Advice on a VPS host

[warwickw]

Hey Ambo, we just wanted to say "THANKS" for mentioning Go2Cloud today! VH5 (Virtual High 5) from me and the rest of the Go2Guys.

Hi Paul,

Please explain what this is from your site http://www.go2cloud.co.za/Home/Pricing:

Network resources

Our standard service provides dynamic IP addresses on the public internet, however a static IP may be purchased

Too me it looks like you are hosting on ADSL. Please correct me, or explain why you assign dynamic IP addresses, an VPS should get it's own static IP address always.

[Ipwn 4]

Spam aside from ll the one post wonders, Virtual servers are pretty cool. They are unmanaged though so it will take some getting used to to manage your own server but it really isn't that hard. We currently have two Cloudservers with them, one here and another in the UK as a fail over(see my location for the IP's).

The system they use(onapp) is miles ahead of any of the other hosts here in SA, that control panel has so many epic features you won't find anywhere else.

The other option for ultra cheap VPS's are Hetzner.de, also unmanaged but at R70 for an entry level server with 1TB of bandwidth you can't really complain.

[Paul @ Go2Cloud]

Hey Warwick,

Just saw your question on the forum ...

"Too me it looks like you are hosting on ADSL. Please correct me, or explain why you assign dynamic IP addresses, an VPS should get it's own static IP address always."

Love the suggestion you sent via mail. We discussed it this afternoon and will make the nessecary changes to ensure everyone gets one static IP as standard when they sign up.

Love the feedback ... We thrive on it!

[warwickw]

An update on Go2Cloud.co.za service, their service and support so far have been phenomenal. They've answered every query I had quickly, even did something I was not expecting them to do. Thanks Paul and Dylan.

As for the VPS, I'm testing a small setup I allocated 750Mhz and 512meg ram to it, it's stable and hasn't had any problems, been running now for 4 days.

It's really easy configuring and setting up your VPS. The signup process is so simple anyone's mom could do it. Configuration is very nicely presented and easy to understand. There are a few pre-created templates for the popular OS's, as well as a number of ISO's available to mount and install yourself.

You get console access via VNC to your VPS.

Here's some output from my dd tests :

dd if=/dev/zero of=test bs=16k count=16k conv=fdatasync
16384+0 records in
16384+0 records out
268435456 bytes (268 MB) copied, 6.80741 s, 39.4 MB/s

dd if=/dev/zero of=test bs=64k count=16k conv=fdatasync
16384+0 records in
16384+0 records out
1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB) copied, 22.1778 s, 48.4 MB/s

dd if=/dev/zero of=test bs=128k count=16k conv=fdatasync
16384+0 records in
16384+0 records out
2147483648 bytes (2.1 GB) copied, 40.0967 s, 53.6 MB/s

Compared to my 2 other VPS I have with other companies (US and Netherlands based) the go2cloud.co.za disk speeds are slower so far, which I would love to see improved.

16k BS test on my US:
dd if=/dev/zero of=test bs=16k count=16k conv=fdatasync
16384+0 records in
16384+0 records out
268435456 bytes (268 MB) copied, 2.39875 seconds, 112 MB/s

16k BS test on my netherlands VPS:
dd if=/dev/zero of=test bs=16k count=16k conv=fdatasync
16384+0 records in
16384+0 records out
268435456 bytes (268 MB) copied, 5.31777 seconds, 50.5 MB/s

Overall I give go2cloud.co.za a thumbs up and a solid 8/10 (improve the disk speed and they'd surpass a 10), their support and enthusiasm for the product is excellent. The fact that they are willing to engage and discuss with clients is awesome, keep it up guys.

A disclaimer, just to cover myself, I have nothing to do with Go2Cloud.co.za I don't even know their owners, staff or company, I'm just a potential client that is impressed. I thought it would be nice to post my experience of their product, seeing I had A+ service from them, possibly my findings will help someone else.

Update:
I configured an Elastix instance on the service and tested SIP and IAX2 calls to and from 2 handsets on different ADSL lines on SAIX accounts, no problems were experienced.

A thank you to Dylan and Paul, for letting me test the service and removing the normal test restrictions.

[fateh]

Well, the suggestions helped me too, thanks everyone for fruitful input.

[koeksGHT]

I heard from the grapevine that webafrica is getting new servers and packages in the next 2 months. Might be worth the wait..