# CloudAtCost.com



## Lanarchy (Nov 8, 2013)

http://www.cloudatcost.com/

For the $35 server, you get a CentOS, Debian, or Ubuntu server with:
1 Xeon *v*CPU, 1 Public IP, 512MB RAM, 10GB SSD, 100Mbit Internet with 500GB of monthly transfer.

I saw this on SlickDeals and just wondering if anyone's heard of them at all. I have no intention of buying, and it sounds too good to be true and reliable. What's your guys' opinion?

If you want some chuckles, read all the posts form people who bought this but have no idea WTF they even just bought.

http://slickdeals.net/f/6390626-linux-hosting-cloudatcost-launch-offer-buy-your-own-cloud-server-for-35-one-time-cost-other-plans-avaiable-1cpu-512mb-ram-10gb-storage-500gb-network-usage-1-ip?



> i purchased the lifetime. I figure its like buying a raspberry pi but better. I am curious what people are using this for? i have sickbeard and couch on the pi not sure what ot use this for





> On the question of security... is the provisioned OS system, pre-hardened? Or do you have to configure all of that yourself as well?



I AM NOT AFFILIATED WITH THEM AT ALL AND NOT ADVERTISING, just reposting from slickdeals


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## tchen (Nov 8, 2013)

So far, not looking good at RFD.  A few random suspensions, template issues, all your usual teething pains.


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## devonblzx (Nov 8, 2013)

Looks like just a beta service.  Probably comes with stipulations and eventually they will raise prices a lot when they work out their problems.  I've never heard of Fibernetics but their claim of being the "fastest growing and largest" telecommunications company in Canada seems to be a bit unfounded and I don't believe when they say they have built a national network as I really couldn't turn up much information about them.


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## ComputerTrophy (Nov 8, 2013)

One-time purchases never last a lifetime. Keep that in mind and take regular backups.


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## drmike (Nov 8, 2013)

Doesn't look too bad... 100Mbps port = blah... What year is this?

Upstreams look like:

AS6939 Hurricane Electric, Inc.  39%
AS3257 Tinet SpA 27%
AS174 Cogent Communications 26%
AS3320 Deutsche Telekom AG 6%

Another downside is storage is small.

Clientexec is what they are using for ordering/billing = meh.

OS install options at order = CentOS 6.3, Ubuntu 12.04.3 LTS, Debian 7.1... No 32 or 64 bit notice....

Payment options are 12 months, 24 months or the one time fee.  All in total due now.


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## drmike (Nov 8, 2013)

15: 10gigabitethernet6-3.core1.tor1.he.net 41.530ms
16: fibernetics-corporation.10gigabitethernet3-1.core1.tor1.he.net 35.205ms asymm 17
17: vl-14.tor0151-606-aro-11.ne.fibernetics.ca 37.731ms asymm 18
18: host-208-79-60-225.static.295.ca 39.194ms asymm 19
19: host-208-79-60-218.static.295.ca 42.526ms asymm 20
20: pc-1.rowswitch3.kit.rackanddata.com 43.076ms asymm 21

---------------------

Traceroute before server... Fibernetics = parent company. 295.ca = dialup+DSL sub brand.  Rackanddata = ?

Well rackanddata = NeuStyle Solutions Ltd, Jack Baker, M.E.Sc., P.Eng.

http://ca.linkedin.com/in/jfgbaker

https://twitter.com/jfgbaker


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## drmike (Nov 8, 2013)

Debian /etc/apt/sources.list is fubar'd.  PITA manual editing to get good info in there with nano (pre-installed).

*cat /proc/cpuinfo*
processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 26
model name : Intel® Xeon® CPU L5520 @ 2.27GHz
stepping : 5
microcode : 0x16
cpu MHz : 2266.747
cache size : 8192 KB
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 11
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss syscall nx rdtscp lm constant_tsc up arch_perfmon pebs bts nopl xtopology tsc_reliable nonstop_tsc aperfmperf pni ssse3 cx16 sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic popcnt hypervisor lahf_lm ida dtherm
bogomips : 4533.49
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes : 40 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

and... this offer is VMWare based


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## drmike (Nov 8, 2013)

*wget freevps.us/downloads/bench.sh -O - -o /dev/null|bash*

CPU model : Intel® Xeon® CPU L5520 @ 2.27GHz
Number of cores : 1
CPU frequency : 2266.747 MHz
Total amount of ram : 496 MB
Total amount of swap : 459 MB
System uptime : 17 min,
Download speed from CacheFly: 18.5MB/s
Download speed from Coloat, Atlanta GA: 6.16MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, Dallas, TX: 2.09MB/s
Download speed from Linode, Tokyo, JP: 535KB/s
Download speed from i3d.net, NL:
Download speed from Leaseweb, Haarlem, NL: 805KB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, Singapore: 776KB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, Seattle, WA: 1.68MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, San Jose, CA: 2.20MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, Washington, DC: 2.51MB/s
I/O speed : 174 MB/s

^There goes Cachefly again with their wonky non-reliable speed tests.. 100Mbps maximum = 12.5MB/s, right?

Other speeds are blah.

I/O speed is actually fine


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## drmike (Nov 8, 2013)

Final observations:

1. No Terms of Service.

2. No Privacy Policy.

3. "CloudAtCost is a part of the Fibernetics Group of companies."    But yet in the page it says: " We are partnered with Fibernetics, a national carrier and ISP in Canada."

Is CloudAtCost owned by Fibernetics, invested in by Fibernetics, etc?


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## drmike (Nov 8, 2013)

Ahh more:

From their blog...

"CloudAtCost is privately funded, and will seek to remain so. The reason ? To maintain our mission and vision.

We are part of a group who has been in the internet/telecom business for 20 years (yikes – I never thought I would say I did anything for 20 years !). We’ve always chosen to operate in the ‘alternative’ telecom space. Not sure if that is actually a coined space or not, but the idea is to look at the traditional models and try to engineer a different way for the transaction to happen.

The first service we built (in 1994) gave away free long distance telephone calls in exchange for hearing an advertisement. The children products of that first service, Fongo or freephonline.ca are all grown up, and operate profitably on our own fully licensed Canadian CLEC, Fibernetics."

That was wrote per the blog by  Jody Schnarr.

Jody Schnarr ehh?

Jody Schnarr, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive officer of ... Fibernetics... http://www.insideview.com/directory/fibernetics-corp

Jody Schnarr... he's co-founder of Fibernetics.

So excuse their busted English and murky relationship.  Appears CloudAtCost is owned by Fibernetics, not partnered with it.


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## drmike (Nov 8, 2013)

And a thread from RedFlagDeals http://forums.redflagdeals.com/new-provider-cloudatcost-com-cheap-vps-1-month-first-10000-servers-1392062   :



> Hello All,
> 
> I work for CloudAtCost.com
> The business model was carefully thought out to figure the only way we felt possible to provide a one time fee for a hosted server. You can look us up - check out what we have done with freephoneline.ca - There was a post on RedFlagDeals for 5000 beta accounts in 2007, and thats how we launched.
> ...


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## vampireJ (Nov 9, 2013)

@drmike from let / leb awhile back?

So what is the verdict on these guys? Are they reliable?

Are the hosting location all in Canada? And please confirm that they are using vmware- as I would have preferred the open sourced openvz for its performance.

Thanks!


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## shovenose (Nov 9, 2013)

Tried this a month or so ago. Total ripoff. Server was a piece of shit and they never resolved it.


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## drmike (Nov 9, 2013)

vampireJ said:


> So what is the verdict on these guys? Are they reliable?
> 
> Are the hosting location all in Canada? And please confirm that they are using vmware- as I would have preferred the open sourced openvz for its performance.


They are backed/owned by a long established Canadian company.  A real company with offices, real estate, etc.  They have/own a 7k sq. foot datacenter or datacenter build out.  So this isn't a McOpenVZ $69 rental hit and run accident "company".

It's indeed in Canada.  IPs also geolocate to Canada.   That in itself is worth trying as Canada offers are few and far between and typically are a good bit pricier and/or limited in bandwidth.

So far I've used up 18.55GiB of bandwidth or 2.81 Mbit/s since activated.

The offer is indeed, at last admission by them, VMWare based.

So far, the VPS (bought one over here) is fairly alright.  CPU seems responsive -- moreso than with many overloaded OpenVZ providers.

The network, well it's not going to win any speed test races.  Typically I don't touch 100Mbps offers, as they are too slow for when I want to get data from here to there.


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## devonblzx (Nov 9, 2013)

drmike said:


> They are backed/owned by a long established Canadian company.  A real company with offices, real estate, etc.  They have/own a 7k sq. foot datacenter or datacenter build out.  So this isn't a McOpenVZ $69 rental hit and run accident "company".
> 
> It's indeed in Canada.  IPs also geolocate to Canada.   That in itself is worth trying as Canada offers are few and far between and typically are a good bit pricier and/or limited in bandwidth.
> 
> ...


What datacenter?  There is barely any information on Fibernetics.  They look to be a small VOIP business, not a national telecom like they claim.  Do you have a link?

The fact that it is VMWare makes this even more suspicious.  VMWare carries licensing costs which would make it implausible to offer a one-time fee or a $1/month package.


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## drmike (Nov 9, 2013)

devonblzx said:


> What datacenter?  There is barely any information on Fibernetics.  They look to be a small VOIP business, not a national telecom like they claim.  Do you have a link?
> 
> The fact that it is VMWare makes this even more suspicious.  VMWare carries licensing costs which would make it implausible to offer a one-time fee or a $1/month package.


KWDatacenter:

http://www.kwdatacentre.com/kitchenerdatacentre.php

But, that's at 151 Front Street in Toronto.  6 story brick building.



> 151 Front Street West is Canada's premier telecommunications hub and carrier hotel. Also known as the home of TORIX, 151 Front Street West has a long history in the industry and is one of eight carrier-neutral facilities in North America.


Seems like their datacenter specializes in VMWare.



> I got my first VMware server from KW Datacentre and I have to say I was very impressed. I realize I was wasting money on my dedicated server as these virtuals seem to perform extremely well. Also I really didn't expect to have the server up and running in 3 minutes which was great… Bill Meyer


I will note their network this evening is performing like utter crap.


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## drmike (Nov 9, 2013)

Here's how their network is performing this afternoon until now:

*wget freevps.us/downloads/bench.sh -O - -o /dev/null|bash*
CPU model : Intel® Xeon® CPU L5520 @ 2.27GHz
Number of cores : 1
CPU frequency : 2266.747 MHz
Total amount of ram : 496 MB
Total amount of swap : 459 MB
System uptime : 22:34,
Download speed from CacheFly: 4.49MB/s
Download speed from Coloat, Atlanta GA: 1.45MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, Dallas, TX: 999KB/s
Download speed from Linode, Tokyo, JP: 51.6KB/s
Download speed from i3d.net, NL:
Download speed from Leaseweb, Haarlem, NL: 115KB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, Singapore: 186KB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, Seattle, WA: 572KB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, San Jose, CA: 316KB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, Washington, DC: 2.24MB/s
I/O speed : 176 MB/s

Time for some ticketing...


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## Lanarchy (Jan 6, 2014)

deal, seemingly, still going on. Anyone else have thoughts?


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## drmike (Jan 6, 2014)

I still have one of their plans.  Throughput on data is slow.


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