We had an interesting story play out on LowEndTalk recently about OVH and their game server offering.

OVH has really had a powerful offering in this space.  Because of their size and efficiency and massive network, they can offer both cheap VPS systems and DDoS protection, which is crucial in the game server market.  When you see a cheap VPS offer with massive DDoS protection, it’s not that the provider has gone out and contracted with a specialized network company.  They’re just renting OVH dedis.

But recently it turns out that OVH has changed up their offering.  The basic deal was that you bought an OVH dedi with DDoS protection and you got 1gbps.  Back a few years ago, they backed off their “double bandwidth guarantee” and stated their 1gbps bandwidth only promised 500mbps guaranteed.  It’s nice to be able to burst, but if you sell someone a 1gbps pipe, they have a right to expect 1gbps, yet OVH was only promising 500mbps.  This disclosure was buried in their FAQ.

Earlier this year they changed guarantees again.  Now you get 1gbps, but only 250mbps is guaranteed.  LowEndTalk member @jordynegan11 talked to OVH, who replied:

“I talked to our internal teams.  For Game servers, the bandwidth is 1Gbps.  The 250MBps is a display error.”

Alas, patron provider @FlorinMarian (of Hazi.ro) reports this is not the case.  He said

“Just ordered GAME-1 at 115 + VAT/mo and bandwidth was somewhere at 250Mbps with wget from proof.ovh.net.  Had a phone call with OVH support and they said that 1Gbps is not guaranteed even for internal traffic.”

@jordynegan11 went back to OVH and demanded an explanation, and when it didn’t satisfy him, he returned 30 servers to OVH.  Ouch.

OVH really disappoints here.  If you’re going to play in the game server market, then don’t be surprised that people want to use up a lot of bandwidth.  That’s what you’re selling.  This is like opening an all you can eat buffet, then telling people they can only eat off small plates and only go through the line once an hour.  At least in this case, OVH is admitting the limits in their current advertising.

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raindog308

Dread Lord of LowEnd Content at LowEndBox

I'm raindog308, techno polymath and long-time LowEndTalk community Administrator. My technical interests include all things Unix, perl, python, golang, shell scripting, vintage operating systems such as MVS, and relational database systems such as Oracle, PostgreSQL, and MySQL.

I also enjoy using LEBs! I have an empire of little guys for VPNs, larger guys for apps, and big guys for databases and storage. When I'm not in front a screen I'm into German Shepherd dogs, quality knives, target shooting, theology, tabletop roleplaying games, and forest hiking.

I enjoy writing technical articles here on LowEndBox to help people get more out of their systems. You can find me on LowEndTalk @raindog308

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