I just signed up with Burst.Net for two dedicated servers. Here are my initial observations and I'll continue updating this as we go along.

First of all, I am very happy with Sean over at Burst. He's been providing me timely updates and seemingly went out of his way to get my servers to me over the weekend. In perspective, I should not have rushed him, as there have been some problems with the hardware.

I have backed off from my request of "ASAP" to "hand over the servers when you're ready". Hopefully this happens in the next day or so.

Observations:

While I was on the servers I did a few traceroutes and pings to popular network destinations my users come in from (India, Europe etc) and have found the response times reasonable (+/- 5% of my last provider).

They have two control panels. The Web host panel for the machine admin. This one scares me. I some how find using VI and shooting myself in the foot more comforting than having a web panel do that for me. I still have a few issues with it and have reported them to burst. They could well be related to user stupidity.

The cpanel for end users is nice! They have thrown in web based email and a bunch of other goodies like chat applets, ssh which is something my users will most definately appreciate. I have not yet played with this panel in detail as I have noticed that burst is doing a fair amount of maintenance on the system (rebooting a fair bit) to sort out the issues I've had with my hardware. Please keep in mind that this is the weekend for the guys over at burst.. and someone is working on the hardware. Very good in my opinion.

Overall, I think I have much better value in terms of software and hardware than my previous host. I'm sure bandwidth and network performance / support will be tested over the next day or so.

More follows.

are you from Burst.Net??!!:mad:

Lets not be that cynical :)

Take a look at my posting history.

Sorry, don't be angry, just ask only

I did't get the impression that this user was with Burst, other than being hosted on them. Good luck with your hosting, shrirch. Cheers! :-)

Hi
I think you were at dialtone earlier
Why did you move from them ??

Regards
Manish Kapadia

Manish,

Found a better deal with Burst with regards to cost and much better control panel software. The Cpanel3 software they use on Burst servers is exceptional.

I must say that Dialtone is top notch. I did not find any problems with their service, support or their equipment. They were just not as negotiable after they had me as a customer, as they were before. I'm in sell a couple of million US$'s worth of software a year and I know I'm at the wrong end of the deal when a salesman says "sorry, I have guidelines I must abide by". ;)

Cheers,
Shri

although my experience with Burst was not favorable, it is good to hear someone speaking positively (so far) about their experience at Burst. It shows that not everyone here is looking to slam a company every minute they get a change to. It also may show a positive change at BurstNet. We all know that they were making changes to their support department and we may now begin to see the positive effects. It will be interesting to see.

Patrick

Ok. An update and some thoughts.

They fixed the hardware problems and the configuration issues within about 24 hours and the server is setup and running. There is still some confusion in their support department about where the server really is.. "on the bench" or "on the rack". I'm waiting to hear back from them about where it is.

I also thought it would be best if I explained the most critical issue that I had with dialtoneinternet.com. I had two servers with them and wanted to dedicate of of them as a mysql server and the other as a webserver. According to dialtone's policies server-server bandwidth is metered. This bandwidth for me was about 2-3GB a day. I was willing to buy a switch and send to them but they were not flexible enough to accomodate it. I guess my business was too small for them.

Burst agreed to setup a private network between the two servers using an additional nic and my server to server bandwidth is now free. I can safely backup across both the servers and seperate the DB and Webservers.

Precise, from my viewpoint, people are as good to you as you're to them at the end of the day. When someone does something good for you we often forget to put a good word in for them. I do it all the time when I get good service, from an airlines check in agent to even the president. If they did something that affected you positively let it be known. Make it clear to them that you appreciate their service and expect it again. Needless to say.... I also rave and rant when something is not to my expectations.

Hardware and network failures are hard to predict. What seperates a good host is their ability to recognise and fix the issues when they happen. Hopefully I do not have to test this.

Good on you Shrirch :agree:

And thanks for the commentary - I'm tracking it with interest..

Sorg

I hate to do this.. because so many people use this forum to base their choices of whom to buy from; but - I gotta say this.

I too ordered a server from burst.net a couple of days ago. I'm attempting to start my own hosting comany and finally found enough (actually only one) customers to pay for the initial setup fee's and first month. So I checked around - went to a couple different sites and decided on burstnet. I ordered my serveer - and sat back waiting for my server to be set up - well I'm still sitting. I ordered my server late the 30th (of July) and was contacted about billing the next morning. After billing contacted me I - I contacted support and was informed that my server should be up around 6pm that evening... leaving me ample amount of time to get my customers site on the server, switch nameservers for his domain, and still have room to spare for when his exsisting contract (with another provider) expired at 6am on the First.

About 10 phone calls, 2 voicemails, several aim sessions, and many many empty promises my customer and I are still waiting - fortunately his site is still up - but time is growing very very thin. For the most part Burst Net has been accessible to me - but it's difficult to get a hard answer out of anyone.

Those are just the facts as I see them - In trying to be fair to Burst Net here. This is just my side of the story; but do take note if you want a server from Burst Net and you need it soon - you may want to think twice.


I'll keep everyone posted,

-neil

We need a switch too, do you mean Cisco who runs MRTG soft? Have you got prices by any chance?

tnx

I agreed .We have one Linux server and one NT server with Burst.net and as I think thre hardware configration service is good .

Neil,

May be they were busy being harrassed by me :)

It scares me when I hear of such a different opinion from mine .. specially during the same time when I've been having a good run with their support department.

Hopefully my good experience its not because I started this thread in a rather public forum. ;)

Best of luck.
Shri

Well,
I, like the rest of you was reading all of the good and bad before I chose Burstnet for my next Cpanel server.
But I can say that the server I have with burst at their new datacenter has had excellent uptime and the connection from Sprint has been fast. I also have a server at another noc which has cpanel from Burst as well..

I also can say that when I had a security problem the other night, I called support, got someone on the phone right away. In addition, later that night, I sent an email and since it was an urgent issue, it was replied to and helped right away by Brad. In addition, they did more than was expected to get it working and back online. That says a lot about a company to me. I know most of the time people only say something when they are bit$hing about the provider, but I am so far quite happy with the experience with these guys. Another support ticket was handled within 24 hours, which is fine because it was a request for more IP's.

I am a happy camper thus far...

;)

AH

Hi,

I just thought I'd put in my 2 cents about my experience so far with Burst.net.

I ordered one of their Dedicated Server specials on 7/23 and got and e-mail from Sean on 7/28 saying that the server was all setup and ready to go. I was out of town at the time and just took a look at the WHM via my laptop. At first I couldn't figure out how to connect to the WHM and sent an e-mail with my dumb question. Sean answered right away and I logged in and looked around.

That was all I did until I got back home. So, a couple of days ago I started trying to figure out how to really get things working. I was stumped so I called tech support. Brad helped me and got things set up and told me to register my nameservers at my registrar.

Well, I had trouble with that, I kept getting an error message. When I finally spoke with someone at Bulkregister this afternoon, he told me that the IP address I was trying to use for NS1 was already registered by someone else.

So, I had to call Burst.net tech to inquire about that. It turns out that another of their customers goofed and made up an IP address for one of his nameservers that he registered at Bulkregister, and it happened to be my main IP address. Eric at Burst.net sorted it out and emailed me a couple hours later that I could go register my nameserver at Bulkregister. I did, and it went through without the error message.

But, then I tried to access my WHM via the IP address, since the domain name is not working yet, and I can't connect to the server.

I called Burst.net again, spoke with Eric, and he said he'd take care of it, it must be something connected to the mixup with the IP addresses.

All of these strange things are not at all the fault of Burst.net, and I am very happy that I can pick up the phone and get right to someone who can help me.

I'm pleased with their support.

Karen

just wanted to give a brief update - my server is up and rolling and I'm able to access my machine via my domain. It's just a matter of learning whm and getting some darn customers!

-neil

Getting customers is the hardest part ;p

Maybe Burst is taking a turn for the better... hopefully.

I think I'd consider going with them if it weren't for the low bandwidth. But then again, Jeff @ Serverhost is awesome and I really have no intention of going elsewhere.

Originally posted by brandonk
But then again, Jeff @ Serverhost is awesome and I really have no intention of going elsewhere.

When are they going to reopen?

Well,
I guess I should not have spoken so soon. I have been on email and the phone all day, and I am guessing that these guys are not open on Saturday or Sunday. I have not had a single reply to my despirate request for help today. My server is down, I need cpanel re-installed and that is all I need. I can not get one person to call me back or email me.

Enjoy the day off guys!

I am sure that someone from BURST!!!!NET will come here and post a reply saying "I" did something wrong. .
I have sent 3 replies/requests for help VIA email and called all day.. after a recommendation from your employee to do this OS re-install
... I just need you to put the cpanel back for me, heck, I am sure you have 1 , just 1 employee on duty to do this don't you???
Wait a minute.. maybe you don't?!?

But since I already pay you, I guess I am worthless now.

It has been 18 hours... server down... still waiting


Thanks Again
BurstNET.

AH


P.S. anyone else here sell Cpanel to people who have servers off the network? if so, I am willing to pay you to install it and get it working on my machine 2-day!
Email me: alahater@ureach.com

Huh?!!!! BurstNet is not working Saturday/Sunday?!!!!

:eek2:

I thought there tech support was open 24x7?

hey guys take a look at this thread you will be amazed

please tell me who is thief


http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=17329



find same design on both pages

http://www.multipleimage.com/dedicated.shtml

-----------------

http://www.burst.net/servers/

Alareach, the consolation you have is that you're stuck on a long contract. I hope you're on the same monthly contract that I'm on.

the thing that i've noticed that definitely would put me off of ever going with burst (despite prices, etc) is this sort of neglectful approach to clients (intentional or otherwise i certainly don't know, nor do i attempt to portray that).

it seems to me, just my personal observation, that sean spends more time on this forum battling about providing support to his clients than actually providing support and that perhaps if less time was spent here the number of problems obtaining support would lessen?

for me, i get a pretty bad impression of the company when i read sean's posts... regardless if support was 100% better than it appears to be from reading through the forum i'm not sure if i'd ever trust burst.net.

edit/add: it's definitely curious how those two pages are virtually identical though, someone definitely ripped the other.

my 2p

Hmm... they could've at least ripped a decent-looking page.

<< find same design on both pages
http://www.multipleimage.com/dedicated.shtml
http://www.burst.net/servers/ >>


Our whole site is designed in the same look as that page....looks to me like they just haven't had the time to rip off the rest of our site yet. Shame on you multipleimage. You will loose alot of business over this. Bad move on your part.

NOTE: BurstNET does allow our resellers to copy material directly rom our website, for their own sales usage, as long as they remain a BurstNET client. This individual is not a client, and has used our material without permission. He will be dealt with appropriately.


Sean R
BurstNET

Alareach:
I have checked your server, and there is not a thing wrong with it.

The server was not hacked...where did you get this information?
I checked the hard drives, and they are running perfectly fine. I did this because often a system will act like it is hacked if it has a failing hard drive. This is not the case here, and your drives are running perfectly. Backup services are running fine on your server. CPanel/WebHostManager are running fine on your server. http/ftp/mail/ssh/telnet/mysql, all fine...None of our monitoring systems showed anything wrong with your server at all.....

The server itself has not been down since we took it down to add a hard drive for your backup services order over a week ago:

root@host8 [/]# w
4:08pm up 7 days, 3:02, 1 user, load average: 0.04, 0.03, 0.00


???????????????????????


Sean R.
BurstNET

why would i want to rip off a site? i will change that page if you provide proof of conception and it is before mine. fair enough?

<< i will change that page if you provide proof of conception >>

1. I am not pregnant.
2. You'll change the page whether you like it or not, if you want to avoid legal issues.


Sean R.
BurstNET

if you truly have it why wont you submit proof of ownership? sounds to me like maybe you copyied it?

<< with our main data center in Scranton, Pennsylvania >>

Off of http://www.multipleimage.com/about_us.shtml...

If you are a BurstNET client, you have permission to copy info/design from our website.
If you are not a BurstNET client, you DO NOT.

If you are a client, please send me a private note to sean@burst.net with your identity, so that I can pass this copyright infringement off...and we can get on with business as usual for both parties.

We have all the proof of design we need, including dating of the uploaded files.

Sean R.
BurstNET

HAHA BUSTED!

Caught red handed I guess ;)

Now can we leave Sean and BurstNET alone so they can work on getting my upgrade down tonight? ;p

Shame on multipleimage.

Shawn,
You are looking at the wrong ticket(s)
I have been working on this with Brad for some time now.

I need Cpanel re-installed on the machine because it indeed was hacked.
I have waited well over 24 hours for answers to my tickets and a telephone request. This is true.
I replied your answer (above) VIA email earlier as well, as I was not asking for support on this forum, nor seeking your reply to me to be posted here. I was simply stating an addendum to my opinion for other users where I stated that you did assist me in a timely manner when I needed it the other day. This weekend was much different.
I did not ask for a reply here.
The statement on this thread did not indicate I wanted help here. I want you to answer my support questions by email, or phone... The same method in which I contacted you.


Thank you
AR

Hi,
Well, I was a little wrong above, I was sending the reply to the wrong ticket... my bad. :rolleyes:

I will say this, if you are a customer of Burst, you will have the pleasure of working with Brad who is awesome when it came to fixing up my cpanel, and man was it a mess. I would still be in disaster mode if it were not for him, and as usual, he was quick to help and did a great job. I am impressed that they did so much for me as a customer. I will not hesitate to recommend them. My server there is fast and has had great uptime on their Sprint connection, and support is great. I had two tickets answered in less than an hour again in the last 24 hrs.

I upgraded to a better server and have had a few problems here and there and BurstNets support has been a great help. Today I sent an email at 5:45 am EST and Brad answered it and fixed the problem within 15 minutes!

I would like to thank Sean, John, Brad, and Keith and the rest of the support people for the great support the last 2 days!

Guess what I got to test out what really goes on at Burst when there is a crisis.

My servers were brought down to move them from the workbench to the racks.

Server 1 had a problem and I was ummm.. left in the dark about whats going on.

I opened a ticket at 2001-08-07 06:55:54 and asked for a status.

I then called them at around 8:30AM EST and was directed to voicemail.

I called them again at 10:30 EST and directed them to voicemail.

I sent another email at 2001-08-07 10:40:42 to ask for a status.

I got a response from Sean at 2001-08-07 12:52:43 indicating that he would update me.

The only update I got was at 2001-08-07 16:01:33 saying that the ticket was closed.

Strike One!

The ticket was closed because your problem was corrected.

Sean R.
BurstNET

Originally posted by venomx
I would like to thank Sean, John, Brad, and Keith...

don't forget Nick :) He is also part of the support team.

I knew I was forgetting one. :P Thats why I said and the rest ;p

:P

Sean,

Yes, I hope I did not give any other impression that it was not fixed. My problem was with the fact that I could not contact anyone. The first response to my ticket was several hours after I initiated contact. Definately shows a weak link in your support system.

Ok. New one. Just opened a ticket a couple of minutes ago because the server is not responding to pings / traceroutes / http requests. Time logged ... 2001-08-08 10:23:06

*Sigh*

Shri

<< My problem was with the fact that I could not contact anyone. The first response to my ticket was several hours after I initiated contact. >>

I understand your frustration, especially considering the situation was a server being down.
We are adding phone staff as fast as possible currently.
Please note that "several hours" is more than reasonable of a support response time for an email ticket we feel. Your ticket just opened now, was answered in about 20 minutes, which is even better.

Sean R.
BurstNET

Just random thinking out loud. First, I want to reiterate that Burst has improved tremendously. For one reason and one reason only. His name is Brad. That guy is awesome. It isn't Burst that goes out of its way, it's Brad. Whenever he touches my server, it come out much better, like magic. Whenever anyone else does anything, watch out! I'm still far from being happy with Burst and fear that with only one Brad, if he's busy w/ someone else, or not around when trouble strikes, we're in for a storm. They need to hire another brad or two (even people HALF as good) and not allow Sean or Nick to answer any support tickets (sorry guys, you may be good at a lot of things, but customer liason is not one of them).

I have a lot of hope that it will keep getting better...

Very close to giving up with them.

Posted a request for offers in the advertising forums.

2 weeks and about 7 or 8 'down times' later I've lost my sense of humor :(

Could we post our feelings?
We think that phone contact is quite important, decisive.
Customer care has first to pass through phone. Personal contact is very important for customers, they must feel they are esteemed, because customer is a value, the biggest one.

No matter how big or small a company is, you could also use home based supporter and switch calls. We do it and I believe there's nothing better than phone, problem is understood and solved in a bit.
No mails, no tickets, no voice mail or Human Click could beat a sincere "bye and thank you again ..." following a rapid phone support.

(as american say) .. My 2 Cents


bye

Originally posted by globe
We think that phone contact is quite important, decisive. <snip>


Sure it is. But in fact, most really technical inquiries are much easier done via email. You can't verbally share error logs, etc. Usually when I do phone support for our dedicated servers, the people end up having to email me with more detailed information anyway before I can actually do anything. So...

4 hours down and no email. Thats when I pick up the phone and if I don't get anyone on the other line, I am concerned. :)

Originally posted by BurstNET
Alareach:
I have checked your server, and there is not a thing wrong with it.

The server was not hacked...where did you get this information?
I checked the hard drives, and they are running perfectly fine. I did this because often a system will act like it is hacked if it has a failing hard drive. This is not the case here, and your drives are running perfectly. Backup services are running fine on your server. CPanel/WebHostManager are running fine on your server. http/ftp/mail/ssh/telnet/mysql, all fine...None of our monitoring systems showed anything wrong with your server at all.....

The server itself has not been down since we took it down to add a hard drive for your backup services order over a week ago:

root@host8 [/]# w
4:08pm up 7 days, 3:02, 1 user, load average: 0.04, 0.03, 0.00


???????????????????????


Sean R.
BurstNET

Uhm, the last time I checked this forum wasn't called the "BurstNET Support Forum"...

Yes, it would be nice if the direct contact was kept off the forum.

I agree, it is a bit of an annoyance when hosts start providing support via WHT. :rolleyes:

Well, we can't exatcly leave it with the client support issue having the last comment. We have to show that we actually did something about the situation, otherwise it would look bad for us. Personally I think the moderators should automatically delete any post ever made with support requests. We as well can't stand having to respond to support issues in public...it is not a proper method of support, nor one we advertise. We really have no choice but to respond though, if that is the route the client decides to take.

Sean R.
BurstNET

It ain't you. Just that complaining threads are sometimes addressed and then the discussion kinda sorta carries over into a support thread. At some point threads should be locked and I think it is past that point now...