Server rentals :: NFOservers.com

While I don't want to consider this a "flame" about nfoservers because to be honest you guys have always offered outstanding servers and really great customer support. I do however kinda disagree with the direction that the new "3 cores or your screwed to run your own machine" options go as far as the Virtual Private servers go. I can understand maybe having to up costs and such to better pay your employe's for the outstanding job they do with customer service but to "lower prices and then force people to go to a 3 slot" does not really make any sense. Why not just keep the prices the same or raise the monthly cost by a buck or two and still allow people to get a 2 core managed machine.

This is a huge problem simply because the majority of the people who buy a 3 core system are just going to have it go to waste. Unless your planning on opening up 2+ servers at once(terrible idea unless your already very well known) then the system is just going to sit there not using the vast majority of its resources and the customer is just throwing away money on a system that is way over what they need.

Why not just give an option of 1. You can get an unmanaged server for the current price or 2. A managed server will cost more but you don't have to waste money on resources you don't need.

For the most part not having a managed server on your current system is like shooting yourself in the foot. Sure we can run our own server but if we want the performance your saying you can offer then we have no choice but to go with a managed server. On top of that, if I do decide to do an unmanaged 2 core system right now so I don't just throw money away on stuff I don't need, in the future when I go to upgrade to a 3 core system.. guess what. I lose all my players because I lost my IP address and all the work I put into my 2 core system was pointless.

I just think there should be a better pricing option as far as that goes... lowering prices and somehow forcing people to pay more to get the same service you have been offering is something blizzard would do. Sure you make money, but damn you look terrible doing it.

Again, I don't want to say your a bad company because your not and I will be renting from you in the future. I just think this whole "managed server plan" was very poorly thought out.

Your suggestions involve either raising prices or keeping them the same; that is not something that we wish to do. The direction of prices needs to be downward for us to stay competitive and offer our customers good value. At the same time, we have minimum costs associated with managed servers because of the much greater level of support they require, so we compensate for that by requiring a minimum purchase size.

At the previous 2-core for 49.99 level, we were having difficulty affording managed servers, and the new 3-core requirement fits much better for us. When the 3-core price drops, it will start fitting less well, but we'll likely continue to allow managed servers on 3-core packages until the price drops below 49.99 again.

Most customers purchase a VDS in order to run multiple game servers, and most customers do make use of the 3rd core and extra RAM. For individual servers, it is best to purchase a regular server in our shared system.

I mean... sure charging more for a managed server is what your doing now anyway. Why not just make an option that you click on machines 2 cores or less that charge extra for a managed machine but still allow you to get one. Otherwise no matter what we cant ever hope to start out small and get big without losing everything we had to begin with. Go from a regular server to a vds... lose your ip. Go from an unmanaged vds to a managed vds, lose your ip. I know an ip doesnt seem like alot to lose but when your trying to be a decent game server you lose a good majority of your players when you switch an ip address. I am simply suggesting the ability for customers below a 3 core system to get the managed vds by selecting an option that would allow us to pay extra for it instead of us having to pay extra+pay for a higher priced server when we dont need the extra core or memory. Seems like your forcing people to upgrade instead of just giving us the option to pay for the extra service your providing.

It's a good idea and it makes sense, but lets say we did add that option to a two core VDS to make it managed. The price difference between the two core and the managed three core is only 22.50. So if we charge $10-$15 to make your server managed. Then there is only $7.50 difference between the two and three core. So if you are like me and throw the extra $7 bucks at it and you get a managed set up plus a lot more resources.

So you can see how its almost better to just start with the three core for a managed set up.

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<@TimeX-NFo> Hey, we used to have to carry our packets to the servers.
<@TimeX-NFo> And it was upstream, both ways.

<@TimeX-NFo|away> You're asking the old dude for help?????
<@Kraze^NFo> Yes

Eh... iono. You guys have always been on the expensive end and I have always been able to easily justify paying for it because of the great service that you provide. It just gets a lot harder to say its worth it when your spending almost 70 bucks(no including vent, and website) on a server that you don't need the full amount of right away and if you go any lower than that your throwing away your ability to ever go to a managed server without hurting your server in the process. I can set up a linux server no prob, its what I go to school for. I however would like to get a managed server since you have OS's designed just for running these games and scripts that optimize the games performance without paying a whopping 70 bucks a month. Just sounds like a damned if you do, damned if you dont kinda situation.

Curious,

Your restricting 1 and 2 core managed because of costs.
Is this more the cost of providing support? Or other additional charges.

I like the managed approach because it makes it much easier for those who are new to servers to get started into the VDS world. Those of us that have been playing around with unmanaged have learned along the way, but I still think managed makes things easier for the customer.

Having managed allows the customer availability of a good control panel, one click server updates, starts, stops, and restarts. The use of the easy setup page and many of the other nice features you offer in the panel.

For those who prefer the managed 1 or 2 core, and if the cost of the support is the issue, could you not provide 1 and 2 core managed and have no support other than on the forum. Or have the option to pay a monthly fee for unlimited support, or a purchase support on a needed basis. (Basically charge a customer requested service call fee)

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We're actually on the cheap end for quality VDSes, Krimson. For game servers, we're fairly near the middle right now, price-wise, but on the very upper end for performance/service.

Pain, the cost comes from support, primarily, yes. This includes the cost of help through the support system and the cost of maintaining our back-end infrastructure (which you both find significant value in for good reason!). Another cost with managed VDSes is that they come with extra IPs for free.

We also originally limited managed VDSes to two cores for performance reasons. We want all the servers that we manage to meet some minimum level of performance. As games require more CPU and memory, and as our prices for more cores drop, it makes sense for us to change the minimum requirement.

Right now we're not interested in creating additional tiers of support beyond straight unmanaged and managed systems.

NFo managed service is actually cheap compared to other companies.
Some companies charge hundreds of dollars for managed support alone!

So we are lucky to get very good prices with VDS managed servers and still get an awesome pricing.

Let alone the neat control panel that you don't have to pay a dime for too...

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http://www.47r-squad.com

I would have stuck with a managed, but we run a mixed bag.
1 TS3, 5 Procons, 4 L4D2 - And a minecraft, Terraria, Deer Hunt 2005 which we turn 2 L4D2 off to run any 1 of these.

The unmanaged can be fun. You get to see what limits you can push to. lol

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