Table of reviewed colocation services: Last reviewed Feb 19, 2003. (Scroll down to see the table.)
Minor corrections to prices and user's comments on Colo Customer Service: Apr 22, 2003.

NOTE: You should visit cited sites for verification as data may change. Prices can change, and it is your responsibility to verify any values listed here before you enter into a contract. These are not offers for service from me.

NOTE: There is more to colocation service than price, GB/month. You should take into consideration network "uptime", how often you will need help from the remote site, if you want something "local", if you plan to upgrade, etc.

• "uptime": How many "nine's" of service they claim to offer, such as 99.5%, 99.9%, 99.999%:
  With roughly 365.2425 days per year (averaged, taking into consideration leap year, leap centuries, and leap-four-centuries) we have (365.2425 * 24 * 60 = ) 525949.2 minutes per year.
  With a 99.5% network uptime, that works out to nearly 2 days of downtime per year. (Sure, this could be all-at-once, but would probably include multiple incidents over the year.)
  With a 99.999% network uptime, that works out to nearly 6 minutes per year.
  The difference in cost between 2-nine's and 5-nine's of uptime service can be from 2 to 8 times more in price.
• Cost of "extra" services add up:
  Consider tape backup, upgrades to hard drive, needs to reboot your server if something really bad should happen, how long to maintain power via UPS, etc.
• Consider limits imposed on hardware:
  There are limits with a colocation facility only offering service for Cobalt or Sun. If you want to consolidate your primary operation at one Colocation facility, this as a limit may be a problem if you even plan to use x86 architecture machines like Dell rack mountable servers.
• Restrictions on content may be an issue for you:
  Some locations don't want you to serve porn, others don't want anything illegal or spam, while some state they have "no restrictions" for their clients. Having no restrictions sounds nice, but consider a case where you are collocating with a site that permits spam and/or porn:
  • There is increased risk your IP will be part of a block that gets black listed if an over-zealous RBL admin/user-group thinks you are part of a problem.
  • There is also increased risk to diminished bandwidth when spammers flood with many pieces of e-mail, and many e-mail messages bounce. (It has been reported about 50% of all email is because of spam - including bounces for non-deliverable messages.)
  • There is also a risk for porn servers to "suck up" a large part of the available out-going bandwidth from your Colocation provider and limit your availability -- much like being grouped with spam-servers mentioned above.
  • 3D-Gaming servers can use up large amount of bandwidth, and are targets for unhappy players who have been banned from games. These angry players may choose to "get even" or attempt to make others feel as bad as they, or work under the idea, "if I cannot play this game, then they should not either!" These people may wish to try to flood the server with packet or take prepackaged "scripts" and use them against a the game server sharing your high-speed Internet link. This can decrease availabiliy for your services, and in the worst case, make your services unavailable.
  • Though IRC servers can use up a notable amount of bandwidth, it is often not excessive. However, IRC can draw people like those of 3D Games who bet banned from channels, or servers and seek to get even. When they dont get what they want, they may choose to prey on servers that block them. The risk for IRC servers is similar to that of 3D Game servers.
• Throttled connection pluses and minuses:
  • These can be nice, as you can often get a kind of guarantee of availability, and it decreases the risk that your allocated monthly transfer (GB/month) will be approached/exceeded faster than the throttled rate. A 64kbps connection at max capacity can only export about 20GB of data in one month while a 1.544Mbps connection can export about 500GB per month.) However, if your site should become busy, or popular, your users may suffer as they must all share that limited bandwidth. 100 users could (under optimal conditions) share 1.544Mbps with each getting about 15kbps or about 1.5 kB/second (almost as slow as a 14.4kbps modem for each user.)
  • On the other side, if all colocation users are forced to use throttled connections, it becomes possible for the colocation provider to offer guaranteed service levels - a kind of QoS. Even if a guarantee is not available, such restrictions on colocated server bandwidth can help decrease the risk of another server on your network decreasing your availability.
  • Then again, perhaps you might prefer to be able to burst to a higher bandwidth. Maybe the services you run move large amounts of data ASAP, but dont run very often. In such a case, you would likely not want to go with restrictive bandwidths, and try for a colocation service that offers shared bandwidth that is metered per machine.
• Also consider setup and cost/extra-IP address:
  These can be hidden costs, but when included monthly as part of a price, they will add up quickly.
• Alternatives to colocation for smaller budgets, or immediate access:
  Rod Roark (rod@sunsetsystems.com) of http://www.sunsetsystems.com/ Suggested xDSL at home is another alternative to colocation:
  • Immediate access to hardware in the event of problems requiring physical access.
  • Lower total cost if you use DSL at home anyway. (Not counting cost of phone bill, DSL can range from $29 to well over $200 with higher prices affording more bandwidth.)
  • Multiple DSL lines from different ISP offers redundancy and fault tolerance to loss of connectivity through one ISP or the other.
  • Many ISP have no limit for transfer of data per month for home users on DSL.
  • Outbound DSL for ADSL has been set low for outbound traffic (at least locally) with an outbound cap from 128kbps to 384kbps. Other DSL have offered higher outbound caps for throughput.
  • If you have a tower, many colocation facilities will not accept it. (Some will.) Using DSL at home permits you to have greater decision in what to buy as a server.

You are advised to check out http://www.hostchart.com/ for reviews of site colocations.

In my que to review and add to the table: http://www.webhosters.com/

(It is possible to download this table to your machine as a separate text file containing HTML; this can be useful for importing into a spreadsheet application to permit you to sort this list as you wish on your own machine.)

Cost per Month ($U.S.)	GB/Month	$/GB over quota	Send Them Your Box	IP#	Install/Setup	Support Fee	URL & Special notes
$105*1	40	$2++	Yes: You provide box	1-10	$0	Included	http://www.johncompanies.com/ Smaller company. Personalized service. *1: Per "U" Restrictions on contents: no IRC servers, no porn, no 3d game Servers, no spamming, nothing illegal
$75	40	$2++	No: Virtual box provided	1-10	$0	Included	http://www.johncompanies.com/ Linux: Virtual box on shared system Restrictions on contents: no IRC servers, no porn, no 3dGame Servers, no spamming, nothing illegal
$65	40	$2++	No: Virtual box provided	1-10	$0	Included	http://www.johncompanies.com/ FreeBSD: Virtual box on shared system Restrictions on contents: no IRC servers, no porn, no 3dGame Servers, no spamming, nothing illegal
$50*1	100	$0.70	Yes: You provide box	1-10	$0	$50/hour(maint) $200/mem-upgrade $200/HD-upgrade $10/month(remote-reboot) $1/extra-IP(per-month)	http://www.unitedcolo.com/colocation.htm *1: May be introductory *1: $50=$49 per each "U" +$1/base-bandwidth No Restrictions on content User reported bad customer service: A user reported (April 2003) that a few months prior (Jan?), the network service was spotty and unreliable. They also reported support was non-existant, and "24/7 support" was an unattended answering machine. Attitude from human (when finally contacted) was "we don't need you as a customer anyway." User states: ...hear the network has been better lately, but earlier, outages were very common.
$99*1	1000 and up ~$99/1000GB	$0.70	No: they provide 1U system	1-10?	$0?	$50/hour(maint)? $200/mem-upgrade? $200/HD-upgrade? $10/month(remote-reboot)? $1/extra-IP(per-month)?	http://www.unitedcolo.com/servers.htm *1: May be introductory *1: And up. Higher for more "stuff" *1: Other plans work out to: ~$99 per each 1000GB per month No Restrictions on content "?"= unknown, guessed: website not working for links from above URL. User reported bad customer service: A user reported (April 2003) that a few months prior (Jan?), the network service was spotty and unreliable. They also reported support was non-existant, and "24/7 support" was an unattended answering machine. Attitude from human (when finally contacted) was "we don't need you as a customer anyway." User states: ...hear the network has been better lately, but earlier, outages were very common.
$79*1	50/40*2	$3	Yes: only Cobalt Systems (Found this in e-mail response)	10*3	Install/Setup	1Hr/Month(included) 3Hr/month=$300/month 9Hr/month=$600/month	https://www.raqshaq.com/colo_config.html Special notes: *1: And up depending upon wants *2: 40GB/month in one space, 50GB/month in another.(?) *2: Approximately $30/10GB more per month beyond base. *3: I heard this from an associate: 1-10 IP included Restricted content/services: No spamming, nothing illegal
$99*1	50/40*2	$3	No: They provide Cobalt System*3	1-8	Install/Setup	1Hr/Month(included) 3Hr/month=$300/month 9Hr/month=$600/month	https://www.raqshaq.com/dedicated_raqs.html Special notes: *1: And up depending upon wants *2: 40GB/month in one space, 50GB/month in another.(?) *2: Approximately $30/10GB more per month beyond base. *3: Upgrades available at time of purchase increase price. Restricted content/services: No spamming, nothing illegal
$169.15*1	75*2	$4	TrueColo	1*3	$199	$150/hour*4	http://order.skynetweb.com/ http://www.skynetweb.com/support/colocation_support.php Special notes: *1: $199/month-$169.15/month depending on payment plan *2: $2.60/GB in 25 GB increments ($65/25GB prepaid) *3: $1.50/IP/Month *4: They charge per half-hour increments Charge for other services: tape rotation, hardware upgrade, etc.
$29*1	1	$2.95	Yes: You provide box	1*2	$109*3	1 Incident/month included*4	http://www.inforelay.com/colocation.html Special notes: *1: THROTTLED 128kbps/128kbps *2: $5/IP, 10 IP for $30, 20 IP for $50 *3: Setup waived for 1 year prepay. *4: $20/15minutes + $10/10minutes beyond for more
$65*1	5	$2.95	Yes: You provide box	2*2	$89*3	1 Incident/month included*4	http://www.inforelay.com/colocation.html Special notes: *1: THROTTLED 512kbps/512kbps *2: $5/IP, 10 IP for $30, 20 IP for $50 *3: Setup waived for 6 month prepay. *4: $20/15minutes + $10/10minutes beyond for more
$75*1	15	$2.95	Yes: You provide box	5*2	$89*3	1 Incident/month included*4	http://www.inforelay.com/colocation.html Special notes: *1: THROTTLED 1.544kbps/1.544Mbps *1: 1 month free with 1 year prepay *2: $5/IP, 10 IP for $30, 20 IP for $50 *3: Setup waived for 6 month prepay. *4: $20/15minutes + $10/10minutes beyond for more
$99*1	25	$2.95	Yes: You provide box	10*2	$89*3	1 Incident/month included*4	http://www.inforelay.com/colocation.html Special notes: *1: THROTTLED 1.544kbps/1.544Mbps *1: 1 month free with 1 year prepay *2: $5/IP, 10 IP for $30, 20 IP for $50 *3: Setup waived for 6 month prepay. *4: $20/15minutes + $10/10minutes beyond for more
~$100	10	$10	Yes: You provide box	1	$200	Do it yourself	http://www.sonic.net/sales/colo/ Special notes: Asked and responded via email (Aug, 2002) Customer Service Comment: When I used Sonic as my ISP (dialup access) they provided excellent service. I would have chosen to go with them as a local company due to their responsiveness and location, but cost was a big factor for me.
~$246*1	30	$4.95	No: Cobalt System	1?	$200?	Do it yourself?	http://www.sonic.net/sales/cobalt/ Special notes: *1: From $246-$416 depending on Cobalt model Items with "?" are assumed This item's info updated: 4/22/2003 Customer Service Comment: When I used Sonic as my ISP (dialup access) they provided excellent service. I would have chosen to go with them as a local company due to their responsiveness and location, but cost was a big factor for me.
~$195*1	10	$9.95	No: Sun System	1?	$200?	Do it yourself?	http://www.sonic.net/sales/sun/ Special notes: *1: From $195-$365 depending on Sun model Items with "?" are assumed This item's info updated: 4/22/2003 Customer Service Comment: When I used Sonic as my ISP (dialup access) they provided excellent service. I would have chosen to go with them as a local company due to their responsiveness and location, but cost was a big factor for me.
$49	50	$3	Yes	1?	?	$60/hour*1	http://www.charlottecolo.com/pricing.htm Special notes *1: Charged at $30/half-hour
$55	5	$20*1	Yes You provide box	1?*2	?*3	$50/hour	http://www.Omsoft.com/services/addlserv/addlserv.shtml *1: Charge $0.02/MB for over 5GB and up to 10GB (max $100) *1: Charge $100 + $0.05/MB for over 10GB and up to 50GB (max $300) *1: Charge $300 + $0.04/MB for over 50GB and up to 100GB (max $500) *1: Charge $500 + $0.02/MB for over 50GB and up to 200GB (max $700) *1: Charge $700 + $0.06/MB for over 200GB *2: Assuming only 1 IP address per user. *3: Nothing listed for setup fee. Special:They permit colocation of tower and non-rack mountable units. (From Rod Roark)
$79*1 $129/$129*2 $199/$199*3	500	$40.96*4	No They provide. (x86) No brand specified	IP#	$99 (Linux) or Win2000: + $30/month + $30/setup	$???	http://www.valueweb.com/ They claim 100% uptime guarantee *1 = Limited-time offer (RedHat Linux System)       They offer hosting (non-dedicated) starting $19.95 *2 = Faster system than *1 (RedHat Linux System) *3 = Faster system than *2 (RedHat Linux System) http://www.valueweb.com/policies.htm *4 = They charge $0.04/MB over quota       Bandwidth quota depends on "account"       You cant buy "more quote" from your account,       but you can buy a more expensive account. *5 = Could not find. $80 for restore from tape       email me if you know. Restrictions to content: no porn, no spam, nothing illegal,            http://www.valueweb.com/policies.htm
Cost	GB/Month	$/GB over quota	TrueColo	IP#	Install/Setup	Support Fee	URL & Special notes

In my original review of about 16 Colo facilities, the places that did not advertise their prices were expen$ive. There is no guarantee the following have high prices, but the following require you to contact them for prices. Some quote a a nice price, but the details on the offer are hidden unless you contact them.
• http://www.he.net/
• http://adhost.com/services/colo.shtml"starting at $99/month"
• http://www.astragate.net/services/collo.htm using throttled bandwidth, as low as $37 per U.

Related sites:
• http://www.colotraq.com/index.htm Search colo locations
• http://www.ispcheck.com/index.php/google1/category.php/1&sa=l&ai=AV6q-U4zU-o63fwsos4foB4oq2xdwsKQg-TcBCYAkOBAkpaTAIQAmWA&num=6