KnownHost - 5 Year Review

Background
We run a game server hosting company which has been running since 2012. We currently rent roughly 200 dedicated servers from 6 different providers. We currently rent roughly 60 of these dedicated servers from WebNX. We've been with them for just over 7 years and I can safely say that they've been the best datacentre we've used. I know how important reviews are to a company; I feel that we've used WebNX long enough to write an honest review.

Support
We've had our fair share of rubbish support from datacentres in the past. WebNX definitely provides the best support out of all the datacentres we've used. During the past 7 years, I'd say the average response time for a ticket at WebNX was about 10 minutes. We've found the biggest issue with large datacentres is that their support teams are disjointed. This leads to issues which "don't fit the norm" taking a long time to resolve. WebNX is large enough to provide 24/7 365 day support yet small enough to provide genuinely good "straight to the point" support.

Reliability / Uptime
All the datacentres we've used have had some sort of major outage at some point in time. During the 7 years, there have been a couple of network outages at WebNX but the issues have always been resolved quickly along with good communication. Considering the number of servers we have with them, I'd say the uptime is incredibly high.

Hardware
During the past 7 years we've switched our server hardware roughly 4 or 5 times. It's as simple as contacting them letting them know what hardware you like, they provide a reasonably priced quote and in a couple of days, the server is delivered. I'd say on average, broken hardware is resolved in roughly an hour from us opening the ticket.

DDoS Protection
I'd say this is the downside of WebNX. They'll automatically nullroute the IP address if a DDoS attack is detected. The amount of time the IP address is nullrouted depends on how much traffic the attack is sending. It's not really a huge issue for us as we can quickly work out which one of our clients was targeted and then get migrate them over to a DDoS protected IP address. I'm hoping at some stage they'll provide onsite DDoS protection.

Price
They're very reasonably priced considering the support and customisation which they offer.

Network
WebNX's network is top notch. Nothing to complain about at all.

Keep up the great work WebNX! Would be great if you could get another datacentre setup in East Coast USA.

Hello friends,

I'm here to give my 6 years review for SolaDrive
1st of all I would like to thank WebHostingTalk forum for giving me the opportunity to get the contact of SolaDrive and John from SolaDrive.

I have been a very happy client of SolaDrive from August 2014. It look like yesterday for me. Such has been the smooth travelling with SolaDrive.

I have had plenty of different servers with them on different occasions.
As usual we have had plenty of problems in the 6 year journey but never on one occasion Soladrive let me down. They are always there for me to help either the problem is on the server side or even on script side. Their Customer care and service are top class and only next to none.

Billing issues, DB Backups, Ticket reply, Skype support, Solving Errors, Software Updates, Migrations, Panal issues, COVID situations, what ever problem i have, SolaDrive just takes care of everything and gives me peace of mind so that I can take care and focus fully on performance of my sites and my clients sites.

I have no idea if there are any other hosts out there more then capable of SolaDrive. Which I don't even care to research anyway. As they never gave me a chance to look for other alternatives.
If any one need a good dedicated server with a great service and a awesome experience, just go for SolaDrive. No second thoughts. I strongly recommend them.

I can keep on typing to praise their quality and service. I swear they really do deserve it.
Hope I will post my 10 Years review with them soon
Thanks again John & SolaDrive.

Host recommendations needed. Let me start by saying, THANKS in advance for your replies.

I own a (very) small US-based business and my website/email hosting has been with LiquidWeb since they acquired my previous host WiredTree.

LiquidWeb ignored a support ticket yesterday and as my yearly payment comes due next week I thought I probably owe it to myself to at least evaluate my options before it renews.

My biggest priority is knowing I have good managed support when I need it. Problem is, having support tickets linger in the cue for a day or so until I call/chat them and ask when it's going to get looked at has been a pretty constant problem since day one. And it's not like I'm inundating them with support tickets either. My website development has been on hold the past couple years due to personal reasons, so this might be the first support ticket I've even opened this year other than asking them to whitelist an IP because their automated process for that doesn't work.

Looks like I'm paying about $2,400/year for a Cloud Dedicated server and $800/year for a second smaller plan (old WiredTree VPS plan).

The main server appears to be 8 core (Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E3-1271 v3 @ 3.60GHz) with a 24/900/5 config (I think). I'm not currently taxing the box at all; it's a total overkill in all regards. One downside to LiquidWeb is at the time I moved this server from a VPS to this plan I was kind of forced into a much, much higher plan than I really needed because every option in between had the same limited disk space my VPS had and the only reason I needed to upgrade was that I was pushing disk limits.

As such, being able to scale up or down in the future without having to make huge jumps is also important.

As of right now, the second (VPS) server could easily be absorbed by the first. I actually intended to do that a year ago when my bill came due but then life got in the way and it fell through the cracks.

Both my boxes are managed CentOS/WHM/cPanel with Root access. I did not migrate away from cPanel when the prices went up. If there's something legitimately better than cPanel I'm happy to evaluate it, but until then it's the devil I know.

Prior to WiredTree/LiquidWeb I had 2 VPS plans at ServInt. Originally ServInt was excellent... until they weren't. But even after they outsourced their support overseas, I really still didn't have support issues. I left ServInt because my boxes were aging badly and all signs said the company was in trouble. I will also say my brief experience with WiredTree support before they got bought out was amazing.

Before ServInt I was with Inmotion Hosting (originally shared hosting then a VPS albeit without Root access). I will say I have no desire to work with any host that sells shared plans again.

As far as budget is concerned, I can afford what I'm currently paying. Yes I'd love to be paying less although that's not what's driving this search. If I stay with LiquidWeb, I'll migrate the VPS into the Cloud Dedicated and downsize to $2,400/year. If I'm paying less elsewhere, I expect it's because I downsized the Cloud Dedicated server's specs.

When I left ServInt for WiredTree, recommendations from this site caused me to have a short list of WiredTree, KnownHost, FutureHosting and LiquidWeb. I've seen recent recommendations in other threads for KnownHost and BigScoots, so that's where my current short list begins. Any recommendations are appreciated.

We're looking for a managed dedicated server in NL or DE DC,
We have read much praise in here for Hivelocity but we checked their managed plans and amazed to see that they do not offer any support in cases where FFMPEG or 3rd party scripts are involved.
We need support whenever anything happens where our tech/dev isn't capable enough to solve the issue. As an example of such tech challenge that we would need to have covered by the managed hosting is issues that relate to diagnosing network package losses that are noticed when using a custom Google Cloud Translation API. In such case we wouldn't want to get told 'We can't support you because you're using 3rd party CMS/Software'

We're used to managed dedi hosting in US and have never had any such issues where support aren't taking care of everything. We need to understand who in NL or DE does provide such services?
We do not need support often but when do we we want a sysadmin on the other end who isn't just trying to avoid supporting based on some weird T&C.
Usually over a year we may need 5 hours of support, so during these 5 hours we need just full support and dedication from the support staff as rest of the year the payment for the services has been more of an insurance payment.

Hi Guys,

I guess they deserve to have this feedback, I've been using wholesaleinternet dedicated servers since 1st of January 2013 over 8 years damn! I am getting old

I used to have dedicated server with expensive providers before I met wholesaleinternet, believe or not I have less problem with wholesaleinternet after I changed from previous dedi provider. I have 0 problem last 5-6 years. These guys knows what they are doing from management to support, they have backup power, backup internet providers etc to maintain servers in good shape.

Price: I don't think you would find better pricing than wholesaleinternet I also have ovh budget dedicated servers close to wholesaleinternet prices they are also good after wholesaleinternet.

Support: When I had dedicated server with expensive service providers, response time of tickets around 2-12 hours. believe or not every time I create ticket with wholesaleinternet they response and make it happen solution nearly in an hour. My last interact was I need to have KVM and they installed within 30min. I have no words with these guys they are not only fast but also proactive.

I have been hosting my sites on my current hosting company for 7 years. TBH, I am happy with them most of the time.

Since they were sold to another company, the tech support is getting worse. Each time it takes a long time for them to figure out what's going on. They always said the problem is on my side. But it turns out all the issues I complained locate on the server side. I had enough with those offshore tech support.

The second thing is: on my current plan, the server blocked a lot of proxy/Tor access, maybe for anti-spamming or whatever. And host-tacker shows some "HostNotFound" results, which I have not seen it from my friend's sites (we both run the same type of sites). So I lost some traffic as well.

That's why I am thinking to move my sites out.

My site is not big. Currently, I have 2500-3000 unique visits/day, and bandwidth/m is about 700 GB. I am thinking to try a dedicated server plan this time. Then I will have the faster page loading speed, which means better SEO, I guess? Hopefully I can get more traffic and more visits. And I won't get bothered by bad neighbors any more.

I checked a few dedicated plans, can you tell me what these mean? esp WAN uplink and LAN Uplink? Should it be included in total bandwidth?

1,000 Megabit WAN Uplink
1,000 Megabit LAN Uplink
25,000 GB Included Transfer

I read some articles about Dedicated IP vs Shared IP. It seems Dedicated IP is better than Shared IP. But for a small site like mine, do I really need a dedicated server?

I am thinking of mojohost as some friends recommend them. Do they have a coupon or I can negotiate with them for a discount?

Any advises are appreciated.

I'm a small business owner and developer since 2003. We have a few dedicated servers, each one with a different host. One of these hosts was sold and the new owner wants us to use a new server in a new location. We are considering switching to another host. This server runs some important client web sites, our own site, and web apps we're developing.

What we're looking for:
- unmanaged bare metal dedicated server, Intel Xeon 4c/8t minimum, 6 or 8 core preferred
- 16GB RAM, 32GB RAM preferred
- 1TB (or 960GB) SSD, 2 x SSD software RAID preferred
- FreeBSD 11 or 12 (our other servers are FreeBSD 11.4)
- $140/month or less (we're paying $130/month now for the current server, no SSD, 16GB)
- US data center, east coast preferred

Obviously we want a decent data center and good customer support but we also want a company who is going to be around for the next 10 years and isn't likely to be bought up by some Wall Street investment firm who doesn't care about the customers of the smaller hosting firms they're purchasing.

Hosts I'm researching:
- Vultr
- OVHcloud (the US branch)
- Linode
- Hivelocity

So far, OVH seems to have the exact hardware, price point, and data center but their billing system worries me.

If you have any experience with these hosts, good or bad, please share. If you work for one of these hosts, I'm open to offers.

thanks,

Robert

I'm looking for a reasonably priced managed dedicated hosting solution for my small browser-based game site. I need good processing speeds and lots of storage, at least 4 TB as we are image heavy, but don't need a ton of RAM. The biggest issue is that I need someone who can actually migrate my site AND set it up in good working order. The site has been open for 11 years and while the code is old and clunky it works fine, but I don't have the knowledge to transfer and set up a site myself and I don't have a developer at this time. Once set up, the site rarely requires any attention from a server perspective. It is hosted privately atm but the person is no longer interested in hosting so I need to find a new solution asap.

I posted a TrustPilot review a few days ago describing my recent experience with Performive/Total Server Solutions. I have summarized that review here because I have benefitted from honest WHT reviews and feedback over the years which have helped me find great services as well as undesirable services to avoid. I'd like to repay the favor.

I was a big fan of Certified Hosting. I signed up for a budget dedicated server with them in 2011. The signup/setup was smooth and speedy, their data center speeds were superb, and their tech support was fabulous. In late 2018, Certified was acquired by Total Server Solutions, now called Performive. It wasn't long before tech support went downhill. Since then, I've had to contact TSS/Performive repeatedly about downtime and other problems that kept popping up every few months and never seemed to get resolved. However, I dreaded the chore of finding a new server host and migrating to another machine, so I grit my teeth and dealt with it.

On 03/12/2021, I was auto-billed by Performive for my customary six months of prepaid service at my negotiated rate of $75 a month. As usual, they charged $450 to my credit card. However, a month later, a guy I'd never heard of blasted into my inbox declaring himself to be my new sales rep and spouting dire warnings that my server had reached its "end of life," I was in breach of various banking compliance laws, a terrible security meltdown could happen at any moment, and I MUST upgrade my server immediately!!! I knew where this was going, and my suspicion was confirmed when Performive DOUBLED my monthly rate and demanded that I sign a 36-month contract at this new, inflated rate. They also switched me from managed to unmanaged and wanted to upcharge me to make the server managed again.

To be clear, this was completely unacceptable. I stated that the time to re-negotiate a six-month prepaid rate is BEFORE I've been charged and paid in advance, not a month later. Moreover, Certified had agreed to keep my server hardware and software up-to-date, and if TSS/Performive had allowed it to become an antiquated piece of junk with gaping security vulnerabilities as they claimed, the liability for that was on them. Nevertheless, I was given until May 31 to accept the mandatory upgrade and doubling of my monthly rate, which I declined. I agreed to vacate the server by May 12, the end of my second prepaid month, which left a $300 credit for the four prepaid months which Performive declined to provide.

I spent ten sleepless nights finding a new server hosting firm and migrating my web content, which I didn't plan on doing at a very difficult time of health and other personal issues. But I got it done and vacated Performive's server on schedule. Since then, I have sent multiple emails to their Billing and Sales departments asking that my $300 credit be promptly refunded. ALL of those emails to both departments have met with dead silence. Adding insult to injury, Performive emailed me three robo-surveys asking "How Are We Doing?" This is such a demeaning and insulting way to treat a 10-year customer.

Last Friday, I sent another refund demand, which I expect Performive's missing-in-action billing department and sales staff will again ignore. So, when my June 4 deadline to refund my $300 credit passes, I'm wondering if my 30-day Notice of Intent to Sue will bring another robo-survey asking, "How Are We Doing?"

Hello everyone. Have been a long time lurker, but never registered. So, firstly want to say big thank you to this wholesome community for always giving great advices to everyone out there. You guys rock!

I am trying to find an alternative to Hetzner's SX133 which is ridiculously great priced. How do they even do that? Well done Hetzner. On 24/03/2021 - SX133's specs a
Intel® Xeon® W-2145 8 cores, 16 threads,
128 GB DDR4 ECC,
2 x 960 GB NVMe SSD,
10 x 16 TB (SATA 6 Gb/s 7200 rpm) a whooping 160 TB of storage,
1 Gbit/s connection,
Unlimited traffic,
159.00 (without TAX) I need this for an image hosting website, where users do sometimes upload adult content. Sadly Hetzner TOS (point 6.2) does not allow that and they are entitled to block access to the account of any customer who violates this. Which is fine - it's their rules.


My budget is 180 EUR (without TAX), but I don't even need such fancy specs as Hetzner provides. I am completely okay to settle with something like:
4 core, 8 thread CPU,
32 GB DRR3 ECC,
2 or even 1 240 GB SATA SSD,
The most important factor is storage. The more the better, the minimum would be ~100 TB (SATA 6 Gb/s 7200 rpm)
1 Gbit/s connection,
Website last month traffic was 500 TB, but since 90% is cached by CDN...would still need about 50 TB. Obviously unlimited traffic would be great. Seems like very few hosting companies actually offer dedicated servers for storage purposes. I have already checked OVH, Leaseweb, OneProvider, Flaunt7 and some local country hostings, but it seems like noone is even close in comparison to what Hetzner offers. It's like their offer is from the future and hopefully in 1-2 years time, others will get there as well.

It be nice if server were located somewhere close to West/Middle of Russia.


P.S As another option, maybe I could rent more then one dedicated server so that their storage capacity would be ~100 TB and going with CEPH instead of RAID6, but still, can't exced 180 EUR budget. Any ideas greatly appreciated.