Re: [cobalt-users] RACKSHACK.NET

["Dylan Smith" <dyls@xxxxxxx>]

> I would give rack shack very low grades for tech support and
> public relations. They have a lot to learn about those things,
> but then they are fairly new and can not be expected to start at the end.

That has been my observation. However, overall I'm satisfied. I can handle
the admin stuff myself - the only thing I need tech support for is to fix
things when they are broken (like when routers are down). The time I called
them when they had lost a router, the tech support guy really needed a
clue-stick. (He blamed the outage to broken DNS, and arrogantly refused to
believe what I was telling him until I emailed the information I had). I now
email them if I have a problem like this as emails seem to go directly to
someone with a clue if you include a concise and precise writeup. The other
time I needed tech support was when I had the infamous MX-loops-back-to-me
problem (which I had never seen before and didn't know how to fix) and they
told me to contact Cobalt because "they weren't allowed to give too much
support" (I had to stop myself laughing out loud at that one, and my good
nature overrode my urge to say "You mean you don't know but you don't want
to admit it, that's what you're trying to say, isn't it?" ;-))
I ended up talking to a BOFH friend of mine who told me in five seconds what
the problem was - something very simple that tech support should have known
about.

For those who know Linux, I'd heartily recommend Rackshack - they are the
best value around and the systems work reliably, but if you're new to
networks and Linux - until they get better tech support - it's not as good
value. They are new at doing this stuff, so I expect their tier-1 support is
also new and maybe not yet experienced.