I contacted Sprocket Data because of an advertisement on this site. I don't click banners much, but this one was attractive, and I couldn't believe one could offer a dedicated server for $35/month. But their site was clear (although it worked well only with a few browsers), and it explained the low cost. The cheapest dedicated server was a Pentium 133 with 64 MB ram, which still is overkill for simple web and e-mail hosting.

I didn't expect the small amount of money to buy me this service. I ordered one of their 133's, but because they were out of stock, I got a Pentium 166 at no additional charge. The operating system of my choice (Debian GNU/Linux, of course) came-preinstalled. Every e-mail I have sent them has been answered the same day, and I get weekly detailed bandwidth usage statistics.

17 days back (the current uptime is 17 days :), Sprocket Data needed to move my server. Other ISPs that I know would have done so with only an announcement. This ISP doesn't just announce, they asked if I thought the move was acceptable and waited for my reply before the actual relocation took place. The server was properly shut down (I gave them my root password), and the total downtime was less than 5 minutes. Now that's service!

I wish this kind of service was provided this cheap in .nl, because the ssh connection to .us is very laggy, and I like working remotely.

Currently, I have a vmware evaluation version running on the Pentium 133, and now I have two servers for the price of one. This allows me to try different server setups, and to play around with things.

- Yes, I reinvent wheels.
- Spam: Visit eurotraQ.