Amazingly Common Questions

From Ubiquity Server Wiki

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Contents 1 On Our Operations 1.1 Where are Ubiquity's staff located? 1.2 Where are Ubiquity's servers located? 1.3 Where is Ubiquity's headquarters located? 1.4 Does Ubiquity outsource it's tech support? 1.5 What kind of hardware do you use? 1.6 What are Ubiquity's hours? 1.7 Is Ubiquity a Reseller? 1.8 How long has Ubiquity been in business? 1.9 What is the Nobis Technology Group? 1.10 What type of business entity is Ubiquity/Nobis? 1.11 Is Ubiquity insured? 1.12 How Many Servers does Ubiquity Maintain? 2 On Our Network 2.1 Can I get a Test IP For Your Network? 2.2 Who are Ubiquity's Upstream Providers? 2.3 What are Ubiquity's peering policies? 2.4 Are Ubiquity's Networks Fully Redundant? 2.5 What's Ubiquity's ASN#? 2.6 Is Ubiquity's network over-subscribed? 2.7 Does Ubiquity sell it's IP transit to other companies? 3 On Colocation 3.1 What is colocation? 3.2 Where should I ship my server? 3.3 Does Ubiquity provide rails? 3.4 Should I send rails? 3.5 Can I co-locate my tower server? 3.6 What will I need to provide? 3.7 What does Ubiquity recommend for a switch/PDU in a 1/2 or full cabinet? 3.8 How much of power circuit can I utilize in my 1/2 or full cabinet? 3.9 What is 208v power VS 110v power? 3.10 What are Ubiquity's policies on facility access? 3.11 Can I tour the facilities before I sign up? 3.12 Can my servers share a bandwidth commitment? 3.13 How long are Ubiquity's colocation contracts? 3.14 What is 95th Percentile Billing? 3.15 How does 95th Percentile Compare to Metered Transfer? 3.16 How are Overages Handled in 95th Percentile? 3.17 Are other methods of Billing Available in Colocation? 3.18 Can you explain remote hands fees? 3.19 Will you ship my server back to me when I'm done? 3.20 Can you ship servers under my FedEx / UPS / DHL account? 4 On Virtual Private Servers 4.1 What is a virtual private server (VPS)? 4.2 What virtualization software is Ubiquity using on it's VPS? 4.3 Does Ubiquity use UBC or SLM memory 4.4 What kind of load average should be expected on the hardware node? 4.5 What kind of hardware is in the VPS nodes 4.6 Does Ubiquity keep backups of its VPS nodes 4.7 How many VPS get provisioned on a hardware node 5 On Dedicated Servers 5.1 What is a dedicated server? 5.2 What type of hardware is used in Ubiquity's dedicated servers 5.3 Does Ubiquity give discounts for larger accounts and resellers? 5.4 How are Ubiquity's hardware replacement times? 6 On Our Policies 6.1 Does Ubiquity Price-Match? 6.2 How does Ubiquity handle Abuse Complaints? 6.3 How many IP's can I have? 6.4 Does Ubiquity allow Adult Content? 6.5 Does Ubiquity have a Service Level Agreement? 6.6 Where Can I Find Ubiquity's Other Terms? 7 On Resellers and Referrals 7.1 Does Ubiquity allow Resellers? 7.2 Does Ubiquity have a Referral Program?

On Our Operations

Where are Ubiquity's staff located?

Half of our support team is based in our office in Bloomington, Illinois - who are the people you talk to when you call in and see on live chat. The rest of our staff are on location between the facilities that we provide service in.

Where are Ubiquity's servers located?

In six places.

• Atlanta, Georgia
• Chicago, Illinois
• Dallas, Texas
• Los Angeles, California
• New York, New York (Manhattan)
• Seattle, Washington

We have details on every facility here: http://www.ubiquityservers.com/data-center/

Where is Ubiquity's headquarters located?

In Bloomington, Illinois.

Does Ubiquity outsource it's tech support?

No.

What kind of hardware do you use?

Ubiquity uses Dell servers, APC power distribution, Cisco access switches, and a Foundry core network at our facilities. Some legacy systems on our overstock list are SuperMicro servers, and most Ubiquity VPS nodes now utilize Intel's Modular Server platform for redundancy and the ability to hot-swap components.

What are Ubiquity's hours?

Ubiquity end user and on-site technical support is available 24/7/365 via ticket, email, phone, and usually live chat. Ubiquity's sales department is available during regular business hours in Central Standard time (M-F 9 AM-6 PM CST), and most urgent sales requests can be handled by our support department if sales is unavailable.

Is Ubiquity a Reseller?

No. Ubiquity utilizes exclusively our own staff and equipment within private cages and suites inside of telecom hubs located around the country. Direct relationships with telecom carriers, ARIN, and software vendors are also kept and transparent via any of the databases and partner lists of the vendors mentioned on this website. Customer service is delivered from a centralized location at our Bloomington, Illinois offices - not by a string of random Internet hires, or outsourced to a 3rd party. You can resell for us though! See below for details.

How long has Ubiquity been in business?

Ubiquity Hosting Solutions began at the end of 2004. The brands of the Nobis Technology Group, parent company to Ubiquity, have been active since 2002.

What is the Nobis Technology Group?

Ubiquity Server Solutions is a brand of the Nobis Technology Group. This company is maintained by a panel of diversified internet services experts, including both original founders of Ubiquity who both remain active in carrying out the company's original vision.

What type of business entity is Ubiquity/Nobis?

The Nobis Technology Group is a privately held company and a registered LLC in the state of Illinois.

Is Ubiquity insured?

Yes, all of Ubiquity's operations are well insured.

How Many Servers does Ubiquity Maintain?

As of April 2009, Ubiquity has 1,000+ servers on our network.

On Our Network

Can I get a Test IP For Your Network?

Sure. Here are six:

• Los Angeles, CA: 174.34.140.2
• Seattle WA: 216.6.228.100
• New York, NY: 216.6.235.124
• Dallas, TX: 216.6.231.22
• Chicago, IL: 69.147.227.178
• Atlanta, GA: 70.32.42.34

Who are Ubiquity's Upstream Providers?

Ubiquity connects to Mzima Networks, XO Communications, Abovenet, nLayer as upstream providers across our map, and actively participates in private and public peering in a number locations.

What are Ubiquity's peering policies?

Ubiquity actively participates in a number of peering exchanges and takes an open policy to peering (however, we do reserve the right to deny/end any peering arrangement at any time for any reason).

Are Ubiquity's Networks Fully Redundant?

Yes.

What's Ubiquity's ASN#?

15003

Is Ubiquity's network over-subscribed?

Ubiquity does not come anywhere near overselling network capacity in colocation, virtual private servers, or any dedicated servers. This is one of the largest reasons we locate at telecom hubs instead of outlying satellite data centers where availability is extremely expensive and difficult to expand upon.

Does Ubiquity sell it's IP transit to other companies?

Yes. Ubiquity will sell our network as well as direct ports with our upstream providers to those that need IP transit.

On Colocation

What is colocation?

Colocation hosting is a service in which the operator of a data center presence allows clients to run equipment (servers, switches, firewalls, etc.) from their facilities. This provides all of the advantages of a true data center - redundancy, uptime, immense connectivity, and manned 24/7 support - without the millions of dollars in expenses that it would take to construct an equal operation in-house.

Where should I ship my server?

Shortly after signing up for colocation with one of our sales representatives, you should receive an email with IP information and shipping information for your server. Please don't send servers to us before arrangements have been made with our sales team - this happens more than one would probably think and causes chaos on a number of levels.

Does Ubiquity provide rails?

Ubiquity generally does not provide rails, as compatibility varies between different models of server chassis and is not a standard thing.

Should I send rails?

While we can still rack 1u and 2u servers on a shelved rack if rails are not included, we strongly recommend sending rails with your server to avoid scratching and increase the speed at which you and our techs may be able to service the system later if needed.

Can I co-locate my tower server?

Yes, tower servers are treated as the amount of space they take up when turned on our side in our price model (maximum rate of 4u). For example, a single rack unit is 1¾ inches - very narrow mid-towers take up 2u, where full sized towers generally consume 4u. You will want to find compatible rails (Dell, IBM, and many other companies do make these compatible with their tower servers) or provide a rack-mount shelf with your tower server.

What will I need to provide?

For single-server colocation, all you need to send is your server and rails. We'll provide cables, switch, and PDU access just like we do for our own servers. If you are seeking 1/2 cabinet or full cabinet colocation, you will need to furnish your own PDU and switch.

What does Ubiquity recommend for a switch/PDU in a 1/2 or full cabinet?

A Cisco 2960 access switch and an APC 7930 PDU (on a standard 20 amp 120v drop) with remote reboot capability is what we generally feel works best. This is the same setup we use in our dedicated hosting and single server colocation.

How much of power circuit can I utilize in my 1/2 or full cabinet?

In compliance with national fire regulations, power circuits should not exceed 80% utilization, as anything higher risks blowing the breaker and potential for fire. We have no restrictions beyond this law, which means 16 AMPs of a 20 AMP circuit, or 24 AMPs on a 30 AMP circuit.

What is 208v power VS 110v power?

Generally speaking, 208v power can be used on most any modern server hardware, and is often used in high density data centers with very strong cooling capacity. Power delivered at 208 volts uses very roughly half the amperage of power delivered at 110 volts - meaning that far less amperage is consumed as you add servers to such a power drop. Ubiquity allows 208 volt power 1/2 and full cabinet clients with high density hardware, such as blade servers, double servers, or who plan to fill a cabinet with extremely high end 1u servers.

What are Ubiquity's policies on facility access?

On-site access is currently available with advance notice. At most of our facilities, this notice requires no more than calling our office a few minutes before you arrive.

Can I tour the facilities before I sign up?

Yes, contact our sales team to arrange a tour of any facility.

Can my servers share a bandwidth commitment?

Yes, all servers you have with us in all cities will share a common bandwidth commitment to keep your rates low.

How long are Ubiquity's colocation contracts?

While long-term contracts are available if requested, basic single-server colocation is available on a month to month basis. 1 year, 2 year, and 3 year agreement options are available on half cabinet and full cabinet colocation.

What is 95th Percentile Billing?

95th percentile billing is the standard billing method for telecommunications / network service providers, and generally in turn, for colocation services as well. This billing method looks at the traffic patterns of network throughput over peaks over the course of the month, throwing out the top 5% of data. This method of tracking bandwidth is more relevant in large scale applications, because it reflects the throughput that a line can feasibly handle instead of just the total of data moved at the end of the month. This method of tracking will also generally throw out large, brief spikes, commonly seen in backups and DDoS attacks.

How does 95th Percentile Compare to Metered Transfer?

Generally speaking, 1Mbps is considered to be roughly equivalent to 324GB of data transfer.

How are Overages Handled in 95th Percentile?

Ubiquity's overage rate on 95th percentile plans are simply equal to the commitment rate. For example: if at the start of the month, you commit to 75Mbps of data transfer for your server, and for using this quantity of bandwidth, have a rate of $25 per Mbps. Were you to use 100Mbps, we would only charge $25 per Mbps for every Mbps used in addition to your commitment. Therefore, your still simply paying for what's being used and what we're paying for - the only real disadvantage being if this is a permanent expectation - you could have adjusted your commitment to $20 per Mbps with our sales staff. Information on your bandwidth usage is always available in real-time via your control panel (see Accessing Network Graphs).

Are other methods of Billing Available in Colocation?

For smaller accounts and unique circumstances, custom bandwidth arrangements may be available from our sales team.

Can you explain remote hands fees?

Absolutely. Remote hands fees are a universal practice in the colocation world, and we try to be as up-front as possible about any potential fees you could ever incur. Ubiquity's remote hands rate is $37.50 per half hour in all cities. We have a flat rate of $50 for OS re-installs, and do not charge for reboots or work completed in under 5 minutes once at the terminal. Ubiquity DOES NOT charge remote hands fees on the following:

• Dedicated servers
• Virtual private servers
• Anything involved in initial setups (this is covered by colocation package setup fees)
• Tech support that does not require action on-site

Our staff has a sheet that standardizes a flat rate for most common tasks, which is available to you as well below.

• Initially rack the server / install OS: $0
• Get your server past a BIOS prompt after reboot: $0
• Boot your server into a different kernal after reboot: $0
• Hard Reboot: $0
• OS Re-install: $50
• On-site Memory or hard drive upgrade: $37.50
• Hardware Diagnostics Check: $37.50
• De-rack and Handling: $50/u
• Packaging Costs: $15/u
• Retrieve your equipment from someplace nearby: $75
• Miscellaneous on-site work: $37.50/half hour

Will you ship my server back to me when I'm done?

Yes. A simple standard remote hands fee and the raw shipping expense under our account with FedEx (which probably costs less than yours) applies. This amount is usually close to $20 depending on package weight.

Can you ship servers under my FedEx / UPS / DHL account?

Sure.

On Virtual Private Servers

What is a virtual private server (VPS)?

A virtual private server provides basically all of the functionality of a dedicated server, while occupying only a virtual partition of an actual server. This is advantageous because it allows clients who would otherwise need all of the features of a dedicated server, do so while saving costs in an isolated and private partition of a powerful dual Xeon server which is backed up and re-enforced by RAID.

What virtualization software is Ubiquity using on it's VPS?

All Ubiquity VPS are powered by Parallels Virtuozzo.

Does Ubiquity use UBC or SLM memory

Ubiquity currently uses Virtuozzo's support for SLM memory allocation rather than UBC. This is as recommended by Parallels and we believe results in better overall performance and reliability.

What kind of load average should be expected on the hardware node?

Ubiquity pro-actively monitors all of our VPS nodes at our NOC 24/7 via SNMP for CPU, memory, disk space, i/o, and other key factors, and probes for this data are sent out at 1 minute intervals. Generally speaking, all hardware nodes are kept under a total sustained system load of 3.0, and should receive attention pro-actively from our systems administrators in response to alarms at our NOC should the load average ever exceed this level.

What kind of hardware is in the VPS nodes

As of July 2009, Ubiquity's virtual private servers are distributed using the following hardware with complete consistency.

Manufacturer/Chassis:    Dell PowerEdge 2950 or R710
CPU:   Dual Intel Xeon 5400 or 5500 series
Memory:    32 or 36 GB ECC-Registered Full-Buffered Memory  (managed with SLM) 
Hard Disk:      6x 500 GB 7,200 RPM Nearline SAS Hard Disks or 8x 300 GB 10k RPM SAS
RAID Level:     10  (striping + mirroring)
PSU's:    N+1 redundant, and connected to separate A+B power circuits
NIC's:    N+1 redundant 10/100/1000, and connected at 1000 Mb/s to separate Cisco 2960 switches meshed to the edge layer

Does Ubiquity keep backups of its VPS nodes

Ubiquity does keep incremental data backups of all of our VPS nodes using r1soft CDP server for the sake of recovering a full hardware node in the event of a failure in the RAID array. This data is then archived to tapes throughout the week for the sake of disaster recovery. Despite all of this, we strongly recommend however that you keep several copies of your own backups, as these are in place for the sake of restoring a full node. You can find options for backing up your individual VPS into a separate NAS in another facility here if you are interested in utilizing the services that we have available for this.

How many VPS get provisioned on a hardware node

Nodes are treated differently depending on the type of VPS plans that are hosted on them.

Baby VPS:        128 containers
Myriad VPS:      64 containers
Perpetuity VPS:  48 containers
Infinity VPS:    32 containers
Ubiquity VPS:    24 containers

On Dedicated Servers

What is a dedicated server?

Our dedicated server product allows you to rent a fantastic Dell server in a state of the art data center capable of mission critical applications. Clients are given either root are remote desktop access to there server and free reign over all of it's features. We also provide managed hosting services which allow us to take care of the systems administration process - and provide control panel, ftp, and jailed SSH services in these cases.

What type of hardware is used in Ubiquity's dedicated servers

Ubiquity's dedicated servers are primarily Dell servers. Some older servers on our Overstock list use Supermicro hardware.

Does Ubiquity give discounts for larger accounts and resellers?

Yes. See http://www.ubiquityservers.com/reseller.php for information on these discounts.

How are Ubiquity's hardware replacement times?

Ubiquity has a 1 hour hardware replacement SLA, which can be viewed here - http://www.ubiquityservers.com/sla.php

On Our Policies

Does Ubiquity Price-Match?

Although we will be as competitive as possible for the quality of product we offer, Ubiquity does not price-match. With the thick ambiguity of the internet, there's no shortage of colocation facilities that have gotten robbed on a regular basis due to skimping on security measures. There's no shortage of server providers that have no more than 1Mbps of capacity to their entire redundancy-free garage data center, and will gladly sell you 100Mbps of "dedicated bandwidth" out of that, or that use only desktop grade machines with lower performance / life expectancy.

We do not compete with what the Internet's cheapest of the cheap can dish up - and if we did, you'd be far better off not using us as your provider for obvious reasons.

How does Ubiquity handle Abuse Complaints?

Ubiquity understands that just like you are our customer - you have customers that may cause abuse complaints to come your way. Ubiquity's policy is to serve all abuse complaints via our ticket system and assure that they are handled. So long as you are handling all abuse complaints promptly and do not raise questions of your adherence to United States law, we will not disconnect service. Accounts generating more than 3 complaints in 90 days per server however will be charged a one-time fee of $35 per complaint for the administrative demand of serving and communicating with those abuse contacts for you.

How many IP's can I have?

As many as you like if you're following the rules. Ubiquity has several /19 and /20 provisions and when correctly justified, has always been able to obtain more from ARIN within 24 hours. See Requesting IP Addresses for more information.

Does Ubiquity allow Adult Content?

Adult content is permitted, subject to compliance with all laws and regulations of the United States of America.

Does Ubiquity have a Service Level Agreement?

Yes, Ubiquity has a 100% uptime SLA on Power and Network services. This is explained in http://www.ubiquityservers.com/sla.php

Where Can I Find Ubiquity's Other Terms?

Ubiquity's Terms of Service and Appropriate Use Policy are both available online for your convenience, and can be found at the following URL's:

   * Terms of Service: http://www.ubiquityservers.com/tos.php
   * Appropriate Use Policy: http://www.ubiquityservers.com/aup.php
   * Service Level Agreement: http://www.ubiquityservers.com/sla.php
   * Privacy Policy: http://www.ubiquityservers.com/privacy.php 

On Resellers and Referrals

Does Ubiquity allow Resellers?

Yes! We have full details on our reseller program at http://www.ubiquityservers.com/reseller.php

Does Ubiquity have a Referral Program?

Yes! We have full details on our affiliate referral program at http://www.ubiquityservers.com/affiliates.php - we'll give you 55% of the first payment on everyone you refer (referrals are screened for legitimacy). You can signup for an affiliate account immediately at http://invite.ubiquityhosting.com