Review: Corenetworks.net -- Super Cheap Dedicated Servers

I thought I would write a quick review of Corenetworks.net!

I've had a server at Core networks for about a year now, and have worked with support as well as billing.

Support
Lets start off with the most important thing, support. I am not one to need hand-holding from support, but every once and a while I need things like IP-KVM access, hardware upgrades, hardware replacements, etc. I've put in four requests for IP-KVM access via their ticketing system since I started hosting there, and each request was fulfilled within 30 minutes. I have to admit that 30 minutes is impressive for a dedicated hosting company. It must be remembered that they are unmanaged hosting, and managed hosting services cost extra. I find this scenario fits most technical people well because more resources are put into *real* requests such as hardware, kvm, etc instead of resources being used for hand-holding (i lost my root password, my apache process is not starting, etc)

Hardware
The price compared to the hardware you get is exceptional. A lot of hosting company's out there will push overused hardware on you. (some larger companies reuse hard drives over and over, check the smart drive lifetime with smartctl) The hard drive I was provided had a usage time of 3 months. That is VERY good compared to the average active drive life time at other hosting providers of 2-4 years. The hardware has been reliable and fault free (i have 2 machines now with no problems)

Uptime
This is the greatest part, every other budge dedicated hosting provider i've been with has had horrible power (sometimes reboots every few days, and the occasional downtime of a few hours) I have not had a single power outage or reboot since I first started at core networks! One of my severs has an uptime of 355 Days.

Network
The network is not blazing fast... with the package I got. I decided on the metered 3Mb connection (no extra cost) There is also an unmetered connection with a bandwidth limit, if anyone can chime in on this it would be great . I do know that I have always had a 3Mb full pipe on this plan (up and down) which is more then enough for my hosting purposes.

Features
Core networks has all of the features of the big-boys: Remote power management, bandwidth mrtg graphs, network status page, Free IP-KVM, etc.

Cost
The company does utilize it's cheaper servers as a bargaining tool for sales. It seems they unleash their $24/mo servers for a week or two to drive sales and then mark them as sold out. Currently I have the $49/mo servers (with a bit extra oomph) and I am ecstatic with the price. If you can catch the $24/mo servers, get them when you see'em!


Overall
Overall I would recommend corenetworks.net to anyone who is seeking a quality server for personal use or small business use. I am not sure how the service would meet enterprise level businesses, but they do have more expensive plans and I see no reason those would suck.

"Offical, im a reviewr score": 9 out of 10'