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123COM - £4 256MB OpenVZ VPS in Scranton, France and Germany with Unmetered Bandwidth

123COM Leyton from 123COM asked me a few days ago to feature their unmetered VPS. They recently had a website update which is much nicer. Xen VPS offers are coming up, and they have also extended their unmetered VPS offer (which we featured 3 months ago) to France and Germany. The price has not changed — starting from £4/month (~USD$6.24) for their “OVZ 256” hosting plan, which has

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

From their network page, those VPS are available with either Hetzner in Falkenstein Germany (test IP: 178.63.163.65), OVH in Paris France (test IP: 188.165.12.106) or BurstNET in Scranton US (test IP: 66.96.192.92). 123COM Ltd is a UK registered business based in Essex.

LEA
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44 Comments

  1. Rick:

    Interesting! Can’t wait for the xen vps. If it allows openvpn/l2tp/ipsec VPN then I’m a definite new customer. My current vps is just terrible terrible. :(

    December 5, 2011 @ 5:08 am | Reply
    • “OpenVPN”, “l2tp” and “ipsec” are all permitted on the 123COM network; we do allow users to run their VPN through our services.

      Xen will open in Scranton hopefully mid-month, please feel free to sign up for our newsletter if you want an instant update on that – you can sign up at http://123com.org/

      Have a good day!

      Yours,
      Ryan P.

      December 5, 2011 @ 8:07 am | Reply
  2. buy:

    OS is only 64 bit ?

    December 5, 2011 @ 6:10 am | Reply
    • That was originally the case, however we have since added most of the templates in x86 – and will happily add more if you request it in a ticket.

      Thanks.

      December 5, 2011 @ 7:48 am | Reply
  3. rick:

    Thanks Ryan.

    December 5, 2011 @ 8:16 am | Reply
  4. Has been such a price or time-limited!

    December 5, 2011 @ 9:05 am | Reply
  5. thl:

    have one vps (at OVH) with them
    after huge problems in the beginning it runs rock solid now

    root@eu:~# bash bench.sh.1
    CPU model :  Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2400 CPU @ 3.10GHz
    Number of cores : 4
    CPU frequency :  3092.784 MHz
    Total amount of ram : 256 MB
    Total amount of swap : 256 MB
    System uptime :   14 days, 22:51,
    Download speed from CacheFly: 11,1MB/s
    Download speed from Linode, Atlanta GA: 2,57MB/s
    Download speed from Linode, Dallas, TX: 2,14MB/s
    Download speed from Linode, Tokyo, JP: 788KB/s
    Download speed from Linode, London, UK: 11,2MB/s
    Download speed from Leaseweb, Haarlem, NL: 10,1MB/s
    Download speed from Softlayer, Singapore: 4,61MB/s
    Download speed from Softlayer, Seattle, WA: 6,27MB/s
    Download speed from Softlayer, San Jose, CA: 4,27MB/s
    Download speed from Softlayer, Washington, DC: 9,11MB/s
    I/O speed : 2 MB/s
    

    IO tested again yields results of ~100MB/s
    However:

    root@eu:~/ioping-0.6# ioping -c 10 /
    4096 bytes from / (simfs /vz/private/143): request=1 time=12.5 ms
    4096 bytes from / (simfs /vz/private/143): request=2 time=41.4 ms
    4096 bytes from / (simfs /vz/private/143): request=3 time=18.0 ms
    4096 bytes from / (simfs /vz/private/143): request=4 time=39.0 ms
    4096 bytes from / (simfs /vz/private/143): request=5 time=111.7 ms
    4096 bytes from / (simfs /vz/private/143): request=6 time=47.0 ms
    4096 bytes from / (simfs /vz/private/143): request=7 time=11.4 ms
    4096 bytes from / (simfs /vz/private/143): request=8 time=47.7 ms
    4096 bytes from / (simfs /vz/private/143): request=9 time=16.8 ms
    4096 bytes from / (simfs /vz/private/143): request=10 time=67.1 ms
    
    --- / (simfs /vz/private/143) ioping statistics ---
    10 requests completed in 9413.6 ms, 24 iops, 0.1 mb/s
    min/avg/max/mdev = 11.4/41.3/111.7/29.3 ms
    
    December 5, 2011 @ 11:08 am | Reply
    • Oscar:

      Hello guys,

      Can anyone share the code of the script to perform those health checks to the VM, if possible?

      Greattly appreciated.
      Regards

      June 16, 2012 @ 7:31 am | Reply
  6. Do you have any for UK servers? Thanks.

    December 5, 2011 @ 11:09 am | Reply
  7. Anyone got anymore IO tests?

    December 5, 2011 @ 2:48 pm | Reply
  8. sounds good, but ill skip this one, their terms are a bit too strict for me, cant understand if there is a money back guarantee (the same page says there isn’t and there is), their terms of service is a mess of we will shut you down without notice, stuff like to much inodes=shut down, posting on a forum/site about them=shut down, no more than 2000 emails sent a day=shutdown … and i quote “All (90%) of your web pages (html) must be ‘linked’ with files (.GIF, .JPEG, etc.) stored on 123COM servers”, hum? what? i can only use it for webpages? I thought the good thing about a vps is that you can do whatever you want with it… sure you must protect yourself with a reasonable terms of service, but not one that practically can get anyone shutdown for anything… txaaaa skip skip

    December 5, 2011 @ 6:54 pm | Reply
    • This is due to the previous offerings of Shared Hosting services – to protect our shared cPanel servers from abuse.

      We are phasing out those services now – as you’ll see they are no longer advertised – and will amend the terms of service to fit when the clauses are no longer relevant.

      December 5, 2011 @ 6:57 pm | Reply
    • “All (90%) of your web pages (html) must be ‘linked’ with files (.GIF, .JPEG, etc.) stored on 123COM servers”

      I can’t even understand that.

      December 5, 2011 @ 7:35 pm | Reply
      • nor can i! ^_^’ and if it was only for shared, where is the one for vps? cause some of the stuff even for shared is a bit strict, like cant talk about the company in forums/sites or you get your service canceled… what is that? a poor man’s confidentiality agreement?

        i kinda think its better to have a simple, generally phrased terms of service than one filled to the brim with do’s and dont’s, there is always the clause where they cant terminate for whatever reason, right? why have a thousand inane restrictions… feels like goddady or hostgator (where you can just feel there is some clause in there that is gonna fuck you up) hehehhe ^_^

        December 5, 2011 @ 8:10 pm | Reply
  9. Humza:

    O_o Essex, finally someone that lives near me :) Well, 123COM is based all the way on the other side of Essex to me. Damnit.

    December 5, 2011 @ 10:18 pm | Reply
  10. I’m looking for a vps to host seedbox, is it allowed?

    December 8, 2011 @ 6:34 am | Reply
  11. Savikov:

    test:~ # cat a.out
    CPU model : Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2300 CPU @ 2.80GHz
    Number of cores : 2
    CPU frequency : 837.496 MHz
    Total amount of ram : 96 MB
    Total amount of swap : 32 MB
    System uptime : 2:51,
    Download speed from CacheFly: 34.9MB/s
    Download speed from Linode, Atlanta GA: 2.96MB/s
    Download speed from Linode, Dallas, TX: 2.87MB/s
    Download speed from Linode, Tokyo, JP: 2.75MB/s
    Download speed from Linode, London, UK: 45.5MB/s
    Download speed from Leaseweb, Haarlem, NL: 15.2MB/s
    Download speed from Softlayer, Singapore: 6.65MB/s
    Download speed from Softlayer, Seattle, WA: 7.84MB/s
    Download speed from Softlayer, San Jose, CA: 4.74MB/s
    Download speed from Softlayer, Washington, DC: 14.5MB/s
    I/O speed : 98.5 MB/s

    January 5, 2012 @ 2:12 am | Reply
    • o_O what’s that package? 96MB?

      January 5, 2012 @ 2:34 am | Reply
      • Savikov:

        Yes… mVZ 96, but not “128MB Burstable RAM” :(

        January 5, 2012 @ 2:12 pm | Reply
        • Well, if it has vSwap, then it has a better memory management n_n which is good :P

          January 5, 2012 @ 3:50 pm | Reply
        • Just to confirm. All of our OpenVZ VPSes do utilise vSwap.

          NC

          January 5, 2012 @ 3:54 pm | Reply
  12. Savikov:

    The results of download files:
    http://dumpz.org/130029/ 100Mb RU
    http://dumpz.org/130031/ 1Gb UK

    January 5, 2012 @ 2:25 pm | Reply
  13. Alex:

    Just to add to this, I’ve had a terrible experience with them so far, ordered my vps 3 days ago with ‘Instant Setup’ got the invoice email through and nothing else, made a ticket two days ago asking where my VPS was and whether it was being setup, and finally asked for a refund today, I have no had one reply to any of those tickets, and I even emailed the management email, to still no avail, I relise it’s only 3 days, but for ‘Instant Setup’ and ‘Good Support’ this is poor, I’ve never been able to get in touch with one person there, and their Live Support has been constantly offline. Still waiting for my refund, hoping someone will answer at some point.

    January 10, 2012 @ 8:38 pm | Reply
    • Hello Alex,

      We are currently understaffed with our billing department, and they are operating between UK business hours only.

      With a backlog of tickets over our Christmas Holiday, we are working to catch up and reply to all clients.

      We did receive your complaint, and are working to get your ticket ASAP.

      As can be seen in your order, this was a Germany VPS – which our site shows in the “Locational Availability” sections of http://123com.org/vps/openvz and http://123com.org/vps/openvz/micro as “UNAVAILABLE”, and in which case you have been placed on the pre-orders list.

      I understand your frustration, but as you can imagine – over the span of 5 days where billing were offline, there was a build up of tickets from suppliers and customers which have to be dealt with in rotation.

      As of Jan 23, we have employed more staff to deal with tickets, however we have to wait for those to become available.

      We are offering all clients the choice of waiting the short period for space in Germany or a move to France.

      Once again, you receive my sincerest apologies, and we hope to resolve this issue with you soon.

      Thanks,
      Leyton Reed

      January 10, 2012 @ 8:46 pm | Reply
      • Alex:

        As much as I understand being understaffed etc, even an automated ticket or something sent round saying something would have been nice, finding out through here isn’t the best, especially as you replied pretty quickly here.

        I wish you luck and everything on staff and in the future but for now I have moved else ware because of the reason I didn’t know what was happening, thank you though for letting me know!

        Alex

        January 10, 2012 @ 8:50 pm | Reply
        • Obviously Alex, that would be ideal – and there has been a round-robbin sent around, but it is hard to keep newer customers notified of this information.

          As Managing Partner I get notified of replies here, and understandably it makes sense to reply – and as a Support operative, we do maintain a reasonable response time on tickets where at all possible.

          I hope you alternative services suit you well – and we will work any refunds etc when our staff reach your ticket.

          Have a good day.

          Leyton Reed

          January 10, 2012 @ 8:54 pm | Reply
  14. mesi:

    i bought FR vps but i became UK, i have still 3 tickets opened and noone hasanswered why??

    January 14, 2012 @ 4:40 pm | Reply
  15. Alex:

    At my comments above, I still have had no reply to my tickets, no activation and no refund.

    I have actually had another invoice generated for me for the next month, even though my first month has been ignored. This company now seems like a joke to me, this is completely stupid.

    I’d say avoid this company use another recommended one.

    January 25, 2012 @ 2:42 pm | Reply
    • Dear Alex,

      I have been handling the lack of DE server space recently, and all cases which have been opened have been refunded as correctly.

      It seems that the support ticket system and WHMCS handle ‘pre-orders’ quite badly, hence the additional billing.

      It is a shame to hear you want to leave our services, however please feel free to open a new billing ticket and you will be refunded within 14 hours.

      It may have just been that your ticket was auto-closed, and as such, wasn’t refunded; if that is the case, I graciously apologise.

      Thank you for your feedback, I will pass it onto Leyton and Ryan for consideration.

      Faithfully, Asim Shaikh.

      January 25, 2012 @ 5:31 pm | Reply
      • Alex:

        Got a reply saying it’s been forwarded, two days ago, slightly longer than 14 hours.

        I can’t even understand how it can take this long, it’s actually getting near a month ago that I asked for a refund.

        January 28, 2012 @ 10:19 am | Reply
  16. taloot:

    now there website goes down i pay for full year in advanced :(

    January 29, 2012 @ 5:17 pm | Reply
    • Please check the service blog; http://blog.123com.org/post/16700436163

      This was posted across all of our social media platforms.

      There is currently maintenance being undertaken on our root server, which is where our site and billing panel are located.

      We apologise for any inconvenience.

      January 29, 2012 @ 11:32 pm | Reply
    • It would appear my earlier comment has been removed.

      We have had some issues with our ‘root’ server, which hosts our website, billing and support.

      We are restoring them as we speak. You can view information on our services at http://blog.123com.org/ or our socian netowkring accounts:
      @123COMHosting on Twitter, http://facebook.com/123COMHosting

      January 30, 2012 @ 9:18 am | Reply
  17. Arthur:

    Another bad experience.

    Went through all the registration steps, got billing invoice, then was not allowed to pay and my account got tagged as “FRAUD” because my current IP “did not correspond to the billing country”.

    Guess people aren’t allowed to travel…

    February 5, 2012 @ 1:27 pm | Reply
    • Arthur,

      We use the MaxMind fraud system to check every order that goes through as a first order from a customer.

      If you were marked as fraud, you should contact the billing department so we can review the information.

      This is not our fault, that automated fraud detection system sometimes acts a little too harshly.

      Thanks for your feedback.

      Leyton

      February 6, 2012 @ 9:21 am | Reply
      • Arthur:

        Leyton,

        Thanks for your reply, I did open a ticket when this happened.

        If only your billing department were as prompt, I wouldn’t have to post here.

        I’m still waiting for their reply to my ticket.

        February 6, 2012 @ 6:15 pm | Reply
  18. I find it unlikely that if would have been overlooked – but our billing department don’t operate over the weekends.

    Please feel free to use the escalation procedure : email the ID to management[@]…

    Thanks,

    February 6, 2012 @ 6:17 pm | Reply
  19. John V.:

    I just signed up. It flagged my first order as Fraud (bloody MaxMind) it was my fault though as I was routing through a non USA IP at the time.

    Anyway, re-signed up with no issues. Billing system seems to be WHMCS which is nice.

    Box was active in about 2 minutes after signup.

    So far I’m very impressed.

    February 19, 2012 @ 9:25 am | Reply
    • John V.:

      Update: I am not thrilled. The boxes do not appear to be properly configured. Out of 62 VPS’s that I have bought this has been the most uncomfortable start.

      1. Nano not installed. Fine yum install nano. (only ever seen this 1 time before)
      2. IpTables is busted. Who knows what the deal is. The avdertise VPN is allowed. I run a specific script to get VPN setup on CentOS 5 64-bit. I have used it many many times. Never any issues. On here it breaks multiple times due to IP Tables Unknown Error. My senior VPN tech says it’s PROBABLY a poor configuration on the server end.
      3. VPN won’t work. Proper configuration – rejects connection every time. Likely due the IP Tables issue.

      I have opened a ticket with their support. Not a great start.

      February 19, 2012 @ 9:42 am | Reply
      • John V.:

        Update 3: I updated iptables with yum and rebooted the machine. IpTables issue fixed but VPN server just refuses to work on their VPS. Identical servers on Directspace on OpenVZ have 0 issues.

        Dissapointed.

        February 19, 2012 @ 10:14 am | Reply
      • John,

        Thanks for posting your feedback with us.

        Obviously, here is not our support desk, and without your Ticket ID or full information to check your VPS – I cannot resolve your issue from this comment.

        However, our support runs around the clock and you will receive an initial response within 30 minutes of opening your ticket.

        I am confident that one of our representatives will be handling your request shortly.

        I wish you all the best – and feel free to escalate your ticket via the procedure outlined in the initial email if you have any concerns.

        I will be happy to assist.

        Regards,
        Ryan Pannell

        February 19, 2012 @ 10:17 am | Reply
        • John V.:

          Ryan thank you for the response. I didn’t turn to support because I have an unmanaged box. I am pretty good with setting these things up but I am getting insane errors I have never seen on your VPS. I am contacting support now.

          So far 123Com has had:

          1. Fast sign up / activation
          2. Good servers (hardware & speed wise)

          If I can get this worked out I will gladly continue with them.

          February 19, 2012 @ 10:27 am | Reply
  20. John:

    Leyton from management replied to me last night. Asrim fixed my server too. It didn’t meet my needs so they handled it. They have outstanding customer support all hours of the night.

    I’d like to retract my prior comments and give them an outstanding recommendation.

    John

    February 20, 2012 @ 9:55 am | Reply
    • John V.:

      8 day update – Rock on! They moved me to a KVM box in Scranton. I get steady speeds of up to 17 Mbps download. I am thrilled.

      I HIGHLY recommend them, more than anything for their OUTSTANDING support. I will be sure to tell people.

      February 28, 2012 @ 7:54 am | Reply

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