again extremely powerful and allows to you run fully interactive disc check, metadata defrags and more during boot sequence as you have serial access to machine via telnet right from power on sequence.
-Full ftp backup included that is on their lightning fast network
-Full server reimage capabilities
-Full featured firewall configurable from control panel- we’ve never had any ddos attacks others constantly get hit with.
-Full RAID configured dual drive on all machines
-Bullet proof fast network
1&1 CONs after 1 yr experience
-The aforementioned support experience is always a nerve racking experience but so far I’ve been fortunate.
-Lack of ability to upgrade the server components (not a biggie as you can move to a new server if you want to upgrade but would be nice)
That’s it a real review from a 1&1 dedicated server customer, suffice to say I am a competent server/network professional so know how to configure a server correctly so have not needed 1&1 in this regard. I merely need them to maintain the network and hardware integrity nothing more nothing less and that is what they have done for me to this point.
Frankly, I follow this forum almost daily and covet being a Hivelocity customer as in my assessment of the feedback on here they have outstanding customer support and certainly light years better and more professional then I have now but if I had of been a customer of them for last year I would have –
-Paid a lot more per server and still not got some of the features I have standard now (direct serial access, default raid, free ftp backup, immediate reboot and re-imaging power)
-Had considerably more downtime (Freaks me out that they do not operate fully all their data centers and are at the mercy of Sago Networks and their relentless power outages which will always be the case in Florida)
-Slept uneasy every night during the summer whenever a hurricane came within 1000 miles of Florida
how's this desktop server looking? Do you think it can handle Windows 2003 Small business server and is there any restriction on how many websites you can host with Windows 2003 small business server?
this is my first time building a server for colo so far i have gather info from this board on the motherboard and the rest are picked by myself.
i want to colo with colo4dallas. is there any other place better than colo4dallas?
I had posted the review a week back but for some reason everything went bazook with WHT.
I lost all my posts but am making an attempt to write the review again of my exp with HG.
Well, I had been with these guys for close to 14 months. I never knew there was bright world beyond HG for dedicated server untill I came to WHT. I had taken a xeon 2.4 with 2 gb ram for $219 everything was fine untill the server started giving me problems off late. It was supposed to be a managed server but these guys had just no clue whatso ever on any kinda problem. The took like close to 12 hours just to figure out the problem which was an issue with fan.
Imagine they were putting the blame game on me till they figured out it was a problem with the hardware(fan). When I went to claim refund for meeting the SLA, they told me that it was my fault and the onus was on me to ensure the server is up and running. WTF? How do you expect me find and why do you think I took managed service if the onus was on me to make sure the server is up and running.
That wasn't the end of my horror story. I don't remember the number of times I had to suffer with restarting the Apache / Mysql and downtime and when I did goto them, they said my RAM usage is too much. Hmmm when I further digged out and I felt cheated when I found out that they gave me a cheap DDR-200 MHZ RAM which is way outdated technology. I was like WTF? All those problems were because of that Cheap DDR-200 MHZ RAM for which they were charging me a bomb.
Imagine they gave me a trash Hardware and charging me a bomb for that crap and they kept blaming me for it.
I scrapped my Xeon 2.8 to Q9550 for a bit more but it was worth it.
SO the last few months I been trying like crazy to tweak Apache or find a better http setup such as running lighttpd with Apache, etc. I have been frustrated by the way Apache easily fork bombs under any decent load or dos attack. You get about 100 bots all making 30+ connections a piece on Apache and it kills it.
Bot kids have adapted to ddos protection and connection flooding banning by sending low bandwidth attacks that do not make enough connections to get banned if you do have protection, its real low bandwidth incoming but is like a massive vampire attack outgoing. And it destroys Apache no matter what you do, what modules you have, etc. You basically have to go in and manually ban or set your connection tracking limit down to where it starts banning regular users too.
So I seen on here somewhere someone recommending litespeed to someone so I went and checked it out and was amazed by the performance. I installed the trial enterprise in a p4 server I been having problems out of lately crashing all because a busy site and I installed it in my main server.
The only thing I needed to do was compile my own php5 for it, which is real easy via their wiki instruction. After a few snags here in there I finally got it working tip top on both servers, both of which are cpanel.
So with the p4 that was always crashing and keeping hi load, We would end up having to remote reboot that box almost once a week not due to any misconfiguration or wrong setup, just couldnt take all that Apache usage and would die. We instantly noticed a difference with litespeed. The average load used to be about 1-2 always, with litespeed the average stayed about ..2 even under heavy traffic. So this was a big improvement and we have not had to reboot that box since.
My main server which I take my high risk clients on, core2duo 2.4. I thought there for a Lil bit the sites were starting to outgrow the server as its average load always was around 1 which was fairly acceptable seeing the traffic it gets so normal for Apache.
During the low bandwidth ddos attacks I would have to go in and manually ban as well as setting connection limit way down just to keep it from lagging, most of the time it still did. So I was really wanting to do something for this server to optimize http without upgrading, because it seems most of your hardware upgrades are to suit Apache anyway.
So I installed litespeed on my main server, ran into a few snags here and there but eventually got it under control. Just the last few days I got to see it put to the test.
I took on a client who was being extorted by a ddoser who recently got him kicked off his previous host. SO as soon as dns resolves here comes the crapstorm. A low bandwidth http attack, a lot got by ddos firewall on the network level which these are hard to stop because they are so similar to a legit user.
So I started getting hundreds of csf connection tracking blocked emails, was checking the site periodically and it loaded fine. So I logged in the box, looked at the load.
Was at .24. When I done netstat command there was hundreds of syns coming in and about 250 ips all connected about 50 times, this would normally kill Apache no matter what CPU/ram and all that you have. So I set connection tracking down to a reasonable level, 60 connections and I figured I would just let them get themselves banned. Looking in the live stats in the litespeed admin panel which is real cool BTW. I was seeing about 400 requests a second. This was eating a Lil bandwidth, all outgoing as that is how the attack works like a massive vamp attack. So about 2000 connection tracking emails later finally gets em all banned. The entire time the load on that box never even got to 1!
So im pretty much amazed how fast and light this http server is. And especially how well it handles dos. I about know for a fact even if you was on a non protected network it could handle as much http as your pipe will give it, and do all this at a low resource load.
This will end up saving me money on hardware upgrades in the future as well. Long review, long story, but I been so amazed by this http server I had to make a review on it. Im sure some geniouses will try to say "If you do this and that with apache you can make it just as good" But check it out for yourselves and see.
Since ditching the sinking boat known as the USS Hostchum, I found AquariusStorage. Initially I wasn't all that interested in their service as the VPS offerings were something new that Aquarius was doing and I had no clue as to how overloaded their servers were (OpenVZ based). After having the a4 package (1GB dedicated RAM, 1.2GB burst) for a few weeks now, I forget that I'm even on a VPS!
Ryan has been there for everything, even the small issues that he had no reason to help me fix (unmanaged). From my initial live chat with him, he never lied about any of the specs and went as far as telling me that they had *just* opened up their VPS offerings. Have read plenty of positive things about AS's shared/resellering services and thought meh, lets give them a try. No matter what I throw at the VPS, it handles it as if its a bug hitting the windshield of my rocket.
Support: 10/10, replies were within 30 minutes, if there wasn't a reply then the issue was already fixed. Had a DDoS on the node I was on around midnight, Ryan was up and on the issue before I even got a ticket in to him (I was up late working on the VPS and noticied probably within a minute of the DDoS happening).
Uptime: To date, 100% uptime of the node (with the exception of the DDoS, which was dealt with within 20 minutes).
Performance: WOW! Ryan and the guys at Aquarius sure know how to build a VPS node! Nothing but praise for the service I'm getting. Fairly certain they aren't overloading their nodes either as they have had plenty of time to pack my node to the fullest since I've had service with them, and it still performs just as it did when I bought it, heck its better! Orignal unixbench results were in the 220's, one I ran this morning reported 370
Overall: Ryan knows his stuff and the support is above excellent. If you're looking for a professional host, look no further! Personally, I'll be upgrading to the a6 package as soon as I have a need.
can i get some review on www.leaseweb.com and can i host such website on there server please go to www.rapidshare-search-engine.com to see what kind of search engine i have
6 ) beeing d*cks *Why This Review* Originally the intention was to forget as soon as possible about what happened in the past three months and to move on with our new isp. To our regret, Leaseweb has besides the overall lack of service in the past months found it neccessary to kill our network connection without notice a day prior to the ending of our contract. Eventhough the impact is minimal, this gesture speaks for itself. *Ordering a Server*
Having been a leaseweb customer directly and indirectly for several years in theyre budget segment we to be fairly honnest have rarely had any trouble ordering, nor have we had any trouble with the delivery of the purchased servers.
We experienced differently when ordering the following :
Dell Poweredge 1950 2x Quad Core Xeon L5320 16 GB DDR2 4 x 300GB SAS raid 1+0 IP KVM card 1 x 100Mbps Full-Duplex 10 Mbps (95%) bandwith SLA : Best Effort OS : Debian Ordered 09/30/2008 - payment sent immediatly
Wanted to let you all know that I am very pleased with service I am receiving from Byethost! Many people think of Byet as just a free hosting and paid shared hosting company, but for awhile now I've been leasing a server and management service from them for io3.us and io4.us. I must say I have been very impressed!
I've received lots of personal attention and consulting to help me determine my needs, and also to make sure I end up with the best solution. Byethost has been very flexible in their solutions for me, and I have really appreciated all they've done!
I recently had to upgrade from a VPS to a full dedicated server, and once again Byethost was there to help every step of the way. The upgrade was literally totally seamless.
They ordered the server, configured it, moved everything over, verified everything with me. Nothing was down, not even for a few seconds. Byethost handled it all, and I didn't have to do a thing! That's what I call service. (Plus, from the time I ordered until the time everything was moved from the VPS to the dedicated server and running fine was less than 2 days!)
Previously, I've said HostGator was my number 1 pick for dedicated servers, but I have to change that now. If you're looking for a dedicated server (with or without management servers), I strongly recommend Byethost.com. You will be doing yourself a huge favor, saving a tremendous amount of hassle by choosing Byethost.
I now have a dedicated server and 10 Mbps dedicated line from them, and I couldn't be happier!
