# BurstNet getting back into the game with SmartHost?



## danielm (Jul 25, 2014)

So this post is inspired by the email I just got from a company called SmartHost (smarthost.net). I never used any host by that name or signed up for such an email list so I went to their website to see if I recognized them. Their about page sounded an awful lot like that of BurstNet and since I had some free time I did a quick business search and found that SmartHost is owned by Burstnet Technologies. This explains where they got my email address.

They (SmartHost) claim to have been around since 1998 and the Pennsylvania DOS Database supports that they got registered in 2000. As mentioned, I've never heard of SmartHost and Google came up with no results for a company "operating" since 1998/2000. The Internet Archive explains this part of it when you see that since 2005, the only archives of their website is a cPanel Default Website page. Go back to 2004 or earlier and you see that smarthost.net was basically just a landing page/clone for BurstNet. In my estimation, this means that Burstnet (whoever/whatever entity currently owns it), or someone at some level of involvement is reviving a shell/sibling company of BurstNet's. Still registered/offices in Pennsylvania, this time the servers are in New Jersey (Los Angeles coming soon?).

I don't know the full history of Burstnet beyond the past few years, so I don't know what the relation to SmartHost is/was, however it certainly seems that in one shape or another they are bringing this back to offer a pretty similar lineup of services. This whole thing very well could mean nothing to most people. I had some free time so I decided to see where the email ad took me.

*tl;dr: *Burstnet back in business with shell/sibling company inactive since 2005 sending emails to the BurstNet email list.


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## DomainBop (Jul 25, 2014)

SmartHost Internet Services Inc (and also Unrestricted Internet Services Inc) were registered by them in 2000





> They (SmartHost) claim to have been around since 1998


usenet ad from 1998 (shared hosting): http://en.it-usenet.org/thread/16/462593/


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## Wintereise (Jul 25, 2014)

Misleading name, for only  dumb/retarded hosts will sign up with them now.


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## DomainBop (Jul 25, 2014)

The PO Box used on their WHOIS is the same one used for ratedxxx.net so this is a Shawn endeavor and technically not Burstnet Technologies Inc/DigiPlus "getting back into the game" since he left (OK, was forced out) Burstnet Technologies right before the migration to NC. 



> SmartHost is owned by Burstnet Technologies.


I'm going to vote it's owned by Shawn (and Benji is probably the other partner) not Burstnet Technologies and he was too lazy to update the PA state DBA record yet.

SmartHost was registered in Delaware in May.

_WHEREAS, SmartHost LLC owns, distributes, and/or provides various products and services that enable entities to utilize, conduct business on, connect to, and publish to the Internet, including the SmartHost and BaZONG! family of services._

Shawn is digging into his stockpile of old domains. 

bazong.com:

_BAZONG! - Online Presence Management
Coming Soon_


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## D. Strout (Jul 25, 2014)

Any company (or individual!) that takes themselves seriously would _never_ buy services from a company called "BaZONG!" Just sayin'.

Also, 1000th post!


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## drmike (Jul 25, 2014)

My cold black heart thanks all of you for the good research!

www.smarthost.net is the new business....

Their Whois is anonymized via PO Box and vague non info...

Their about us is the usual fluff that should send reasonable people running:
 



> SmartHost, LLC is a privately owned company based in Northeastern Pennsylvania, United States. Formed in 1998, SmartHost, LLC has expanded its initial Shared Hosting business into a leading, world-wide provider of Virtual Private Servers (VPS), Cloud Hosting, and Dedicated Servers. With over 30 years of combined history within the Web Hosting industry, our management team has decades of experience with global businesses and IT projects of all sizes.* SmartHost, LLC has built up an affluence of Web Hosting expertise that places us a step above other providers in the industry*. *The company owns all of its server and network hardware outright, giving you the peace of mind in the financial stability of your provider.* SmartHost, LLC is a company that you can rely on for all of your outsourced IT infrastructure needs.


Kind of funny considering they couldn't pay their own bills and brought in vulture capital money and did multiple failures to pay their leasing obligations.   I expect the leasing part these days in part due to tax caps in the US on deductions... But the outside money, losing control of your company and snow jobbing customers literally until the week prior to Burst, going burst, well....

But the icing on this fraudulent cake (yeah I said fraud you turds --- talk to all those Burst.net customers you fncked over)...  Is this...

Remember Burst.net had a Twitter account with 35k+ followers... And remember when DigiPuss took Burst over and along the circus route, suddenly Burst's Twitter account was wiped clean?  Reset to ZERO followers....  Here is fncking why and how...  sheds light on the people involved and their interacting, while in public the original Burst.net owners pretending they hadn't a clue what was going on with the takeover...

Burst.net's Twitter account, they renamed to *hostjedi:*

https://twitter.com/hostjedi

They created a new account and perhaps multiple new accounts:

https://twitter.com/burstnet

ANd they dressed that account up to appear it was the original account, by putting in information at that time which was old/false/incorrect:



BurstNET
@burstnet

PA, CA, & FL Data Centers / Web Hosting Provider. #1 Budget Resale Program Globally. Established 1991. Brand New PA flagship facility now online!
Scranton, PA USA
burst.net/?c=83


Now as you probably noticed HostJedi / Smarthost has the original Burst.net account with all the followers.  That's how they did the switcharoo and duped everyone.

Very odd with Burst.net "closing" locations today, that Smarthost is out here in public offering services.   I am unsure what sort of fraud we just saw committed.  No one acquires a company like this (Digiplus acquisition of Burst), then proceeeds to ruin the business in a few months entirely to the point of self closing).  Something more complicated and deceptive going on.


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## drmike (Jul 25, 2014)

Mind you the Twitter collaboration / switcharoo happened after the PA datacenter was abandoned and things were migrated to North Carolina.   At a point with the original owners were missing in action / unavailable to customers of Burst and claiming they were per se victims.

But that account switch proves collaboration between the folks.  A proper investigation of Burst.net should be done and potential customers should be made aware of Burst's new ugly facemask: Smarthost.net.


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## drmike (Jul 25, 2014)

It is also rather humorous that the OP got spammed by the Burst.net folks.

Seems like they can only exist as a spam haven / spammer themselves.

Funny, Alexa and likely other sites get it right --- Smarthost.net = Burst.net

See: http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/smarthost.net

Hostnoc / Burst.net remain on the top of Spamhaus' Top 10 sh!thead list:

*2 *​ 

hostnoc.net

Number of Current Known Spam Issues: *61*


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## TruvisT (Jul 25, 2014)

DomainBop said:


> SmartHost Internet Services Inc (and also Unrestricted Internet Services Inc) were registered by them in 2000
> 
> 
> 
> ...


$29.95 per month /250 megs.


YES, THAT'S RIGHT - 250 MEGS!!!


Oh how things have changed.

Nice to see someone else noticed the twitter change as well. They never bothered to clean out the old tweets either..


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## SmartHost (Jul 26, 2014)

Hello all...

I came across this thread, and thought I would clear some incorrect information up by some of the paranoid individuals around here.

1. I am the Founder and prior PRES/CEO of BurstNET. I stepped down from control of BurstNET on January 6th 2014, and left the company comnpletely in late March. I had absolutely nothing to do with the course of events in the last 8 months, and actually prior to that I was being forced down a path to lead to the outcome as well. At the time that I stepped down, BurstNEt was completely salvageable, and if it was handled differently, would still be operating just fine today. All the relocations and issues were down completely without my involvement and even without my knowledge whatsoever. I feel absolutely horrible with what happened to the client base, but this was not my doing whatsoever. I lost more than anyone with this outcome, including 20+ years of my life that I spent building that company.

2. Yes, SmartHost is one of my new ventures. After taking some time off to clear my head, and get over what happened with my baby (BurstNET), I need to get back in the game, as I have a family to support. Hosting is the only industry I have ever known, and I have as much right as anyone to conduct business in this industry.

3. SmartHost has absolutely nothing to do with BurstNET whatsoever. This is a venture owned by myself alone. Do not confuse Smarthost Internet Services Inc with the new SmartHost, LLC. I personally own alot of domains that I purchases throughout the 1990's, including smarthost.net. Back in the day I started up several websites for selling hosting, inluding burst.net, designspot.com, unrestricted.net, nocster.com, and smarthost.net. They were all run as DBA's of my original business: Shawn's Trading Post. At one point some names were legally registered as we thought of making some official new brands, butthat nevered ended up happening. They all had clientele, but burst.net pulled ahead of the pack by far. I rolled up all the clients into burst.net eventually, incorporated and changed the name of the company officially to BurstNET, and the other websites were all closed down over time. I kept most of the domains since then, and bought some more, in assumption that one day I would sell off BurstNET and start up something new...I just never thought it would be under the present circumstances.

4. The Twitter account and WebHostingTalk accounts are personally registered to me, and were all my postings personally. They go along with me whereever I go. I changed the username names, as I am not posting for BurstNET on them anymore obviously. Also, just like any sales rep I have a rolodex of clients that follows me as well. I did not take the BurstNET Facebook account, as that belongs to BurstNET, not me personally, and was managed by the company. Also, I did not have a non-compete with BurstNET, unlike the rest of the staff, so I am free to do as I please...but that is a moot point now with BurstNET gone anyways.

I'll address some nonsense posts by "drmike" in a second post ina few moments. I want to seperate responses to some of that garbage from the factual data in this post. Let me get my tin foil hat on, and I'll be right back to make the next post!


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## syncrohost (Jul 26, 2014)

I smell something fishy but if the statement above is true, more power to you.


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## SmartHost (Jul 26, 2014)

TruvisT said:


> $29.95 per month /250 megs.
> 
> 
> YES, THAT'S RIGHT - 250 MEGS!!!
> ...



Ahh...those were the days of high end Celeron 400MHZ processors....I remember it well.

Not hiding the Twitter change, it's always been my account/postings.

I would have deleted them if I was trying to hide such. 

I also have my WebHostingTalk account, which was in my name personally.

Using something to make online business posts does not mean it belong to the company as property.

Those go along with me whherever I post, as does my rolodex of clientele.


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## SmartHost (Jul 26, 2014)

syncrohost said:


> I smell something fishy.



Get off your boat then. 

Nothing much here other than a guy that lost everything in his last business (after he got involved with the wrong people), trying to start up a new business and support his family.

I would think anyone else in my shoes would do the same.


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## SmartHost (Jul 26, 2014)

drmike said:


> Mind you the Twitter collaboration / switcharoo happened after the PA datacenter was abandoned and things were migrated to North Carolina.   At a point with the original owners were missing in action / unavailable to customers of Burst and claiming they were per se victims.
> 
> But that account switch proves collaboration between the folks.  A proper investigation of Burst.net should be done and potential customers should be made aware of Burst's new ugly facemask: Smarthost.net.


Wow, the paranoia runs deep with you.

I changed the Twitter account duirectly after new management fired me on March 30th 2014, which is the same time they relocated everything to North Caolina. Prior to that I was still employed with BurstNET handling sales only, and was still posting ads/tweets for BurstNET, and had no reason therefore to move my Twitter account away.

I was unavailable to BurstNET clientele after the North Carolina move because i was fired by new management. I can't assist people with matters if I am no longer employed with the company, and haev no informationabout what was occuring myself. I was just as much a victim here as the client base affected, the vendors, leasing companies, banks, and staff. If anything, I lost more than everyone else combined, not just in monetary value, but in 20+ years of my life spent building that company.

Let me be very clear: SmartHost has nothing to do with BurstNET, other than the fact that I used to own/manage BurstNET originally. There is no conspiracy here with me on this, and it's just a guy trying to make a living after getting screwed over. If you knew everything that went on with the new management, you would change your tune, and probably be sticking up for me here, rather than trying to paint me as the bad guy. Suffice it to say that I wish I never met these people at this point, and BurstNET's outcome would have been much much different.


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## SmartHost (Jul 26, 2014)

D. Strout said:


> Any company (or individual!) that takes themselves seriously would _never_ buy services from a company called "BaZONG!" Just sayin'.
> 
> Also, 1000th post!



I disagree...I think it is an awesome name for an advertising company.

No different than a name like Yahoo! in my opinion.

I've saved the name for 15 years or so because I just like it that much.


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## Kris (Jul 26, 2014)

SmartHost said:


> Let me be very clear: SmartHost has nothing to do with BurstNET, other than the fact that I used to own/manage BurstNET originally. There is no conspiracy here with me on this, and it's just a guy trying to make a living after getting screwed over. If you knew everything that went on with the new management, you would change your tune, and probably be sticking up for me here, rather than trying to paint me as the bad guy. Suffice it to say that I wish I never met these people at this point, and BurstNET's outcome would have been much much different.


Well then Arcus, how did you get my email address? This would fall under UCE under this wording.


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## MannDude (Jul 26, 2014)

@SmartHost, welcome to vpsBoard and thanks for stopping by and providing some answers. Your presence is certainly welcomed.

Please understand a lot of people were negatively impacted during the entire Burst fiasco, as such people will be proceeding with caution and reading into things that may seem trivial to you.

Best of luck with the new venture.


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## SmartHost (Jul 26, 2014)

drmike said:


> My cold black heart thanks all of you for the good research!
> 
> www.smarthost.net is the new business....
> 
> ...




You are right, there is an absolute ton of nonsense that went on there.

Let me be very clear though: NONE OF WHAT YOU SPEAK OF WAS MY DOING.

Do not confuse me with the new management that took over in 2014.

I have not been making the decisions at BurstNET for 8 months now, and rather forced regarding other matters for quite some time prior to that.

The only thing I can be accused of fairly is taking on too much debt for BurstNET (equipment leasing and the new data center facility). However, there is far more that came into play with that, as by themselves, that would not have been a problem. There were mutiple capital raises that failed, that should have provised millions of dollars in growth funds to the company, and taken out the investors that we currently had (the ones that you all met in 2014 and saw the outcome of them contolling the company). One of those capital raise attempts failed at the last moment, as a company being acquired in the deal got cold feet and crushed the deal when they pulled out. The next round failed as well due to still questionable reasons to this day, though I have my suspictions as to why..and if what I suspect is true...it would just blow everyones minds. If we had closed on our capital raises, the outcome would have completely changed. Businesses fail all the time due to lack of capital, it's one of the top reasons a business can fail actually. Beyond that it was a Murphy's Law situation with the new facility, everything possible going wrong: major delays in getting prior tentant to move out, massive delays in fiber installation, and so forth...we lost a ton of money that was just completely unexpected and unplanned for. On top of that, we lost on of our largest clients right at the same time, who ran out on an absolutely massive balance due us, atthe worst possible timing. I can only hope Karma does what it should there.

Long story short, I am not the bad guy here. I know you want to blame someone, but you are really just kicking the wrong guy here while he is down.


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## SmartHost (Jul 26, 2014)

MannDude said:


> @SmartHost, welcome to vpsBoard and thanks for stopping by and providing some answers. Your presence is certainly welcomed.
> 
> Please understand a lot of people were negatively impacted during the entire Burst fiasco, as such people will be proceeding with caution and reading into things that may seem trivial to you.
> 
> Best of luck with the new venture.



What happened to my client base kept me up at night for months. I felt horrible about that, and I was powerless to do anything about it. No one won in this situation, not the client, staff, vendors, banks, original ownership, and possibly not even the new management/investors. I understand people got hurt more than anyone does, as I got the worst of it having lost everything financially and 20+ years of my life. I just need people to realize I did not do these things, and was not invovled in any way, shape, or form to how everyone was treated. If any of you knew me personally, you would know that none of this is in my nature, and I am just an honest, ethical, and good guy. If anything, what happened to me personally may not have been so bad if I wasn't so honest and ethical...but I think certain people knew that and took advantage of that fact. I assure you I m the one that can't sleep at night on the outcome of everything, and the people actually responsible for this disaster are not giving it a single thought anymore, leaving chaos and loss in their wake. I am not those people, I have a heart.

I can't change the past, I can only do better moving forward, with the knowledge gained prior.


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## Kris (Jul 26, 2014)

Good luck, still wondering how you got my address... and why it took your queue ~15 hours to process


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## WSWD (Jul 26, 2014)

I know where he got my address...he stole it from Burst!  I used one of their Windows VPS as a remote desktop to check server connectivity issues and such.  Had it for a couple years.  I reported the spam as well, since that's exactly what the email was.

You should be ashamed of yourself, and you are very deservingly getting grilled like a cheeseburger over on WHT for your spamming.  And to be perfectly honest, nobody gives a shit about you or your family, whether you can/can't put food on the table or not.  I don't care to be spammed your sob story.  Think of all the other businesses you guys ruined with the Burst.net fiasco.  Sorry!  Just don't give a shit.  DrMike is absolutely right on.  You're not going to convince anybody that your hands were clean of all that.  You're out of your mind if you think people are going to fall for that...


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## drmike (Jul 26, 2014)

@SmartHost welcome.  Glad to see you emerge after all these months.

Normally I am slappy, because someone needs to be such and customers shouldn't be beaten, kicked, stolen from, deprived of their services, have their gear left in some random shuttered datacenter, etc. What happened at Burst to customers was HORRENDOUS.

But, in your posts you seem genuinely repentant.  So you get a free pass from me big picture.  I can be compelled to believe you received the short end of the deal with proper facts, and such goes a long way in cleaning the stink left in the air by JW Ray / DigiPlus.

I could circle you with timelines and all sorts of gotcha stingers, but big picture, what good is that at this point?

Let's get some answers to a tough questions lots of folks have been wondering everywhere... 

0.  Are you currently under NDA or other mouth shut legally binding agreement with JW Ray, any of his financial entities, etc. that prevents you now or did in the  takeover period from speaking about Burst?

1. Why was Burstnet.eu suddenly back in public and the previous buyer dumping both the name as well as customers under that brand?  Was that brand really sold in 2013 or was there something else going on?

2. What was the reason JW Ray and his capital firm were able to takeover Burst.net?  Did they literally fashion a legal agreement that was deceptive / fraudulent with you / Burst?

3. When JW Ray and his band of business minded retards skewered your business and proceeded to destroy what you had built, ruin your reputation, beat your customers, why were you utterly silent?


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## SmartHost (Jul 26, 2014)

WSWD said:


> You should be ashamed of yourself, and you are very deservingly getting grilled like a cheeseburger over on WHT for your spamming.  And to be perfectly honest, nobody gives a shit about you or your family, whether you can/can't put food on the table or not.  I don't care to be spammed your sob story.  Think of all the other businesses you guys ruined with the Burst.net fiasco.  Sorry!  Just don't give a shit.  DrMike is absolutely right on.  You're not going to convince anybody that your hands were clean of all that.  You're out of your mind if you think people are going to fall for that...



Nice post. Very classy. You sound like a wonderful human being.

If you think I was behind what happened to BurstNET, well...to be blunt, and to quote you, you're out of your mind.

Sounds like you are quite angry over what happened at BurstNET, and rightfully so, but your anger is misdirected. Do you realize that I have had nothing to do with the management of the company for the last 8 months? I had absolutely nothing to do with the clients getting screwed over, and the final outcome of the company. Sorry, but you could not be more wrong.

The only thing I am guilty of is possibly expanding too quickly, and choosing the wrong investment partners. Anything else was not my doing whatsoever, regardless of what you believe.

Think about it...why would I have done anything like that? What did I gain in any of this? When you realize I gained nothing and am in a horrendous situation now, you should have your answer as to whether I was involved in what occured, and whether my hands are clean or not. Shame on you for your off base accusations and misdirected blame.

Direct your anger where it should go: the management team that took over after I stepped down.


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## SmartHost (Jul 26, 2014)

drmike said:


> @SmartHost welcome.  Glad to see you emerge after all these months.
> 
> Normally I am slappy, because someone needs to be such and customers shouldn't be beaten, kicked, stolen from, deprived of their services, have their gear left in some random shuttered datacenter, etc. What happened at Burst to customers was HORRENDOUS.
> 
> ...



0. NDA, no...threats, you could say that. It was in my best legal interests to stay out of it after I was terminated, or I could have found myself facing even more issues than I already am. After I stepped down as CEO, I was still there handling sales for three months, but completely in the dark about management of the company. I did not find out about the relocation to North Carolina until just before it actually happened, as they attempted to do it behind my back...as with everything else, probably so I did not get in their way and try and stop them. Long story short, for the three months after I stepped down, I still believed that they were going to inject funds and help grow the company, and I played ball, and tried to do anything I could to help the company operate. After that, I was terminated, and it was too late for me to do anything about it.

1. I have no idea. It was legitimately sold off to UKFast, to raise funds for BurstNET in the US, once we had a capital raise fail, to bridge us to another attempt to close on new capital. From what I hear these days, their intent was only to run it a small while, transfer whoever they could to their own platform/pricing, and for the IP address blocks BurstNET EU had. This is only rumours, but makes sense to me. Regardless, this was their legitimate purchase of the EU division, and they can do what they want with it, for better or worse. They struck me as good people though, there at UKFast, so I am sure they had their reasons.

2. Default on payments, and they were a secured creditor. Because of failed capital raises, we were never able to take out our debt with their company, and get rid of them. I am pretty sure some of the things that happened were done behind the scenes, and intentionally made to put us in such a situation. So rather than go thru a whole battle with them to take over the company in a hostile takeover scenario, I simply stepped down, with the understanding they would inject additional capital in the company, and handle a capital raise or sale process of the company thereafter. I honestly thought it was in the best interests of the company, clients, and vendors at the time to go that route, rather than to fight them. Obviously they had other plans, proved to be quite incompetant in running a company in this industry, and they gutted the company for their own benefit at the expense of everyone else involved. They basically killed the golden goose, assuming they were smarter than the people that grew the company to the size it was, and didn't listen to anything prior management had to say, and what advice they had to give.

3. There was not much I could do about it. I was getting sued left and right, and due to the financial situation I was placed in, could not afford to due anything legally at the time against them. I am sure they counted on that. There was also some threats made, that I preferred to avoid consequences of those as well. That is not something I really want to discuss now, as you never know what the future could bring there. Obviously the manner in which they did things is quite questionable, and I know they are being sued for that by other parties already from what I have seen, both their company and personally.

If I knew then, what the outcome woud be now, I probably would have acted differently, but at the time, I thought I was acting in the best interests of everyone involved. Only when it was too late did I find out what type of people I was actually dealing with.


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## Aldryic C'boas (Jul 26, 2014)

Taking refuge in failure is never a solid defense.  All it does is hilight poor decisions - not prove innocence of action.  Of course you didn't plan to be put in a bad situation - but that doesn't mean you gambled with the hopes of winning and things simply didn't go your way.

The market has simply seen too much corruption, too many lies.  Speculation and mistrust are simply part of the game now.  Honestly, rather than insisting that drmike (or anyone else) is a paranoid tinhatter - you should be prepared to work with people and give them the information they need to trust you.  You said yoruself you aren't under an NDA - so there's really no reason you can privately disclose facts to someone whose voice carries weight, and will vouch for you.

No, you're not *obliged* to share information, nor required to.  But neither are others simply required to believe your side of the story without verification.


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## WSWD (Jul 26, 2014)

Nope, not angry at all about Burst.  Never used you guys for anything mission critical.  I knew better.    Like I said, I used a Windows VPS for a few years to check connectivity issues with our servers, etc.

I'm angry because you spam me out of nowhere, with the sob story about you and your family.  It's the whole "Kids in Ethiopia are starving, and for $10/mo. you can help feed them" story, only with this, you get a VPS too!  Go away!

You have yet to answer here or anywhere else (WHT in particular) why you are spamming people who have absolutely no desire to hear from you.  That's exactly what this is.  You can write whatever you want, and you can try to turn this around and somehow try to shame me all you want, but at the end of the day, you are a spammer.  You're starting this new company by spamming the hell out of people, using a list and personal information you shouldn't have in the first place.


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## SmartHost (Jul 26, 2014)

Aldryic C said:


> Taking refuge in failure is never a solid defense.  All it does is hilight poor decisions - not prove innocence of action.  Of course you didn't plan to be put in a bad situation - but that doesn't mean you gambled with the hopes of winning and things simply didn't go your way.
> 
> The market has simply seen too much corruption, too many lies.  Speculation and mistrust are simply part of the game now.  Honestly, rather than insisting that drmike (or anyone else) is a paranoid tinhatter - you should be prepared to work with people and give them the information they need to trust you.  You said yoruself you aren't under an NDA - so there's really no reason you can privately disclose facts to someone whose voice carries weight, and will vouch for you.
> 
> No, you're not *obliged* to share information, nor required to.  But neither are others simply required to believe your side of the story without verification.


I've disclosed enough information for people that honestly want the truth to realize that I was not involved in how this played out, and that this was not my doing. I'm really not interested in additional legal troubles, and have stated enough details here already to clear the air. There will always be people that just want to stir up trouble, take revenge on anyone within their line of site, try and benefit their own agendas, or try and stifle competition before it grows. Not much I can do about that. Anyone with enough common sense, and no alternative agenda, knows the truth here. The fact that I am around speaking a bit about things, while new management has remained silient since the moment they pulled all this, speaks volumes about who is to blame.

I have no interest in getting into arguments regarding the situation, and prefer to just move forward in my life. Hater will be haters, and supporters will be supporters, and that is all there is to it. I've given all the information I care to to prove my position, and additional posting won't accomplish anything further. You guys have what you need to know from me, so make you own judgement calls, I'm just not going to be hear arguing about it, it accomplishes nothing. Back in the day, I probably would have sat here all day and been more combative with people attacking me, but I've mellowed a bit with the outcome of this situation, and just honestly burnt out a bit from it all. I just have no interest in even interacting with people in such ways. Good luck to you all on your ventures...I wish you all well wherever life may take you.


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## Leyton (Jul 26, 2014)

@SmartHost - You're still dodging the question of where you gained individuals' email addresses and information, which you went on to use as a sales channel for your new brand.

It is easy to speculate, maybe rightly so, that this comes direct from the BurstNET database. If that is the case, it is concerning to think that your company has ( a ) "stolen" the data from BurstNET, given I highly doubt you have permission to hold it - and ( b ) that you'd go ahead and breach the privacy rights of said people by not only having a copy, but utilising it.

Given that your new brand has only just surfaced, I don't see anywhere legitimate this mailing list could have risen from.

So, without dodging it further, why don't you simply answer where you gained the data from, and how you have a right to utilise it in any manor?

You're hardly making the innately poor brand image you immediately hold through the BurstNET fiasco (rightly or wrongly) any better by mass mailing people from the off without their permission (read: subscription) to do so.


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## Aldryic C'boas (Jul 26, 2014)

You read my post, but not for content.  Maybe I can simplify it a bit for you:

You're a known entity from a company that a lot of people are very unhappy with, for good reason.  Your actual connection and involvement is irrelevant.  People are going to distrust you, and it takes more than "just your word" to fix that - after all, anyone can tell a lie and pass it off as truth when there's nobody to speak against it.

And absolutely no amount of fingerpointing at "people that just want to stir up trouble" can justify that you're _still_ ignoring the inquiries from the people that have received spam from you. @Kris and @WSWD are known, respected members of the community.  Why would anyone trust what you have to say, when you can't even comment on the spam they've received from you?


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## Kris (Jul 26, 2014)

Leyton said:


> You're still dodging the question of where you gained individuals' email addresses and information, which you went on to use as a sales channel for your new brand.
> 
> It is easy to speculate, maybe rightly so, that this comes direct from the BurstNET database. If that is the case, it is concerning to think that your company has ( a ) "stolen" the data from BurstNET, given I highly doubt you have permission to hold it - and ( b ) that you'd go ahead and breach the privacy rights of said people by not only having a copy, but utilising it.
> 
> ...



Ding ding ding. Way to dodge my question Arcus, again - where'd you get this database if it "100% didn't have anything to do with BurstNet" 

Remember, you signed those contracts, and you were laughing / dancing over VolumeDrive's grave to be on WHT, then used them as a reason you went cash deficit. 

That whole Karma comment you made in the first page, a lot would say it came, and hit the right person.


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## Kris (Jul 26, 2014)

Aldryic C said:


> You read my post, but not for content.  Maybe I can simplify it a bit for you:
> 
> You're a known entity from a company that a lot of people are very unhappy with, for good reason.  Your actual connection and involvement is irrelevant.  People are going to distrust you, and it takes more than "just your word" to fix that - after all, anyone can tell a lie and pass it off as truth when there's nobody to speak against it.
> 
> And absolutely no amount of fingerpointing at "people that just want to stir up trouble" can justify that you're _still_ ignoring the inquiries from the people that have received spam from you. @Kris and @WSWD are known, respected members of the community.  Why would anyone trust what you have to say, when you can't even comment on the spam they've received from you?



Because think of the children!  

E-Mail was sent 13 hours before it hit my email box. Kid definetely just loaded up a BurstNet DB on one machine and let it queue, but doesn't know the legalese to somehow explain how he did... legally.


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## lunanode (Jul 26, 2014)

Obviously, he has a dump of the Burst.net client's information from the database.

Also obvious that these emails that were sent were unsolicited and is in fact spam.

And, provided that the above are in fact true, why would he respond to any questions that could complicate him legally? More than likely that it was Friday night, and he that brain farted and decided to send spam using client information stolen from Burst.Net. 

If the law enforcement agencies are doing what they are supposed to be doing, Then if one desires to take action regarding his/her personal information being illegally obtained without consent, then subsequently mis-used / distributed ( or whatever). Simply file a complaint with relevant agencies and be done with.

Because, unless he brain farts again i doubt he would comment more on this matter.


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## Kris (Jul 26, 2014)

The little mailing campaign was shot off on the 23rd, and I actually got the email the 25th to give you an idea of the sheer bulk of UCE sent out.

*The only brain fart he had was coming here to answer questions leaving out his little campaign. Two days to process that newsletter queue.*

*I'm sure if JW and his friends aren't too happy with the financials so far, they might want to look into such. I'm not looking to file any complaints, but he sure did open himself to some liability here. *

Subject: SmartHost Cloud Servers - Intelligent Hosting - 7/23/14, 11:05 PM

Delivery-date: Fri, 25 Jul 2014 13:47:20 -0400


Received: from mailer.smarthost.net ([207.66.193.13]:34576)


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## MannDude (Jul 26, 2014)

Just a reminder and quick request to keep things civil.


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## drmike (Jul 26, 2014)

Aldryic C said:


> The market has simply seen too much corruption, too many lies.  Speculation and mistrust are simply part of the game now.  Honestly, rather than insisting that drmike (or anyone else) is a paranoid tinhatter - you should be prepared to work with people and give them the information they need to trust you.  You said yoruself you aren't under an NDA - so there's really no reason you can privately disclose facts to someone whose voice carries weight, and will vouch for you.
> 
> No, you're not *obliged* to share information, nor required to.  But neither are others simply required to believe your side of the story without verification.


The market is FUCKED.  Has been for years.  Too little free liquid free flowing cash people can write off as losses or overpay to underqualified consultants for some buzzword rodeo fashion.  Lean times.  So the swindlers, thieves, white collar perps, resort of very questionable, and often illegal activity.

If Mr. Arcus wants to continue clearing the air, I am always glad to review public documents and other materials that aren't confidential or prohibited on disclosure.  Plenty out there still that we haven't seen.

Fact is, Burst.net was a bad netizen over the years for whatever reason, but I am not going to let that get in the way.  Hopefully this Smarthost.net venture doesn't attract more abuse, spammers, etc.

What Mr. Ray pulled off here and what I've seen of his pompous high fluting ass, yeah I have no doubt the financial deal was half assed, and ill intentioned.

I am wondering who the legal counsel Mr. Arcus had during the negotiations and why they rubberstamped the deal with Mr. Ray's company.   The nature of what happened sounds like Burst.net was to get money from Backlog and Backlog was going to raise an investment fund, from which Backlog would be repaid and that later part failed to materialize.

I stopped doinking around in the venture world a decade ago, but the deal sounds at face value like one that could be easily abused to hijack a company (like we saw happen - as Mr. Arcus told us).

FYI, I get a kick out of the tinfoil paranoid dig.   Big picture, if someone with my sensibilities was on Burst's side prior to this dealing, this most certainly would have never happened with Mr. Ray's firm. 

Sometimes I give the hot missile a little heavy to folks, but it isn't because their company has been behaving and customers are thrilled.  Folks tend to earn my attention with lots of bad behavior.  To me, that dig is a compliment


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## DomainBop (Jul 26, 2014)

lunanode said:


> Obviously, he has a dump of the Burst.net client's information from the database.
> 
> Also obvious that these emails that were sent were unsolicited and is in fact spam.


Why should it surprise anyone that he kept a dump of his old company's database and used it to spam the hell out of people solicit sales?  After all if you recall, this is the same person who somehow had a dump of his CUSTOMER VolumeDrive's database last summer and used it to spam email VolumeDrive customers (remember the people on WHT who complained about receiving a "VD is doomed, here's our refugee offer" email from Burst).


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## drmike (Jul 26, 2014)

I also neglected to throw my cheap velvet fedora in on the email spamming by Smarthost.net of former Burst.net customers.

It's a tad odd questioning why the former owner of Burst has said databases.  It's kind of expected he would have copies of such for a multitude of legal reasons.  Now whether or not his "paperwork" and various signed agreements prohibit such,  that's something we aren't privileged to know and potential ramifications for Mr. Arcus.

But, legally possessing the customer database or not, equating that to a personal rolodex is a stretch.   Building that bridge no doubt is to fend off the spam relationship.

I hate spam more than most folks.  However, I am semi realistic about sales being necessary for commercial viability and long term stability of a company.   Believe me, fine, ugly, often people griping about it -  gray line 

I think the email blast to Burst customers is poetic justice along with Smarthost showing up on the scene as Burst.net is shuttered.  I kind of grinned about that gut twisting jab at the new Burst.net owners and flippers.

*ONE OTHER POINT*

Mr. Arcus, update Smarthost.net.  Put on your site who you folks are.  Say you were the founder of Burst.net.  Why?  Because people will find out later and some subset will be bitter/deceived.  Plus it's a real achievement, something you should be proud of, and which people know.  The whole closing saga, no one until now knew what happened and who was doing what.  You can overcome that issue if you are being honest and people will respect you for that honesty.

Most of us fail quite a few times before finding the winning combination in business.  Don't let the fail bump send you off course.


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## drmike (Jul 26, 2014)

DomainBop said:


> Why should it surprise anyone that he kept a dump of his old company's database and used it to spam the hell out of people solicit sales?  After all if you recall, this is the same person who somehow had a dump of his CUSTOMER VolumeDrive's database last summer and used it to spam email VolumeDrive customers (remember the people on WHT who complained about receiving a "VD is doomed, here's our refugee offer" email from Burst).


The vD fiasco is another golden gem.  At the time, Burst.net seemed right and well intentioned in what was going on.

It does feel funny in this time and place though about that database in light of the recent use of Burst customer database to solicit their customers.

Mr. Arcus, what became of the volumeDrive debt to Burst?  Is there litigation involving Burst against volumeDrive?


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## Kris (Jul 26, 2014)

drmike said:


> I also neglected to throw my cheap velvet fedora in on the email spamming by Smarthost.net of former Burst.net customers.
> 
> It's a tad odd questioning why the former owner of Burst has said databases.  It's kind of expected he would have copies of such for a multitude of legal reasons.  Now whether or not his "paperwork" and various signed agreements prohibit such,  that's something we aren't privileged to know and potential ramifications for Mr. Arcus.
> 
> ...



When you throw it everywhere else, you should have seen the spam issue here from the start, or at least the source of the emails.  :lol:

*More the fact he was thrown out of BurstNET and took a database dump on his way out. Sob story or not, that's sleazy.  This was no 'personal' rolodex, it's billing email addresses. No personal correspondence with anyone he spammed. *

Arcus is just hoping that JW Ray and co. doesn't care about the client-base he spammed, since they dropped them as of.... just around the time of the spamming. Weird, innit? 

*If this were any other ex-employee or company, there would be hell to pay for this stunt / spamming on this level. Add a sob story and 'how I lost mah baby' and it's all OK.  B)** *


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## drmike (Jul 26, 2014)

Kris said:


> When you throw it everywhere else, you should have seen the spam issue here from the start, or at least the source of the emails.  :lol:
> 
> *More the fact he was thrown out of BurstNET and took a database dump on his way out. Sob story or not, that's sleazy.  This was no 'personal' rolodex, it's billing email addresses. No personal correspondence with anyone he spammed. *
> 
> ...


As the company owner, he probably had a semi recent copy (this year or end of last copy of such) per se legitimately.    It doesn't make it a rolodex like @Kris pointed out.

I am kind of laughing about the whole thing.  If Arcus was screwed like he said and is after Burst.net customers it's definitely malicious and delightful in my book.   IF, I was in his shoes and screwed like he said, I'd probably be considering a lot of the shadier options fair game.  BUT!!!!

The problem is JW Ray and his circus clowns already allegedly flipped the customers to Hostwinds.   So none of this is going to impact the vulture capital whores or dent their plantinum card.

The timing on this is way too odd.  We are just shy of 4 months since the North Carolina move and Mr. Arcus being let go by JW Ray.   Three of those months, I would have cheered Mr. Arcus re-entering the market and taking back his former customers.  Doing this at the very last 2 days before Burst closure, so many levels of stink on this onion....

Timeline:

June 24, 2014 - Public announcement that Burst.net was closing and move or offline

July 20, 2014 - Mr. Arcus' Smarthost.net launches website

July 23, 2014 - Smarthost.net spams former Burst.net customers

July 25, 2014 - Burst.net officially closes / some customers flipped/sold to HostWinds

                      - Various threads about Smarthost spamming and who is Smarthost.net

July 26, 2014 - some revelations about the Burst.net finance deal .... Ongoing threads.


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## Leyton (Jul 26, 2014)

drmike said:


> I also neglected to throw my cheap velvet fedora in on the email spamming by Smarthost.net of former Burst.net customers.
> 
> It's a tad odd questioning why the former owner of Burst has said databases.  It's kind of expected he would have copies of such for a multitude of legal reasons.  Now whether or not his "paperwork" and various signed agreements prohibit such,  that's something we aren't privileged to know and potential ramifications for Mr. Arcus.
> 
> ...


In the light of the new management of BurstNET's actions, I like and partly agree with the "poetic justice" statement - and perhaps such a stab back at them is deserved.

But, even still, BurstNET as an entity made a commitment to users privacy, and no matter what what way it is spun, without a formal agreement in place, the data simply wasn't Mr Arcus' to take with him when he left the organisation - and the act of soliciting sales from the users within the database_ (as a third party) _would be in breach of the privacy terms the information was provided under.

Granted, the privacy policy wasn't with Mr Arcus directly, and BurstNET no longer exists, but one would still highlight the fact that it wasn't his data to hold _(as far as we know)_.

To put it another way - if someone was sending out sales emails _(as no doubt someone did) _to all the clients in one of the ChicagoVPS database leaks, they would be under absolute scrutiny from the entire community for a shady tactic - and if an employee of a notable provider left and then mass mailed all their clients, it would be similarly poorly received.

The notion of his personal rolodex of clients would be valid to some degree, it is natural for staff to refer customers over, who naturally follow the employee between their jobs. However, that would mean that said customer expected contact from SmartHost, and had some interest in the new company and it's services. It is clear from several users that this was not the case - rendering the rolodex idea moot.

Though, as an ex-BurstNET client myself, I am yet to receive the email in question - though perhaps Google Apps rejected it altogether from volume/reports... or, he doesn't hold a complete database backup, or was selective over who to email... or the mailing is still running.  :blink:

--

All said, however - I salute reentering the industry, and wish @SmartHost the best of luck. They've got a hard enough job to break away from the BurstNET stigma as it stands without resorting to unsolicited email, and getting mixed up in questionable activities like this.


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## Kris (Jul 26, 2014)

Leyton said:


> Though, as an ex-BurstNET client myself, I am yet to receive the email in question - though perhaps Google Apps rejected it altogether from volume/reports... or, he doesn't hold a complete database backup, or was selective over who to email... or the mailing is still running.  :blink:


http://bgp.he.net/ip/207.66.193.13#_rbl - Love that site. 

SORBS listed Open Spam / Proxy relay. With the amount he blasted out from that single IP, not surprised.

Took me from the night of the 23rd -> 25th to get the email, sans filtering. Check your spam or Promotions folder, as it was under the guise of a newsletter. 

Just wish he had some some tact and didn't pull a literal Shelley Levene from Glengarry Glen Ross (down to the kids card) 

Coffee's for closers.


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## DomainBop (Jul 27, 2014)

> It's a tad odd questioning why the former owner of Burst has said databases.  It's kind of expected he would have copies of such for a multitude of legal reasons.


Customer databases are one of the most valuable structural capital assets any company possesses and the only person/entity I would expect to have a copy would be the current owners of the company.


There is also the whole privacy issue. Burstnet customers never gave their consent for their data to be used by the unaffiliated 3rd party entity "Smarthost LLC" (_clarification on the company's legal name would be appreciated...the Delaware Secretary of State shows "Smart Host Inc", registered on May 8th_)


From Burst.net's customer contract (wayback machine, March 2014)

_"BurstNET® is authorized by_


Client to add Client’s email addresses to BurstNET®


internal mailing lists, both service and marketing related, and de


sires to receive such contact from BurstNET®, unless notifyin


g BurstNET® otherwise, or by unsubscribing to such."

I don't see anything in that section authorizing the data to be used  for marketing purposes by ex-employees or anyone other than Burstnet Technologies. 

tl;dr SmartHost shouldn't be using a copy of the Burstnet customer database for marketing purposes


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## sv01 (Sep 10, 2014)

btw anyone notice burst.net -> hostwinds.com well know spammer hosting


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## QuadraNet_Adam (Sep 10, 2014)

Yes, BurstNET got acquired by HostWinds. A good amount of the ex-staff members are now working for HostWinds too.


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## TekStorm - Walter (Sep 10, 2014)

Yeah, alot of individuals and companys were affected from what BurstNET did, i am betting it will takes years and maybe even a few more year before anyone forgets that!


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## drmike (Sep 10, 2014)

sv01 said:


> btw anyone notice burst.net -> hostwinds.com well know spammer hosting


Hostwinds was racking up network bad behavior around the early part of the Burst customer take over / buyout / whatever cooking of the books when no one was looking did.

I should probably officially add and park Hostwinds on my radar.  I hadn't because I expected all customers by then to run like hell from anything Burst and related.


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