where I speak out my mind
product review
My all-time favourite; Exabytes Linux Web Hosting
17 months ago
My love and affection towards Exabytes started when my buddy and I were planning to migrate our alumni forum. Since many of us are expected to go back home after finishing up the study, we were thinking of relocating the forum to somewhere local i.e. MY. We did few scouting which includes extensive googling works and of course, asking around for recommendation from our close g33k friends. It converged to one common name; EXABYTES. I still remember, when I first time heard about Exabytes, the name itself gave me a goosebump! Credit to the founder for giving such a masyuk name! 
EXABYTES provides web hosting solutions in many packages; shared web hosting, semi-dedicated, full dedicated (or you can just name it, and I can bet you, they have it!). Our alumni member was not that big i.e. about 140 members, so we were thinking of giving the Linux shared web hosting a try and would upgrade if the server couldn’t handle it. We were given three subpackages, as listed below:
Our previous web hosting gave us 10GB of space, and although it looks like it was not enough, truth is we barely used the space. Therefore, we quickly decided and signed up for the EBIZ PLUS package. The registration went smooth and the account details were sent in less than an hour. And the rest I would say became the history and to date, we agree the decision we took years ago, couldn’t be better! 
The big compliment is meaningless without any proof and to do that, I have to first, give highest regards to the quality that they have in their products! And, for the benefits of everyone, let me share the main reason why Exabytes Linux Web Hosting is my all-time favorite!
Leading the looooooooong list is their GREAT & EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE. I have been with Exabytes for close to 6 years (pergh, that is something!), and I have only experience downtime in total of less than 24 hours! Their claim of 99.99% uptime seems bold, but I believe they have delivered it! EXABYTES is armed with many IT Professional who not only know the in-and-out, but also very warm at heart. I would like to share an experience when I just setup a new shopping blog. Apparently, on 4th August 2010, there was some technical issues which resulted in the Apache default page appeared, instead of the blog main page. I was really shocked but at the same time, I had this thinking going on in my mind “hey, let`s see how quick the Support Team can resolve my issue”. I submitted my ticket at 9.42 a.m. and received the acknowledgement from them about 20 minutes later. And, about 40 minutes later, they came back to me saying that he problem is already RESOLVED! I was like “Whoooaaa, so fast! ”
Next, I would like to give big thumbs up for the HARDWARE AND NETWORK PERFORMANCE. As mentioned earlier, initially we had some doubt on whether the shared webhosting can perform and serve the forum. To our surprise, the forum has been operating with almost no downtime. As the content is hosted at local datacentre, one should expect the download and access speed to be ligthning fast and I am glad to let you know, it is performing LIGHTHING FAST, as advertised. For the sake of comparison, I uploaded one big file to the server and ask many of my relatives and friends to download and screencapture the download window. I understand that pictures tell thousand words
Other than the above two main reasons, I also love the fact that they are giving cPanel as the server control panel. With cPanel, you have great and easier control on your webhosting package thanks to the user-friendly graphical user interface. You can quckly create your FTP accounts, create additional subdomains, browse through the File Manager and also monitor your server and bandwidth usage. Everything at your finger click! Mind you, most of the cheapo webhosting provider does not give cPanel, or even if they do, it will come with a price. With Exabytes Linux Web Hosting, this is part of the package. And best of all the packages are priced at an affordable rate.
As a bonus, I believe their PR skills should not be ignored and in fact shoud be given due credit. If you are yet to LIKE their FB page, I highly suggest you to do so. You will be smiling almost everyday with all their status messages. Some of them are very informative, and some are also very casual & #funny. You can take a look at some of the snapshots below.
It’s time for some informative discussion, and observe the feedbacks that they have received from the curious clients.
Not to forget, the announcements on the scheduled maintenance.
What I can conclude from the observations and experience with Exabytes, the LINUX WEB HOSTING (EBIZ PLUS package) is the best web hosting package you can get as, not only you will be getting their excellent performance, but also the customer service, and many other things mentioned above. No worry! Although this post was made as an entry to the iPad2 competition, but rest assured I was not making up stories to please them so that I can get the iPad2. The writings came from the bottom of my heart.
I really hope that at this point you already understand why EBIZ PLUS (Linux Web Hosting) is my Exabytes Favorite Product! I recommend to all my readers to select their EBIZ PLUS as a start, and you may upgrade it to UNLIMITED for a mere RM50 per year. A good deal I must say! FYI, I have been subcribing to EBIZ PLUS package for the past six years on bi-annually basis, which translated into FURTHER SAVINGS! See! Told ya, this may sound too good to be true, but yes it is true!
Worth every ringgit, guys!
and also you have the options to upgrade anytime!
Adios guys!
UNIFI Tips #1
1210 months ago
I had great experience with UNIFI in the first 10 days. Everything was fast, you just name it; youtube HD streaming, big files downloading, heavy website loading, etc. There was absolutely nothing that I could complaint and think of. However, there was something that really bothered me, the VDSL modem was running extremely hot as it was a flat cooker instead of modem. Seriously, I kid you not. I was really worried that it may burnt or kaput as I usually left my internet connection running most of the time. In fact, with UNIFI having 5Mbps upload bandwidth, I am planning to leave it running 24/7/365 instead. There are so many things that you can do with that amount of upload bandwidth, ngeh2!
Anyway, coming back to the topic. I had some serious problem connecting to UNIFI last week. I found out that the ‘earth’ icon at DIR-65 turned orange, from the ‘good’ green. I spent the next 30 minutes doing my own troubleshooting, including reseting the DIR-65 router setting and reconfigured. I also did try the direct connection (UNIFI VLAN Forwarder), as suggested by RIZ. Yet the problem was still there. Obviously, the problem was not at my side then. Quickly I rang up the Unifi technical support.
On the next working day, UNIFI Support Team gave me a call and both of us agreed on an appointment. On the said date, they did come sharp on time; 1.30 p.m. and they spent the next 3 hours trying to pin down the problems. They started their investigative works from the UNIFI box, outside my apartment. Later, they moved up to the SERVER room inside my apartment, and also next, to the CABLE room at my apartment’s level. Unfortunately for them and me, none of those troubleshooting has worked. Finally, they came into my house with the old VDSL modem (white and bulky). He quickly completed the cabling and voila, the internet was back online! He then quickly swapped my black HUAWEI modem with new unit to verify the finding, guess what…. It really worked! It was clear that the culprit was the HUAWEI modem. Hampeh! He was also shocked to discover this. According to him, most UNIFI users would only have problem with their orange DLINK router.
So my prior concern was valid. Unfortunately, I neglected my concern and assumed it would be OK. Serve me right, kan? Hehe
Learning this lesson the hard way, I have thought of some ‘cool’ idea. In fact, it is cool, literally. Thanks to the USB port in front of the DLINK router. The next day, during lunch hour @ Ampang Park, I stopped by computer shop to get the USB-powered notebook cooling pad! The price was a bargain, only RM6. Trust me, it is THAT cheap!
Check out my previous UNIFI setup:
And now, it is cooled by the CHEAP, yet COOL cooling pad! Haha!
Please take note of this, the brilliant USB PORT (red-circled below). I likeee~~ Without this useful port, I would find problem to get the juice for the cooling pad. Hehe
So guys, I am advising and recommending those UNIFI users, to install this simple, yet effect cooling solution. Both devices are now running cool, yet quiet. You may need to bear with the blue LEDs, or perhaps you could scout around for the LEDless pad. Hint: PC Fair is coming soon in April ’11.
In my opinion, although the VDSL modem unit has lifetime warranty, I would prefer proactive solution than active solution i.e. waiting for them to come and fix it. No downtime please.. That’s all!
Cheers!
Image credit (1): USB Port