Re: [cobalt-users] In need of a Raq3 dedicated at a reasonable price

["Carrie Bartkowiak" <ravencarrie@xxxxxxxx>]

I had a different experience with Cobaltracks.

> Cobaltracks is fine if you can put up with crappy tech support.

My experience: Excellent tech support, my emails were answered
(usually) within 10 minutes; even at 2 or 3 in the morning.

> As
> long as you do everything thru the GUI, they are fine.  The minute
> that you turn on telnet, they will no longer support you.

My experience: Not at all the same. Perhaps it depends on how
competent, willing to learn, or willing to own up to your own mistakes
that you seem to be.
Knowing what you may have done to cause a problem through telnet (and
consequently need support) helps go a long way in getting the help you
need, rather than saying "It's broken! Fix it!"
(Not that I'm saying that's what you were doing Terry; just making a
generalization.)

>They have a
> tech support ticket system but their average response time to any
> ticket that I have placed is about 4 working days, and only respond
> then if I make a phone call.

I never needed to use the support ticket system. I just sent an email
to Sam and he'd take care of it.

> When you call, you never get a tech, you
> have to talk to their salesman who acts as a go between.

I think I only had to call twice, but this is the one time where my
experience is the same as Terry's. The techs like Sam were taking care
of things, the person I was talking to would act as a go-between for
me and the techs, putting me on hold a lot while getting an answer.

> If you can
> put up with this, everything else is fine with them.

The reason I left wasn't because of the tech support. I honestly
*loved* it at CobaltRacks. The reason I left was because of the
connections... they were *horrible* when I was there. Slow,
nonexistent at times; even inside CobaltRack's own network.
Toss in Cable & Wireless with their unscheduled maintenance and
repeated downtimes and it's a recipe for disaster. I'll never put
another server on a Cable & Wireless connection.

I have heard reports lately that the UUNet upgrades CobaltRacks was
waiting for have come through and they're actively using those to
balance connections rather than just as a backup. So it seems like the
connections have turned around completely for the better - which,
given *my* experience with them, would make them a good host to go
with. (If Cable & Wireless didn't decide to just cut everything off
again every Saturday afternoon...)

>Personally, I am
> looking for a new place to lease a RaQ4.  If anyone can compete with
> CobaltRacks, please let me know.

Terry check out RackShack.net(Texas) and 4Webspace.com(Canada).
I had a run-in with one of the RackShack owners there on this list a
while back; but decided I'd be less of a person if I didn't check it
out myself. I did, and their connections are great; the box came with
almost all of the upgrades already installed and it was online in 20
minutes. I did have a problem with the order form telling me my card
was rejected when it had actually gone through; but a quick call to
them got that straightened out. Be patient with the tech staff,
they're learning - but quickly.
Person to person with the 'head surfer' might not be the most
pleasant, especially if you catch him on a bad day; but their NOC and
services are pretty darn good so far (had my second box with them for
about a month now).

As for 4Webspace... great service, good tech support and a nice
'community' in the support forums; just watch the billing department.
They won't overcharge you, but they certainly don't have a clue when
it comes to customer *service*.

Both have prices that include generous bandwidth and no lengthy
contracts; cheaper than buying your own RaQ and colocating it
somewhere (and then having to pay for bandwidth on top of that).

CarrieB