Needing colo space...

[Ozymandias]

I currently have a seriously PITA problem with my upstream provider, colocation facility and AOL (yeah... they are still around and just as shitty as ever).

Long story short, I've got some bad routes from my current bandwidth provider, no contact from my colocation facility when I reach out to them for other options and incoming emails are periodically being rejected (mainly from AOL but others sometimes) because for whatever reason they are trying to reach my server from internal IPs and of course the email attempts time out on the sender's end.

What I'm looking to do is find a colo facility I can quickly move 1U server in either temporarily while I work on a more permanent solution or permanently if things work goodly. :teeth This will need to have 1 rDNS entry matching the hostname (it's handling email and hosting) 1 IP, and approximately 2-4 meg of bandwidth.

Ideally I would prefer if they were in the SF/North/East bay area but for solid reliable service I don't mind a bit of a drive periodically.

Anyone have any ideas, thoughts or recommendations? It's a pretty urgent needs.

Thanks!

 

[rodr]

Comcast Business Class works for me. I like having hands-on access to my server.

 

[Ozymandias]

I thought about that, however 3 problems. 1, it's a 1U server and REALLY freakin' loud and 2, my Comcast business is not stable and is actually down right now and has been since Sunday which is a pretty regular occurrence with them at my house. #3 is the power at my house is also flaky. I have UPS for pretty much all electronics now but power has been out as long as 4 and 5 hours at a time as well.

Because email will be flowing, I also need proper reverse DNS for the IP otherwise problems can come up from spam filters and whatnot.

I could probably get away with it for a day or 2 if my service were even up at the moment but I just don't trust it to be stable enough for even a week.

 

[rodr]

Yow, that's awful. It's been very reliable for me... guess it depends on location.

But they can do the reverse DNS if you ask.

 

[Ozymandias]

So I had to go the Comcast route. Long story short... seems my modem was shot. After putting everything on the line it would drop about ever 30 minutes so I was able to get the comcast guys to see it. Sent a guy out and replaced the modem and everything is now running happily.

Still not a huge fan of Comcast, but I have to say they did do right by me in this case.

 

[JackTheTripper]

For every 1 raging complaint I see about Comcast I see 0.07 good comments.

 

[Ozymandias]

I'm a firm believer on if I'm going to write/say complaints when I'm unhappy with service I get, then it's only fair when I'm happy with the service to do the same thing.

That's part of the small business owner in me. I learned a loooooong time ago 1 unhappy customers speaks louder than 500 happy ones.

But to be fair to the people complaining. There is a difference between Comcast residential and Comcast business. This is Comcast business.

 

[rodr]

That's good news, glad you got it sorted Paul!

 

[greener]

I've had a happy colo for many years at monkeybrains.net

Great small SF company. You talk to the guys that do the work.

 

[Diezel]

I've had a happy colo for many years at monkeybrains.net

Great small SF company. You talk to the guys that do the work.

+1 had a small server there for a while too. Great folks. Then I pulled the WTF am I paying for this shit for...... moment. I now self host.

 

[Ironbutt]

I could have set you up in West Oakland at work. I have a nice setup with a UPS the size of a mid sized sedan and it's own cooling system.

I'm actually doing what I always wanted to do too and only buying Cisco network gear. So far this year I bought a pair of 3750 POE switches, two 2911, and two 2901, ten 881W routers, 9 3550 POE, 3 new Dell servers with 18TB of disk and 9TB of Iscsi disk and four 2960 layer 2 switches.

<hahaha.. how big is the company I work for again?>

I'm going to move my email servers into Hurricane in Fremont- and or Emeryville. I'll probably do it in Fremont because I'll be a good excuse to goto the pistol range in Milplitas even though Emeryville is insanely close.

 

[/dev/null]

I'm actually doing what I always wanted to do too and only buying Cisco network gear. So far this year I bought a pair of 3750 POE switches, two 2911, and two 2901, ten 881W routers, 9 3550 POE, 3 new Dell servers with 18TB of disk and 9TB of Iscsi disk and four 2960 layer 2 switches.

Cisco Museum?

 

[Ozymandias]

Chad, if you've ever been in HE's colocation facility, you might rethink that. The one in Fremont was a freakin' joke! Granted most of the joke is caused by the customers themselves but... I've never seen so many cabinets so badly configured. You wanna sell some of those ciscos? :laughing

I had thought about Sonic, but their bandwidth costs are highway robbery! I could get 100 meg from 2.5 carriers for the cost of 10 meg from them. And I have a bit of a personal issue with Dane.

I'll definitely keep monkeybrains in the filing cabinet. I don't plan on keeping the gear here at my house forever. Probably a year tops.

 

[Ironbutt]

Really? There's some pretty good sized companies in there?

I know linux will do all the stuff what I want to do but I know cisco better than Linux. There just isn't any vendor that I can think of that can do what I want to do, easly or as easy as with Cisco gear. <shrug> I think it boils down to documentation and support. <and licensing>

If anyone know's someone that knows linux routing inside out and is looking for work I'll consider implementing it but I haven't met anyone pimping themselves as a linux routing expert for hire.

However, you will find people that know Cisco. ??

What's that mean? Should I struggle and fuck around with Mikrotik and redbrick and sonicwall and smoothwall and try to make them all work together?

I just got a raise! I want another! Viava la Cisco!

:laughing

Chad, if you've ever been in HE's colocation facility, you might rethink that. The one in Fremont was a freakin' joke! Granted most of the joke is caused by the customers themselves but... I've never seen so many cabinets so badly configured. You wanna sell some of those ciscos? :laughing

I had thought about Sonic, but their bandwidth costs are highway robbery! I could get 100 meg from 2.5 carriers for the cost of 10 meg from them. And I have a bit of a personal issue with Dane.

I'll definitely keep monkeybrains in the filing cabinet. I don't plan on keeping the gear here at my house forever. Probably a year tops.

 

[Ozymandias]

I bet the people making the decisions don't really know the condition of the facilities. If I hadn't nuked all the pictures off my phone I could show you the messes. Things like doors completely taken off so systems could hang out into the isle. Cables tie wrapped to doors. Even servers and cooling ducts weren't facing the correct directions. There was one cabinet that was completely full of 1U servers blowing all their hot air into the intake of another cabinet and several systems in that cabinet were alarming due to heat and were the 3 different times I went over there in about 4 weeks time. YMMV of course but that certainly doesn't make me want to put my equipment in there. :laughing

LOL, absolutely nothing wrong with Cisco. I prefer either them or Juniper. Although I do have a friend that's going to show me his Linux routing setup. :thumbup I just bought an 5505 ASA for temporary use at my home datacenter :laughing but I want to get prepped for future needs. I may pick your brain a bit on that ASA if you're up for it. There might be some beer in it for ya. ort :staRang

There are guys out there that know Linux routing quite well but they are few and far between and usually grow out of necessity with startups. LOL