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XenVZ - £1.30 128MB Xen VPS in UK

XenVZ Sean from XenVZ recently emailed me their very first LowEndBox special. They have been featured here many times since December 2008, and had pretty good reception amongst the community here, which makes it hard to believe that this one is actually their first exclusive special. The Xen VPS package “LowEndXen 2012” can be had for £1.30/month (~USD$2.01) although longer billing period would get slightly more discount. Direct signup link here. You get

  • 128MB memory
  • 2.5GB storage
  • 20GB/month data transfer on 40Mbps
  • Xen/Custom VM

Servers might get deployed to their old datacentre, RapidSwitch in UK (test IP: 95.154.254.253), or their new datacentre (which I can’t seem to be able to find info about). As I have previously stated, they have been on LowEndBox for more than 3 years now, and XenVZ have been in business for more than 4 years. They have much expansion recently with new racks in a second datacentre in UK and became a full RIPE NCC member. They are using their own control panel integrated with their own billing system. It’s not pretty but very functional. I have actually been a customer of XenVZ for about a year and was very happy with their service.

While their servers have 100/1000Mbps ports, “LowEndXen 2012” is port limited to 40Mbps to ensure fair distribution of bandwidth. I doubt you need more though, since you’ll easily chew up your 20GB monthly quota. For those looking for higher plans, I found their Christmas offers are still available with 512MB Xen VPS + 250GB/month for £3.75/month. Some other points that Sean wishes to mention:

  • Since these are rock bottom price, no technical assistance beyond control panel provided by them, i.e. you are on your own once you are on the command prompt.
  • Be considerate when you think about asking for refund, especially when providers are already having tiny margin on these plans.
LEA
Latest posts by LEA (see all)

103 Comments

  1. Gold:

    Highly recommended. Got a 48mb ram vps from them a few years ago and it works perfectly.

    January 6, 2012 @ 2:04 pm | Reply
  2. Amfy:

    It seems to be a nice and cheap vps, has anonye ordered one, yet and can give us a short speedtest, cpu cores, etc?

    January 6, 2012 @ 2:37 pm | Reply
    • Spirit:

      I posted it here http://www.lowendtalk.com/discussion/comment/20143#Comment_20143 but it’s from their £6/6 months 96MB OpenVZ/Xen VPS offer.

      Rapidswitch location:

      CPU model : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU L5410 @ 2.33GHz
      Number of cores : 2
      CPU frequency : 2333.332 MHz
      Total amount of ram : 86 MB
      Total amount of swap : 127 MB
      Download speed : (11.0MB/s)
      I/O speed : 78.9MB/s

      Newcastle location:

      CPU model : Dual Core AMD Opteron(tm) Processor 280
      Number of cores : 2
      CPU frequency : 2392.536 MHz
      Total amount of ram : 86 MB
      Total amount of swap : 127 MB
      Download speed : (3.46MB/s)
      I/O speed : 63.4MB/s

      January 6, 2012 @ 2:44 pm | Reply
  3. Spirit:

    Imho. XenVZ custom control panel beats solusVM in every aspect. It’s incredible good and feature rich. Their new DC is in Newcastle – wildcard.net.uk routing. I have slightly higher ping (from Europe) than to their RapidSwitch vps.
    You can’t go wrong with this host.

    January 6, 2012 @ 2:41 pm | Reply
  4. Robert Walker:

    £2 per month for 256Mb available from the WHT post

    https://clients.openitc.co.uk/order/product/239

    January 6, 2012 @ 2:47 pm | Reply
    • Robert Walker:

      Hmm, that said, my new VPS is not contactable. I’ve tried rebooting and also reinstalling with no effect. They don’t seem to have a proper ticketing system, so I emailed them a 2-3 hours ago and no response yet. Not great considering they’re UK based. I’d at least expect some sort of acknowledgement within half a business day…

      January 6, 2012 @ 5:22 pm | Reply
      • You got anything back yet robert?

        January 6, 2012 @ 6:33 pm | Reply
      • Gold:

        Why you should except an email response in 2-3 hours? Patience man you don’t loose anything to wait.

        January 6, 2012 @ 6:36 pm | Reply
        • Robert Walker:

          I don’t think it’s too much to ask for at least an acknowledgement email within half a working day. Especially for a complete lack of service issue.

          That said, I do feel slightly bad about posting that as in honesty I’m paying very little for what will undoubtably be a very good VPS. I love the fact that I could even choose which node to deploy my VPS on, and could see the hardware of each and roughly how many other VPS’s were on it.

          January 7, 2012 @ 2:39 pm | Reply
        • Robert Walker:

          I don’t think it’s too much to ask for at least an acknowledgement email within half a working day. Especially for a complete lack of service issue.

          That said, I do feel slightly bad about posting that as in honesty I’m paying very little for what will undoubtedly be a very good VPS. I love the fact that I could even choose which node to deploy my VPS on, and could see the hardware of each and roughly how many other VPS’s were on it.

          January 7, 2012 @ 2:40 pm | Reply
      • FWIW, I’ve been having issues with US->UK connectivity today. There’s a thread about it on LowEndTalk too, so I’m guessing it might not be an isolated issue.

        January 6, 2012 @ 7:00 pm | Reply
        • Hi Guys,

          Very sorry about that. One of the newer servers available for provisioning had iptables set up to DROP all forwarded packets. I have corrected this so things should spring back to life right now…

          Regards,
          Sean McRobbie
          OpenITC.co.uk

          January 6, 2012 @ 7:46 pm | Reply
    • labijo:

      Is this offer available in wildcard DC?

      January 7, 2012 @ 2:00 pm | Reply
      • Yes, all of our packages right now are available in either DC. You get to make the choice of datacentre and server shortly after you have paid your invoice. Right now our servers at Wildcard are pretty full. We’re just waiting on replacement RAID controllers for some R415s to arrive before visiting the DC to bring more servers online. Right now it’s looking at about 10 days away.

        January 8, 2012 @ 9:26 am | Reply
  5. Chris:

    Your not on your own. I purchased a server this afternoon and have exactly the same issue. Thought perhaps it was something strange up with my internet access but obviously not.

    January 6, 2012 @ 6:00 pm | Reply
  6. Ordered a 512mb in Maidenhead to do some Xen testing, was provisioned but no access to SSH, maybe a different SSH port but if so there’s no information anywhere to let me know, even their ‘recovery console’ SSH isn’t open on the port THEY specify.

    Custom control panel or not, it’s useless if the service doesn’t work.

    January 6, 2012 @ 6:32 pm | Reply
    • will:

      Same problem here and wile fine with no support but I can’t even see a report node button

      January 6, 2012 @ 6:48 pm | Reply
  7. Robert Walker:

    All working now, thanks Sean.

    January 6, 2012 @ 8:01 pm | Reply
  8. I’ve had a small OpenVZ instance with these guys for nearly 2 years – very cheap and no problems.

    I’ve used several VPS providers and they are one of the best budget providers out there. Had no problems at all that I can recall.

    Just snapped one of these up in addition to my old one!

    Ian

    January 6, 2012 @ 8:45 pm | Reply
  9. Hi Guys,

    Just a quick update to say I noticed the test IP in the post is old.

    For ping tests you may use:

    149.255.96.39 – RapidSwitch, Maidenhead
    149.255.100.71 – Wildcard Networks, Newcastle

    Thanks!

    Regards,
    Sean McRobbie
    OpenITC.co.uk

    January 6, 2012 @ 10:12 pm | Reply
  10. birdie25:

    XenVZ, y u no use SolusVM? :(

    January 6, 2012 @ 11:28 pm | Reply
  11. We wrote our own panel… what do you need SolusVM for?

    January 6, 2012 @ 11:37 pm | Reply
    • birdie25:

      Your own panel seems a bit, old. A new skin would be refreshing!

      January 7, 2012 @ 1:36 am | Reply
      • Spirit:

        So skin (cosmetic detail) which isn’t even that bad and I really like it bothers you here instead functionality? :-) Or you just complaining for the sake of complaining.
        I have yet to see better custom control than this one from LEB featured hosts. It outperform some solusVM in every aspect.

        January 7, 2012 @ 2:10 am | Reply
        • You’ve nailed it. Really, design is an after thought – features come first! It’s just a bunch of buttons really I don’t think it could be made any simpler. It’s just a bunch of buttons really.

          Is the design really that bad anyway? I mean sure it’s dark but it has sort of rolled over from a really old website design at http://www.ikhost.net/

          With that said we have started to add needless ‘shine’ lately such as AJAX which of course is entirely optional. For an incomplete demo video see http://seanmcr.co.uk/new_vps_manager.avi

          January 7, 2012 @ 2:59 am | Reply
      • God, worst comentary ever… aesthetics? ¬¬

        January 7, 2012 @ 5:21 am | Reply
  12. Petar:

    Sean I have a question – is it possible to choose some addons like more traffic, ram, etc after a few months in case I need that stuff?

    January 6, 2012 @ 11:43 pm | Reply
  13. Ben:

    is a test download available?

    January 7, 2012 @ 1:46 am | Reply
  14. Hmmm.. I have tried replying a few times but it seems to be caught by some anti-spam filter. As I’m not sure which bit is causing it I’ll have to split it into multiple posts.

    Maidenhead DC speed test @ http://www.xenvz.co.uk/test50mb.bin but might be a bit iffy right now as we’re waiting on replacement RAID controllers (firmware issues).

    No speedtest at Newcastle however a customer ran a test from his co-located machines a while back: http://www.speedtest.net/result/1551337337.png

    January 7, 2012 @ 3:23 am | Reply
    • Ben:

      cool 50mb test download worked fine from multiple international destinations, around 4mb/sec to most, 2mb/sec to a couple. and less than 1mb/sec to the two openbsd boxes i have (which doesn’t use large window sizes if timestamps are disabled, so may be due to server config)

      i would be keen for test download in newcastle too though. speedtest results only show what local speeds are like.. and far away places are where transit varies more, and pauses etc can happen

      January 7, 2012 @ 4:32 am | Reply
      • 4mb/s and 2mb/s! I’m quite surprised it’s that low as RapidSwitch have an excellent network.

        We simply don’t have a webserver in Newcastle right now. Just co-location, dedicated servers and VPS. The admin machines are just 4x low power HP microserver and thanks to LUKS disk encryption they don’t really have the horsepower required for speed tests. They were only put in service for DNS, Backup MX etc…

        I have ran download tests on one of the admin machines, though: http://pastebin.com/aUCY4LBb

        January 7, 2012 @ 5:33 am | Reply
        • Ben:

          i do mean megabytes/sec not megabits…

          it could just be the cross section of sites i tried from, like i tried from other servers to that top link…

          uk:

          # wget -O /dev/null http://download.thinkbroadband.com/50MB.zip
          --2012-01-07 18:49:26--  http://download.thinkbroadband.com/50MB.zip
          Resolving download.thinkbroadband.com (download.thinkbroadband.com)... 80.249.99.148
          Connecting to download.thinkbroadband.com (download.thinkbroadband.com)|80.249.99.148|:80... connected.
          HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
          Length: 52428800 (50M) [application/zip]
          Saving to: `/dev/null'
          
          100%[==========================================>] 52,428,800  10.6M/s   in 5.0s
          

          chicago:

          #  wget -O /dev/null http://78.46.72.41/100mb.test
          --2012-01-07 18:50:38--  http://78.46.72.41/100mb.test
          Connecting to 78.46.72.41:80... connected.
          HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
          Length: 104857600 (100M) [application/x-tar]
          Saving to: `/dev/null'
          
          100%[======================================>] 104,857,600 2.85M/s   in 34s
          

          pretty much as long as can do 2megabytes/sec international on a single connection then it’s pretty good.. even with gigabit connectivity i’ve found long distance transfers can be variable.

          January 7, 2012 @ 5:57 am | Reply
  15. (continued)

    I have ran a speed test and a traceroute from a Newcastle server.

    –2012-01-07 03:13:51– http://mirrors.coreix.net/centos/6/isos/x86_64/CentOS-6.2-x86_64-netinstall.iso
    Resolving mirrors.coreix.net… 85.13.241.50, 2a01:c0:2:3d::2
    Connecting to mirrors.coreix.net|85.13.241.50|:80… connected.
    HTTP request sent, awaiting response… 200 OK
    Length: 238026752 (227M) [application/octet-stream]
    Saving to: â/dev/nullâ

    100%[============================================================================================================>] 238,026,752 48.0M/s in 4.9s

    2012-01-07 03:13:55 (46.3 MB/s) – “/dev/null”

    January 7, 2012 @ 3:24 am | Reply
  16. (continued… turns out it is the traceroute causing problems with LEB spam filter so I will post it without resolving any hostnames)

    traceroute to mirrors.coreix.net (85.13.241.50), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
    1 * * *
    2 149.255.100.1 0.948 ms 1.268 ms 1.499 ms
    3 77.95.34.12 0.158 ms 0.173 ms 0.174 ms
    4 82.138.235.98 4.315 ms 4.348 ms 4.323 ms
    5 82.138.235.4 4.606 ms 4.594 ms 4.555 ms
    6 212.121.34.72 5.205 ms 5.145 ms 5.115 ms
    7 87.127.236.109 11.819 ms 11.722 ms 11.801 ms
    8 87.127.236.42 11.913 ms 11.863 ms 11.697 ms
    9 87.127.236.86 11.981 ms 11.974 ms 11.958 ms
    10 87.127.236.94 11.712 ms 11.932 ms 11.855 ms
    11 188.39.11.203 13.083 ms 13.050 ms 13.021 ms
    12 89.187.93.136 13.212 ms 12.870 ms 13.710 ms
    13 * * *

    January 7, 2012 @ 3:26 am | Reply
  17. I just bought one, with 256MB memory.
    And just provisioned it with Debian 5 64bit.
    All are instant. Maybe I will give it a try.

    210:~# cat /proc/cpuinfo
    processor       : 0
    vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
    cpu family      : 6
    model           : 23
    model name      : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU           E5420  @ 2.50GHz
    stepping        : 6
    cpu MHz         : 2493.750
    cache size      : 6144 KB
    physical id     : 0
    siblings        : 1
    core id         : 0
    cpu cores       : 1
    fpu             : yes
    fpu_exception   : yes
    cpuid level     : 10
    wp              : yes
    flags           : fpu tsc msr pae cx8 apic cmov pat clflush acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht syscall nx lm constant_tsc pni vmx est ssse3 cx16 sse4_1 lahf_lm
    bogomips        : 6236.68
    clflush size    : 64
    cache_alignment : 64
    address sizes   : 38 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
    power management:
    
    processor       : 1
    vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
    cpu family      : 6
    model           : 23
    model name      : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU           E5420  @ 2.50GHz
    stepping        : 6
    cpu MHz         : 2493.750
    cache size      : 6144 KB
    physical id     : 1
    siblings        : 1
    core id         : 0
    cpu cores       : 1
    fpu             : yes
    fpu_exception   : yes
    cpuid level     : 10
    wp              : yes
    flags           : fpu tsc msr pae cx8 apic cmov pat clflush acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht syscall nx lm constant_tsc pni vmx est ssse3 cx16 sse4_1 lahf_lm
    bogomips        : 6236.68
    clflush size    : 64
    cache_alignment : 64
    address sizes   : 38 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
    power management:
    
    210:~# cat /proc/meminfo
    MemTotal:       262144 kB
    MemFree:         26936 kB
    Buffers:         11744 kB
    Cached:         174640 kB
    SwapCached:          0 kB
    Active:         104184 kB
    Inactive:        87560 kB
    HighTotal:           0 kB
    HighFree:            0 kB
    LowTotal:       262144 kB
    LowFree:         26936 kB
    SwapTotal:      262136 kB
    SwapFree:       262136 kB
    Dirty:               0 kB
    Writeback:           0 kB
    AnonPages:        5356 kB
    Mapped:           5768 kB
    Slab:            22220 kB
    PageTables:       1024 kB
    NFS_Unstable:        0 kB
    Bounce:              0 kB
    CommitLimit:    393208 kB
    Committed_AS:    44552 kB
    VmallocTotal: 34359738367 kB
    VmallocUsed:       328 kB
    VmallocChunk: 34359738039 kB
    </pre<
    
    
    210:~# wget http://cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.bin
    --2012-01-07 03:36:54--  http://cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.bin
    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: `100mb.bin'
    
    100%[======================================>] 104,857,600 11.2M/s   in 9.9s
    
    2012-01-07 03:37:05 (10.1 MB/s) - `100mb.bin' saved [104857600/104857600]
    
    January 7, 2012 @ 3:42 am | Reply
  18. the test file 50 mb one gives me only 40 KB to 80 KB/s download speed.
    Too slow for my likening.

    January 7, 2012 @ 5:47 am | Reply
    • tommy:

      hmmmm it’s better if you using another nickname :)

      January 7, 2012 @ 12:41 pm | Reply
  19. good price and offer but too bad irc not allowed :(

    January 7, 2012 @ 7:49 am | Reply
    • Spirit:

      Actually it is. All you need to do is to ask them about and then not cause any problems. From their FAQ:

      Do you allow adult hosting, IRC, VPN, TeamSpeak, Ventrillo, torrents, forums and proxy sites?

      Absolutely! It’s your VPS, so you are free to do what you like with it as long as it complies with UK and your local laws. (Yes, we do know our ToS states no IRC, though we do allow it on request…)

      http://www.xenvz.co.uk/faq.php

      January 7, 2012 @ 11:08 am | Reply
  20. Brian Hare:

    I was a bit confused that XenVZ is a front for OpenITC. With that said I like the OpenITC custom panel, though it’s new to me so a little bit confusing at first.

    I paid with paypal and got access to the panel right away, but the VPS wasn’t created yet. I had to use their password they emailed me and I expect a chance to change the password upon login, but nope. Infact I didn’t find a way to change the password besides “requesting” a password change sent to my email.

    Back to the VPS, I had to go into the panel and provision the VPS, as its not automatically created. Upon provisioning I was given the choice to pick a server location (I wish they had USA servers, but they showed me what the host node contained hardware wise as far as RAM and HDD) an IP (I love that I got to pick my IP), and finally many choices for OS and platform (Xen or OpenVZ).

    Provisioning didn’t take long and then I had to power on the VPS (Which is new to me because normally after provisioning it’s auto on). I hit power on and was given the message “Updating VPS configuration. This may take a few minutes.” waiting for about 2-3 minutes but it still had not powered on, I checked the status as was given a useful message:

    “Our systems are still processing your previous request “Power on VPS: vps2980.vm” or it did not complete successfully. You may clear this lock should you wish to perform this action anyway. Please note this can be dangerous if you do not know what you are doing. Our locks are designed to prevent any damage to your service if something unexpected occurs – we cannot be held responsible if you clear a lock and something bad happens.”

    Curiously at this point since it’s new I could just reinstall the OS if I mess up so I delete the lock file and check status again. It says VPS is offline, so once again I hit power up. This time after a minute or so it came back with the message “Error executing command. Contact support.”

    At this point I knew something wen’t wrong and figured rather than contacting support I would just reload the OS. I had to first delete the lock file again and then proceeded to choose my OS and reload. The page seem to not fully load while it was install the OS (Perhaps a flush would be needed). After about 30 seconds of page waiting it finally installed the OS and gave me a new random root password. I tried to SSH into it again but nothing, checked the status and found the VPS is offline. I hit power up and was given the “Updating VPS configuration. This may take a few minutes.” This time I figured i’d be more patient and let it boot up for 10 minutes. Checked status was again and still attempting to turn on.

    Given that I got so much customization and I had to manually provision and turn the VPS on for the first time I almost felt like I mistakenly got into some sort of admin panel. I applaud their ability to design a custom interface/panel and I am OK about the setup issues I was having. I will update what happens next.

    January 7, 2012 @ 3:07 pm | Reply
    • Brian Hare:

      Apparently hitting “Reboot” fixed my issue. I am not sure why just using power on wasn’t working. I am all good now though.

      January 7, 2012 @ 3:16 pm | Reply
      • Petar:

        Well I got through this as well, except for the “deleting the lock file” part. My account was created, I set my VPS, waited < 1 minute and now the bird is up and running. No problems with the power button either :)

        January 7, 2012 @ 4:27 pm | Reply
    • In short: You didn’t wait long enough.

      Long description:

      I see you managed to resolve it on your own. It sounds like you simply didn’t give it enough time. If you clear the lock file you allow executing more than one action at once against your VPS which can lead to things breaking. The clear lock file functionality should never be used – it is intended only for where there is a genuine communication timeout really.

      Some nodes can take longer than others to provision and/or power on VPS for a number of reasons. On some older setups the OS templates and modules are on an encrypted root partition so can take significantly longer due to the fact we wrap the command in ‘nice’. After realising this we changed things on newer nodes and instead we now create separate mount points for the OS templates and modules bypassing disk encryption. Also, the modules folder we rsync from grows larger on servers over time so again older servers may take a long time. We do clear old modules out where we can however sometimes it is just not

      Other points you brought up:

      – Password changes are possible in the “My Preferences” section. Like you said though it does send out a confirmation link to your e-mail address for security purposes.
      – We do have US servers but they are currently full. We concentrate on UK services really.
      – Automatic power on isn’t in order just for one reason alone: to allow you to configure your VPS first though I have to admit only hostname is applicable here. I suppose we could add a check box allowing you to automatically power it on.

      January 7, 2012 @ 8:03 pm | Reply
      • Spirit:

        Actually it’s good idea, from security aspect, that newly created VSP isn’t online by default but need to be powered manually.
        I prefer to update, secure, etc… newly provisioned vps immediately when it come online but with SolusVM and other control panels sometimes this isn’t possible because VPS appear online automaticly as soon is provisioned and I am not always at home or have time to do neccesary things right away.
        In this case I prefer that new non secured vps come online when I decide to instead automaticly by default as SolusVm do. It’s not that hard to push this POWER ON button and then wait few seconds once I decide that I want new VPS online.

        January 7, 2012 @ 11:31 pm | Reply
        • Brian Hare:

          I agree to that I just mentioned it because I wasn’t use to it. In fact after provisioning I tried to SSH into the box and was wondering why it wouldn’t connect. I had to read the directions carefully which stated plainly something like “once provisioned, just power the VPS on.”

          January 8, 2012 @ 12:00 am | Reply
  21. Pascal:

    Why has XenVZ become so cheap lately? Prices are dropping everywhere, but XenVZ prices are getting really cheap now (£3,75 for 512MB, while their regular 128MB plan costs £5). Big discounts like this always hit me as being desperate to get more customers… Not a good sign usually.

    January 7, 2012 @ 5:58 pm | Reply
    • Pascal, it’s simply because we can. We would have these on permanent offer were it not for the fact they are very time consuming for the margins involved. From a business perspective we’re effectively buying market share :)

      January 7, 2012 @ 8:08 pm | Reply
  22. Simplyfast:

    I actually was their client for a couple days.
    Very usable control panel, fast email support.
    I was also fully refunded with no problems, when I’ve changed my mind and realised that I don’t need this VPS at this time.
    Very recommended provider, next time I’ll need another box, I’ll definately buy it from them.

    January 7, 2012 @ 7:24 pm | Reply
  23. ZAY:

    Hello Sean,

    Just messaged you regarding the issue we discussed yesterday, let me know what you think. Thanks!

    January 7, 2012 @ 9:08 pm | Reply
    • Hello,

      Unfortunately I cannot match up your name to who you are and what we were discussing. You’ll need to get in touch with us directly so I can deal with your issue. If it is not a pre-sales question please ensure to include your account number and security phrase on all communication.

      January 8, 2012 @ 12:48 am | Reply
  24. Venu:

    Do you allow TUN/TAP so OpenVPN can be used?

    January 8, 2012 @ 5:13 am | Reply
    • Yes we do. However if you want NAT then you’ll need to choose one of our Xen packages.

      January 8, 2012 @ 5:34 am | Reply
  25. Miguel Ângelo Santos Pereira / MrGeneral:

    I recommend XenVZ for any needs, folks, I own 2 VPS there :-)

    January 9, 2012 @ 1:43 am | Reply
  26. James:

    Just taken a VM and set it up with a Xen package. Any chance you can add some 32bit images? Debian 6 32bit would be good please.

    January 11, 2012 @ 4:41 pm | Reply
  27. Todd:

    I ordered a XEN VPS from them but it does not let me provision it, they are showing blank in the drop down for host nodes. I contacted support 6-7 hours ago and still no email.

    They need live support, or at least answer their emails.

    January 12, 2012 @ 8:04 pm | Reply
    • Hi Todd,

      I actually replied to your e-mails a good few hours before you posted here. Please double check the e-mail address you supplied is correct plus your spam box too.

      For convenience, here are my two replies:

      “Apologies for the trouble. We reached capacity across all of our servers today which lead to the blank list.

      I have managed to reclaim a lot of space from some expired/disused VPS which should resolve the problem for you now :)”

      “Apologies for the delay. We have been working our hardest to bring new servers online as fast as we can. As I mentioned in my previous e-mail there should be enough room right now :)”

      Regards,
      Sean McRobbie
      OpenITC.co.uk

      January 13, 2012 @ 7:13 am | Reply
      • Todd:

        Sorry about that Sean,

        lowendbox.com must of automatically had my IP marked as spam and needed manually approved as I posted to this website 8-9 hours before it actually posed.

        None the less as soon as xenvps/openITC was aware of the issue they cleared away some unused servers and I had a choice of a good 7 or so host nodes. So the problem was taken care of, no issues since.

        I still recommend them, just wish they had a live chat

        January 13, 2012 @ 9:30 am | Reply
        • Ah, I hadn’t realised LEB did that sorry.

          I wrote a live chat application a good few years ago which was very well received however it relied to heavily on client-side scripting of our staff IRC clients and eggdrop scripts. Sadly I decided to shut it down until my new IRC client of choice (Quassel) supports scripting.

          In the mean time you can still reach us at #xenvz on irc.trueirc.net :)

          Regards,
          Sean McRobbie
          OpenITC.co.uk

          January 13, 2012 @ 9:42 am | Reply
  28. Todd:

    Their “LowEndXen 2012: 128MB RAM, 2.5GB space, 20GB monthly data transfer @ £1.30 GBP per 1 month(s)” deal ended up costing me £2.03 GBP.

    January 12, 2012 @ 8:07 pm | Reply
    • Hello,

      This is because we run a pro-rated system. If you order within the first 7 days of the month you are charged for just part of that month. After 7 days you are charged for part of that month plus the next full month. This is so all of our invoices run on the 1st of the month.

      We explain it in detail on both the order form and e-mails our system sends out.

      For example:

      “Chosen product:

      LowEndXen 2012: 128MB RAM, 2.5GB space, 20GB monthly data transfer @ £1.30 GBP per 1 month(s)

      Initial invoice due immediately (estimate):

      £1.99 GBP (Period: 47 Days, 13-Jan-2012 – 29-Feb-2012)
      TOTAL: £1.99 GBP

      After which total per 1 month(s):

      £1.30 GBP per 1 month(s)”

      Hope this helps clarify.

      Regards,
      Sean McRobbie
      OpenITC.co.uk

      January 13, 2012 @ 7:16 am | Reply
    • Hmmm… prorata?

      January 13, 2012 @ 7:16 am | Reply
  29. Yeah, How the hell do you provision your VPS? There is no available nodes.

    January 19, 2012 @ 6:01 pm | Reply
    • Amfy:

      Oh, yes I have seen that, too – damn day, lowendadmin will exit, this doesn’t work… and so on :P

      January 19, 2012 @ 6:42 pm | Reply
    • Joe Merit:

      I had that problem too, but did not have to wait very long for some available slots/nodes to open up (later in the day I had my choice of about 6 different nodes I could have put my vps on)

      January 19, 2012 @ 7:26 pm | Reply
    • Spirit:

      Sean is working on that. He said at IRC:

      [20:55] i do kno
      [20:55] hence the two trips to the DC this week
      [20:56] sadly the first trip was unsuccessful
      [20:57] anyone mind mentioning 2-6 additional machines ~128GB RAM will be online tonight?
      [20:57] would be appreciated :)

      January 19, 2012 @ 8:03 pm | Reply
      • Hello everyone,

        So sorry about the empty host node list at the provision stage. There has been so much demand we have really struggled to keep up! As Spirit has mentioned I am on my way back from the datacentre now having racked up a bunch of additional machines. There will definitely be one server online (xens05) tonight, maybe two (xens02). We’re hoping servers xens03, xens04, xens06, xens07 and xens08 will also be available from tomorrow with a nice little surprise ;)

        Servers xend01, xend02, xend03 and xend04 will remain unconfigured (but racked up!) for now.

        Again, I am extremely sorry for the delay here but the alternative would be to close off this special offer to new customers… we wouldn’t want to do that to you!

        P.s. If you have signed up but were unable to provision and you absolutely could not wait you may contact us for a refund.

        Regards,
        Sean McRobbie
        OpenITC.co.uk

        January 19, 2012 @ 8:19 pm | Reply
        • Actually, a few days ago I did disable the order URL. I will re-enable signups shortly :)

          January 19, 2012 @ 8:21 pm | Reply
        • Hello,

          Just a short update to this is now resolved and we have re-enabled the order URL too :)

          Regards,
          Sean McRobbie
          OpenITC.co.uk

          January 20, 2012 @ 5:35 am | Reply
        • Constantine A. M.:

          Do you offer IPv6 support in Maidenhead? It’s 2012, global IPv4 pools are exhausted, and I have a policy of not getting any IPv4-only hosting solutions. :-)

          Do you provide any OpenBSD or FreeBSD support? Or is this strictly Xen PV with mostly Linux that you offer?

          Best regards,
          Constantine.

          February 6, 2012 @ 8:17 am | Reply
        • Hello,

          Sadly our Maidenhead DC are very slow at rolling out IPv6. They have said it should be this quarter of 2012. We do still have plenty of IPv4 if you require it.

          The offer here is for Xen PV only. At the minute we can only offer FreeBSD and OpenBSD on dedi/colo – we have an atom machine spare in our Newcastle rack if it is of any interest. KVM for full virtualisation should be available very very soon :)

          Regards,
          Sean McRobbie
          OpenITC.co.uk

          February 6, 2012 @ 10:03 am | Reply
  30. trurl:

    Regarding IPv6 support, you have written “Fully prepared for IPv6 at every level. Available at our new datacentre in January with our Maidenhead datacentre following shortly.”
    Any updates on IPv6 availability at Maidenhead (February, March)? How many IPv6 addresses will be available to a single account?

    January 20, 2012 @ 8:12 am | Reply
  31. Jack:

    Bought @ 13:08.
    It’s now 13:21.

    There panel is very different to other’s and takes a while to install OS.

    I liked the fact you got to chose what IP you wanted out of 8 IP’s.

     100%[======================================>] 104,857,600 4.23M/s   in 23s 

    Network you get about 40mbps.

     -bash-3.2# 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, 12.3781 seconds, 86.7 MB/s
    -bash-3.2# 

    Doesn’t look to oversold on Disks considering it is RAID1 2 x 7200RPM as said on signup.

    Uses 30MB Ram On Fresh install pretty standard.

    Downside is :

     Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
    /dev/xvda2            2.5G  1.8G  551M  77% / 

    Only 2.5GB Disk and the OS takes up 1.8GB

    You can also set your own R-DNS Request via Panel Which some providers dont let you too.

    Also has a traffic graph: http://screensnapr.com/e/QmttIt.png

    You can also disable parts of the VPS : http://screensnapr.com/e/zZn9bk.png

    Going to add uptime monitor and reply back here soon :).

    January 22, 2012 @ 1:32 pm | Reply
  32. James:

    What OS did you install Jack? I loaded Debian 6 and then ran Maxexcloo’s Minimal script and i have 1.6 gig free. Not much installed mind, just using it as a VPN endpoint at the moment.

    February 3, 2012 @ 11:07 am | Reply
  33. Amfy:

    Dedicated Atom? Cool, I am interested – where could I get some informations?

    February 6, 2012 @ 1:42 pm | Reply
  34. Gold:

    bought one. will post review after some days

    February 10, 2012 @ 7:40 am | Reply
  35. Gold:

    20G bandwidth is too small.

    February 13, 2012 @ 8:26 am | Reply
  36. customer:

    My VPS has been down for more than 24 hours, “Engineers are working on restoring service.”
    Last contact was over 24hours ago, and was a mass-mailing, ignoring all other emails.

    My invoice has arrived, should I stick with them, or cut my losses?
    Haven’t been offered another node or anything yet.

    February 15, 2012 @ 10:37 am | Reply
    • Hello,

      Sorry to hear about your troubles. We did have an issue yesterday but that was resolved within 30-60 minutes of the mass mailing.

      If your VPS has not come back online so please get in contact with us.

      I do not know who you are so I am unable to confirm if we’ve received any communication from you – all I can suggest is sending it in again by alternate means (our contact form is preferred). Remember to include your account number, security phrase and an e-mail address that isn’t hosted on your VPS.

      While there is no need to we can usually move you to another node if it is what you prefer or even switch from one of our datacentres to the other.

      Regards,
      Sean McRobbie
      OpenITC.co.uk

      February 15, 2012 @ 10:17 pm | Reply
      • Jack:

        I didn’t notice anything its been a good experience with you.

        February 15, 2012 @ 10:19 pm | Reply
        • It wasn’t a mass outage but individual servers. It is rare that we have an outage of this sort but software/hardware issues can and do surface from time to time. In this case it was KernelHardware related. We are awaiting a response from our vendors before an RFO can be issued.

          Rest assured whatever the case you are in good hands. We make good on almost all and every outage of this sort. If you are affected by any outage please do get in touch to see if there is anything we can do.

          Regards,
          Sean McRobbie
          OpenITC.co.uk

          February 15, 2012 @ 10:30 pm | Reply
      • customer:

        Hey Sean,

        I emailed you using your website listed email here: http://www.openitc.co.uk/contact.php

        I also filled in the form, and left a voicemail message..

        February 15, 2012 @ 10:26 pm | Reply
  37. Jack:

    -bash-3.2# uptime
    10:02:57 up 24 days, 1:47, 2 users, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
    -bash-3.2#

    Mines been up for 24 days :)

    February 15, 2012 @ 3:03 pm | Reply
    • Amfy:

      # uptime
      18:49:02 up 42 days, 13 min, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.01, 0.05

      # uptime
      18:49:08 up 23 days, 3:16, 1 user, load average: 0.08, 0.03, 0.05

      :P

      February 21, 2012 @ 6:50 pm | Reply
  38. Daniel:

    Any chance for an even lower (96mb or 64mb) plan? Or can we request custom plans?

    February 21, 2012 @ 6:47 pm | Reply
    • Amfy:

      Would be also interested :)

      February 21, 2012 @ 6:48 pm | Reply
    • I doubt it. I mean, there are many reasons why we don’t want to offer lower than 128MB / 2.5GB any more. We see a lot of instances where smaller VPS break on their own accord simply because they have ran out of disk space or do not have enough memory. It worked well enough for a while but new distributions and applications just keep requiring more resources.

      In any case it literally would only save you say £0.05/month or so as you have to remember not only do PayPal and Google take a huge chunk of smaller payments but there are many other factors that have been pushing our costs up recently such as rise in electricity prices, IPv4 addresses, HDD price crash, switching to SAS disks and increased HDD redundancy.

      February 22, 2012 @ 3:37 am | Reply
  39. Tom Robbins:

    IPv6?

    February 23, 2012 @ 12:03 pm | Reply
  40. Hi,
    When will this offer be expired?

    March 2, 2012 @ 9:28 pm | Reply
  41. Tony Bronze:

    Signed up for the special offer over 12 hours ago and so far can only say I am not impressed. I selected node, IP address etc and started up the VPS and although it says the status is online, I can’t connect with SSh and pings to the IP address time out. Left it for a few hours just in case there was a delay in being activated but still not working.

    Have raised a support ticket over 2 hours ago and so far no response despite saying “24/7 support is provided by our experienced and well-trained staff” on their website. Perhaps I have been spoilt by other VPS providers where you sign up, pay and use straight away.

    I understand that things can go wrong sometimes and its not the fact that something has gone wrong that is annoying but whats done to resolve the problem and so far that is nothing!

    March 4, 2012 @ 2:40 pm | Reply
    • Tony Bronze:

      Maybe coincidence :) but within minutes of posting the above received an email to say I’d chosen an IP address that was not available and the VPS was set to be re-provisioned. Now up and working OK.

      March 4, 2012 @ 4:55 pm | Reply
  42. Flo:

    I had absolutely no problems with XenVZ. Everything worked perfectly.
    Both vps have a great uptime, and until now no downtime… they’re very fast…

    March 5, 2012 @ 6:13 am | Reply
  43. Savikov:

    Public or private proxy allowed?

    March 9, 2012 @ 3:10 pm | Reply
  44. SAR Informatics:

    i get order for one vps,but i receive message in panel aprobe pending and i cant pay order,
    its a problem living in spain for get q xen vps for this provider?

    thanks

    March 15, 2012 @ 3:07 am | Reply
    • SAR Informatics:

      i don understand,i receive this mail,and i dont read any post of this,
      why for get a vps need my passport? or Utility Bill?

      i get few vps for testing purposes,and nobody has asked these personal details, I’m a private company, and send that information to hire a 4-vps € is stupid and suspicious

      regards,i go to cancel my account and get other vps from this page,and in 5 minutes get my vps,
      this is a good service not opentic.co.uk

      *****************************
      This is an automated e-mail to inform you that the following new orders have been flagged up by our system pending review:

      Order #3926, vps3926.vm: LowEndXen 2012: 128MB RAM, 2.5GB space, 20GB monthly data transfer
      Order #3927, vps3926.vm: +128mb RAM +256mb swap

      Don’t worry – if you feel this has been a genuine mistake you can make an appeal to us. In order to do so please ensure you include the following information:

      – Your account number
      – Your security phrase

      As part of this process we may ask for the following additional documentation:

      – A copy of your passport or drivers license.
      – A copy of a utility bill issued within the last 3 months.

      Please note: We only use this data the purposes of verifying your identity in order that we may open your account. This is an industry standard security proceedure carried out for our mutual protection. If you have these prepared please e-mail a copy to: accounts@openitc.co.uk

      We treat all data with utmost care details of which can be found within our privacy policy page published on our website. We are registered with the Information Commissioners Office #Z2642268.

      Thank you for your patience.

      *******************

      March 15, 2012 @ 1:22 pm | Reply
      • lhw:

        Same for me from germany. And if you try to actually contact them you won’t get an answer. I wouldn’t recommend a company that doesn’t answer billing/account relevant e-mails within 7 days.

        March 16, 2012 @ 12:50 am | Reply
        • Dino Suarez:

          use the contact form on their website.

          March 16, 2012 @ 3:45 am | Reply
        • Hello,

          We respond to every e-mail relating to account reviews where documentation has been attached as requested. If you cannot supply documentation we simply cancel the order without reply as there is nothing further we can do for you. I’m not kidding about the number of fraudulent orders we have been receiving lately – it’s shockingly high so and impossible to keep up with so we only respond where we can actually proceed an order.

          We don’t have anything outstanding at the minute – can you please send us your message again so I can double check?

          Regards,
          Sean McRobbie
          OpenITC.co.uk

          March 16, 2012 @ 4:12 am | Reply
      • Hello,

        Thanks to quite a lot of fraudulent sign-ups leading to charge-backs lately we’ve been forced to manually screen each and every single order right now. It is unfortunate however we have to protect ourselves.

        Regards,
        Sean McRobbie
        OpenITC.co.uk

        March 16, 2012 @ 4:05 am | Reply
  45. vba:

    Order placed. Activated after 30 mins, 30 mins after that it went offline. Still offline three weeks later. They don’t reply to my emails for a refund.

    March 23, 2012 @ 7:34 pm | Reply
  46. Stefan:

    This is the third UK provider from LEB I am trying and I think I finally found the right one :) I am using the VPS for a VPN to occasionally stream HD content. The other two LEB providers I tried did not offer the necessary network throughput or were too unreliable to sustain a stream. OpenITC allowed me to choose my own configuration. Clearly, for my needs it doesn’t matter what HDD I choose, what does matter is how many other VPS accounts share the server (and network port). OpenITC gives you all this information so you can make an informed choice and prioritize your resources. My comments may be premature: as time goes by my node may also get crowded and the speed would naturally drop, but I am hoping this won’t be the case. If it does happen, the deal is per month, so I can cancel (or switch to another node?) without much loss. Thanks OpenITC!
    Btw. I have other VPS (in the US & Italy) and they don’t experience issues as the two UK VPS providers I tried before. I don’t know why the network speeds in the UK are so limited. But XenVX/OpenITC is fine.

    December 28, 2012 @ 4:27 am | Reply

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