Colocation FAQ

Additional bandwidth for our colocation clients costs $10/month/GB.

	Startup	Monthly
8 IPs	$25	$8
64 IPs	$25	$32
128 IPs	$25	$64
256 IPs	$25	$128

Automatic Pager Notification is available for $10 per month.

C I Host owns and operates 3 data centers in Dallas, Texas; Chicago, IL; and Los Angeles, CA. For complete information on our data centers please click here

A complete list of our managed services is located here

You can use any operating system you like and any server hardware that you choose.

Due to space restrictions in our datacenters our prices are quoted for mini-tower cases or 19/23" - 4U high rack mounted servers. If your server is larger than this there will be a $75.00/month/server fee added to your monthly statement to house the machine.

You can either ship it to us via UPS, FedEx or another domestic shipping company or bring it into our datacenter in person.

Any network card you choose will be fine. We would suggest a Intel Pro, 3Com or Intel card as they are the most reliable brands. You may supply your machine with a 10 or 100 Mbps Network card and if you do not have a network card then we can install a Intel Pro 100 Mbps card in your machine for $100.

Each of our colocation packages include 1 free hour of technical support. Each additional hour can be purchased at a rate of $100/hr. between 9am-6pm CT or $150/hr. after 6pm, on weekends and holidays.

Yes, you should install and configure your tape drive when you send your server. We can rotate your tapes on a weekly or daily basis. Daily tape backups are $200 per month and weekly backups are $100 per month. Your tape will be stored securely in our Network Operations Center and rotated accordingly.

Our network is manned and monitored 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by trained network engineers. Our Global Response Center (GRC) is located in Dallas, TX. All of our incoming calls are routed through this facility and then a team is dispatched to other data center locations if needed. Our network is monitored by live engineers and additionally by pro-active monitoring systems that can fix many of the level 1 issues before our engineers are even notified.

We have direct peering relationships with Qwest, Verio and Winstar. Additionally we run BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) on all of our routers and network to ensure closest path of transit is taken from all end users to our facilities. Additionally, by utilizing BGP we can route around slow Internet segments or congested networks ensuring our responses time lead the industry average. C I Host owns 3 ASNs (Autonomous System Numbers) allowing us to have direct peering relationships with each carrier in our facilities.

Yes we do. Information on C I Host's SLA can be found here.

C I Host is unique in that it operates a privately-owned dark fiber network consisting of multiple GigE (1000Mbits each) connections to multiple Internet Service Providers. This gives us the ability to control every aspect of our transit and turn on additional bandwidth within minutes as client demand warrants it.Our dark fiber network is built on dual strands of fiber and is self healing in case of fiber cuts. Additionally, the dual fiber strands are capable of transmitting over four terabits of data per second making C I Host's network the largest and fastest privately held web hosting network in the world.

C I Host uses the latest devices and counter-measures in data and physical security. All of our data center facilities are monitored 24x7 by security guards. Additionally, all external and interior doors use photo badges with electronic swipe, keycode and biometric finger print identification systems. This ensures that only authorized personnel enter or exit any portion of our facility.

Yes. C I Host wholly-owns 3 data centers in Dallas, Chicago and Los Angeles. These data centers house C I Host's shared servers and our client's dedicated and colocated servers and other Internet infrastructure and switching gear provisioned for our customers. All of our data centers are equipped to handle geographic load balancing and content distribution making C I Host one of only a handful of providers capable of offering this level of service.

We opened our first data center in Dallas in 1999 and followed with Los Angeles in 2001 and Chicago in 2002. We have seen tremendous growth rates in our facilities with Dallas currently at 80% occupied, Los Angeles at 40% and Chicago at 25%. We are adding 5 new colocation customers per week across all 3 of our facilities. While most providers are downsizing or closing data centers, C I Host continues to open and expand due to customer demand.

Yes. We keep hot-swap routers, switches and UPSs in all of our data centers in case of emergencies. Additionally, we stock a variety of server components including CPUs, SCSI/IDE hard drives, power supplies, cases, RAM, RAID controllers, and SCSI controllers to ensure that we have parts available in case your server requires immediately repair during off-peak hours.

We have a full-time security staff headed up by our Chief Security Officer, Daniel Fairchild. Mr. Fairchild's team ensures that our servers, routers, firewalls and intrusion detection systems are kept up-to-date with the latest patches, upgrades and security fixes. Each day our network is scanned for vulnerabilities and security leaks. With hacking and viruses running rampant on the Internet, we have to stay on top of the latest vulnerability alerts to ensure our network remains rock-solid and hacker proof.

Yes if you purchase bandwidth from C I Host in 1Mbit or larger increments. Helpful information on the 95th percentile rule follows:

We measure traffic every 5 minutes and collect traffic for a calendar month. At the end of each month we sort the data and ignore the top 5% of sample points. The next data point determines the bandwidth charges.

1. We provide you with MRTG graphs of your data ports so you can track your usage in a visual manner.
2. C I Host does not use MRTG data for the 95th percentile calculations. Rather, we directly pull the numbers directly from the ascii output of a "show interface" command (we use Cisco and Juniper equipment).
3. The raw data we collect is available to you via email.
4. We use the maximum of the input and output rate for each data point. Please note that, to your disadvantage, some providers add these two numbers together.
5. We give you the benefit of aggregation. If you have multiple connections (co-lo, remote circuits, etc.) we do not apply the 95th percentile technique to each individual connection but rather to the combined traffic.
6. We can arrange to ignore traffic that is clearly internal (e.g., backup traffic from co-located machines to your machines in your C I Host-connected office).
7. Hence, this is an open method since we provide you with the data used for billing. It is also designed to save you money (see the last three points in the above list).