FatCow.com
- From the company
FatCow's Advanced Technology
FatCow utilizes two data centers in the Boston, MA area. Combined, they occupy over 2400 square feet of space, comprised of over 800 Servers and half a Petabyte of storage. Each center is equipped with:
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7/24 security
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Both data centers run on N+1 power (both A/C and D/C)
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and have the same network architecture and equipment.
Our solid, secure network infrastructure is comprised of a pooled server environment, which gives virtually any server on our network the ability to access Web site files when a request occurs. This means that the first machine available will be the one to serve a customer's Web pages, giving our customer sites faster loading times and fewer service interruptions than traditional hosting infrastructures.
Our front-end network consists of:
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dual redundant M7I routers
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2 firewalls incorporating IDP technology cross-connected to the outside world with BGP border gateway protocol.
Site data is parsed by our dual Big Iron load balancers and is then managed by our DELL servers, which are split into application pools (Web, FTP, incoming mail, etc.). This type of architecture allows us to customize each machine to the service it performs, which means more density per box, and ultimately, faster and more reliable services. No pool lives entirely on one rack. Therefore, even the loss of a rack's switch or its power will not take that service pool down.
Our network-attached storage enables any machine to access a customer's data. Every machine is clustered with another identical machine that will seamlessly take over if the primary unit crashes. These units are also backed up to another set of storage units that have a mirror copy of the data in case of disk failure in the primary units. An estimated 5.5 gigabits of storage are processed per second through our servers.
FatCow Web Hosting is Green
Producing wind power ourselves is udderly impossible, so our company has purchased Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) to offset our energy use. RECs represent the environmental benefits of wind energy, and reduce the amount of electricity in the energy grid that's produced by fossil fuels.
The folks behind the scenes at FatCow have already made eco-friendly adjustments in their lives, and we wanted to support our customers and employees by reducing our environmental impact. That means that by hosting with us, your site is green, too!
From the company
FatCow.com
Expert Review- From the Editors
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70 Blanchard Rd., Third Floor
Burlington, MA 01803
1-888-278-9780 (Support)
1-866-544-9343 (Sales)
FatCow was established in 1998 as the host with the “one plan, one price” philosophy. Today FatCow is an environmentally friendly host, powered 100% by wind energy. FatCow hosts thousands of small to medium sized businesses and personal web pages daily.
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Review
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Sales
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Before committing to FatCow’s services I wanted to speak with a representative about their money back guarantee and free domain name offer. FatCow offers telephone, email, help desk and live chat support. It took about five minutes to connect with an actual salesperson through live chat. The live chat operator gave many “yes” and “no” answers, but didn’t offer much in the way of an explanation as to whether the domain name had strings attached, so I turned my attention to FatCow’s toll free telephone number. After a fifteen minute wait, a sales team member was able to thoroughly explain the ins and outs of the money back guarantee and assure me that domain names were really free with the purchase of a hosting plan. Telephone sales support was excellent.
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Setup
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I paid for my web hosting account and within 30 minutes received a letter welcoming me to FatCow. Much to my surprise, FatCow also called me on the phone, enthusiastically thanking me for signing up and letting me know how I could get in touch with support in the future, should I need it. Very nice touch!
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Billing
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FatCow offers just one web hosting plan, which at this time costs $55/year. My credit card was accurately charged within moments of purchase and I never had any billing issues with FatCow during my twelve month stay.
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Pricing
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FatCow’s shared hosting plan offers unlimited space and bandwidth for $55/year or $4.58/month. FatCow’s prices are some of the lowest in the industry.
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Reliability
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Right from the start, I had database trouble with FatCow. During the first two months of my hosting experience I received daily database connection errors and my Wordpress blog often took as long as 40 seconds to load. Upon contacting support, each time I was told there were MySQL issues and that services would be restored soon. When there was no change after 60 days, I asked to be moved to a new server. Once my site was setup on the new server, I stopped experiencing database trouble, but pages were still slow to load more than 50% of the time. Several months after the movie, I once again had an unreliable website due to MySQL problems.
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Support
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As with my pre-sales experience, I found live chat to be less than helpful at FatCow. Operators would come on the line within just a few moments, but none of the support team I spoke with seemed to know that websites were down or that there were database problems. Telephone support, on the other hand, was superb. Average wait time for toll free support is 20 minutes, but the tech operators by phone quickly explained server and network issues and apologized for any inconvenience. FatCow offers support by telephone, email, a help desk and live chat.
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Uptime
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My premium monitoring tool did indicate some downtime with FatCow, but nothing that dipped below their 99.9% uptime guarantee. Overall, FatCow’s network was extremely reliable.
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Guarantee
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99.9% uptime guarantee
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30 day money back guarantee
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Terms of Service
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The Terms of Service for FatCow are laid out online. Highlights include:
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$35 early cancellation fee.
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Accounts will be suspended for non-payment.
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Strictly enforced SPAM policy. Violating accounts will be suspended.
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Advantages
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A green company powered 100% by wind energy.
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Helpful telephone support.
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24/7 support.
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Easy to use control panel.
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Low prices.
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Good uptime.
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Disadvantages
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Live chat less than helpful.
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Slow load times, possibly indicating over selling.
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Recurring MySQL issues.
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and the opinions expressed in Expert Reviews are our own.