An opinions UKShells, Sharpnet or Lomag for IRCd hosting ?

[stu]

I've been using UKShells for running a bot and bnc bouncer now for about 4-5 months and have been very impressed. There has been some strange packet loss problems recently but other than that good uptime etc. I need to change my account to get IRCd hosting as well as run the bot and bouncer. At the minute I'm undecided whether to pay that little extra £ and stick with UKShells and upgrade the account to their bronze IRCd account or change to Sharpnet or Lomag.

I noticed a few good posts about Sharpnet but couldn't see anything about Lomag as such. Can anyone push me in the right direction I think I'd prefer to pay alittle extra £ and get good service but is suggesting to me to stick with UKShells but whats concerinng is that for a reasonable amount of money the traffic is 1.5GB a month compared to

UKShells $25 p/m quarterly with only 3 prcesses and 1.5GB traffic and 50MB.
Sharpnet $20 p/m yearly only with 4 processes and 5GB data and unlimited space
Lomag $25 p/m quarerly/semi-yearly with 3 processes 14GB traffic (20MB/hour) and 100MB space.

Some of the users have logging enabled on the bouncer which is concerning with 50MB of space ? and 1.5GB per month seems a little low for traffic especially with a bouncer and an IRC server. There is going to be about 10-15 people on the bouncer at most and I don't see there being more than 100-200 at absolute most on the IRC server. What traffic and data storage figures should I be looking at for this ?

Thanks for any help,
Stuart.

[ppslim]

UKShells are known for there impressive systems support. They known about the problem, and fix it quickly, allthough, most times, this ends up with a reboot as well.

There operation is superb. There are not that many providers that are able to house there servers in house, under such conditions. Most are a office, with a large cupboard as the server room. That, or they colocate.

The service they provide for eggdrop users is fantastic. However, I was a little concerned myself regarding bandwidth uses on the IRCD provisions.

My advice is to ask on there forums http://forums.ukshells.co.uk/ and see hwat current users think, and what there bandwidth uses are. (UKShells have bandwidth monitors and couters, and are able to tell you exactly what bandwidth they have used each month, by looking on the control pannel.

The same applies to the other providers. look on forums, check support channels, ask the admins if they can contact a few subscribers, to see if they will contact you.

[stu]

Although the pricing is good from the US companies I'm reluctant to change from UKShells becuase we've had so little problems with them since we started using them.

They've been very helpful with arranging to upgrade our account even though we've paid yearly in advance etc. I'm just waiting to see if they'll let us host a BNC on the same account

I'll post on the forums about the bandwith and see what people say. 1.5GB for a bouncer and IRCd (although IRCd will only be used a little) seems a little tight but I'm not sure what amount of traffic (in terms of size) goes out from an IRCd. Hopefully they'll tell me on the forum.

Thanks for your reply I appreciate it,
Stuart.

[Chrysalis]

Ukshells like ppslim said have excellent support, I would highly reccomend them for a eggdrop account, but however for IRCD I say no, I have recently reverted my ircd account back to eggdrop since they started enforcing the traffic limits. The 1.5 gig limit will not last long unless you only have less than 20 users on your server, another thing you have to bear in mind is that ircd's are suspect to DOS attacks which will rip into your quota, and the fact ukshells are now monitoring ftp traffic(which I think is going way too far). I have experience of using lomag and have to say they are very good and lag free, and highly reccomend them for ircd usage.

[stu]

I have been very happy with UKShells but the whole bandwith situation of 1.5GB is as you say not going to be usable, espcially for the cost. I've had my basic shell account converted for free (I'll have to renew it a few months earlier though) to an IRCd account but the stablity and support although worth it if I were a business is going to cost too much. I've got a feeling I'll move the server over to Lomag or Sharpnet when my account expires in October with UKShells and continue from there, unless they make drastic changes to their accounts hehe.

Thanks again,
Stuart.

[Sharpnet]

It's October 4, 2002.

Have you decided to move your IRCd yet?

We have moved our ircd server to the CIT datacenter with the rest of our shell servers. You will enjoy the 300kb/s downloads and our firewalled connection.

We also have some specials running this month. Our Lite-IRCD is only $16.99 w/ $25 setup fee and it includes all the goodies you expect in an ircd account. If you purchase now, the setup fee is waived.

Thanks and we look forward to working with you shortly!

Sincerely,

[ppslim]

I consider this advertising, and as such, this post could be removed.

[Sharpnet]

Oops.. Yes it is. Please feel free to delete it..

[Yourname]

Sharpnet makes you feel nice and snuggly. Try it, wont regret it. *spanks sharpnet for advertising*
And yeah, Lomag is as we know, the best. But nice prices too
UKshells looks costly to me. Dont know about how it is overall too.

No comments on the ircd part.

[ppslim]

I will admit, I don't know how good the service is @ UKShells.

Though, this is only because I havn't used another provider in over 2 years.

I moved to UKShells from Grid9. Grid9 where very good, but cut me off the second they where took over. My files are available to this day, but I can't use the rest of the 3 months I paid for. Apparently, the business was not bought as a going concern, so there is nothing I can do.

However, since I moved, I am yet to have any serious issue with UKShells. They have had there downtime, and there hardware issues, and they may have been fixed a little quicker, but overall, I am yet to see any of the ISP's I work with be any better with there support.

All providers will have downtime, for which every person should face upto, and realise it's a fact of life. They should also then realise, that UKShells are usualy on the case very fast.

Service status updates are informative, though they usualy place the blame elsewhere (Like at LINX), which is fully justified, as it's true.

Yes they are expensive, but you get what you pay for. High quality support and servers, with an overall impressive set of features.