I decided I would look around when I kept finding seemingly better & better hosting deals. I am currently on OneWorldHosting (http://www.oneworldhosting.com) & discovered HostRocket & OpenHSP.

HostRocket (http://www.hostrocket.com) seemed like a good deal, but after reading some reviews & horror-type stories here, I'm not so sure.

I found OpenHSP.com (http://www.openhsp.com) & they seem like a incredible deal. Almost unbelievable, almost too good to be true. Doing some searches on them (mainly google & here), they are completely unknown. Neither (normally) reliable source came up with a single link. Does anyone here have any experience with them?

Actually, does anyone have experience with the above mentioned hosts:
OneWorldHosting (http://www.oneworldhosting.com)
HostRocket (http://www.hostrocket.com)
OpenHSP.com (http://www.openhsp.com)

I would appreciate any feedback / comments or suggestions for where I can get a comparable plan. I'm not looking for spending more than $15 / month, preferably less.

Thanks

I don't know much about OpenHSP but I think it may be something like Aletia... they were great until started acting like they were the next best thing since bread. But I mean, all this for $5??
It's impossible to get the following for $5 a month without a setup fee or a catch.


DOMAIN NAMES:
> Your own domain name (www.yourname.com - $25/year registration)
> Optional sub-domain (yourname.openhsp.com - no charge)

WEB SPACE/TRAFFIC:
> 400MB Web Space/Storage
> 10GB Bandwidth/Transfer

E-MAIL SERVICES:
> 400 E-mail Boxes (POP3/SMTP)
> Unlimited E-mail Forwarding/Aliases
> Unlimited E-mail Autoresponders
> Catch-All E-mail Account
> Mailing Lists (Majordomo)
> Open and Private Web-Mail Usage
> Microsoft FrontPage e-mail modules
> FormMail and CGIEmail pre-installed
> E-mail Blocking and Filtering

FTP SERVICES:
> Unlimited FTP Accounts
> 24/7/356 FTP Usage
> Anonymous FTP Access

DATABASE CONNECTIVITY:
> Unlimited MySQL Databases
> PHPMyAdmin Web-based Database Manager
> Command Line SQL Administration
> Instant MySQL Database/User Creation
> Perl MySQL Database Support

SCRIPTING / PROGRAMMING:
> 12 Pre-Installed System CGI Scripts
- CGI Wrapper
- Random HTML
- Guestbook
- Advanced Guestbook
- Counter
- Clock
- Countdown
- CGIEmail
- FormMail
- Search Engine
- Banner Rotator
- Messageboard
> JavaScript Support
> FrontPage 2002 Web-bots Support
> Java Applets Support
> Private CGI-BIN
> Apache XML Support
> Perl 5.6.x & PHP 4.1.x Support
> CURL & GD Support
> Server-side Compiling of Additional Programs
> Custom Perl Module Installation

MULTIMEDIA SUPPORT:
> Shockwave/Flash Support
> Real Audio HTTP Streaming
> Adobe Acrobat HTTP Streaming
> WAP/WML/HDML Support
> MIDI File Usage

E-COMMERCE:
> SSL Support Using Private Certificate
> Interchange 4.8.1 Advanced Web-based Shopping Cart
> Agora Shopping Cart

EXTRA & SPECIAL FEATURES:
> Full-featured Web-Based Control Panel
> FrontPage 2002 Support
> Customize Error Page Handling
> Password Protected Directories
> HTTP Redirection
> Comprehensive Web-site Statistics
> Automated MIME Tweaking
> XMB Bulleting Board
> PGP E-mail Support
> PHPMyChat PHP-based Chat Room
> Live Backup and Rescue via Control Panel
> Web-based File Manager
> Unique IP Address
> Sub-domains Available


I would think it is impossible to get all of that from $5 a month. Wouldn't you?

openhsp.com is at burst, don't know anything more, never heard of it good or bad, etc.

openhsp.com has been shut down by burst.net for massive fraud and spamming.

ya we just got hammered by some of their spam......

their site seems to be offline....

toll free is not in service....

ohhhh, i hate spammers.

Does anybody here have any more info on these guys ? I just got off the phone with our lawyer and we're planning to sue these guys for loss of business etc. Any info any of you can provide us will be much appreciated.

HostRocket (http://www.hostrocket.com) seemed like a good deal, but after reading some reviews & horror-type stories here, I'm not so sure.


They were really good a year back .. but they suck now ... had to move away from them after a string of downtimes ...

OpenHSP definitely looks like a company to stay away from. I'd tend to avoid anyone that spams, but in their case especially because the email they send out, at least the version I've received, is plainly fraudulent.

Can a customer trust a company that uses deceptive business practices to get them to sign up in the first place to suddenly become upfront and honest after the signup is complete?

And of course if it's true that Burst or any provider is taking action against them, that's one more reason to stay away. There are too many hosting companies to choose from to risk getting involved with something like this.Does anybody here have any more info on these guys ? The only thing I could say other than the information that would be available on their site and through whois lookups and such is that the spam I got from them comes from a Nevada Bell DSL connection apparently in Reno.

They just spammed a whole bunch of my clients today. Oddly, their site still seems to be hosted at Burst.

They were here, we received information about it, they were suspended. They were put back on again....... We suspended them again....... They were put back on again....... Then we told the reseller we would terminate the server if they are found on there again. Now there gone (for now). It's kinda been like the gopher game where they pop up out of the holes, and you keep bashing them back down. Sorry to all this inconvenienced. But we took action each time we were alerted to it.

Prohacker, you can e-mail abuse@burst.net or call the support line, or AIM me.

Thanks,

Hi Matthew,

We had our lawyer (Steven Prager from Krieger and Prager in NYC) call you this evening and they informed you of your clients activities.

He requested that the site be shut down within the next hour or Burt.net would be named in a law suite we have planned against openhsp.

The tech replied that he doesn't think that it will be taken down within 60 minutes.

He asked the tech "when will the site be shut down?"

The tech replied "I'm not sure that it will be taken down."

My lawyer asked the tech "How hard will it be to unplug the server from the rack?"

The tech answered "This account is not on a dedicated server. It is a virtual account."

Am I missing something here?

How hard is it for you guys to shut down the guy as soon as you received the complaints?

How does this guy just "POP UP" ?????? :angry:

Originally posted by successful
The tech answered "This account is not on a dedicated server. It is a virtual account."

Am I missing something here?

How hard is it for you guys to shut down the guy as soon as you received the complaints?Seems pretty clear from Matthew's post that OpenHSP was a reseller for someone else. So, yes, no doubt they were operating on a virtual hosting account on that reselling host's server. The account "popped up" again a couple of times, I presume, because the host that operates the server repeatedly reinstated the account after Burstnet had disabled.

Obviously I wasn't there; I'm guessing based on careful reading of Matthew's post.

Two more points: it's unreasonable for an attorney (or anyone else) to expect a "tech" to make a decision to take down a server, or an account, for something like this. It's not a tech support decision. And, it's unreasonable for an attorney (or anyone else) to expect that to done immediately upon a phone call. I'd expect the host to investigate and take action when they know for sure what's going on.

Anyway, kudos to Burstnet for taking them down promptly, and persistantly.

To answer your questions:

The tech answered "This account is not on a dedicated server. It is a virtual account."

It is a virtual account hosted on a dedicated server a client of ours. It is not our virtual account, but theirs.

How hard is it for you guys to shut down the guy as soon as you received the complaints?

Not hard at all, as noted by others, the site would come up and down. If the server owner unsuspends the accounts we won't know about it until we receive the next complaint.

He requested that the site be shut down within the next hour or Burt.net would be named in a law suite we have planned against openhsp.

We also have protocol to follow in terms of our AUP. We take necessary steps that we have to given the nature of the offense. How would you feel if you had a spammer on an account of yours, and we unplugged your server without giving you an opportunity to rectify the situation yourself? I had to work on having an abuse technician contact the server owner and inform them of the situation, and what course of action we would take if it continued to occur.

That's about it. Again, I have to take action, which I do, but in steps that are fair to our clients as well.

Thank you,

Originally posted by BurstCSM
To answer your questions:

How would you feel if you had a spammer on an account of yours, and we unplugged your server without giving you an opportunity to rectify the situation yourself?

This is no ordinary spammer. And your client or whoever owns that server has had PLENTY of time to deal with this. As of this writing, the site (www.openhsp.com)is up, as is the test site I was able to sign up for at http://66.197.213.63/ under the domain name 'spammersneverwin.com'.

So they are still very much alive, and to answer your question, if I was notified of this situation over 12 hours ago and did not deal with it, I deserve for you to drop-kick my server into the Grand Canyon. There's just no excuse.

If I were you I would put some rather hefty distance between your firm and whoever is running that site. Of course, that's just my opinion.

and now it's unplugged

I'm an affiliate of OpenHSP's and I've spoken with them about what went on as far as the spam was concerned. They told me that one of their other affiliates used their refferral tools (which I've used many times) to send out a bulk amount of e-mails. These tools were not hosted on any of BurstNET's servers, but OpenHSP explained that the URL that the affiliate used to register the sale was what created the problem.

OpenHSP has since temporarily shut down those tools to make the necessary changes to prevent this from happening again. Their referral program is quite profitable for affilaites (approximately 50% the sale price), so I can understand how an affiliate would go overboard with it -- but definately not to THIS degree.

I've so far been pretty impressed with OpenHSP's service so far, if you've checked out their control panel you'll know what I mean -- where Cpanel leaves off, OpenHSP has started to fill in. They've had some downtime recently (BurstNET's Sprint issues were the cause, I've found by searching through these forums)... but things are looking like they're turning around for both BurstNET and OpenHSP.

If you only knew how many times that lame excuse is used.

"It wasn't us, it was:

a. one of our affiliates, who just happened to reference us
b. a third party that we hired to do an email campaign
c. a misconfigured mailer
d. some other excuse that only proves spammers are dirtbags who will do or say anything

Please don't hate us. We're not spammers, we weren't trying to denigrate any else's business, and the fact that we targeted people who lease servers directly from another provider - specifically one provider - so they could become affiliates/virtually hosted accounts with us instead, plus all the clients of theirs we could find, doesn't mean anything. Honest." :rolleyes:

I've seen the email. This was not a random spam run from some "affiliate". This was a targeted, very tight circle of spam, from someone very familiar with Alabanza hosts. Some of what I've seen in just a little research tells me that this might be someone who has, shall we say, a less than savoury character at the outset. I wo't name them at this point without more evidence, but I wonder if anyone else has picked up on this as yet?

"I've so far been pretty impressed with OpenHSP's service so far, if you've checked out their control panel you'll know what I mean -- where Cpanel leaves off, OpenHSP has started to fill in."

Looks like cPanel through and through to me. Nothing special there that couldn't be found at other hosts. I have to wonder - not in a good way - about a company that offers 10G of transfer for $5.

Originally posted by GeeksRUs
If you only knew how many times that lame excuse is used.

"It wasn't us, it was:

a. one of our affiliates, who just happened to reference us
b. a third party that we hired to do an email campaign
c. a misconfigured mailer
d. some other excuse that only proves spammers are dirtbags who will do or say anything

Please don't hate us. We're not spammers, we weren't trying to denigrate any else's business, and the fact that we targeted people who lease servers directly from another provider - specifically one provider - so they could become affiliates/virtually hosted accounts with us instead, plus all the clients of theirs we could find, doesn't mean anything. Honest." :rolleyes:

I've seen the email. This was not a random spam run from some "affiliate". This was a targeted, very tight circle of spam, from someone very familiar with Alabanza hosts. Some of what I've seen in just a little research tells me that this might be someone who has, shall we say, a less than savoury character at the outset. I wo't name them at this point without more evidence, but I wonder if anyone else has picked up on this as yet?

"I've so far been pretty impressed with OpenHSP's service so far, if you've checked out their control panel you'll know what I mean -- where Cpanel leaves off, OpenHSP has started to fill in."

Looks like cPanel through and through to me. Nothing special there that couldn't be found at other hosts. I have to wonder - not in a good way - about a company that offers 10G of transfer for $5.

Seems like a face-value judgement without knowing all the facts to me. I'm not claiming that I know all the facts myself, but I know someone who just had an axe to grind when I see one. I'm not advocating OpenHSP's stance, it was their tool that was used, but at least they're making changes to rectify the situation. What more do you want? Them to burn at the stake? Jesus. Chill out man!

Save it, son. Spam is spam. You're right about one thing, though. You have no idea what the facts are. Have you seen the headers from the email that was sent out? I have. Since you're intent on defending this, perhaps you could explain to us why they have claimed it was an issue with their "referral tools" - which presumably would be on the server itself - when the headers clearly show that the spam in question was sent from a DSL customer of Nevada Bell. Nevada, I might remind you, is where the WHOIS shows openhsp.com is located.

Received: from openhsp.com (adsl-66-122-87-36.dsl.renocs.nvbell.net [66.122.87.36])
by (mailhost removed) (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id b8ETmp726003
for <webmaster@host.removed>; Thu, 18 Apr 2002 14:40:18 -0600
Received: (qmail 86723 invoked by uid 0); 18 Apr 2002 10:40:47 -0000
Date: 18 Apr 2002 10:40:47 -0000
Message-ID: <20020418104557.83683.qmail@openhsp.com>
To: webmaster@host.removed
Subject: Your account (domain.removed) has been setup!
From: trial@openhsp.com
Reply-To: trial@openhsp.com

Who else do we know in Nevada with a passing familiarity with Alabanza servers? I think some people might be able to take an educated guess.

Originally posted by GeeksRUs
Save it, son. Spam is spam. You're right about one thing, though. You have no idea what the facts are. Have you seen the headers from the email that was sent out? I have. Since you're intent on defending this, perhaps you could explain to us why they have claimed it was an issue with their "referral tools" - which presumably would be on the server itself - when the headers clearly show that the spam in question was sent from a DSL customer of Nevada Bell. Nevada, I might remind you, is where the WHOIS shows openhsp.com is located.

Haha, you're very funny, old man. Perhaps the referral tools were hosted in Nevada? Or is that just not possible? Just cactuses and ghost towns there, right?

Keep twiddling your thumbs, keep huffing and puffing. It seems to me that the only people posting here are *competitors*... but I could be wrong.

I'm not defending them (like you claim), but if you're going to pull out some sort of anonymous superiority complex -- I'll gladly stick it where it counts. :)

Perhaps OpenHSP will supply you with a seniors discount. Haha.

Try :
http://www.aletia.com
http://www.pearhost.com
http://www.34sp.com

Originally posted by locohost
Haha, you're very funny, old man. Perhaps the referral tools were hosted in Nevada? Or is that just not possible? Just cactuses and ghost towns there, right?

Oh certainly. If I were a host, that's exactly what I would do - keep important, money-making things like referral programs hosted locally on my DSL instead of on a server. At a NOC. Where I would be more reasonably sure that the power was going to stay on and that the connectivity would be faster and more reliable than something I might have in my home. I'd say that hosts are, at this very moment, racing off to do exactly what you posit.

Keep twiddling your thumbs, keep huffing and puffing. It seems to me that the only people posting here are *competitors*... but I could be wrong.

I am not a host. There is nothing here for which I can compete. Ergo, your conclusion is incorrect.

I'm not defending them (like you claim), but if you're going to pull out some sort of anonymous superiority complex -- I'll gladly stick it where it counts.

Actually, you are, but I understand that people very close to operations that are being discussed are wont to do that. I'm thrilled with your level of discourse, too, did I mention that?

Perhaps OpenHSP will supply you with a seniors discount. Haha.

Why? I wouldn't be eligible for them, although I've no doubt I'm older than you. Looks like another point where you're incorrect.

For the others who received this email: look toward David or Michael Lavers. Yes, those Lavers, of ResellerMatrix/MatrixCubed/HostingMatrix/Cedura, et al. You can do rudimentary searches on those hosts, as there is quite a bit of disturbing information about them. There is one very nice post (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?threadid=34067) (page 2) in this very forum from someone who obviously went the extra mile. I'm happy that Burst shut down the site in question, but not as happy that it was apparently left up long enough that they could set up a redirect to that very same DSL line from which the original spam was sent. If you've an attorney and can show damages, your attorney should be able to use public information to handle this situation for you.

It looks like Lavers has a nice history already:

http://www.thebbb.org/report.html?compid=63000133&national=Y

http://www.wa.gov/ago/pubs/complaint101800.doc

We had someone sign up at openhsp.com today and guess what ? The accounts are being set up on Burst.net!

Oh my god!! Not BurstNET!!!

SuccessfulHosting is an Alabanza reseller! OneWorldHosting and 5DollarHosting are too! What is this world coming to??

These are COMPETITORS.

I don't know, I just see something seriously wrong there.

Um, hate to burst your bubble, but every single host on this board is a COMPETITOR with every other single host. Your point would be...?

Originally posted by locohost
Oh my god!! Not BurstNET!!!

SuccessfulHosting is an Alabanza reseller! OneWorldHosting and 5DollarHosting are too! What is this world coming to??

These are COMPETITORS.

I don't know, I just see something seriously wrong there.

I'd like to chime in on this one. I'm a host who leases a server at Alabanza's NOC as well. Suffice it to say that a reseller is one who could not sell the same product at another NOC, I don't know about other hosts but I'm pretty sure that hosting is a commodity that can be sold at any NOC, I on the other hand, sell service. At another NOC, it would be the same service with a different face. If you think hosting is a product and not a service, then you're a customer and not a client. If you wish to mistakenly call me a reseller, I'm not going to give that much air time as it will simply bring out the fact that one of us is very ignorant of the facts and I think we're both above such petty issues anyway.

I would like to point out that I too am a 'competitor' to openhsp.com, every other host on these boards and even more so to oneworldhosting and 5dollarhosting. Still, I have a lot of respect for my competitors who play on a level field trying to gain more and more market share without resorting to the tactics that were used by openhsp.com. These included misinformation about our service, our prices and about openhsp.com. That is where I draw the line.

All of our clients know they have options in hosting. One host is not right for everyone. I've recommended clients to and have been recommended by my competitors based on a special need that a client is looking for. I know how hard my competitors work to find fair ways to compete and market themselves. I have an earnest respect for them and for the most part, those who play fairly are the vast majority.

Until this incident, I didn't know who openhsp.com was. If someone asked me, I'd have told them that there are many great hosts out there and enough business to go around. If openhsp.com is suitable for your needs, then it's great to know that you've found the 'right' host. Because that is what is most important.

If the right host for you is one who wishes to market his product by spamming and spreads misinformation to the clients of his competitors then I'm really happy you've found the right host who will provide the right kind of service, support that you deserve and at a price that matches the value of your unique website.

Hi,

What loss of business did you have? Why would you sue them for it?


I MUST be missing something here... but it looks like another stupid lawsuit.

Why must people sue instead of handling it like men?

and no I don't mean beating each other up... How about making a simple phone call and sitting down and talking for a change?

...and no I don't mean beating each other up... How about making a simple phone call and sitting down and talking for a change?

That would be fine - you find a phone # on his site, or any other means of contacting the prinicpal for this company, you be sure and let us know.

Craig,

Don't bother, I tried calling the # in his domain registration, and guess what? I'll just leave it to you to guess but don't bother.

Originally posted by locohost
I'm an affiliate of OpenHSP's...
Wait, I'm confused... cedura.net is only an affiliate of OpenHSP? I don't get this Mike.
They told me that one of their other affiliates used their refferral tools (which I've used many times) to send out a bulk amount of e-mails. These tools were not hosted on any of BurstNET's servers...
So they were hosted on a machine on your DSL connection? Eh?

Craig,

Don't bother, I tried calling the # in his domain registration, and guess what? I'll just leave it to you to guess but don't bother.

Sorry, forgot the <sarcasm> and </sarcasm> tags.... ;)

It looks like openhsp.com (http://openhsp.com) is no longer online. :D

How many times is that Mike guy going to pop up under a different alias? :rolleyes:

Anyhow, to everyone who participated in this thread, you have to read:

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=34067

In the Resellers forum called "Hosting Nightmare". Pay particular attention to 2-3 posts by DesElms on page 2. His remarkable piece has just blown the lid off OpenHSP and all the other scams by David, Michael and Andrew Lavers.

Just read it!!!!

Originally posted by NexDog
How many times is that Mike guy going to pop up under a different alias? :rolleyes:

Anyhow, to everyone who participated in this thread, you have to read:

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=34067

In the Resellers forum called "Hosting Nightmare". Pay particular attention to 2-3 posts by DesElms on page 2. His remarkable piece has just blown the lid off OpenHSP and all the other scams by David, Michael and Andrew Lavers.

Just read it!!!!

Thank you for your kind words, NexDog.

You might be interested to know that Mike Lavers -- this time using an alias quite different from "locohost" -- has finally posted a reply or two in that thread (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=34067) (the one you mention above). Of course he's trying to make it about me and not him... as usual. No surprises there. You'll recognize the tactic and notice the similarity between Lavers postings here and there. And, of course, he's dodging specifics again... as usual.

Over in that thread (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=34067) he's claiming once again that OpenHSP is just a customer of his and not him. Poor, poor victim Mike.

If it weren't for the fact that he's so darned dangerous and has hurt so many people (and will hurt so many more if he's not stopped), we wouldn't even need to waste our time on him.

But, alas, we do. We really do.

If you or anyone else from this thread would like to chime-in over on that one (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=34067), please do. Lavers needs all the confrontation we can give him.

Please help if you can.

Originally posted by successful
It looks like openhsp.com (http://openhsp.com) is no longer online. :D

Not so any more. :unhappy:

Not only is he back but he's lied on his registration for his netblock:

Two week ago, this has his personal name on the account, now it's a Pizza Joint, I don't think so.

ROUND TABL PZZA NV LLC (NETBLK-SBC066122087056020409) SBC066122087056020409
66.122.87.56 - 66.122.87.63

Also, his domain moved over to godaddy.com

Traces show him hosted via his DSL line
10 snfcca1wcx1-oc48.wcg.net (64.200.199.62) 70.873 ms 70.621 ms 70.447 ms
11 64.200.198.82 (64.200.198.82) 78.505 ms 77.414 ms 77.829 ms
12 dist4-vlan30.renocs.nvbell.net (206.13.6.210) 78.189 ms 77.696 ms 77.246 ms
13 * * *
14 * * *


Not only that, but burstnet is the noc that knows all about this guy and simply doesn't care.

Originally posted by arfarf
Not only is he back but he's lied on his registration for his netblock. Two week ago, this has his personal name on the account, now it's a Pizza Joint, I don't think so.
Well... that's yet to be determined, actually. That's a piece of the puzzle I haven't yet had time to follow-up on.

Two weeks ago, OpenHSP was using netblock 66.122.87.32 - 66.122.87.39 (ARIN record: SBC066122087032020404) which was and still is registered to Mike Lavers.

Then Lavers started reading my postings in the Hosting Nightmare thread (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=34067). Almost immediately, he shifted to the Round Table Pizza block that you reference, above. And he remains there at this writing. But OpenHSP's DNS servers remain in the 66.122.87.32 - 66.122.87.39 block (once again, "at this writing").

So the question is: What is the Lavers' connection with Round Table Pizza, Nevada, LLC? And how is it that the Lavers are able to use any of a block registered thereto?

Actually, if you interrogate ARIN for the entire PBI-NET-9 block, you'll find several IP ranges registered to ROUND TABL PZZA NV LLC. So I'm inclinded to think that maybe (and the operatives words, here, are "think" and "maybe") it could be something as innocent as that Lavers asked SBC/Nevada Bell Internet for another IP range and SBC/Pac Bell Internet gave him a range that Round Table ended-up not using and the registration information just hasn't been changed yet. Or it could be more sinister than that. I don't know... yet.

Originally posted by arfarf
Not only that, but burstnet is the noc that knows all about this guy and simply doesn't care.
Yes, well... hmmm... that is another interesting matter altogether, isn't it? I'm not sure we should be too quick to unleash our slings and arrows onto BurstNET just yet. But I confess I'm now wondering about that relationship a bit. And, before anyone reads into that more than I meant: I mean that I understand arfarf's question and I think, personally, it merits an explanation from BurstNET. But I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, yet, thinking bad things about BurstNET. And, the operative word, there, is, "yet."

Okay, so lets just come out and ask BURSTNET as they read these boards.

What is your relationship with scumbags like Openhsp.com and Lavers? Would you host their clients after all that has been said here on these boards?