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Thread: Newtek

  1. #1
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    Newtek

    Does anyone know what is going on with their domain problems? They seemed to have lost control over some of them including some which were used for name servers.

    I have been hosting with them for many years and have been happy with service. Personally, I liked them better when they were Crystal Tech. They they became Newtek and then some company called thesba apparently bought them out. But now I don't know who owns them. One of the problems with growth is that companies have a tendency to change hands. But that is common in many other industries.

  2. #2
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    When companies get bought out, it's usually time to move somewhere else.
    You have no idea who you're getting into bed with.

    (There are exceptions, of course, if you know the new entity, but it's rare in this industry.)
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  3. #3
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    Well, I thought this board could help we find out who I am in bed with.

  4. #4
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    It's a Canadian operation that hides its identity:

    Code:
    Domain Name: NEWTEKWEBHOSTING.COM
    Updated Date: 2018-02-09T21:17:35Z
    Creation Date: 2005-06-16T20:18:37Z
    
    Registrant Name: Contact Privacy Inc. Customer 0131824972
    Registrant Organization: Contact Privacy Inc. Customer 0131824972
    Registrant Street: 96 Mowat Ave
    Registrant City: Toronto
    Registrant State/Province: ON
    Registrant Postal Code: M6K 3M1
    Registrant Country: CA
    Registrant Phone: +1.4165385457
    
    Admin Name: Contact Privacy Inc. Customer 0131824972
    Admin Organization: Contact Privacy Inc. Customer 0131824972
    Admin Street: 96 Mowat Ave
    Admin City: Toronto
    Admin State/Province: ON
    Admin Postal Code: M6K 3M1
    Admin Country: CA
    Admin Phone: +1.4165385457
    
    Tech Name: Contact Privacy Inc. Customer 0131824972
    Tech Organization: Contact Privacy Inc. Customer 0131824972
    Tech Street: 96 Mowat Ave
    Tech City: Toronto
    Tech State/Province: ON
    Tech Postal Code: M6K 3M1
    Tech Country: CA
    Tech Phone: +1.4165385457
    
    Name Server: NS1.NEWTEKDNS.COM
    Name Server: NS2.NEWTEKDNS.COM
    
    Registration Service Provider:
        Newtek, 
        602-263-0300
        http://thesba.com
        This company may be contacted for domain login/passwords,
        DNS/Nameserver changes, and general domain support questions.
    In the hosting world, that's not a good thing.

    thesba.com is some ancient free chat script.

    Also hiding:

    Code:
    Domain Name:                  thesba.com
    Updated Date:                 29-Jan-2018
    Creation Date:                12-Jul-2004
    Expiration Date:              29-Jan-2028
    
    Name Server:                  NS1.WEBCONTROLCENTER.COM
    Name Server:                  NS2.WEBCONTROLCENTER.COM
    
    Registrar Abuse Contact Email:
    Registrar Abuse Contact Phone:+84.4 3838 5588
    Registry Registrant ID:             Not Available From Registry
    Registrant Name:                           Domain Admin, C/O ID#10760
    Registrant Organization:      Privacy Protection Service INC d/b/a PrivacyProtect.org
    Registrant Street:            PO Box 16 
    Registrant City:              Nobby Beach
    Registrant State/Province:    Queensland
    Registrant Postal Code:                  QLD 4218
    Registrant Country:                   AU
    Registrant Phone:                           +84.4 3838 5588
    Again, for hosting, never a good thing. Too many amateur/kiddie hosts, many disappear taking custom sites with them.

    Hint: BACK UP YOUR DAT FREQUENTLY!
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  5. #5
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    This should be enlightening:
    https://krebsonsecurity.com/2018/02/...-of-web-sites/

    They've been around since '98 and I used one of their brands, CrystalTek, back in the day for ASP Hosting.
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  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by MikeDVB View Post
    This should be enlightening:
    https://krebsonsecurity.com/2018/02/...-of-web-sites/

    They've been around since '98 and I used one of their brands, CrystalTek, back in the day for ASP Hosting.
    Great article - explains in detail what is going on there. Apparently, for such a large company, communications is not their strong suit.
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  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by SenseiSteve View Post
    Great article - explains in detail what is going on there. Apparently, for such a large company, communications is not their strong suit.
    Poor communication and a lack of transparency is unfortunately more common than not - for big companies and small.
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  8. #8
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    Thanks for posting MikeDVB. Unfortunately I have to agree with what is said in the article. Many companies start off with good intensions and good hosting service. But then they get big as a result of it and eventually lose their way. I was more or less happy with them up to now.

    Newtek is not the victim. It is their customers and their customer's customers who are the real victims of this highjacking.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by MikeDVB View Post
    lack of transparency
    Simply hiding any contacts in their whois is BS. If a big company wants to provide ongoing services for customers, then transparency for contact information is required.

    Thankfully, this industry has lots of competition, and is easy to move elsewhere.
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  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by kpmedia View Post
    Simply hiding any contacts in their whois is BS. If a big company wants to provide ongoing services for customers, then transparency for contact information is required.

    Thankfully, this industry has lots of competition, and is easy to move elsewhere.
    I agree 100%.

  11. #11
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    Krebs comments tell that multiple exploits still exist, and it's been hacked at least 1 more time.

    The crap custom control panel that's 10+ years old may be to blame.

    Definitely time to jump ship from what I've read. Just not-good stuff.
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  12. #12
    Replying to kpmedia:

    Are you sure that's accurate DNS information? thesbaDOTcom was taken over by Vietnamese hacker, and there's VN-related info listed there.

  13. #13
    Replying to kpmedia:
    >>Definitely time to jump ship from what I've read. Just not-good stuff.

    Just tell me where to go and I'm out.

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by samsonite1 View Post
    Just tell me where to go and I'm out.
    INTO THE SHARK INFESTED WATERRRRR!!!

    In all seriousness - without knowing anything about your site(s) and needs it's nearly impossible to make recommendations.
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  15. #15
    Replying to MikeDVB:

    Lack of transparency is so true. Their tech support is non-existent. 15-25 minute wait time for tickets? Nope, more like never. Live chat? no channels available. Support forums? riddled with spambots. Ever since CrystalTech was taken over, it's been a horrible experience getting any kind of support. It has been like this before their DNS servers were taken, it's nothing new to me.

  16. #16
    How can I transfer my domain names away from a hosting provider who won't reply to their emails? Newtek doesn't answer their support emails, so they're basically holding my domain names hostage.

  17. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by samsonite1 View Post
    How can I transfer my domain names away from a hosting provider who won't reply to their emails? Newtek doesn't answer their support emails, so they're basically holding my domain names hostage.
    FYI: This is why you NEVER register a domain with a host. Only use registrars like Namecheap, Directnic, Godaddy.
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  18. #18
    Newtek uses Tucows as a registrar, but Tucows offers no management tools whatsoever. To transfer domain names, I need the hosting company to send the auth code.

  19. #19
    As a last resort, if Newtek fails to transfer my domains, I can report them to ICANN:
    https://www.tucowsdomains.com/help/d...s-unreachable/

  20. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by SenseiSteve View Post
    Great article - explains in detail what is going on there. Apparently, for such a large company, communications is not their strong suit.
    That's very true here SS. I'll post my experience below which may have cost me significant business, but I will support what you said by simply saying that the "fixes" that they originally sent out were obviously not comprehensive. My server, as stated by them in an e-mail, was impacted, but no fix for that DNS MX server was provided. They stated that mail.[domain name].com would work as an alternative, but it only worked in a very limited manner. I have no idea how difficult it was to figure out exactly which servers were impacted, but I have a very difficult time believing that it was some hugely time-consuming task commanding massive resources. So why wasn't mine listed with the associated fix. (rhetorical)


    Quote Originally Posted by Ron View Post
    Thanks for posting MikeDVB. Unfortunately I have to agree with what is said in the article. Many companies start off with good intensions and good hosting service. But then they get big as a result of it and eventually lose their way. I was more or less happy with them up to now.

    Newtek is not the victim. It is their customers and their customer's customers who are the real victims of this highjacking.
    I couldn't agree more with you here generally speaking Ron. Decades ago businesses weren't necessarily expected to grow, grow, grow. Many businesses simply existed to provide jobs for the community and income for its owners. It's our new (as in last several decades) where publicly and privately traded businesses have been required to grow so that people thinking that they're "working hard" by swapping numbers/accounts on a PC can make money and become wealthy.

    Crystal Tech had a good thing going, it began going downhill slightly upon Newtek's takeover, then as Newtek began to grow more, apparently, over the past several years it's gotten less personal, more issue-laden, and overall less unique and not in a good way.

    My experience:

    Allow me to first state that A, I'm still in a holding pattern here awaiting the ability to service my products at absolute minimum, and B, was originally getting ready to transfer all of my web products & services over to Newtek. Again, I'm in a holding pattern per below.

    I got their e-mails re: the mail server issues, which was what, nearly three weeks ago now, stated that I was impacted. But when I looked through them to find my MX domain server, it wasn't listed in their list of fixes that they sent out. In one of their e-mails they stated that mail.[my-domain-name].com would work if they webmail did not, which I tried and which seemed to work except that I noticed a lack of e-mails coming in with a few exceptions. I figured that it was just a temporary slow-down.

    I tried many times to call in with stated hold times "due to high call volume" (the understatement of the century apparently) of 5-20 min. which I thought very reasonable. Alas, never once was I able to get thru to anyone within 20 minutes. The longest I ever waited was 45-50 min. and still nothing. Along the way they offered a callback "w/o losing your spot in line," yeah right! I did that once, a week-and-a-half ago, still no callback. Must be awfully long wait times. Terminal in fact.

    So, as I usually do when first-line help is inadequate, negligent, incompetent, or otherwise useless, I contacted the CEO of the company. He was tremendously nice. I asked him what was going on and he essentially stated that this was one of those "50-year hurricane" kinda things. He said he would help me and plugged me into his staff to assist me. That was this past Friday.

    One of them contacted me in the afternoon on Friday to tell me he would have one of his guys call me to help, was Monday OK, [yes, Monday was fine], at 10 a.m. My initial thought was why not that very day, Friday, but hey, OK, so I'm not the only person in the world, fine.

    So Monday 10 a.m. comes and goes and NOTHING! Mind you, I restructured my entire day around that call and even raced back here from being "out and about" to take it. 10:35 I finally contacted the CEO again via e-mail. Shortly thereafter I had several people on the line with me to assist.

    All it was, as stated in the original e-mails, was that the MX server on record had to be changed which literally too maybe a minute or two with them telling me what it was and my making the change at Godaddy. (whom I'm also PO'd at and have been for a while for varying reasons, largely related to deceptive marketing) It was from Godaddy that I was originally planning on transferring all of my domain names to Newtek figuring that that's where my sites are hosted so why not consolidate those, and other services there.

    The thing is that I asked them why that MX domain hadn't been listed in the original "fix" e-mails? Silence from all on the call. I also asked why they put out that mail.[my-domain-name].com would work when it did not. I forgot to mention that earlier that Monday morning I had a government agency with whom I do business with contact me to let me know that none of anyones' e-mails there were getting through, being the first time that someone had called to tell me this and confirming my suspicions.

    Again, they're nice folks, truly, but I'm not sure how anyone can be so incompetent. And damn, if you're going to set-up an "emergency" call three days later for a matter that's already been expedited, then dammit, make damn sure that you do what YOU said. THAT didn't happen.

    As I said, I'm in a holding pattern but looking for advice on options. I have no idea, and I'm not even going to bother calling again, I'll go thru that group and only sparingly pending whether or not they actually get back to me as they said they would. So far nothing.

    As Ron said, perhaps the company has gotten too big and has lost control of a number of things. Either way, while I'll hold in confidence some of what the CEO told me because I said I would, as SenseiSteve said, communications clearly isn't their strong suit although I expect it from companies whose top people are making at least several hundred K per annum and for which the CEO is in 7-fig territory. What's it take to read a few books on the topic, yet, even "customer service" VPs of major Fortune 500 companies have literally no training in world-class customer service. It's all about making money damn the quality these days.

    Unfortunately, it is my strong suit along with world-class customer service having studied it diligently in grad-school extensively, and I expect it from companies that I do business with or move on. Sometimes crap customer service is unavoidable as with ISPs and phone companies which all seem to be colluding and competing as to who can possibly have the crapiest, most disjointed, and least effective customer service out there with how many customers they render livid being the "badge of honor" for them. They're incredible case-studies.

    In short, who knows what's really going on re: Newtek. The explanations offered me seemed relatively viable, however, given the current ongoing nonsense and sheer and utter inability to get thru to anyone one can only wonder what the real issue(s) is/are. Either way, when you say something, do it.

    That's when I finally became terminally dejected and discouraged, partially because frankly, I don't want to move my services, however, all that's missing in them forcing me to is an e-mail begging me to, which obviously isn't forthcoming, presumably anyway. And frankly, I have enough work to do w/o having to overcome the incompetence and negligence of companies with whom I contract out for services. My time is worth just as much as anyone else's. None of us have more or less time than anyone else. The first and most core lesson of world-class customer service.

    What's going on now screams of please take your business elsewhere! The only thing missing is an e-mail asking me to take it elsewhere.

    So as I said, I'm in a holding pattern now and awaiting further action on their end waiting to see whether they're going to do anything that they said and promised, and if for no other reason than simply to see if they will do what they said and promised as clearly a discount on future services isn't going to make up for what has happened here. The fact that over 24 hours has now passed and I haven't heard a damn thing is hardly encouraging. The other thing that I know is that now I have a HUGE mess to clean up regarding not having been able to receive e-mails for two weeks or more now, a mess created by them, not by me. It's one thing when I waste my own time due to stupidity, negligence, or incompetence, it's completely another when others waste my time. What am I missing? From whom? Big business? Lost opportunities? And sorry, again, minor discounts on future services ain't gonna cover that.

    Customer service also appears to vaporize into thin air as companies grow.

    I'm not going to transfer my three dozen or so domain names there and am glad I didn't before. Speaking of which, I had one of their company reps, a Richard Northcutt, tell me over a month ago and before this issue broke, that he'd make me an offer for transferring my domain names. Had he actually done that then they'd have been there by now. I'm still awaiting to hear his "offer." Again, don't make commitments that you have absolutely no intention of keeping, isn't that common sense in business in particular.

    I'm also looking for a place to host a number of e-mail accounts.

    For domain hosting so far enom & bluehost have been recommended, and for e-mail hosting bluehost as well.

    As I said, I'm in a holding pattern now, but hell, if these guys can't even follow-up on the CEO's insistence and then only in abject crisis mode, then I'm really not sure what to think. As you said SS, communication clearly isn't their strong suit, although it used to be back in the day under Crystal Tech.

    Talk is CHEAP! VERY cheap. So far that's all I've been treated to. In the meantime who knows how my business has been impacted. I may never know. Some of these inquiries come once and once only.

    The entire thing is mindboggling, but mindboggling is not what I'm paying for.

    Lastly, I'm of the opinion that sometimes business relationships simply die out for reasons of practicality/utility in one form or another and need to be terminated or changed. Who knows, perhaps Newtek is attempting to drive customers away from lesser profitable income streams or the like. That thought certainly isn't far from my mind, otherwise I simply cannot explain this from a customer service perspective. It's also possible as you imply Ron, that Newtek's focus is on growing and as such the tr"end is more towards those same larger companies that completely lose their internal communications. It's speculation as a possibility, but again, I haven't heard anything insisting otherwise. They clearly grow by acquiring other companies, which is focusing on wealth, not focusing on customer service. "One of these days" when I have time, LOL, I'd love to do a formal study on how communication within companies, and therefore quality/customer-service in all of its forms, diminishes exponentially with growth beyond a certain point. Governments are key examples in that.

    If Newtek wants to retain what Crystal Tech once was, perhaps it should quit worrying about growth and start worrying more about quality and top-notch customer service. Unfortunately, and as usual, amassing wealth may be standing in the way.

    FWIW

  21. #21
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    This reminds of when I had an account at Burlee. They were a great company with good feedback on this board. I was just starting to feel secure with them and then Interland bought them out. You can imagine what happened after that.

    You can never put too much faith in any company - especially this industry.

  22. #22
    Any responsible hosting provider making 7 figures would have hired temporary help by now to handle the most basic webhosting issues, as that doesn't require any special training. But no, three weeks have past and I haven't gotten a single ticket reply. I guess Newtek isn't willing to spend a dime on extra support, it would take away from their vacation bonuses.

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