Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Thu, 1 Mar 2001 22:48:21 -0500
From:      Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>
To:        Peter Baitz <peterb@themonetgroup.com>, Jim Freeze <jim@freeze.org>
Cc:        questions@FreeBSD.org, Ted Mittelstaedt <tedm@toybox.placo.com>
Subject:   Re: FreeBSD issues at iServer!!!
Message-ID:  <20010301224820.C22425@sydney.worldwide.lemis.com>
In-Reply-To: <3A9D55DB.603931DF@themonetgroup.com>; from peterb@themonetgroup.com on Wed, Feb 28, 2001 at 02:47:39PM -0500
References:  <000701c0a22d$fa217aa0$1401a8c0@tedm.placo.com> <Pine.BSF.4.21.0103010818010.86068-100000@www.bellnetworks.net> <3A9D55DB.603931DF@themonetgroup.com>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
[removing the individual names of the FreeBSD core team.  If you want
 to contact -core, please use the mailing list core@FreeBSD.org; but
 if you intend to specifically ask us not to do anything, I'm not sure
 why you should copy us anyway]

On Wednesday, 28 February 2001 at 14:47:39 -0500, Peter Baitz wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I'm not quite sure how to classify this email I am sending to you at the
> FreeBSD project site.  However, I am looking for input, and wondering
> from your perspective what can be done, if anything.  Perhaps you guys
> even know someone at iServer (http://www.iserver.com)....
>
> We use iServer servers for hosting web sites.  They used to use BSD/OS
> and have switched over to FreeBSD and we were at first excited,  but the
> excitement has become huge frustration.
>
> Their FreeBSD servers seem incapable of staying UP more than a handful
> or two of days, with many servers down every few days. We cannot get a
> reasonable explanation of why. We are in short very unhappy with the
> FreeBSD/OS  at this time because of it.

There are lots of reasons why this could happen.  Some could even be
your fault.  I think it's unfair to blame either iServer or FreeBSD
without first understanding what is causing the problems.  The
information at http://www.lemis.com/questions.html applies here as
well.

> Now I know that flies in the face of the FreeBSD organization's
> motto of being built by a Board of Directors and core groups of
> organized people, leading to a stable OS. Well at iServer I have not
> found that to be true, sadly.  I don't know what is wrong. Maybe you
> guys can set them straight, because it is harming the FreeBSD
> persona.  iServer is a great company, but I think they need some
> help.

We're definitely open to constructive criticism.  But understand that
on this group (-questions) we see lots of error reports on stable
components.  If iServer doesn't help you, somebody here might--*if*
you describe your problem properly.

> PS: Don't tell them I told you so, thank you.

"This product is terrible, and I'm telling everybody I can think of,
but I'm not giving any details, and please don't talk to the
manufacturer about it".  So what do you want us to do?  Just join in
in a bitch session?  If iServer really does need help, we can't help
them without mentioning it.  In addition, it's not exactly fair to
iServer.  As somebody else has mentioned, it's pretty likely that they
have already seen your message.

On Thursday,  1 March 2001 at  8:29:30 -0500, Jim Freeze wrote:
> On Thu, 1 Mar 2001, Ted Mittelstaedt wrote:
>
>> Well, Peter, as I work for an ISP that competes in one of
>> Verio's markets, I have an answer for you but your probably
>> not going to like it, nor are you going to like my recommendations
>> as to how to fix it.
>>
>> First of all, Iserver became unprofitable and ran out of money and
>> was acquired by Verio in 1998.  In case you don't know this,
>> Iserver is a brand of Verio's, just like Oldsmobile is a brand
>> of General Motors.  By now, any vestige of the original company has
>> undoubtedly long since been erased.

Admittedly I have a very low opinion of Verio, but I wonder if you're
not going overboard here.

> Hmmm, that is interesting. I was told a different story. I went to
> school with the founder of iServer. He told me that when Verio was
> snatching up web hosting companies that iServer was the only one
> that they purchased that was profitable, and they let them stay
> pretty much independent since they had their act together. Before
> the purchase, when iServer was a little more than a year old, they
> were valued at $20M. They had ~5000 hosting customers at an average
> of $75.00/mo which is $4.5M per year and growing.

It wouldn't be the first profitable company which had been swallowed
by a large conglomerate and made unprofitable.  And remember who told
you this, and where he's coming from.

> After Verio purchased them, I think they migrated all their
> customers to the West Virginia data center.

A good recipe for disaster.

> I haven't noticed degredation in performance since the move. All
> downtimes are promptly reported and customer service (except for an
> occasional support dweeb) is very good.
>
> My current server has an uptime of 19 days. Not spectacular, but it
> just recently got a diskspace upgrade.

So what's your long-term assessment of their equipment?

Greg
--
When replying to this message, please copy the original recipients.
If you don't, I may ignore the reply.
For more information, see http://www.lemis.com/questions.html
Finger grog@lemis.com for PGP public key
See complete headers for address and phone numbers

To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message




Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20010301224820.C22425>