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123COM - £4 256MB OpenVZ VPS in Scranton and UK

123COM Leyton, the managing director of 123COM, emailed me last week to have his offer posted on LowEndBox. Their OpenVZ VPS plans start at £4/month. “OVZ 256” plan comes with

  • 256MB guaranteed/512MB burstable memory
  • 50GB storage
  • 100Mbps unmetered bandwidth
  • OpenVZ/SolusVM

Direct sign up link here. PayPal only at the moment, and somehow it does not add the 20% VAT at checkout. It also requires you to read through 15 pages of ToS hosted at Scribd without any easy way doing keyword search. They are a UK registered limited company though (company number 07715839 since July 2011), despite being on an .ORG domain. 123COM has been providing hosting since 2007 according to this WHT post. Domain however has only been registered since May this year.

Servers are in either Scranton PA or Manchester UK (probably BurstNET in both cases), which you can select on the ordering page. They are also having France and Germany locations coming up according to their Data Centre page. Do note that “West Coast, US” should actually be East Coast. Now I wonder how they can actually provide 100Mbps unmetered in those locations at this price.

LEA
Latest posts by LEA (see all)

32 Comments

  1. Just to address a few of the comments on the above post.

    Any in-corrections on our website will be rectified during business hours on Monday – and we apologise profusely for any confusion.

    123COM incorporated officially in July of this year, however we have been running since October 2007 initially running as a small Reseller host for a few local websites, and eventually branching out into the rest of the internet under the domain name 123com.co.uk in 2008, and then changing to our .ORG domain name later on from that.

    The VPS servers are not charged with VAT at this point in time.

    Our Terms of Service are located at http://123com.org/legal however we use the Scribd embed tool on our checkout to provide a visual form of the ToS to users there which is flash based and cross-browser. We will look into a better solution, however the other tools we have thus far seen seem to provide difficult reading, or a lack of cross-browser functionality. There is no difference apart from the presentation between the ToS on checkout and that found at the URL above.

    We always appreciate the feedback, and notes for any errors on our site; and we strive to provide the quality service we already provide to our premium users, at more budget prices.

    Yours,
    Leyton @ 123COM

    August 22, 2011 @ 2:52 am | Reply
    • Dudeist:

      As LEA, I’d also like to know how you can provide 100Mbps unmetered bandwidth.

      August 22, 2011 @ 10:36 pm | Reply
      • We are – as we stated in our email to LEB, and as LEA guessed above; running from the BurstNET datacentre.

        All of our nodes run from an unmetered 1GBPS line. Our contract with the datacentre does not bill for overages, nor does it cap our usage at any level or point, so we really can offer a 100MBPS port without bandwidth limiting to our clients.

        August 22, 2011 @ 10:43 pm | Reply
  2. Daniel @ LowEndTalk:

    They probably don’t have an income over £69k a year, so don’t charge VAT but still have to pay it themselves

    August 22, 2011 @ 8:20 am | Reply
    • Daniel:

      Where did you get 69K from? It says 73 on Revenue and Customs website, unless the Tories are messing about with that now…

      August 22, 2011 @ 3:13 pm | Reply
      • Ville:

        Don’t get me started on that.. Hopefully the rats will be culled.

        August 22, 2011 @ 5:02 pm | Reply
      • I’ve lost count of how many times it changes.

        August 22, 2011 @ 5:13 pm | Reply
        • Ville:

          Cameron/Hauge/Osbourne all muppets. Osbourne is my local mp lol, he only got his seat as most of the people in his area are well off and support the conservative ideology(i don’t).
          I wish 90% of the people in the uk realise how very little demorcratic governing takes place. If there was a uprising here they would call them ‘thugs, looters, criminals’ and kill every last one of them with whatever force.

          August 22, 2011 @ 5:27 pm | Reply
        • To be honest, thank god it isn’t Labour. Tony Blare made like £14 million in expenses

          August 22, 2011 @ 5:35 pm | Reply
        • Daniel:

          His real name is gideon lol.

          August 22, 2011 @ 7:46 pm | Reply
  3. Spo0lsh:

    Hello,
    123COM have TUN/TAP and IPv6?

    August 22, 2011 @ 9:42 am | Reply
    • TUN/TAP is installed on our nodes; open a support ticket or Support Chat after order to have it enabled on your VM.

      IPv6 isn’t issued per-default at the moment with our VPS’, however is available on-request.

      Thanks,
      Ryan @ 123COM

      August 22, 2011 @ 9:49 am | Reply
  4. st0ya:

    Unmetered bandwidth?
    What happens if I use this server as a remote server?
    Daily about 500-700 GB of bandwidth?

    There will be no problem? :>

    August 23, 2011 @ 12:57 am | Reply
    • I read over their TOS but couldn’t find a part documenting VPS BW.

      I got a bunch of friends that would love the ability to watch iplayer and i’d be seriously interested if I could get an idea of what’s reasonable in their eyes ;)

      Francisco

      August 23, 2011 @ 1:29 am | Reply
      • And if it’s a proxy you’re talking about; we already host a few – yes, its fine to do so, but only if it’s not a public proxy.

        August 23, 2011 @ 8:22 am | Reply
        • Right, it’d be a locked OpenVPN :)

          The problem is what happens if it starts hitting 40 – 50Mbit during busy times? I’d just be curious what your ‘reasonable limits’ are is all :)

          Thanks for the reply,

          Francisco

          August 23, 2011 @ 8:26 am | Reply
        • A locked OpenVPN is perfectly fine.

          As long as your activity isn’t affecting other users on the node (causing stupidly high CPU load and the like), we don’t have a problem with it.

          If your network utilisation were to start affecting the other users; we will uphold our pledge to unmetered bandwidth, and move you to a less-loaded node by where you no longer cause an issue to other users.

          So essentially, it would be fine – and in any event where your activity was causing some form of problem, we would seek to resolve it ASAP.

          Thanks,
          Leyton Reed

          August 23, 2011 @ 8:47 am | Reply
        • That sounds more than reasonable :)

          I’m not looking for a 100mbit unmetered dedicated plan for that kinda price or anything like that, just want to get an idea of ‘what would be OK’.

          Thank you for the heads up and being honest on the policies, i’ll for sure put it in my ‘most likely’ pile unless UK2 group comes up with something nutty for me.

          Thanks!

          Francisco

          August 23, 2011 @ 8:51 am | Reply
        • Fransisco likes Doctor Who?

          August 23, 2011 @ 8:54 am | Reply
        • I’m personally a Luther fan but I got a lot of friends that are hard up for doctor who and the likes.

          Francisco

          August 23, 2011 @ 8:57 am | Reply
        • I’ve never understood that programme.

          August 23, 2011 @ 9:37 am | Reply
        • ville:

          Fran torchwood is good ;p

          August 23, 2011 @ 6:28 pm | Reply
    • We have no concern about that, as long as the content being transferred does not contain any materials prohibited by our ToS/AUP, and as long as it is all above-board and legal. Indeed you can consume that quantity of bandwidth.

      August 23, 2011 @ 8:20 am | Reply
  5. Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU 750 @ 2.67GHz

    Server is pretty fast. Hard drive seems to be a bottle neck though, unfortunately.

    August 23, 2011 @ 12:44 pm | Reply
    • @James, we run Intel Core i5 and i7 processors in all of our nodes, depending on what is available to put in the racks.

      We have a had a few reports of the Hard Drive on some select nodes, and are working to resolve this issue as we speak.

      Thank you for taking an interest in 123COM’s Services :)

      Jacob M. @ 123COM

      August 23, 2011 @ 12:51 pm | Reply
  6. All plans are now issued with 3x IPV6 addresses by default, and all subsequent addresses are free.

    August 24, 2011 @ 9:37 am | Reply
  7. st0ya:
    August 24, 2011 @ 3:57 pm | Reply
    • Because it is currently up for editing as we are changing our Dedicated Server offerings; you can still contact support for a tailored quote – however, we no longer offer the “set” servers we did before.

      August 24, 2011 @ 3:59 pm | Reply
  8. Hello LEB users!

    We have just reopened ordering for Paris, FR servers.

    Warmest Regards,
    Nishant Chemburkar at 123COM

    September 2, 2011 @ 8:12 pm | Reply
  9. 03/10/2011 I ordered VPS server in France from 123com.
    During order or purchase I didn’t get information that VPS in this location is not available.
    I got confirmation of this order. Next day I got information about the delay of my order.
    05/10/2011 on control panel on 123com website I saw that I got server in US. I wrote to support that they change this mistake. I was waiting 3 days for the answer. Today at 08/10/2011 I wrote an email to support requesting the return of money if they don’t enable correct service for me. I got very quickly the answer that VPS in France is not available and and I can not claim a refund in accordance with 123com Term of Service. So I decided to use enabled for me VPS in US but it doesn’t work.
    I wrote again to support but they send me copy of Terms of Service.

    So, this is fraud.

    October 8, 2011 @ 11:36 am | Reply
    • Tom:

      Issue a charge back, seems like pure fraud when you order something and they say no stock and no issue a refund. They should know better how to control their orders. Paypal will be on your side, point this thread out.

      October 8, 2011 @ 11:46 am | Reply
    • Hello,

      To explain our side of the story; the client ordered a France VPS server at a time when all France nodes were full, so the services were marked for delay.

      When the new node became available, services were provisioned in France, however SolusVM encountered an error with containers being generated on this node; at which point we investigated – and drew a blank beyond troubleshooting.

      At this point, we passed the issue to the SolusVM developers, who are, as we speak, working on releasing a patch for the issue.

      Unfortunately, we could not offer the France service at this time, and it has been temporarily withdrawn.

      Under our Terms of Service, we issued the client with a substitute service in Scranton, USA – which is working by our records, and the client has not come forward to describe any support request regarding it’s “not working”.

      The client was also offered 100% SLA refund as per our Service Level Agreement to maintain the US server until the France server was available for provisioning over the next few days – and then another month of SLA credit after the France server was provisioned for the inconvenience.

      It is not company policy to issue refunds, and the client agrees to this as part of the Terms of Service – if the service had not been delivered at all (and no attempt to compensate made) we would have considered this a refundable case.

      The client refused the SLA credit [for just a few days provision of a substitute service], and at that point we accept they are refusing the compensation on offer.

      There is no fraud or scam, just a client who refused the compensation on offer, and as a result decided to feel sore over it.

      Again, if there is/was a problem with your USA server, a support ticket would be the place to handle it – but, we only have tickets relating to your sales query of the “incorrect location”.

      Thanks,
      Rylea S. @ 123COM

      October 8, 2011 @ 12:03 pm | Reply

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