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2-year review of Thrust:VPS (a.k.a. Damn:VPS)
I just let go of a VPS that I'd had for over two years. Considering that's about how long I've been in to VPSes, it's the end of an era for me. But enough about that. I wanted to give a review of Thrust:VPS out of my experience with it.
TL;DR - An ok box with decent speed and support, with a few reasonable glitches along the way. Overpriced these days, though, and some of the OS templates don't work, so I cancelled the VPS.
This isn't a highly technical review. I can't say for sure what the network or disk speeds were as I forgot to test them before cancelling. It is more of an experience review. I can tell you this, the website says the VPSes have a 100mbit link, and they use regular hard drives. When I first bought the server, I was quite pleased. Two years ago, the $60 a year I got the 512MB server for was fairly competitive, and I considered myself to be getting a good deal. On the whole, I still think it was a good deal, but as prices have decreased, Thrust:VPS has actually increased their prices. What was $5.95 a month or $59.50 a year is now $6.95 a month and $69.50 a year. Considering some of the other offers around here, I consider that too much. $5 a month is the most I am willing to pay for an OpenVZ VPS, unless there's something out of the ordinary with it. With Thrust:VPS, there isn't anything that really stands out.
That said, I did find them to be acceptable in terms of plain old reliability. There were some hiccups to be sure, but overall nothing major. One incident I remember specifically, though, was that perhaps a year ago, the server would arbitrarily shut down for no reason. I ticketed, but support was less than helpful. Since I had booted it, all they could (or would) say was "well, it's up now". This happened three or four times, and it made me rather nervous. However that issue went away after a while. Towards the end of my service with them, in February to be specific, Apache would stop responding. My websites would go down, and I initially thought my entire server had gone down. I was afraid the previous issue had arisen again, but I could SSH in just fine, and when I restarted Apache, everything was fine. This happened twice. Annoying and strange, but not major. There was also some downtime, but they were always right on top of it, notifying me by e-mail when they found it down and when it came back up, which was usually very quickly.
Support was OK, but the fact that I didn't open that many tickets also says something about them. I believe they have 24 hour support, but I also believe it is outsourced. Other departments operate during UK business hours, as Thrust:VPS is based (and officially registered) in Scotland. They seemed competent and prompt (except for the above issue), and I am satisfied there. They also notified me of scheduled maintenance, which was not long.
Overall, I'm satisfied with my experience. Though there were some bumps, two years with any provider will usually yield those. They did their best to make me as a customer happy, and so I am. Now they just need to reconsider their prices in light of falling hardware costs, and they'll be all set.
Comments
I just did exactly the same. Ditched a box I got when Thrust started, and went to another provider. Generally quite happy with it, but it wasn't worth what I was paying for it, in today's terms.
Have seen some fairly bad things about the comapny tbh. Great review.
Such as?
Such as...
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/06/09/lxlabs_funder_death/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/06/08/webhost_attack/
http://www.savidtech.com/blog/general/hackers-to-vaserv-it-was-ur-own-stupidity-and-excessive-passwd-reuse/
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1087587
Sit around the camp fire boys and girls, its time to revive this story that I'd guess most peope here these days never heard.
Rus Foster blames the apps for his simple passwords and makes developers hang themselves. Good times. Next time you wish HyperVM was kept up to date, remember this.
@Jack As I said in my review, though the support was outsourced it was still OK.
@jarland So Rus Foster worked with IOMart/ThrustVPS after having to take the heat at vaserv. So what? It wasn't actually his fault, was it?
@DStrout He had crappy passwords, blamed the panel, developer hung himself. People can make all the small talk they want, it happened in that order and all close together. He's well known for poor to mediocre quality and running on his startups after he runs them through the ground. He started the company you reviewed, so its relevant. Another failed project sold off. I suspect he's quietly started a lot of hosts since he "settled down" at vps.net, just more crafty in hiding it.
@DStrout I ditched three past mo, like the insight +1
From my experience not that reliable for regular use..for testing or as vpn ok.. in March they had a major downtime for almost a week my vps was down.. even their main website was not not working..
Biggest review ever!!
At one point I had >350 VPS's with them, the prices used to be very attractive, I still have Rus's private Skype.
Ah yes, Rus F0ster.
Old-timers will get that reference...
As far as I remember from reading about this when it happened, the developer may have been dealing with many other issues as well, such as another very close family member's recent suicide I believe. I don't think it's fair to directly blame that sad occurrence on anyone (not to say that he was blameless though of course)
I try to be thorough. Maybe a bit too thorough? Hence the TL;DR.
@raindog308 I've never seen that password before!
Rus Foster is someone I would avoid doing business. Brings back the good ol days of HyperVM and Kloxo
I haven't read it all yet, but this thread on WHT could be interesting. Several appearances by LET members.
Basically @DStrout what you need to know, and likely already do, is that we all feed on drama here. We have to eat sometime. Rus Foster is like an old meal that you remember fondly, and can almost remember the taste when you think about it. When you feed on drama, the worst cases make the most excellent flavor.
/end creepy food references
@jarland Very nice. Drama FTW!