Netcup (20 Euro Sommerrabatt)

OsirisBlack

If anyone is pondering trying Netcup you may want to take a look at their Special Offers.
But be quick - it ends tonight.

Link updated

https://netcup-sonderangebote.de/allgemein/20-euro-sommerrabatt/

InceptionHosting

might be worth providing a link

Neoon

Looked at its basically trash.
You can get 1-2 month(s) free, but you are stuck for 12 months.

ehab

I also do not believe of advertising dedicated cores and not enabling cpu pass through without a fee.

InceptionHosting

@ehab said:
I also do not believe of advertising dedicated cores and not enabling cpu pass through without a fee.

they do that? wow.

cybertech

Netcup always got a catch so no.

nullnothere

I have a few Netcup VPSs and while I'm no ambassador, I must say that they are very reliable and live up to their end of the contract very well. Their VPSs are very stable, and provide a really good price-resource ratio. Performance (CPU) depends a lot on whether it is their Root servers (which have dedicated cores) vs their vServers (shared cores). I don't have any of their newer AMD Epyc CPU versions (which kind of provide far greater density than their older generations) - so I can't say much there but from what I've seen of others benchmarks I think it is respectable and nothing to snigger at.

The vServer performance will and does vary non linearly - so don't expect 4x performance with 4 vCores. Having said that everything else about their VPSs is really good. Very consistent (yes consistent) performance all round and really reliable. Hardly any downtime at all (I hope I haven't jinxed things!). Well balanced resources (typically). On the whole I've been very satisfied at their reliability.

What is no doubt very different/irritating/difficult is their contract part - they are (probably like a lot of German contracts) sticklers for/to it and they enforce it. So don't sign up before understanding the specifics of cancellation. It is very irritating to have the minimum 30/31 days notice prior to cancellation of a service (and if you miss it even by a day, bad luck - it's going to be enforced for the next contract period whether you like it or not). So if you have an annual contract, be sure to cancel it well in advance or pay the price (literally!).

The other negative is their CPU pass through limitations. They are completely inflexible there. The Root servers pass through more flags (but NOT the vmx one for nested virtualization for which you have to pay some ridiculous price PER CORE - yes PER CORE). I have no idea why they are so adamant and stuck up on this. The vServers have even fewer flags and some of them are a plain nuisance to not have (like the avx ones depending on your use case and some others that I don't remember off the bat). My hunch/guess is that for failover (automatic) or rebalancing they keep the flags the same across the product lines so that they can move nodes between hypervisors without pain (and I'm sure they have a fairly large deployment base).

I've really not seen any other host even come close to their price-resource combination AND be so consistent/reliable/stable (etc.). I've hardly ever reached out to support (except for clarifications like accounting/contracts and initially when I was a new customer on CPU flags etc.).

tl;dr great resources/pricing, CPU isn't the greatest (usually) everything else rocks (usually), contracts really are enforced (so buyer really really beware and be sure on cancellation policies thoroughly).

P.S: Sorry for the long wall but I was spirited away...

ehab

@nullnothere said:

tl;dr great resources/pricing, CPU isn't the greatest (usually) everything else rocks (usually), contracts really are enforced (so buyer really really beware and be sure on cancellation policies thoroughly).

you get sick and miss to pay - you pay or get debit collectors calling. Didn't happen to me but seen many had this issue with them.

nullnothere

@ehab said: you get sick and miss to pay - you pay or get debit collectors calling. Didn't happen to me but seen many had this issue with them.

Well that's true of any contract. Nothing that an email won't sort out is what I think. Besides, they give you something like 14 days (I don't know the exact days) AFTER invoice is raised to pay the dues (like Hetzner and other German companies) - the contract is already in place and there's just some sort of a buffer to pay.

On my longer contracts that I'm doubtful on, I ensure that I cancel well in advance (and revoke the cancellation in case there's a need for it any more).

I can't really fault them for sticking up to the contract though, but I hear you and I've tried to be very careful on this as well.

ehab

no nullnothere - i don't fault them its just i read about quite a few cases had issues in cancelling and understanding that ended up with collectors. I usually open a ticket and ask to confirm the cancellation and any billable resources left.

debaser

@ehab said:

@nullnothere said:

tl;dr great resources/pricing, CPU isn't the greatest (usually) everything else rocks (usually), contracts really are enforced (so buyer really really beware and be sure on cancellation policies thoroughly).

you get sick and miss to pay - you pay or get debit collectors calling. Didn't happen to me but seen many had this issue with them.

This is not exactly true. After two weeks they’ll send you a reminder. A month later they’ll sent you another reminder. If by then you stilll haven’t paid, they’ll hire a debt collector.

So it’s not like that if you don’t pay, you’re in legal problems directly. You’ve got a lot of time to set things straight.

If you don’t want the consequences of a contract, don’t sign one.

ehab

@debaser said:

like i said i don't know all the details because it didn't happen to me. I am just afraid of the rope in the dark.

debaser

@ehab said:

@debaser said:

like i said i don't know all the details because it didn't happen to me. I am just afraid of the rope in the dark.

That’s why I explain how it really works in Germany. There is nothing to be afraid of here.

Plenty of reasons not to like Netcup, however.

nullnothere

@debaser said: There is nothing to be afraid of here.

Exactly - as long as you stick up to your end of the bargain, they follow up on their side (along with the usually generous try with no obligations for 14 or 30 days or whatever depending on the provider).

One other real nuisance with Netcup that I forgot to mention - if you don't do SEPA/Bank transfer and do Paypal, it's a royal pain to pay invoices. Every service (with a separate anniversary/billing date) gets a separate invoice (usually they are bundled only if bought together). So if you have 10 monthly VPSs scattered across, you have to pay 10 times. It's really painful. Hetzner is great in comparison - ONE invoice per month for all your services and dues and I think they can even move the billing date if you want (not sure - never tried).

If Netcup made their contracts like PHP Friends and provided full pass through (or mostly full CPU pass through minus VMX), I think they would be hugely more popular than they are. Somehow their (bad) reputation precedes them - probably negative bias in reviews that leads others to also think negative and puts them off.

I know @Falzo and @angstrom have good positive experiences with Netcup as well - just in case it helps to get some extra credibility

angstrom

@AnthonySmith said:

@ehab said:
I also do not believe of advertising dedicated cores and not enabling cpu pass through without a fee.

they do that? wow.

Just to clarify: their Root Servers have CPU pass-through for the most part, but hardware virtualization is not passed through (so no vmx) without an additional fee.

angstrom

@nullnothere said: I know @Falzo and @angstrom have good positive experiences with Netcup as well - just in case it helps to get some extra credibility

netcup are a very no-nonsense German company mostly aimed at the German market, and secondarily, at the non-German EU market. I've had (and still have) nothing but positive experiences with their vServers and Root-Servers, but -- yes -- it's crucial to understand how their contracts work. They have a nice in-house control panel (which allows uploading of ISOs), and uptime is great. If one is ready to accept their contracts, I can heartily recommend them.

localhost

How does one verify if cpu passthrough is enabled? Thnx

nullnothere

@localhost said: How does one verify if cpu passthrough is enabled?

cat /proc/cpuinfo on linux and you should see:

...
Model name:          Common KVM processor
...
Flags:               fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush...
...

(the above is just an example).

Once cpu pass through is enabled, you should see a proper CPU name instead of Common KVM processor and the Flags will change to include usually a number of extra flags (what most people want usually is aes and also vmx for Intel CPUs).

localhost

@nullnothere said:

@localhost said: How does one verify if cpu passthrough is enabled?

cat /proc/cpuinfo on linux and you should see:

...
Model name:          Common KVM processor
...
Flags:               fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush...
...

(the above is just an example).

Once cpu pass through is enabled, you should see a proper CPU name instead of Common KVM processor and the Flags will change to include usually a number of extra flags (what most people want usually is aes and also vmx for Intel CPUs).

Ahh. I see. Thank you.

miu

@nullnothere said:
I have a few Netcup VPSs and while I'm no ambassador, I must say that they are very reliable and live up to their end of the contract very well. Their VPSs are very stable, and provide a really good price-resource ratio. Performance (CPU) depends a lot on whether it is their Root servers (which have dedicated cores) vs their vServers (shared cores). I don't have any of their newer AMD Epyc CPU versions (which kind of provide far greater density than their older generations) - so I can't say much there but from what I've seen of others benchmarks I think it is respectable and nothing to snigger at.

The vServer performance will and does vary non linearly - so don't expect 4x performance with 4 vCores. Having said that everything else about their VPSs is really good. Very consistent (yes consistent) performance all round and really reliable. Hardly any downtime at all (I hope I haven't jinxed things!). Well balanced resources (typically). On the whole I've been very satisfied at their reliability.

What is no doubt very different/irritating/difficult is their contract part - they are (probably like a lot of German contracts) sticklers for/to it and they enforce it. So don't sign up before understanding the specifics of cancellation. It is very irritating to have the minimum 30/31 days notice prior to cancellation of a service (and if you miss it even by a day, bad luck - it's going to be enforced for the next contract period whether you like it or not). So if you have an annual contract, be sure to cancel it well in advance or pay the price (literally!).

The other negative is their CPU pass through limitations. They are completely inflexible there. The Root servers pass through more flags (but NOT the vmx one for nested virtualization for which you have to pay some ridiculous price PER CORE - yes PER CORE). I have no idea why they are so adamant and stuck up on this. The vServers have even fewer flags and some of them are a plain nuisance to not have (like the avx ones depending on your use case and some others that I don't remember off the bat). My hunch/guess is that for failover (automatic) or rebalancing they keep the flags the same across the product lines so that they can move nodes between hypervisors without pain (and I'm sure they have a fairly large deployment base).

I've really not seen any other host even come close to their price-resource combination AND be so consistent/reliable/stable (etc.). I've hardly ever reached out to support (except for clarifications like accounting/contracts and initially when I was a new customer on CPU flags etc.).

tl;dr great resources/pricing, CPU isn't the greatest (usually) everything else rocks (usually), contracts really are enforced (so buyer really really beware and be sure on cancellation policies thoroughly).

P.S: Sorry for the long wall but I was spirited away...

Unfortunately I have opposite experiences
Performance was more worse like at else providers with the same specs (mild overselling)
But can confirm that server was stable and uptime great (more than year with zero outage or reboot)

miu

BTW: CPU passthrough was ENABLED (as default)

And at all what they offer is still pretty good (ratio what u pay and what u get) IMO) + mentioned great reliability/uptime

miu

I found it now (old bench) - This was no miracle for dedicated cores:

Processor: Intel(R) Xeon(R) Gold 6230 CPU @ 2.10GHz
CPU cores: 2
Frequency: 2095.082 MHz
RAM: 7.6G
Swap: -
Kernel: Linux 3.10.0-1062.1.2.el7.x86_64 x86_64

Disks:
sda 160G HDD

CPU: SHA256-hashing 500 MB
1.748 seconds
CPU: bzip2-compressing 500 MB
6.060 seconds
CPU: AES-encrypting 500 MB
1.173 seconds

miu

for comparison here is my contabo (cheaper and only shared CPU core, not dedicated but better performance - how it is possible? ia anyone able to explain it if it is something other than mild overselling and cores are not so "dedicated" as they claims?)

Processor: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2620 v3 @ 2.40GHz
Frequency: 2399.998 MHz
Kernel: Linux 3.10.0-1062.1.2.el7.x86_64 x86_64

CPU: SHA256-hashing 500 MB
1.654 seconds
CPU: bzip2-compressing 500 MB
5.635 seconds
CPU: AES-encrypting 500 MB
1.588 seconds

chocolateshirt

@miu any comparison for GB 4/5 between those two?

miu

@chocolateshirt said:
@miu any comparison for GB 4/5 between those two?

sorry already away (cancelled)

Ympker

Their Rootservers have been stable for me in the past. I'd prefer Hetzner/Contabo as a company, though. Contabo now has an upgrade option in the control panel.

Falzo

@angstrom said:

@nullnothere said: I know @Falzo and @angstrom have good positive experiences with Netcup as well - just in case it helps to get some extra credibility

netcup are a very no-nonsense German company mostly aimed at the German market, and secondarily, at the non-German EU market. I've had (and still have) nothing but positive experiences with their vServers and Root-Servers, but -- yes -- it's crucial to understand how their contracts work. They have a nice in-house control panel (which allows uploading of ISOs), and uptime is great. If one is ready to accept their contracts, I can heartily recommend them.

simply this. haven't had any issues so far, using them in production for smaller webpages and also some private VPN stuff (much traffic included) - however, I am used to german cancellation policies and stuff and understand that this can be confusing otherwise.

I used the 20€ coupon yesterday to get another addon IP together together with some cheapish 0.49€ webhosting plan for overall ~3€ first year. not so bad of an offer at all ;-)

gks

Using them for production for huge analytics and IOT jobs, we never heard any complaints.
Looking at Hetzner dedi as the data volumes goes up, otherwise, I will stick to them.