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Decent Co-Location or Virtual Server Hosting?

Posted by Cliff on Thu Apr 05, 2007 07:15 AM
from the assure-your-place-on-the-internet dept.
Networking The Internet
gclef writes "Speakeasy announced recently that they're being bought by Best Buy. Despite all the promises to the contrary, I suspect my ability to host servers in my home is going away soon. Does anyone have hints as to where I can get a reasonable co-lo space or virtual hosting? I don't want to outsource the management of my domains entirely, nor will 'webhosting' be good enough, since I like having control of my own stuff (and like running my own DNS, IMAPS, and other assorted network services). Is there some place that will give me a blank box with an unfiltered connection to the net?"
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[+] Technology: Best Buy Acquires SpeakEasy 285 comments
spazimodo writes "From the announcement e-mail from Speakeasy CEO Bruce Chatterley: 'I am pleased to announce that Speakeasy has been acquired by Best Buy, an innovative and growing Fortune 100 company and the top consumer electronics retailer in North America. This is a significant milestone for our company as our new relationship will help us realize our goals of becoming the No. 1 provider of voice and data solutions to small businesses. It is important to note that though Speakeasy will now be a wholly owned subsidiary of Best Buy, we will continue to operate as a standalone, independent operating division with headquarters in Seattle.' As a longtime Speakeasy customer, it's too bad to see their business moving in this direction. Back in the day when I called up their support with a problem, and mentioned I was using an OpenBSD box as a firewall/gateway the response was: 'cool!' — slightly different from the response Comcast or Verizon would give. I can't imagine they'll be able to maintain that independence, and there's no way I'm paying a premium for Internet service to Best Buy."
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  • How much are you willing to pay?

    A lot of places are running "Specials" right now, giving you a relatively decent piece of iron but very little bandwidth for ~$100/mo

    Other places give you less impressive hardware but more bandwidth for about the same price.

    I personally host with Cyberwurx [cyberwurx.com], a p4 3.0, 512mb ram, 80gb hd and 500gb bandwidth for $95/mo, and they'll install your choice of Linux on it, or even boot you into a gentoo live cd so you can roll your own.

    If you go that route, put "vanamar" in your referral code!
    • Bytemark [bytemark.co.uk] - UK based, decent service, VMs and Dedicated hosts... really well supported. Been using them for two years.
      • I use Pagesgarden and have had awesome luck with them. May be too managed for Topic Starter's wants, but they do not shut down sites based on silly C&D letters (site in sig).
        My plan is $125/year for 1 gig disk and 24 gig bandwith/month. You can buy more of either as needed, host 5 domains and up to 50 subdomains, again buying more if needed.
        -nB

  • EV1Servers.Net (Score:3, Informative)

    by JLester (9518) on Thursday April 05 2007, @07:23AM (#18618841)
    EV1Servers has done a good job on mine so far. They have lots of options available depending on how much storage space, bandwidth, etc. that you need. You have full root control over your server. They recently merged with ThePlanet, but it does not seem to have affected anything.

    Jason

    • Re:EV1Servers.Net (Score:5, Informative)

      by walt-sjc (145127) on Thursday April 05 2007, @08:12AM (#18619261)
      Yeah, but didn't ev1 buy a license from SCO, basically helping to fund SCO's assault against Linux? Then after the fact (due to customer / industry reaction) decided that they made a bad move? I'm still waiting for them to do the right thing and sue SCO for fraud (selling a license for IP they didn't own.)
  • waveform.net [waveform.net]

    When I was recently looking, I found these guys and discovered that they are in my back yard (Troy, Michigan).

    $50/month to colo 1U (or a mid tower) and that includes 1000GB of transfer. If you are going to be using more than that, then you might want to look further into the unit cost per GB.
    • If it isn't mission critical stuff, Waveform is good. I have a server over there and have been reasonably pleased. However, on two occasions where I had to call support, they took a few hours -- during normal business hours -- to get hands-on.

      They do offer dial-in backup lines, so if things are critical I suggest sticking a modem in your server and having them plug into a POTS line. Then configure your server for providing a terminal on serial via the modem.

      I'm not sure if they offer remote reboot. I ne

  • Personal Colo (Score:5, Informative)

    by miller60 (554835) on Thursday April 05 2007, @07:25AM (#18618861) Homepage
    Paul Vixie maintains a directory of services providing personal colo [vix.com] for power users. You might find something there to fit your needs.
    • I have points at the moment but you've already been modded to 5, so I'm just going to take a moment to thank you. That reference is incredibly on-point in my life at the moment and it is, by far, the most informative and useful thing I've ever seen on the subject.

      I can't thank you enough. Bless you.
  • I'd recommend reading a site like http://www.webhostingtalk.com/ [webhostingtalk.com] since it has forums dedicated to this kind of question.

    Or you could just google for "vps hosting" or "dedicated hosting" and start working through the plethora of results
  • VPSLand [vpsland.com] will give you a VPS Linux Box (w/Debian! or something else if you're inclined) or a windows box for fairly cheap. I used mine for a number of things that SBC or AT&T or whatever they are this month won't let me do. Their terms say that you can do anything but run IRC.
    • Why no IRC? It seems interesting that IRC would be the only thing they would disallow. Is there something about the traffic patterns or legality of IRC that would make it a problem? What about a server that does the same function, but isn't specifically IRC?

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by amorsen (7485)
        Why no IRC? It seems interesting that IRC would be the only thing they would disallow. Is there something about the traffic patterns or legality of IRC that would make it a problem? What about a server that does the same function, but isn't specifically IRC?

        IRC servers attract DOS attacks. It's better or worse depending on which particular IRC network they connect to, but it's no wonder that the providers find it easier to just blanket ban IRC.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by mikkelm (1000451)
        IRC is a magnet for DoS. Even smaller networks frequently get hammered by random people for various reasons.

        Another reason is covering their asses legally. If you have someone hosting an IRC server in your facility and a botmaster decides to stop by on that network and herd his zombies from from there, there are pretty much no limits to what a law enforcement agency could take from the facility. Sad but true.
        • Couldn't covering their asses be a problem no matter what type of servers you run? What if you run an FTP Server, Or Bittorrent tracker? There could very well be pirated software on there. I don't think the police are extremely specific as to what boxes get taken as evidence when they're trying to bring one of these sites down. Even worse than IRC could be things like News servers, which contain all kinds of illegal materials. It probably is a situation to do with DOS attacks. You and another poster me
      • A couple people have already said it, but I'll say it again. DoS.

        IRC kids can play very nicely sometimes. When they play rough, they don't hold back on anything. Think netsplit.

        We had some IRC junkies at one place I worked. I was impressed with what the other kids would accomplish. They'd take advantage of any remote exploits they could, just to knock someone they didn't like (for whatever reason) off. Then there's the battles over control of a channel. Read up on "net

  • Linode.com (Score:4, Informative)

    by Smitty825 (114634) on Thursday April 05 2007, @07:42AM (#18619013) Homepage Journal
    I'm personally really happy with my Linode [linode.com] For $20/month, I get a UML-based system with 256MB of Ram and a bunch of hard drive space. Granted, it can be a bit slow at times, especially if other users are heavily using your node at the same time. It's perfect for Web/Mail hosting, plus you do have root access, so you can get it to do whatever you want!
    • About VPSs, I use Rosehosting.com [rosehosting.com], and I'm very happy with their service. If you find their google ad, you'll get the monthly fee down to $20. Performance has been fairly good so far.
    • One more happy Linode user. I have the smallest plan available, and in the 2 years I've had it they've upped my memory by 50% and given me 25% more disk space.
    • I'm personally really happy with my Linode.

      I'm yet another happy Linode user. I have two: one for personal use and one that I administrate for my employer.

      I was a Speakeasy subscriber as well, hosting my personal mail server at home. But, when I switched to Verizon FIOS, the additional cost for "business" service (static IP and no port 80/25 blocking) was significant, and I could rent a decent-sized Linode for less.

      I'm actually happier with the off-site hosting, as it's more reliable. And, Linode'

  • They were perfect since 2003, without a glitch. They merged with ev1servers, some support latency problems issued. but it appears that they are fixing these matters. reliable - www.theplanet.com
  • There's lots of hosting providers and I actually work for one. We provide managed servers, unmanaged servers, VPS, and colo services, send me a message if you need more details.

  • For the important stuff, I use Rackspace [rackspace.com]. Starts at about $300/month for a decently-specced linux/freebsd box. Network, reliability, and support are top-notch. In the case of major problems like hard drive failures (which are going to happen eventually when you have enough boxes for enough time), they have been incredibly responsive and done everything I could have hoped for in order to get me back up and running ASAP.

    For everything else, I use 1and1 [1and1.com]. Starts at about $100/month for a decent linux/freebsd

  • I use RimuHosting [rimuhosting.com]. They are a bit pricey, but they have been unbelievably reliable and their support is actually competent, quick and knowledgeable.
    • I have used a Rimuhosting VPS for my personal server for over 3 years now, and I've been very happy with the reliability and performance I've gotten (and that was even before they switched to Xen, after the switch performance got even better!)

      I have not used the support staff much, but the few times I've interacted with them they've been knowledgeable and always get stuff done quickly.
  • I have been using PowerVPS [powervps.com] for close to two years. In that time, I have not had a price increase, but the specs of my server have gone up. Last year, the hardware node I was on had some stability issues where it would crash every few days. Rather than leave customers on an unstable box, they moved us to a new server with only a few minutes of downtime. When I decided to switch from Fedora as my OS to CentOS, they built a new VPS for me and gave me a week to move. Their Tech Support has been very helpful. Wh
    • I'll second PowerVPS. Been going strong for a year and a half. Oddly, I was part of the Hardware node issue as well and was taken care of without even complaining. Support is usually on top of any questions I have within an hour or two and they're willing to poke around your box to fix weird issues that come about.
    • Third. Of all the companies that I've used over the years to host various services, PowerVPS is the only one that has been both cheap and reliable. I'm currently running several ASP.NET sites from one of their VPS servers. My only complaint is that (at least when I looked) you can't order more RAM. You have to change plans to get a given amount.

      For what I pay, however, having my own server is nice.
  • Honestly? Think about it; Speakeasy made their market and sold their services based upon their "geek friendly" attitude. Now, I know that Best Buy really screwed up Geek Squad... but first of all that was a different business model, and secondly Best Buy are AWARE of how badly they screwed it up and I doubt they want to do it again any time soon. Of course, I get a lot of my business as an independent consultant from small businesses who tried Geek Squad and need someone to clean up the mess, so I'm a littl
  • I've had some dedicated servers with Cari.net [cari.net] for about two years now. While I think some of their setup fees are a little excessive for new hardware (it's reasonable for the initial server setup), their monthly costs are reasonable ($60-$100/month for most machines, though they have other options after that), they have pretty decent support, and they'll install any OS you want for a bit extra in the initial setup cost. After just checking their site, it seems if you'd rather pay more monthly in lieu of s

  • They're great. They offer the choice of Linux VMs with RedHat or Debian, or FreeBSD VMs. They also support the open source tools that run their stuff by giving discounts to contributors.

    Even through I am no longer with them (decided I didn't need a full VHost anymore so I am just with dreamhost.com) I highly recommend them.

    http://www.johncompanies.com [johncompanies.com]

    • I found their virtual server platform a bit unstable (unplanned outages happened every 2-3 weeks while I was a customer) and there were tons of changes to /etc files I would have to make..

      Frankly, in a virtual host, I want to set it and forget it, except for security patches. If I have to update config files 2x a week because you're continuously tweaking the system, that's annoying.

      Plus, if they're still charging $75/mo for a Redhat vserver, that's a bit rich.
  • I've been using Colo4Jax [colo4jax.com], a Jacksonville, Fla. company run by guys who really know what they're doing. I'm using a $30/mo Ubuntu VPS, but they have dedicated hosting as well as a $20/mo CentOS VPS package. I couldn't be happier with the service. I've also almost zero downtime, and when I've noticed that it was down, one email and about a half-an-hour was all it took to get it back up. Read the blurb on its home page, and I'm sure you'll be delighted.
  • If you're looking for servers in the NY Metro area I'd recommend www.voxel.net. I've been with Voxel for a few years now, and the experience has been nothing short of stellar. With regard to colocation, they recently opened up another NYC facility just for colocation, and it's sitting on their 10Gbit fiber ring. They don't really have pricing on the site other than their wholesale stuff, but I called and a quick quote yesterday for a half rack and a full rack with 10 amps of power and 10Mbit that was *re
  • Are you looking for something local or do you plan to mail your servers out?

    Fuss & O'Neil Technologies [offsitenow.com] is a good service in CT.

  • Eapps.com [eapps.com] has plans starting at $10 USD a month. What you get is a VPS, with CentOS as the OS. You have root access, and so have full control. They are pretty quick on the Customer Service side, but its rare that you need Customer Service.
  • I'm with GrokThis.net which offers dedicated, colo, and (xen) vps hosting. We also have a no-frills VPS brand, VPS Village. VPS Village offers accounts starting from $5/mo. Prices for a VPS from GrokThis start from $20/mo.

    The difference is that VPS Village lacks the RAID and backups that provides the reliability and assurance that GrokThis.net customers enjoy. GrokThis.net's VPS plans also provide optionally-hosted DNS and email services, useful for customers simply looking to manage their web services.

  • My company does that - Mi-Connect.com [mi-connect.com] - cheap colocation with good service. $49.95 a month with a 400 gig a month transfer limit for a 1u. $89.95 a month for a 4u. I can also do a dedicated server (my equipment, your control) starting at $89.95 a month. And no, I don't do "VSP" type hosting - too much potential for performance hits by having a single "host" getting popular.

    My connectivity is good: 1 gig to level-3, OC-12 (620 meg) to Saavis and OC-3 (155 meg) to UUNet.

  • http://www.layeredtech.com/ [layeredtech.com]

    Rock solid for me. I've got a dual Xeon 2.8 / 2g ram / 2x500g SATA (RAID1). 10mb internet connection with 2(something) terabytes of transfer.

    Check out their specials.

    • They're great aside from their total lack of any sort of decent support... A reload shouldn't take a week and a half, a KVM setup because they fucked the reload up shouldn't take 4 days. They should be monitoring tickets much more actively, I've sent in a reboot ticket with them once that took 3 hours. Basically, they're a bunch of incompetents. I moved all of my stuff over to http://www.softlayer.com/ [softlayer.com] which has a much better support system, much friendlier staff, and much better infrastructure in general.
      • I've not had any of those kinds of things. I ordered on a Friday, got it Monday afternoon. Small technical glitch (which was not a result of their f* up), resolved in a very short time.

        Never needed any more than that. I've heard that it used to be a bit slower, but they're really on the ball to get things looked @..
  • Reasonable pricing, pretty reliable.
  • m5hosting.com is great if you don't mind spending $105/mo. Good service, good connectivity, no discernible botnet traffic.

  • Try rackmounted.com [rackmounted.com]. For $50/month, this is what I get:

    Budget Server running Linux / FreeBSD
    1.8 GHz Celeron Processor
    256 MB RAM
    40 GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive(s)
    8 IP Addresses
    200 GB Data Transfer per Month

    I don't think they offer this configuration anymore, it looks like the cheapest now is $64/month. They do offer colocation for $55/month. You can get any flavor of Linux or BSD and they have very competent techs. You can even have them host a mac mini or xserve for you. Checkout their network setup [rackmounted.com] and fac [rackmounted.com]

  • Anyone have a good resource link for larger scale than this question is covering? Looking for several (up to dozens) of cabinets in multiple locations. Must have multiple gigabit internet access links available. Concerned about cooling and power - cabinets will be dense and I understand some colo sites have had problems in those areas. Cabinet, power and bandwidth pricing are important as well. Not so concerned about location (though U.S. to start), remote hands and so on.

    • Seconded. Johncompanies is awesome.

      The virtual servers are responsive, and they provide secondary DNS for as many domains as you want to run off it. Linux server with 10 gigs of disk space (which the base OS doesn't eat due to virtual file system trickiness), 75 Gigs/month, $79 on a month-to-month basis, cheaper if you buy in larger blocks. The FreeBSD is cheaper and if you're hosting an open source project on it, they cut a pretty big discount, too. I've got multiple instances of Drupal and SMF runni

    • I'm also a John Companies customer and am very pleased. I've had 2 other VPS experiences, and I think JC did the best job. They offer email support which is prompt and helpful. They have also gone out of their way on a few occasions to help me with system administration stuff that they really didn't have to do. While I'm at it, I should sing praises to rsync.net, a sister company that does remote file backup space. Having reasonably fast remote backup location has been a godsend...

    • I'm currently not hosting with superb (our company doesn't need alot of boxes in colocation), but when I did, we had great results with them. They were quite tolerant of our idiosyncratic requirements and had very good uptime and response. I'd definitely go with them if I had to rack a few servers. However, I'm not sure if they'd be the best choice for a virtual private server. If you're going dedicated though (not that expensive these days), Superb is an excellent choice.

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