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FST Servers - $5 256MB Xen VPS

FST Servers This is from Brandan from FST Servers“We are a small, Chicago-based hosting company established in May 2009… We are currently offering the following plan that we think you might be interested in advertising to your readers”. Their plans can be found here, and sign up here. $5/month and you get

  • 256MB memory
  • 15GB storage
  • 500GB/month data transfer
  • Citrix XenServer

You can find the same offer on WHT here. It would be similar to Xen HVM or VMWare where you get the full hardware emulation. From the sign up page you actually get your chosen distro as a CD image mounted to your VM. Servers are in Chicago (Ubiquity Server, test IP 173.234.41.2), and the “company” itself is also Chicago based. Started in May 2009 according to Brandan (MIS student and a sysadmin I believe, from his resume).

LEA
Latest posts by LEA (see all)

58 Comments

  1. Andy:

    the plan is attractive .
    but how about their uptime .
    and it wound be better if they can provide win2003.

    February 19, 2011 @ 2:51 pm | Reply
    • I’d be if you asked they would put it up for you. 2K8 requires your own key so it would be as simple as pushing up an ISO. Send it an email or ticket and ask!

      February 19, 2011 @ 3:03 pm | Reply
    • Hello Andy,

      With regard to uptime – the server that we are currently offering VMs on has not had any unscheduled downtime, and the datacenter that it is hosted in offers a 100% power and network SLA.

      We could provide a Windows 2003 ISO image for you to use, but you would have to provide your own license and product key.

      You can email us anytime at support [AT] fstservers [DOT] com with questions.

      Brendan Fusco
      FST Servers LLP

      February 19, 2011 @ 6:20 pm | Reply
      • Thanks for your info .
        I have placed my order and mailed Joe about win2003 .
        and waiting for the VPS setting up.
        I will put my review here later.

        February 20, 2011 @ 8:59 am | Reply
    • Jim Snow:

      Food luck with running win2k3 with 256 Mb

      February 20, 2011 @ 8:58 am | Reply
      • We are not running web services.
        256M is enough right now.

        February 20, 2011 @ 11:54 am | Reply
        • Daniel @ LowEndTalk:

          Your get around 3mb of RAM to play with.

          February 21, 2011 @ 9:28 am | Reply
  2. Also, with regard to the original post, I’d just like to point out that the “company” is a legally registered LLP in the state of Illinois :)

    Brendan Fusco
    FST Servers LLP

    February 19, 2011 @ 6:39 pm | Reply
    • Yeah sorry I put the word company in quotation mark without explanation. LLP is a partnership rather than a “company” structure, where you get director and share holders. So a little bit different from legal point of view but from consumers’ point of view it’s proper registered so it would be equally valid I guess.

      February 20, 2011 @ 8:02 am | Reply
  3. “We are a small, Chicago-based hosting company established in May 2009… We are currently offering the following plan that we think you might be interested in advertising to your readers”.

    So polite and humble, and yet setting up a Citrix XenServer is not as easy as frying bacon & ham.

    I like it.

    February 20, 2011 @ 7:14 am | Reply
  4. paijo:

    What is the difference between citrix xenserver & usual xen?

    February 20, 2011 @ 9:11 am | Reply
    • XenServer is the commercial version produced by Citrix and is completely stand-alone, while Xen is the open-source version that is installed on top of a regular Linux distribution. They are both based on the same technology. XenServer is also slightly more HVM-oriented – all of our VMs are full HVM.

      February 20, 2011 @ 6:16 pm | Reply
  5. I have bought one wait active.

    February 20, 2011 @ 12:03 pm | Reply
    • Thanks for your business! We have activated your account as of 8:45 CST this morning. Please contact us at support [AT] fstservers [DOT] com if you encounter any problems.

      February 20, 2011 @ 6:18 pm | Reply
  6. bob:

    I just ordered a 256 mb plan.

    Installation of OS was through a VNC type interface. The VM has a single E5335 @ 2.00GHz.

    The CPU seems extremely throttled or overused, with gnu “screen” taking 10-50% cpu! I am using byobu. I sent them a message hoping to get this resolved if there is anything that can be done.

    February 21, 2011 @ 1:03 am | Reply
    • bob:

      On further observation through top, it looks like their VMware setup causes byobu to take high system usage.

      Cpu(s): 6.0%us, 90.0%sy

      Anyone have any suggestions?

      February 21, 2011 @ 1:22 am | Reply
      • bob:

        Oops typo, I meant xenserver instead of vmware.

        February 21, 2011 @ 1:22 am | Reply
    • Bob – I haven’t seen any support e-mails from you regarding this issue. Not sure how the XenServer configuration would be causing problems; we configure all VMs with full hardware virtualization. I would suggest that you install the XenServer tools – we can help you out with that if you contact us. The e-mail address is support [AT] fstservers [DOT] com.

      Brendan Fusco
      FST Servers LLP

      February 21, 2011 @ 1:43 am | Reply
      • bob:

        I used the contact form at https://access.fstservers.com/xvpweb/index.php

        but I’ll try installing xenserver tools and then emailing you. Thanks.

        February 21, 2011 @ 1:45 am | Reply
        • bob:

          It appears as though HVM needs xenserver tools for speed. I couldn’t get it to install on Ubuntu 10.10 so I switched back to 10.04 paravirt and it is working now.

          February 21, 2011 @ 5:39 am | Reply
        • I’m glad we were able to work with you to get this resolved. Let us know any time you need help at support [AT] fstservers [DOT] com.

          Brendan Fusco
          FST Servers LLP

          February 21, 2011 @ 6:10 am | Reply
  7. Just receive my vps info email.
    installing win2003.

    February 21, 2011 @ 2:04 am | Reply
  8. Bastian:

    Am I the only one seeing no more than 1 MB/s when downloading http://fstservers.com/100mb.zip ?
    Could somebody who already got one of those nice VPS be kind and say something about the real network performance?

    February 21, 2011 @ 6:20 am | Reply
    • I am getting 2MB/sec from my VPS at BuyVM (Fremont) and 4.2MB/sec from my VPS at QuickWeb (Dallas).

      February 21, 2011 @ 10:23 am | Reply
    • From a good connection in Chicago itself, I get between 4.5 and 5 MB/sec when downloading that file.

      Brendan Fusco
      FST Servers LLP

      February 21, 2011 @ 3:12 pm | Reply
  9. Charles:

    I will order one if they can provide debian.

    February 22, 2011 @ 2:12 am | Reply
    • Hello Charles – yes, we can provide Debian. When you fill out the signup application, simply leave the default choice for OS and then send us an e-mail at support [AT] fstservers [DOT] com to request that Debian be installed on your new VM.

      Brendan Fusco
      FST Servers LLP

      February 22, 2011 @ 1:40 pm | Reply
      • Signed up with them, they will install any iso you want, I have had them install Debian 6 and Debian 5 for me so far, they are very friendly. My Server with them is chi.jmainguy.com

        February 22, 2011 @ 4:17 pm | Reply
      • Charles:

        I just ordered one.
        Cheers!

        February 23, 2011 @ 1:21 am | Reply
        • Charles – we’ve provisioned your VM; you should be receiving an e-mail shortly with details on how to connect to it.

          Brendan Fusco
          FST Servers LLP

          February 23, 2011 @ 1:26 am | Reply
  10. When will this offer will end?

    February 23, 2011 @ 3:20 am | Reply
    • Langit – this is not a special; these are our normal prices. You can find a full listing of our plans at http://fstservers.com/?page_id=6.

      Brendan Fusco
      FST Servers LLP

      February 23, 2011 @ 4:00 am | Reply
      • As you stated earlier, you use citrix xenserver which is *commercial* version of Xen.
        Even compared to another ordinary Xen VPS, your VPS is cheaper. How can you provide citrix xenserver VPS with this low price?

        February 23, 2011 @ 4:22 am | Reply
        • In this case, “commercial” does not mean “paid” – Citrix XenServer is still free, at least for the basic version. We have priced our services competitively to attract customers; we may adjust pricing in the future depending on demand and capacity.

          Brendan Fusco
          FST Servers LLP

          February 23, 2011 @ 5:03 am | Reply
  11. LittleGuy:

    I found the services offered by this company poor. Console viewer (java applet) is buggy (mouse does not function properly) – CentOS default and ubuntu live cd did not manage to receive an IP address via DHCP. (Static settings required?)

    February 25, 2011 @ 12:42 am | Reply
    • LittleGuy:

      Oh, and CPU highly overthrottled, ubuntu livecd barely starts.

      February 25, 2011 @ 12:43 am | Reply
      • Hi,

        We’re sorry to see you go. However, I’d like to address one concern: the CPU performance. This VM was provisioned with a CentOS template (as requested) because most Linux OSes require paravirtualization to perform efficiently. If you require a different OS, please let us know so we can provision the correct VM template for you. Otherwise, performance will suffer as you noted. The Live CD probably does not contain a Xen-enabled PV kernel.

        Please note that we encountered the same issue with Bob above (comment 6) and we solved it by using a paravirtualized kernel.

        Brendan Fusco
        FST Servers LLP

        February 25, 2011 @ 1:03 am | Reply
        • LittleGuy:

          Fair response. Thank you for the dedication.

          February 25, 2011 @ 1:07 am | Reply
  12. NewUser:

    Looks like prices have gone up now :(

    February 28, 2011 @ 5:54 pm | Reply
    • We’ve adjusted the permanent prices for some of our plans, but keep an eye out for some upcoming sales and promotions as we add capacity.

      Brendan Fusco
      FST Servers LLP

      March 2, 2011 @ 10:27 pm | Reply
      • Hi Brendan,
        How about providing KVM?

        March 3, 2011 @ 6:06 am | Reply
        • For now, we’re running only XenServer; in the future, we may look into additional virtualization solutions to diversify our offerings. Thanks for your interest.

          Brendan Fusco
          FST Servers LLP

          March 3, 2011 @ 3:26 pm | Reply
  13. I have order one. But to my surprise, there is no personal profile page for clients nor control panel.
    It is the first time I didn’t receive a welcome email after signup a VPS, though I know it can take some time to set up the VM.

    March 4, 2011 @ 1:23 pm | Reply
    • We received your order at 6:50 CST and it was processed by 8:30 CST; a welcome e-mail is dispatched after the signup is complete and the VM has been created with the details necessary to log in to the client control panel.

      Thanks for the feedback; we’ll take it into consideration as we are in the process of updating our signup application and client control panel. Please let us know at support [AT] fstservers [DOT] com if you encounter any problems.

      Brendan Fusco
      FST Servers LLP

      March 4, 2011 @ 3:16 pm | Reply
      • Thanks for your quick reply.
        I was not complaining or to be offensive.
        I just felt a little strange as a user get used to automatic support systems :)

        March 4, 2011 @ 4:09 pm | Reply
        • Not a problem; I understand completely. In the future, you can look forward to even faster response times as we upgrade our customer support systems :)

          Brendan Fusco
          FST Servers LLP

          March 4, 2011 @ 4:11 pm | Reply
  14. innya:

    Price has been increased on their site. It now processing showed VM-1 as $6.50.

    March 4, 2011 @ 5:27 pm | Reply
    • As I mentioned earlier, we’ve adjusted our pricing; however, we do plan to run new promotions soon as we will be adding capacity.

      Brendan Fusco
      FST Servers LLP

      March 4, 2011 @ 5:39 pm | Reply
  15. CryptWizard:

    How much for additional IPs?

    March 6, 2011 @ 7:24 am | Reply
    • CryptWizard:

      Never mind. Found it on your “About” page.

      March 6, 2011 @ 7:28 am | Reply
  16. sausages:

    How do you order a VPS with the yearly price?

    April 3, 2011 @ 6:44 am | Reply
    • Please contact us at support [AT] fstservers [DOT] com and we will arrange the yearly pricing plan for you.

      Brendan Fusco
      FST Servers LLP

      April 3, 2011 @ 3:12 pm | Reply
  17. bob:

    I rate them a 9/10.

    I was hosting with them until now. I decided to move on after they changed IP addresses due to a datacenter upgrade. There was 0 downtime other than the IP move.

    May 24, 2011 @ 4:08 pm | Reply
  18. herpderp:

    I just bought 8 of them. Going to give them a go.

    July 4, 2012 @ 5:05 am | Reply

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