Does anyone know the scoop on this company. Are they out-sourcing any part of their business. for example, are they a co-located business or is everything in-housed. I tried calling their lines today and tried to reach a tech, but wasn't able to get throw as i was put through voicemail because no one picked up. This worries me because if my server were to go down, which if it gets overloaded and freezes, and i can contact burst.net to fix it asap. I would cause big problems. I sent out an email about 5mins ago with some questions, i hope their email support is responsive.

Any info and or experiences with this company would be appricated, I haven't moved into their network at all yet. i don't want to transfer bunch of web sites and find out later i need to move. I haven't moved from my last dedicated server company (dialtone internet) since i've been up. I would only stay with them if they could offer hte Cpanel/WHM softwrae, but they dont . . I love dialtone., most professional company i've ever delt with.

I've had similar problems in past experiences with this company. Unless they've hired new people, it is my understanding that there's only 2-5 people in the whole company.

Sean from BurstNET is active on this board...I'm sure he'll be able to assist you. He's under the username BurstNET; Private Message him for assistance.

do they run their own datacenter?
Last thing i need is to be dealing with a middle man. I want to deal directly with Teir1 providers. So far its been about 30mins and still haven't got a reply to my question to support. mabe i'm just over reacting. . but i'm not. . if i were trying to inquire for a server being down and i can't contact them and its already been 30mins, thats 30mins of downtime towards my cleints, and i still haven't even notified them. . . ooh boy. .

Originally posted by mmhosting
do they run their own datacenter?
Last thing i need is to be dealing with a middle man. I want to deal directly with Teir1 providers. So far its been about 30mins and still haven't got a reply to my question to support. mabe i'm just over reacting. . but i'm not. . if i were trying to inquire for a server being down and i can't contact them and its already been 30mins, thats 30mins of downtime towards my cleints, and i still haven't even notified them. . . ooh boy. .

They claim to be running their own datacenter, and according to their website they were supposed to have pictures May 1. This has yet to happen. We'll have to ask Sean about that :D

Why not buy CPanel/WHM and it put in your server or put it on a server at Dialtone?

Well, Dialtone Doesn't offer Cpanel/WHM and if the software ever died out on me or I need help with it. I couldn't get any good support from Dialtone since its really not their product. But if i signed up with Burst, VDI, Site5 or Powersurge. I could get good support of the software.

And paying $99/month + server cost at dialtone would be much more than anyone is willing to pay. If dialtone only offered it with their D.S., i would not hesitate one bit.

Anyone here have CPanel/WHM hosted on a Dialtone server?

<< So far its been about 30mins and still haven't got a reply to my question to support. mabe i'm just over reacting. . but i'm not. . >>

You ARE over-reacting.
1. It takes more than 30 minutes for support tickets, almost no matter what.
2. It takes 48-72 hours for new server setups, as we tell clients prior to ordering. Sometimes more, depending on hardware stock, but that it a general estimate.

Please be more patient.
Our staff IS working on your order.

<< Unless they've hired new people, it is my understanding that there's only 2-5 people in the whole company. >>

Your understanding is wrong....BurstNET employees almost 15 people.

<< Are they out-sourcing any part of their business. for example, are they a co-located business or is everything in-housed >>
<< They claim to be running their own datacenter >>

Nothing is outsourced.
BurstNET owns, operates, and staffs it's own facility in Scranton PA USA.


Sean R.
BurstNET

Originally posted by mmhosting
I want to deal directly with Teir1 providers.

Then why are you going with Burst? Or even Dialtone for that matter? Neither would be considered a Tier 1 provider. Try UUNet, Level3, AboveNet, etc. if you want/need a Tier 1. (okay, okay, I know he doesn't know what a Tier 1 is... but... I still felt compelled to add this).

I am not at any extent worried on the time my dedicated server will be setup. I am extreamly worried on the support I will get. If I can't get in contact with any department over the phone, it scares me.

And I think your post was pretty rude, you kinda lashed out at a client. .

thanks for pointing that out. Your pretty funny. figures why you have so many posts.

Originally posted by Planet Z


Then why are you going with Burst? Or even Dialtone for that matter? Neither would be considered a Tier 1 provider. Try UUNet, Level3, AboveNet, etc. if you want/need a Tier 1. (okay, okay, I know he doesn't know what a Tier 1 is... but... I still felt compelled to add this).

Originally posted by mmhosting
And I think your post was pretty rude, you kinda lashed out at a client. .

...and me.... :crying:

:eek2:

Whoa, let's not try to kill each other.

Chicken, looks like you need to lock ANOTHER burstnet post.

Let's all try to keep the :angry: at bay.

Originally posted by MasterMindz
Whoa, let's not try to kill each other.

Chicken, looks like you need to lock ANOTHER burstnet post.

Let's all try to keep the :angry: at bay.

You must mean the :flamethr: (flaming)

I have no intent on complaining about this company. I just wanted to inquire what their service was like to other people and if they own their own datacenter. Which was replied to. I think its very smart to investigate a company that I will be relieing on to manage my server. Because if my server goes down, I go down, so does clients, and profits and it could put me out of business. Thats why I inquired about everything I need to know about the company.

And i'm still interested in peoples experience with Burst.Net.

mmhosting: Use the search feature. It will take you days to read all the opinions on Burst that have already been posted. I think the last thing we need is more.

Thanks for the suggestion, never thought about doing a searech. Makes it much eaiser, i was just about ready to start going through the whole forum. . .

Use hostsearch (http://www.hostsearch.com) to get some customer reviews.

The most obvious thing in the world to experienced forum users is searching, but its actually just about the last thing experience seems to teach.

I know it took me ages to learn. Try posting a remotely obvious question in gossamer-threads forum and I garuntee the first reply will be a twitchy tempramental reply from a mod about that thing called a search button up there... :D questioning did you bother to......

Originally posted by mmhosting
Well, Dialtone Doesn't offer Cpanel/WHM and if the software ever died out on me or I need help with it. I couldn't get any good support from Dialtone since its really not their product. But if i signed up with Burst, VDI, Site5 or Powersurge. I could get good support of the software.

And paying $99/month + server cost at dialtone would be much more than anyone is willing to pay. If dialtone only offered it with their D.S., i would not hesitate one bit.

Anyone here have CPanel/WHM hosted on a Dialtone server?

It depends on the data center. Most are farmilar with cpanel and can support it. You can always contact who you purchased cpanel from for support as well. Some data centers offer cpanel at discount rates too

Originally posted by mmhosting
I think its very smart to investigate a company that I will be relieing on to manage my server. Because if my server goes down, I go down, so does clients, and profits and it could put me out of business. Thats why I inquired about everything I need to know about the company.

While I agree it is smart to investigate a company you will be relying on to manage your server, to me, it is even smarter to do this *before* you order a server from them. I realize you may not have found the forum until today, however some of your questions seem like pre-order questions:

Are they a co-located business or is everything in-housed?
Do they run their own datacenter?
Are they a Tier1 provider?
What their service is like and how is support?

All of this should have been researched *before*, but I guess you are just wondering after the fact, though it makes no sense to me, nor does posting after emailing them 5 minutes ago.

Are they a co-located business or is everything in-housed?
Do they run their own datacenter?
Are they a Tier1 provider?


i think you must ask these question directly to burst and thy will reply to you.

:smokin:

Yes, I got a reply from Burst.Net, they said they run their own datacenter. I go to their web site but they seem to lack their network information like pcitures of their NOC, backbone providers, and basic NOC information. I think this wouold help out with their marketing. I wonder how many servers Burst.Net has in its datacenter now. . .

Sean, if your reading this, how many servers are at this time hosted in the Burst.Net datacenter?

200+ servers in our facility right now...
Just opened 5/1/2001...so not bad at all for slightly over 3 months of operation... :-)
We also have a large client with 50+ servers contracted and moving in at the end of the month...so that will jump us up alot...

Sean R.
BurstNET

How's the new DS3 going? I haven't heard anything about it except a rude response with someone there when I asked about it August 5th.
Along the terms of: "How's the DS3 coming along?"
Response: "same as it always has been"

Not very helpful... considering your website has said June since I can remember, and still does. Finally got the person to say August 8th. I asked who it was, but they signed off.

Originally posted by mmhosting
Any info and or experiences with this company would be appricated..

We are a client of BurstNET and we are happy with them.

Hi,

I also have a server with Burst for about one
month now. So far, so good. Their support
response is excellent. (At least better than
my old server provider). Especially Brad.

Once I asked for 8 additional IPs.
And they gave me 16. :)

Just my two cents.

Anto.

AT&T postponed again due to Verizon facility delays.
The new revised Verizon visit date is 8/22/2001...6 days from now.
Hopefully they will make this date this time.
Not much we can due but wait, as all providers are at the mercy of the telcos in these situations.
In the meantime, our Sprint DS3 has been upgraded to full capacity to make sure more than enough bandwidthis available during this waiting period.
We are also in the middle of ordering an upgrade for a OC3 from Sprint for December/January, as well as planning a 3rd line, probably DS3, from another provider before the end of the year.

As soon as we have time, we will get network/facility info up on our site.
We have been adding so much the past month, that we have been holding off on pictures until we calm down a bit :-)...shouldn't be much longer though.


Sean R.
BurstNET

Actually i think sean answered the questions fine, mmhosting thiers no need to be so rude yourself :D

Hi Sean,

Our company, Qing.NET, started to use one of your server in July, and has sent cancellation well within 30 day period. Burst.net has never given us a comfirmation, but sent another invoice on 08/17/2001 (Invoice Number: 3325G1; Account number 3347).

Here is what has happened:

I called your billing department about how to cancel the account, and the lady gave me a link for cancellation purpose. My partner, Ray Ma, applied cancellation thruogh that link but no comfirmation from your company.

I tried two or three more times two days later to cancel our account from the same form. But still no comfirmation has been sent to us. I then called that woman again and asked her what's going on there.

She checked a few minites and told me nothing about our account was found in her record, and probably it had not been or won't be sent to billing department since we were new. She then transfered me to your tech department for help.

The tech man found out our account and told me that it looked like our cancellation had been received according to his record. I trusted what he told me. But you see, burst.net send us the invoice yesterday instead of refund it has promised.

I used to read about similar problem other people complained against your company in this forum, but didn't realize that the same problem could happen again and again, and even to us until now.

If you need more info about this issue just let us know. Please take care of it.

Please contact our Billing Dept Mon-Fri 11AM - 5PM EST at 1-877-BURSTNET ext #20 or via email at billing@burst.net, and they will gladly assist you with this matter.

NOTE: Our Billing Dept is closed this Monday 8/20/2001 for internal auditing.

If you cannot get assistance on Tuesday...feel free to email directly at sean@burst.net, and I will look into this matter for you. Please contact me directly ONLY after you have attemped to resolve this matter thru proper methods.

This is not the place for such inquiries, and I cannot follow up on them when belayed via such methods.


Sean R.
BurstNET

Thanks for the update on the new DS3 Sean.

I was also just wondering if you have less employees working on Saturdays or Sundays?

Yes, Saturday's and Sundays are our weak spots on staffing right now.
We are working on that though.

<<MOD EDIT:>>
Please just answer the question asked and leave off the additional info that is not suitable for the forum.
<</MOD EDIT>>

Regards,
Sean R.
BurstNET

Sean,

I have been trying to get hold of you for a couple of weeks, can you mail, AIM, or ICQ me please.

Thanks.

I'm pretty easy to get ahold of...just email me at sean@burst.net...

Sean R.
BurstNET

Originally posted by BurstNET
Yes, Saturday's and Sundays are our weak spots on staffing right now.
We are working on that though.


Well in case you check in here, no one is answering the phone at burst and my server as well as Burst's server is down right now. I wouldn't be surprised if everyone who has a burst server is down too....sigh.

I can confirm that. :-(

It appears that the problem is on Sprint's end from the trace...

Back up.

Fortunately, that was brief. :-)

Yeah...it happened last week too. I'm trying to remember if it was a sunday night...

Sprint issue....we are looking into the cause.
It is not long enough to be a major problem, as we are well above 95% uptime as offered, but still annoying enough where we find it unacceptible.
The redundancy from the 2nd DS3 (AT&T) is a welcome event here....
Verizon is currently scheduled for arrival at our facility on Wednesday, this week...hopefully they will keep this date. This is their third date...after two postponements...and they usually do make their third date in our area.


Sean R.
BurstNET

<< Yes, Saturday's and Sundays are our weak spots on staffing right now.
We are working on that though. >>

<<MOD EDIT:>>
Please just answer the question asked and leave off the additional info that is not suitable for the forum.
<</MOD EDIT>>


And what exactly was unacceptible about my other 2-3 sentences I responded with?
I simply answered the question with the first two lines, and responded with what we are doing about the situation in the next 2-3 lines. By editing my post, you made it look like we don't care, when if you had left the next few sentences, it would explain what is going on behind the scenes here that will improve the siutation the client/poster was directly inquiring about.

I wasn't advertising something, or stirring up trouble, or pushing anything...I simply answered the post in a little more detail than "yeah, working on it"...

If it is a disk space issue...I can gladly send you a spare drive...if it means I can respond properly to a question well within forum guidelines.


?????????


Sean R.
BurstNET

Thank you for the update sean.

The burst network (and my server of course) is down. Again.

This is very frustrating. I can't work because my server's down and I can't sleep because my server's down. :(

And what's most frustrating is that all Burst employees are probably @ home sleeping. :sleeping:

Sean, can you give some people your home number / pager so we can call you and keep you (or SOMEONE @ burst) from sleeping when we can't sleep because your network is down? :stickout

The last 5 times I tried to use IM no one even replied to me, even giving a whole day or more.. :bawling:

If it goes down regularly we need to be able to reach someone to yell at :argue: so we feel better (or maybe even they can work on fixing it ;) ?)....

Thank you.

OK It's morning now, the sun is coming up, people should be awake soon. What a waste of an all nighter.

Been down almost an hour now.

Who's going to be blamed for this downtime. I should keep a log just for fun. I don't have the best memory but here's what I recall offhand...

Last time: Sprint.
The time before: uh, we're down? Really?? Oh. Yeah, we're doing maintenance. Huh? You're down too? Oh. That's different. OK, your server needs a reboot.
Time before that: similar story
Time before that: it would depress me too much to retell the pathetic story. Use the search feature.
Time before that: VDI.
etc...

How about some plain old uptime?? That might be good for business for a change. All the other guys I deal with are doing it? Why not Burst? Try it you'll like it.

Or if you can't give out your home phone number, your voicemail should have something that allows your customer to press a button for emergencies so that someone gets woken up. You'll deny it but I know that everyone @ burst is asleep. When one of you are there the phone gets picked up. You are 100% asleep while your network is down and you have no alert system obviously...

I got an alert via email that my server was down but everyone @ burst is asleep. I'm getting really POed. I know you will have an attitude when you respond after you provide excuses but if you can't keep it up you better be there to explain why dammit. You are a public company. If the 15 of you can't be up @ all hours then make a damm pager number available and force your support staff to carry it with them everywhere or have shifts. AND HIRE MORE DAMM SUPPORT PEOPLE DAMMIT. W/ the tech slump there's millions of em dying for jobs.

Just came back up. So 1 1/2 hour downtime.

dwh,

tell me..... are you the kind of person who needs support on the system like, linux wise? adminstration? installing things? running things? or are you able todo that yourself

note: i am just asking this out of curiousity

Originally posted by node9
tell me..... are you the kind of person who needs support on the system like, linux wise?

Nope. But when the network goes down I do freak out sometimes :)

And before I post I always make sure it's the network not my server. Burst's site was down so it was not isolated to me.

And, nearly three weeks later i am awaiting a response to my sales enquiry.

"Do they want my business" I ask myself!

Looks like I will be taking up the other offer after all!!!

<< And, nearly three weeks later i am awaiting a response to my sales enquiry. >>

SuperDon: Check the posts above...I specifically asked you to email me at sean@burst.net if you needed assistance...as far as I know you have not done such.

Sean R.
BurstNET

dwh: Open a ticket in our support ticket system if you want any of the above questions answer from you ten (10) posts in this thread in the past 8 hours. We are not responding to them here, for it is not the place for such, nor an advertised method of support for us.

You assumptions are invalid/untrue, and I am not going to respond to them publicly.

BurstNET advertisesd 99.5% uptime. 99.5% does not equal 100%. 99.5% means that we are allowed approx 4 hours of downtime per month on our network. Do we want to have 4 hours, of downtime, of course not...but if we do, we are still within our 99.5% guarantee. Sprint has been having several outages in the past 4-6 weeks, most just 20-30 minutes, but this one did last 1.5 hours. What was the reason for the outage last night...we do not know. Sprint has told us that there is no RFO (reason for outage) yet, but they will be getting back to us shortly. What can we do about the situation?...absolutely nothing. Every data center will have it's connectivity issues. If you want to pay 5x the cost as you do in a small data center, then you may be able to acheive 99.999% uptime in places like Exodus or Digex. Most people in this industry do not want to pay such...so you have to have a tradeoff here then. The only thing overall that can be done is to add redundancy to our network, which would increase uptime in a situation like this. BurstNET ordered a redundant DS3 several months ago from AT&T. We are waiting on install from Verizon, which was delayed, and most recently scheduled for today. It is 1:45 PM EST, and they still have not shown up yet. We can do nothing but wait, as we are at the mercy of the telco. BurstNET plans on adding a 3rd line before the end of the year, as well as increasing our Sprint DS3 to OC3 connectivity. BurstNET is doing everything we can, and would install the DS3 loop and fiber ourselves today if we could ourselves, but that is not an option.


Sean R.
BurstNET

Emails sent to you ....

16th, 18th, 20th and 21st of this month.

Your last email to me on the 14th was...

"I'll be getting back yo you late tonight on this.
I am out of the office until this evening..."

Look forward to your email.

<edit>

wrong thread

Latest update from Sprint:

"This was a global outage with over 70 customers affected/down"


Sean R.
BurstNET

Originally posted by BurstNET
dwh: Open a ticket in our support ticket system if you want any of the above questions answer from you ten (10) posts in this thread in the past 8 hours.

There were 5 posts not 10 in the time that the network went down and I had no one to scream @. I opened a ticket which I knew no one would see until many hours and that was the case.

You may blame Sprint and you may want to us to believe that someone was around but we aren't that naiive. You are missing support in many key hours. Of course I can't prove it and of course you'll deny it, but that is pretty obvious and you aren't fooling anyone.

And if you become more open about it and provide a system when your customers can open an EMERGENCY TICKET when the network is down AND/OR leave an EMERGENCY TICKET via TELEPHONE AND/OR leave a phone number/pager when the network is down so that we know that someone gets woken up, in that event I won't be upset if you don't have 24/7 support for regular stuff. But to be stuck on voicemail and put in the same queue as someone who doesn't know what a pop server is is crazy. You need the ability to prioritize a ticket. When you call any Dr. they have a system to page him if it's an emergency.


My server is needed at all hours because I deal w/ many countries, but I can live w/o a 5am support on regular issues, but if the network is down I expect to be able to inform SOMEONE @ Burst about it. And this isn't a rant.

Because of Brad I'm hopeful that things @ burst are getting better. But my server going down in middle of the night and not being able to talk to anyone has happened to me 3-4-5 times now and I think it's time you did something about it. If it's Sprint's fault, fine, but I want someone available 24/7 in case of Network wide failure. I do believe you advertise 24/7 support so at least for emergencies like this you need to find a way to offer it.

Also, the sequence of events was such that my server stayed down, I had IM open all the time, then someone @ Burst logged into IM, moments later the servers went back up. It was pretty obvious that someone fixed something and it wasn't a Sprint issue. But you know what, don't even answer that, just give us a way to reach SOMEONE @ support 24/7 and I'll be happy.

This really is turning into the Burst support forum, isn't it? :rolleyes:

<< It was pretty obvious that someone fixed something and it wasn't a Sprint issue. >>

Then you are calling us liars, and we have nothing more to state on the matter, and nothing further to state to you. We are not going to address your inquries if you are going post/respond as you do.

The issue was a Sprint issue, they have verified that they had a router die, 70+ Sprint Leased Line clients were affected, as it was a "global issue" from Sprint. Feel free to contact Sprint to verify this.

<< This really is turning into the Burst support forum, isn't it? >>

Unfortunately, yes it is...and there is not much we can do about it.
Hopefully the mods will come up with some new rules regarding the posting of support issues around here, because I'm getting about fed up with it, as I am sure most readers are as well.

http://www.burst.net/contact.shtml
Does anyone see webhostingtalk.com listed in that page anywhere as a BurstNET support contact method? I sure don't....
I love to assist clients, and address any issues that they have, but please people use appropriate methds of contact that we offer, and ONLY those methods. Posting here WILL NOT get your support issues fixed any faster. If this continues, we will be left with no choice but no not fix support problems brought to this forum, and purposely put the issue hold until the post is deleted. As bad as it sounds, and as much as we would not want to do it, that would be the only way for us curb these posts that do not belong here.

PLEASE USE PROPER METHODS OF SUPPORT CONTACT.
PLEASE OPEN SUPPORT TICKETS.

Sean R.
BurstNET

Sean instead of responding this way take to heart the constructive criticism offered. If you remove the only outlet your poor customers have when your support lacks, you will lose your customers altogether. I offered something constructive amid all the frustration. You didn't even address it. Please offer an emergency support with a page to someone live. That is fair to ask. We aren't posting here for our health. The frustration and pain we feel is real. Ignoring the constructive criticism along with venting of our frustration isn't fair to us. We only post here as a last resort.

Originally posted by Peeps
This really is turning into the Burst support forum, isn't it? :rolleyes:

well it appears that some people can't get in touch with burstnet, due to lack of support (From what i can see) --

so they have no other choice but to post here.. and i dont blame them

just my .02

There is a problem with people coming here and posting information and the thread ending up similar to a support thread. While many of these start out as gripes about something or other, aside from the posted providing info about the host, this forum can do nothing to fix whatever is wrong. We can't fix the server, unless it is specific server software issue that can be fixed, we can't get the network up, etc.

It isn't always easy to pinpoint when these threads turn from, "this is what happened..." to support threads, and we (mods) aren't here every second of the day to close these threads at the point it does turn into a support thread. Anyway, at this point, thread locked, please contact them directly about any specific issues you may have.