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Bitcable - $4 256MB KVM VPS in Ashburn VA

Bitcable Preetam from Bitcable emailed me about their anniversary promotion. Bitcable was founded in August 2010, which makes it exactly 1 year old this month. happybirthday! — yes that’s the coupon code that gives you 50% off recurring discount. Corresponding WHT offer here. Their “Tera” plan is now $4/month after the discount. Direct order link.

  • 256MB memory
  • 12GB storage
  • 150GB/month data transfer on 1Gbps
  • KVM/SolusVM

Again, only PayPal is offered as the only payment method. Servers are colocated in Latisys’ Ashburn VA data center (test IP: 209.9.238.4). Nice website — clean and informative. They also seem to take pride in their code, as they aimed to develop their own control panel that’s replacing SolusVM. Terms and Conditions forbids adult content and IRC. 96MB.com did a nice performance review and dug up a bit more info so head over there to check out.

Okay. That’s all the posts for today. Life has been super busy these days. Stressful? No. Just always run short of time.

LEA
Latest posts by LEA (see all)

81 Comments

  1. Pretty good pings to Europe!

    I am tempted, but the bandwith quota is a litle bit low u_u

    August 19, 2011 @ 3:03 pm | Reply
    • Hi there,

      Using top-notch bandwidth providers comes at a cost, and I hope you realize that. We have a great relationship with FastServ, our colocation provider, and I’m doing as much as I can to get better bandwidth pricing.

      Only a couple of our users are using more than 10% of their bandwidth, so you have to think about how much bandwidth you really need.

      Thanks!

      Preetam Jinka
      Founder & President
      Bitcable

      August 19, 2011 @ 4:02 pm | Reply
      • Francisco:

        AS29889 209.9.238.0/24

        39% AS174 Cogent Communications
        28% AS6939 Hurricane Electric, Inc.
        20% AS3356 Level 3 Communications, LLC
        9% AS29944 Latisys-Ashburn, LLC

        August 19, 2011 @ 8:14 pm | Reply
        • The majority of the time I see HE and Level 3.

          August 19, 2011 @ 8:57 pm | Reply
        • Just heard back from Randy @ FastServ and he clarified that Cogent is used in San Diego for a few routes and redundancy.

          August 19, 2011 @ 9:18 pm | Reply
  2. Thanks LEA for putting up another review. Yes, although Preetam seems to be a high school senior, his VPS are definitely rock solid and I guess 1Gbit port is definitely a great selling point there :)

    August 19, 2011 @ 3:15 pm | Reply
    • Your site can’t be accessed from my place : “cloudfare error”

      August 19, 2011 @ 6:07 pm | Reply
      • Joe Fister Filly:

        So which is “your place”? I mean, some of these guys here are ninjas on the console, but I think everybody is laking of a crystal ball.

        August 19, 2011 @ 6:50 pm | Reply
        • @Joe: My guess is Malaysia, but I might be wrong :)

          August 20, 2011 @ 12:21 am | Reply
        • From the language and currency used in the blog, my guess is Indonesia.

          August 20, 2011 @ 3:14 am | Reply
        • @blackhole
          You’re right
          @Joe
          You’re ninja, i’m samurai :D

          August 20, 2011 @ 3:33 am | Reply
      • Is was down for a short while about an hour ago, should be back now, you still having trouble accessing it?

        August 19, 2011 @ 7:59 pm | Reply
  3. William:

    Damn. I want more providers to have such a website. It simply shows to what it comes down to: information, information, information and a little style. Nice.

    August 19, 2011 @ 3:23 pm | Reply
  4. Just a few more comments:

    DASH (our VPS dashboard) is still in development. What we have now is very basic (getting status, boot, shutdown, and poweroff), but we’re making big strides every day. Hopefully we can get something people can try out in a few days :).

    Our (only) VPS node is getting full. Since we own and colocate all of our equipment, it takes a while to get another node. I have yet to receive the tracking number for the new hardware, and shipping from California takes ~4 business days.

    August 19, 2011 @ 4:19 pm | Reply
    • I built a little OpenVZ Panel a year or so back, pretty plain PHP that just uses exec() just as a little hobby.

      However, everyone likes using SolusVM, and it already has great support, so just makes to use it (in my opinion)

      August 19, 2011 @ 5:49 pm | Reply
      • Yes, but…
        1) There are no options to use virtio drivers
        2) Java applet-based VNC (we’re going to use HTML5)
        3) We’re implementing a DNS system as well
        4) SolusVM doesn’t support KVM templates at this time

        August 19, 2011 @ 5:57 pm | Reply
        • Joe Fister Filly:

          Nice features. Keep on developing your own system. I always prefer custom made control panels. It feels like the company does devote to its mission quite more than simply using a pre-made system and putting it above some standard-hardware.

          August 19, 2011 @ 6:28 pm | Reply
        • 1. True
          2. Although Java is yucky (Minecraft as an example), for something simple as a SSH Emulator VNCd, it does a decent job :)
          3. True
          4. Falsish, my KVM platform on SolusVM supports templates, although through literally putting the template in an ISO, then self extracting itself onto the VPS, and rebooting.

          August 19, 2011 @ 6:41 pm | Reply
  5. Out of Stock

    August 20, 2011 @ 12:26 am | Reply
    • Yes. You’ll have to wait until next week.
      I just received the tracking number for the new node, so that’s good.

      We’ll plan things out much better from now on. I didn’t expect the “LowEndBox.com effect” to be at this scale :)

      August 20, 2011 @ 12:30 am | Reply
      • Jonathan:

        Congrats, Hope you go far with this proyect, I will book mark the website for future references.

        August 20, 2011 @ 2:17 am | Reply
      • I love KVM so.

        August 20, 2011 @ 4:13 am | Reply
  6. Out of Stock

    August 20, 2011 @ 2:05 am | Reply
  7. Matt:

    Managed to get in before it went out of stock. Setup was fast and support has been great thus far :)

    August 20, 2011 @ 11:26 am | Reply
  8. bris:

    it’s a great company. quick support even @ odd hours of the day. i’ve had my vps for 2 months. been amazing (i have the 1gb memory kvm). also get 8 virtual cpus with the 1gb memory package.

    have a couple friends getting them also i think.

    August 20, 2011 @ 2:51 pm | Reply
  9. The only host with racing stripes

    ?

    I hope GoDaddy’s attorneys don’t see that….

    August 20, 2011 @ 5:52 pm | Reply
    • Preetam Jinka:

      What would happen if they did? http://goo.gl/qx0Ap
      AFAIK, Bitcable is the only company to use that tagline.

      August 21, 2011 @ 12:25 am | Reply
      • circus:

        Probably a joke, and I think drmike refering to godaddy model.

        August 21, 2011 @ 1:55 am | Reply
  10. Are there any plans on having OpenVZ?

    August 21, 2011 @ 1:47 am | Reply
    • No, KVM is more fun :)

      August 21, 2011 @ 1:48 am | Reply
      • Oh :( why?

        August 21, 2011 @ 5:23 am | Reply
        • Preetam Jinka:

          Well we just felt that the OpenVZ market was too saturated.

          August 21, 2011 @ 5:26 am | Reply
      • Do you have an ETA for the Dash? :) I wanna try BitCable. :)

        August 22, 2011 @ 2:49 am | Reply
        • Don’t worry, we’ll have a public test for Dash. We’re working with a test node that’s colocated at Joe’s data center at the moment, so we won’t break anything on our production nodes.

          I think it’s great that you want to try us out, but unfortunately you do have to wait. You have no idea how often I’m checking the UPS tracking. I’m estimating it’ll be ~50% full the day after we set it up, based on how many emails we’ve been getting!

          Thanks for your interest! It keeps us going every day!

          August 22, 2011 @ 2:59 am | Reply
        • Thanks Preetam! Really nice to hear that. I’d love to test the Dash. :) It’s awesome that you give time in doing custom software development for your hosting services.

          I’ve read the review on 96mb and I can say that it’s pretty fast. Plus I don’t have a VPS on that location yet. :)

          August 22, 2011 @ 7:40 am | Reply
  11. James:

    Critical Error
    Could not connect to the database

    August 24, 2011 @ 8:55 pm | Reply
  12. Ben:

    What about existing customers ?

    August 26, 2011 @ 9:28 am | Reply
  13. He wants to know if that error affected your client database or not.

    August 26, 2011 @ 1:12 pm | Reply
    • MySQL on the client server shut down for some reason, and that was fixed. WHMCS won’t work without MySQL.

      Also, the server will be online sometime today, and we’re excited to have stock available soon.

      August 26, 2011 @ 1:47 pm | Reply
  14. We’re back in stock with our popular 50% off deal.
    http://twitter.com/#!/bitcable/status/107294849560096769

    August 27, 2011 @ 3:36 am | Reply
    • Sonic:

      Ticket Created #542378
      Giving a try, please solve my ticket :)

      August 27, 2011 @ 4:29 am | Reply
      • Ugh, sorry about that. MaxMind is a bit rough. I’ll get you set up.

        August 27, 2011 @ 4:34 am | Reply
        • Sonic:

          Thanks, payment made, waiting for seting up :D

          August 27, 2011 @ 4:51 am | Reply
  15. Carlos G:

    I just signed up. Hopefully the service won’t be affected by Irene.

    August 27, 2011 @ 6:00 am | Reply
  16. Sonic:

    I’m getting bad performance, my vps on Rush node.

    dd if=/dev/zero of=test bs=64k count=16k conv=fdatasync
    16384+0 records in
    16384+0 records out
    1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB) copied, 128.3 seconds, 8.4 MB/s
    
    dd if=/dev/zero of=test bs=64k count=16k conv=fdatasync
    8988+0 records in
    8988+0 records out
    589037568 bytes (589 MB) copied, 67.3985 seconds, 8.7 MB/s
    
    Benchmark Run: Sat Aug 27 2011 11:35:32 - 12:03:55
    2 CPUs in system; running 2 parallel copies of tests
    
    Dhrystone 2 using register variables       34858554.2 lps   (10.0 s, 7 samples)
    Double-Precision Whetstone                     5733.3 MWIPS (10.0 s, 7 samples)
    Execl Throughput                               9892.3 lps   (29.9 s, 2 samples)
    File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks        203428.6 KBps  (30.0 s, 2 samples)
    File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks           58005.6 KBps  (30.0 s, 2 samples)
    File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks        610679.8 KBps  (30.0 s, 2 samples)
    Pipe Throughput                             1948889.4 lps   (10.0 s, 7 samples)
    Pipe-based Context Switching                 598397.2 lps   (10.0 s, 7 samples)
    Process Creation                              44204.9 lps   (30.0 s, 2 samples)
    Shell Scripts (1 concurrent)                  12567.3 lpm   (60.0 s, 2 samples)
    Shell Scripts (8 concurrent)                   2057.9 lpm   (60.0 s, 2 samples)
    System Call Overhead                        1826321.8 lps   (10.0 s, 7 samples)
    
    System Benchmarks Index Values               BASELINE       RESULT    INDEX
    Dhrystone 2 using register variables         116700.0   34858554.2   2987.0
    Double-Precision Whetstone                       55.0       5733.3   1042.4
    Execl Throughput                                 43.0       9892.3   2300.5
    File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks          3960.0     203428.6    513.7
    File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks            1655.0      58005.6    350.5
    File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks          5800.0     610679.8   1052.9
    Pipe Throughput                               12440.0    1948889.4   1566.6
    Pipe-based Context Switching                   4000.0     598397.2   1496.0
    Process Creation                                126.0      44204.9   3508.3
    Shell Scripts (1 concurrent)                     42.4      12567.3   2964.0
    Shell Scripts (8 concurrent)                      6.0       2057.9   3429.9
    System Call Overhead                          15000.0    1826321.8   1217.5
                                                                       ========
    System Benchmarks Index Score                                        1507.9
    
    
    August 27, 2011 @ 7:47 am | Reply
    • I’m working on it :)

      August 27, 2011 @ 11:30 am | Reply
    • Since we’ve been getting emails about this, I would just like to point out that this was an isolated incident. There’s nothing wrong with the node.

      August 27, 2011 @ 4:20 pm | Reply
      • Sonic:

        Really thanks for your helps, very nice support, i’m getting nice performance now

        [root@localhost ~]# dd if=/dev/zero of=test bs=64k count=16k conv=fdatasync
        16384+0 records in
        16384+0 records out
        1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB) copied, 6.78738 seconds, 158 MB/s
        August 27, 2011 @ 5:08 pm | Reply
  17. Anyone want to chat? #bitcable on freenode (http://webchat.freenode.net/)
    I’ve been helping out with some activations there today, and I’m willing to answer any support/sales questions as well.

    August 27, 2011 @ 1:14 pm | Reply
  18. n0n4m3:

    I have a question. How long normally does it take to activate a new VPS after payment has been made to Paypal? Is it instant automatic setup or it requires technical support intervention?

    August 31, 2011 @ 8:42 pm | Reply
    • We’ve been activating manually. We can’t do automatic setups since we use the virtio drivers and SolusVM has no options for those yet.

      Depending on when you order, you’ll be activated anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. We never take more than a few hours.

      September 1, 2011 @ 4:15 pm | Reply
  19. Ville:
    root@va:~# wget cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.test
    --2011-09-18 16:40:07--  http://cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.test
    Resolving cachefly.cachefly.net... 205.234.175.175
    Connecting to cachefly.cachefly.net|205.234.175.175|:80... connected.
    HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
    Length: 104857600 (100M) [application/octet-stream]
    Saving to: â100mb.testâ
    
    100%[======================================>] 104,857,600 51.0M/s   in 2.0s
    
    2011-09-18 16:40:09 (51.0 MB/s) - â100mb.testâ

    Wow! i/o is also awesome 120MB/s+

    September 18, 2011 @ 7:46 pm | Reply
  20. surlyjake:

    the purchase link goes to a $8/month plan. Is the deal over?

    September 22, 2011 @ 2:42 am | Reply
  21. So far, i’m happy with the VPS.

    But, the price is too low. I’m affraid they will go to dead pool in next few months.

    September 30, 2011 @ 2:14 am | Reply
    • False. Moving to a full rack mid-October.

      September 30, 2011 @ 2:15 am | Reply
      • So, you will have your own rack?

        Happy to hear that :)

        September 30, 2011 @ 2:21 am | Reply
      • Carlos G:

        Hopefully within the same datacenter. The service has been awesome so far.

        September 30, 2011 @ 2:54 am | Reply
  22. asf:

    ..any new coupon? :D

    October 4, 2011 @ 12:15 am | Reply
  23. circus:

    Their new dash preview -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euWwVztw090 (from twitter)
    now.. if only there is a new promo code.. haha..

    October 18, 2011 @ 9:02 am | Reply
    • From Preetam’s last email to me, “racingStripes” seems to work. Give that a try?

      October 18, 2011 @ 9:05 am | Reply
      • No dice: “The promotion code entered has expired”

        October 18, 2011 @ 9:29 am | Reply
    • Yeah, except the frontend looks terrible right now :)

      We’re working on automated OS reloads right now.

      October 18, 2011 @ 10:08 am | Reply
  24. Well, first fail after several months of service, I am amazed. Just was like 8 mins of downtime or maybe less, probably a panic or sth like that.

    Probably my most stable box :P

    January 4, 2012 @ 11:19 pm | Reply
    • snape:

      I’m quite impressed with them, too. Nice network, and substantially better i/o performance than UrgentVPS, as well.

      January 4, 2012 @ 11:35 pm | Reply
    • We had to change our libvirt configuration a bit to roll out some of the Dash backend.
      It’s very Linode-esque :P

      January 4, 2012 @ 11:47 pm | Reply
      • Dash… is your custom panel?

        January 4, 2012 @ 11:48 pm | Reply
        • Yeah. It was supposed to just be a new frontend to SolusVM, but we decided to start completely from scratch…

          1. Automated OS installs (it’s working great so far)
          2. Totally custom built frontend and backend
          3. DNS cluster, and DNS management will be super easy through Dash.
          4. Out-of-band console
          5. Integrated billing system
          6. Public and private networking (private network BW is not billed, of course)
          7. IPv6

          A lot of work has already been completed, but we still have lots to do. 2012 will be a fun year :)

          January 4, 2012 @ 11:57 pm | Reply
        • Carlos G:

          I saw the last youtube video explaining the features Dash will have and it sounds great, I can’t wait to try it out.

          I also had about 8 min of downtime, however the service has been great over the months.

          January 5, 2012 @ 2:09 am | Reply
  25. Dino:

    Any new promotion for lowendbox?

    January 29, 2012 @ 6:09 pm | Reply

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