So we got an offer from Rackifi, a company I never heard of, but that is nothing new.  They’re a provider based in Pennsylvania and have some shared hosting offers.

Let me put the basics out there:

• Shared/reseller/managed WordPress hosting in Pennsylvania
• Plesk panel
• Unmetered storage, unmetered bandwidth

Pricing is not crazy: cheap, but could be sustainable, with the usual we-all-know-what-they-mean caveats about unlimited anything.

But there was one thing in the offer request that I initially overlooked and only noticed when I was double-checking things.  In the words of Austin from Rackifi: “I started up Rackifi LLC after I was able to get some amazing deals on equipment, and a 10 Gbit fiber connection! Everything is hosted in our own mini private datacenter.”

Mini private datacenter…?

I can’t imagine any small host actually have a datacenter in the “Tier 4 Facility That Costs Tens If Not Hundreds Of Millions Of Dollars” sense of that word.  Maybe they mean a dedicated space in an office somewhere, or perhaps they are just putting a spin on what’s really a colo cage.

But no.

They have a…unique network setup.

I checked on the test IP (which did indeed respond very quickly, and I got about 35-40MB/sec from a Seattle VPS on the 1GB test file).  The IP block is owned by Comcast and this looks very much like a residential IP.

I also noticed that the reverse DNS is web.gamehostdirect.com.

Which lead me to this video:

Okay, then.

There was also this update from earlier this year, where the Xfinity Gig Pro plan is discussed (Xfinity = Comcast):

All of this is the brainchild of Mad Gigabit, a self-described “online legend”.  He describes himself as an influencer.  His Twitter is a read.  I do like his logos though.  I need to find out where he got those done.  But I digress.

Seems like he’s got some kind of peering setup but the servers are perhaps in his basement…?   If so, it must be like living inside a 747 because servers that have dual E5s with 16x1TB drives are going to be on the loud side.

My conclusion is that he was a gamer, got a deal/bought some gear/etc. and got in the game server business, and now says hey, why not put unused cycles to work with some shared hosting.

Do you like to live dangerously?  I guess I’m posting this one for entertainment value.

Read on if you are brave!  And if you do take the plunge, you must comment!

Update: As explained here, order links have been removed.

Network Information

Rackifi Private Datacenter – Kittanning, Pennsylvania
Test IPv4: 50.219.136.150
Test file: https://web.rackifi.io/100MB.bin
Test file: https://web.rackifi.io/1GB.bin

Server Info

2x Intel Xeon E5-2648L v3
128GB RAM
16x 1TB SAS Drives
Hardware RAID10
10Gbps uplink

raindog308

Raindog308 is a longtime LowEndTalk community administrator, technical writer, and self-described techno polymath. With deep roots in the *nix world, he has a passion for systems both modern and vintage, ranging from Unix, Perl, Python, and Golang to shell scripting and mainframe-era operating systems like MVS. He’s equally comfortable with relational database systems, having spent years working with Oracle, PostgreSQL, and MySQL.

As an avid user of LowEndBox providers, Raindog runs an empire of LEBs, from tiny boxes for VPNs, to mid-sized instances for application hosting, and heavyweight servers for data storage and complex databases. He brings both technical rigor and real-world experience to every piece he writes.

Beyond the command line, Raindog is a lover of German Shepherds, high-quality knives, target shooting, theology, tabletop RPGs, and hiking in deep, quiet forests.

His goal with every article is to help users, from beginners to seasoned sysadmins, get more value, performance, and enjoyment out of their infrastructure.

You can find him daily in the forums at LowEndTalk under the handle @raindog308.