Server Admin Rm Rf Russian Rulett Funny

Guys you get WHAT YOU PAY FOR. I think its very FUNNY that you guys who are 'business' customers and your business 'customers' mean so much to your business that you select a 'clearance server' from a cheaper hosting provider. Remember 10min responce times are NOT RESOLUTION times. The biggest problem low end hosting providers get WRONG is communication. If they were just upfront, and communicate things would be easier.

Solution: Go with a MIDDLE MARKET provider. Don't look for a $200 / month server for $70 and think you will be SWEET.

Quote Originally Posted by unstoppable View Post

Guys you get WHAT YOU PAY FOR. I think its very FUNNY that you guys who are 'business' customers and your business 'customers' mean so much to your business that you select a 'clearance server' from a cheaper hosting provider. Remember 10min responce times are NOT RESOLUTION times. The biggest problem low end hosting providers get WRONG is communication. If they were just upfront, and communicate things would be easier.

Solution: Go with a MIDDLE MARKET provider. Don't look for a $200 / month server for $70 and think you will be SWEET.

As far as I'm concerned I pay for a working server. I fully understand that the hardware failures occur (clearance or no clearance) and have experienced a countless number of such - that's why now I am better prepared for such experiences.

That being said, regardless of the option you select for your dedicated server it is expected to have at least the RAM and HDD tested before installing the OS on it. If the HDD failed shortly after setup, then it is safe to assume that potential errors could've been detected prior to setup.

Carat Networks communication (in terms of support response) is flawless to be honest and they have addressed the issue to my satisfaction promptly, but without me simply disagreeing to waiting for over 24 hours to simply get another drive connected. This server is where I was offloading some smaller client sites and services and wouldn't go live tomorrow as expected.

Fortunately, we've managed to get another hard drive installed nearly immediately, which is highly impressive.

To summarize, I think that it should be stated in big, bold letters that "clearance" does not mean "overstock", but can also potentially mean "not tested, possibly faulty, hence the price" - that way I would run all the necessary hardware tests before moving 50GB+ of data over just so I have to do it again.

Furthermore, I am aware that looking for a SWEET server at a budget will yield no spectacular results, but I am expecting the bare minimum of my hardware to be functional and if not, being replaced causing minimum downtime.

Overall, my first experience with Carat Networks was unpleasant, but given their fast response time and ability to "move mountains" for a "small $70/mo. customer" that just singed up made me believe that this relationship is far from over and that this small hiccup will not have any long-lasting effects on either party.

02:14 PM

I would like to give a bit of an update since I was the one who started this thread. I am still with Carat but I think I have had enough stress and need to move on.

First, they have apparently sold the company to some bigger company and response times seem to have gone down hill. It doesn't sound like they have anyone there after business hours and weekends which is probably a deal breaker for a lot of people. I didn't figure that out till recently and that was a big part of the decision to leave.

The worst problem now is that they have been having constant DDoS attacks which do not always get resolved immediately. Sometimes they go on for more than an hour resulting in total loss of connectivity to my server. I realize DDoS is hard to deal with but most data centers seem to be able to do it effectively now a days. Carat doesn't for whatever reason. I think they have fairly minimal backbone connectivity to the outside world which probabably has something to do with it as well.

Anyways, I think I am done with them. They have probably cost me a lot more money in terms of lost customers over the years than they have saved me with their discount prices. It was a learning experience that's for sure.

I am sorry mustdardman, i do not see your post. The OP is brades. did you have some other post maybe?

Dough!

I thought I was the one who started this thread for some reason. My bad.

Hello again! I see this thread got alive again, so I thought I'll update you on my experiences.

Currently I have two dedicated servers from Carat Networks and in all honesty, I couldn't be happier. Although we did hit some rough patches at the beginning with hardware (HDD issues in both servers) they were sorted out in no time by Carat staff and since then it was MOSTLY smooth sailing.

Here is what I like about Carat:
- fast response (even via chat on their support site) even on weekends, so not sure what mustardman was referring to
- SKILLS - I am always skeptical about 3rd parties messing around my setups, given very unpleasant experience with my previous provider (iWeb) where noobs would rm -rf stuff they weren't supposed to touch. With Carat, whenever something gets escalated to the Admin, you know somebody with an actual brain and ability to communicate will be looking at your ticket. This is a tremendous plus in my opinion.
- Free KVM for 24 hours - needed to upgrade kernel on one of the servers and run memtest - no problem, made a request, got the KVM up and running soon. Super nice perk IMHO.

Here is what I DON'T like about Carat:
- My server's IP used to be a torrent tracker, so I not only get A LOT OF extra unnecessary requests (old crawlers, old links, etc.) but also was listed on A LOT of spam lists, which highly cripples my ability to send e-mail out through the variety of client applications I am hosting.
- That being said I was offered to change the IP at no cost, which I am still due to do, but I have a feeling it might have a similar story (as my second server from the suffered the spamlist issues too).
- Unaccounted for random outages. Usually don't take longer than 10-15 minutes, but at that point even Carat's site is unreachable. This drives some of my clients insane as they deal with a lot of time-sensitive data and a 10-minute downtime WITHOUT prior notice is unacceptable. And there is no follow up emails or message sent from them - I think that's the part that angers me most. It seems as if they hope nobody noticed and then I am responsible for explaining WHY was there an outage, where I myself have no information on it.

To conclude, Carat might not be PERFECT, but it's highly superior to many other wanna-be-hosting companies out there and for that reason I am staying with them. Maybe it's just me with bad experiences, but for what I pay, Carat goes beyond their responsibilities to make my experience pleasant and I really appreciate it!

I would totally give Carat a try, given their no-term contracts and low prices and decide for yourself!

05:09 AM

Quote Originally Posted by mnewelski View Post

- fast response (even via chat on their support site) even on weekends, so not sure what mustardman was referring to

When you have an emergency after business hours or on a weekend requiring physical hands you will understand what I am talking about.

Responding to tickets from home or on their smart phone after hours is not much use when your server dies. Being told on a Friday night when your server dies that you will have to wait till Monday morning when your customers start screaming at you if it's down for 5minutes is kind of like playing russian roulette with your business.

That's just one thing although a big one. I question their backbone connections. They don't seem to have very many alternate routes or much bandwidth. Lately there have been lots of DDoS attacks that completely saturate their bandwidth resulting in intermittent poor or non existant connectivity. These attacks have not been on my server but I see the effects of it on my server.

I think I have found a good replacement provider that has similar prices and seems to be a more solid outfit with 24/7 onsite and a much more substantial network so I think I'm done with these guys.

I'll second what mustardman is saying, as Carat's support is definitely sub-par to what it used to be. There was an outage this morning, starting at approx. 6:50am and do you think there was anyone on their support chat? Nope, nadda, no response whatsoever, so obviously nobody was manning that support option, nor did the chat window even state they were unavailable.

The final response was yet another attack on one of their clients - that answer came 2 hours after the original support request. I realize instant answers are not always possible, but keeping your customers up-to-date would be a start.

And for anyone stating you get what you pay for: you are right, but at almost $200/month, this is not a budget server!

Like mustardman, we're also looking at moving on - any suggestions for Canadian-only based dedicated servers?

Hi Delerium62. In situations like this morning we do need some time to diagnose the problem in order to attempt to correct the situation. The customer support response would have been the same if this situation happened several years ago as it was today. To give immediate answers when we are not certain about the source of the problem could provide misinformation that would just complicate matters even more. So we do wait until we can give verified answers. In this case, we isolated the source of the issue, discovered it to be an abusive customer, and immediately terminated his service. Thank you.

Quote Originally Posted by robusk View Post

Hi Delerium62. In situations like this morning we do need some time to diagnose the problem in order to attempt to correct the situation. The customer support response would have been the same if this situation happened several years ago as it was today. To give immediate answers when we are not certain about the source of the problem could provide misinformation that would just complicate matters even more. So we do wait until we can give verified answers. In this case, we isolated the source of the issue, discovered it to be an abusive customer, and immediately terminated his service. Thank you.

The problem is that these outages are quickly becoming the norm, as they have been regularly occurring over the past few weeks. I realize you can't give a definitive answer as to the cause immediately, but the regularity of these outages is becoming quite alarming.

Quote Originally Posted by Delerium62 View Post

Like mustardman, we're also looking at moving on - any suggestions for Canadian-only based dedicated servers?

peer1/serverbeach, *****/*****host , iweb, rackforce , primustel , ovh they all offer dedicated servers in canada, they are big and stable.

I have used Carat for over 10 years.In that time my dedicated servers may have gone down 3 times and only for a 30 minute time period.
They have always been very helpful and patient even when I act stupid.
Good group of folks over there.Sorry to read some negative comments.I know for my self if there is an issue it normally is in my coding not there service.

Great company and I highly recommend them.
Bjw

although i have never heard of them but it is always good to hear positive reviews about a company, at least someone is trying to work for the betterment of there clients.

Quote Originally Posted by Brades View Post

For the past few years I have been running an online gaming community that consists of a website/forum and various online game servers. I have tried several different hosts in that time and I was never completely satisfied with any of them.
About two years ago I saw a forum post on WHT by Chris from Carat Networks, the name of the company at the time was Clearance Rack. Chris advertised a server that was perfect for me. It was located within 2.5 hours from my location and I had a very low ping to it which is crucial for a successful game server. The prices were very good especially since they were quoted in Canadian funds. I ordered the server and it was up within a day. The communication between Chris and myself was excellent. I could tell he actually cared about his clients. I would get emails and messages from him asking me if my server was running ok and if I had any problems just let him know and he would take care of it.

Fast forward to today... I am still a happy customer of Carat Networks. There has been no major problems whatsoever with the network. The customer service I have received from Chris and Justin at Carat has been one of the best experiences I have had with a business in any sector. If you are looking for an excellent quality server host, look no further, www.CaratNetworks.com will not disappoint.

Bracy Uncerced

Server Admin Rm Rf Russian Rulett Funny

Carat has been good to me

Post a Comment for "Server Admin Rm Rf Russian Rulett Funny"