RE: [cobalt-users] should I buy into RaQ3

["Simon Watts" <simon@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> > I am thinking of getting a Cobalt RaQ3 from
>> http://uk2.net/. Is this a
>> > good idea? Are there any drawbacks from buying into this
>> particular
>> > service apart from those directly related to running my
>> own server?
>
>> I looked at uk2.net a few weeks ago and the things that put
>> me off were:
>
> * No support of any kind -- try and find a phone no on their site
> * When you email them you get an autoreply FAQ
> * You have to pay for 3 years in advance
> * No prices to upgrade RAM, bandwidth allocation etc.
>
> 25ukp a month is very cheap -- you get what you pay for.
>
> I ended up buying a Raq4i from easily.co.uk for £999+vat,
> bought 512Mb
> of RAM (£50 from www.crucial.com/uk) and fitted it myself. They'll
> colocate the server for free for the first 12 months. You
> only pay for
> the bandwidth you use (costs about £15 per 5 gig). Their
> service and
> support is very good.
>

Similarly I looked at UK2 before plumping for Magic Moments (Now
Host-Europe) because the support facilities were evidently better for
me as a novice. I also didn't fancy the idea of taking what was
already an old discontinued model server only to find I couldn't run
all the current things I wanted on it.

Having said all that, there are a large number of UK2 users who I
would have no doubt would back up their service (well the fact that
they are damn cheap). I suppose it depends upon your personal
knowledge of server management and Linux as to whether it is worth the
risk to go it alone without support. If I'd have taken the UK2 option
it would have cost me over £500 in support charges already, although
you do soon pick it up (mostly with the extremely excellent helpers on
this list).

I ended up with a leased 256Mb 20Gb RaQ4i from
http://www.magic-moments.com for £149 +vat pcm with full 24hr free
telephone support and all the gubbins. I think to get this (there is a
£99 128Mb 10Gb RaQ4i) you need to go to
http://www.dedicated-servers.co.uk now though as the four companies
have merged (Magic Moments, WebFusion, Dedicated Servers and Host
Europe)

I must admit that an associate company that I work with has taken one
of UK2's RaQ3's but purely for POP relaying for a multi site EPoS
system, and are having no trouble with it (I do the server admin for
it but there's very little to do as it only has one domain set up with
an extremely busy mailboxes! (40 users each transferring email
attachments to other local users of approx 4Mb every 4 hours)

HTH

Kind Regards

Si Watts
SiWIS http://www.siwis.co.uk

Don't Just Think Global, THINK LOCAL!