# StyleXNetworks Going Out of Business



## HalfEatenPie (Sep 10, 2014)

Remember that LET host about a year or two back that offered the first five PM-ers a 256MB Free VPS Hosting for life???

Well...  they're going out of business at the end of the month.



> Dear clients,
> 
> StyleX Networks Inc. will be closing on 9/30/2014. Please note that all services will be terminated on 9/30/2014, please take any and all necessary back ups to prevent data loss. StyleX Networks will not be responsible for any data loss.
> 
> ...


I mean, I'm not too surprised or annoyed by it because I wasn't paying for the VM, but it's a bummer seeing them go.

StyleXnetworks was offering OnApp XEN VPS Hosting and Anycast DNS Hosting for several years now.


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## DomainBop (Sep 10, 2014)

StylexNetworks was a frequent subject of complaints on WHT: lots of downtime, support problems, etc.

https://www.google.com/search?q=stylexnetworks+complaints&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8#q=stylexnetworks+complaints+site:www.webhostingtalk.com&safe=off


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## HalfEatenPie (Sep 10, 2014)

DomainBop said:


> StylexNetworks was a frequent subject of complaints on WHT: lots of downtime, support problems, etc.
> 
> https://www.google.com/search?q=stylexnetworks+complaints&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8#q=stylexnetworks+complaints+site:www.webhostingtalk.com&safe=off


Hm.

I don't really frequent WHT so I wasn't aware.  Well than that's their screwup.


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## drmike (Sep 10, 2014)

What? FreeVPS isn't a viable business model  ?

Hate to see folks go, but the market is overstuffed with turkeys and it isn't even Thanksgiving, gobble.


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## DomainBop (Sep 10, 2014)

This thread from 2 weeks ago is worth a read. http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1405368 

Besides customer complaints of servers down for days, unanswered support tickets, missing/deleted files, there is also a disgruntled former employee

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showpost.php?p=9218644&postcount=24

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showpost.php?p=9220185&postcount=29


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## GreenHostBox (Sep 10, 2014)

Anyone know why they are going out of business?


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## drmike (Sep 10, 2014)

GreenHostBox said:


> Anyone know why they are going out of business?


If I had to put a thumb on something...

OnApp.


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## DomainBop (Sep 10, 2014)

drmike said:


> If I had to put a thumb on something...
> 
> OnApp.


After reading the complaints on WHT over the past few years, and the comments made by former contractors, I'd put my thumb on it being a case of a poorly managed company that ran out of money.

OnApp has had some bugs  and some more bugs but I don't think it was the main cause of their downfall.


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## concerto49 (Sep 11, 2014)

They were hosting with Multacom right?


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## TrentaHost (Sep 11, 2014)

I hate whenever providers just close shop like that and leave their clients stranded... Atleast give your clients to someone else who can do a better job and provide a safe home until they can move to a different provider or stick with the new provider.


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## sv01 (Sep 11, 2014)

concerto49 said:


> They were hosting with Multacom right?


Yups


MULTACOM CORPORATION MULTA-NET11 (NET-108-166-192-0-1) 108.166.192.0 - 108.166.223.255
STYLEX Networks INC STYLEX-NETWORKS-INC-CLIENTS (NET-108-166-200-0-1) 108.166.200.0 - 108.166.200.255
my VPS on one of these IP's


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## msp - nick (Sep 11, 2014)

I would've purchased this business if they'd posted about it.. 

I hate providers going out of business without an actual sale - why setup shop? The customers could be happy with a new formed management.


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## Serveo (Sep 11, 2014)

Strange situation. Why not offer the business.

Nevertheless we have a Onapp based cloud ourselves. We are with them from the very beginning. Yes bugs, bugs and some more bugs but they are solved or supported. We never had downtime expect during our testing period, and that was even our own error.


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## Francisco (Sep 11, 2014)

GreenHostBox said:


> Anyone know why they are going out of business?


 


drmike said:


> If I had to put a thumb on something...
> 
> OnApp.


 


msp - nick said:


> I would've purchased this business if they'd posted about it..
> 
> I hate providers going out of business without an actual sale - why setup shop? The customers could be happy with a new formed management.


OnApp was some of their issues but I think they used a subpar SAN setup to begin with which did them in heavily.

There's nothing wrong with off-the-shelf SAN setups (big ass nix box w/ some fast connectors), but if you don't know what you're doing you're going to lose your mind on it.

They had a decent following on their shared side and got quite a few positive mentions on WHT, so it just sounds like a lot of their issues were management. Supposedly the original owner left/wasn't involved and the new person ran things into the ground at mach speed.

Francisco


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## drmike (Sep 11, 2014)

OnApp isn't cheap to go and do a proper spec'd installation.  So self pocketbook wounding at the door.  Large monthly payment and a day one bigger installation than a normal hosting company.

SANs, yeah, gets complicated and like Fran said fast interconnects, again, not cheap and not the average hosting company setup.

OnApp has installed base with success, but seems to be higher paying, more premium level service [as it should be from the installation costs, licensing, features, etc.].

Looks like their last VPS offer on WHT was back in December 2013....  

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1327949

All why I point to OnApp.  Hard to upsell the lowenders [which they've targetted as customers in past] and hard to break out into the real hosting market where folks pay real cashola unless you have a team, resources and a proper plan.


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## concerto49 (Sep 11, 2014)

sv01 said:


> Yups
> 
> 
> MULTACOM CORPORATION MULTA-NET11 (NET-108-166-192-0-1) 108.166.192.0 - 108.166.223.255
> ...


Ah yeah. We were there too. Just moved into Coresite.


Would have purchased them if they sold. Might have combined the Multacom effort and expanded instead.


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## concerto49 (Sep 11, 2014)

Dup


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## KuJoe (Sep 12, 2014)

Looks like they went offline early according to some users on WHT. Why bother sending out an e-mail with a date if you don't know when your nodes are going offline?


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## NullMind (Sep 12, 2014)

drmike said:


> All why I point to OnApp.  Hard to upsell the lowenders [which they've targetted as customers in past] and hard to break out into the real hosting market where folks pay real cashola unless you have a team, resources and a proper plan.


Well, thats a bit unfair, first I personally don't know why this specific host is going out of business, but for any company, if the tool you buy does not fit within your business model, either technically or financially, you can't blame the tool itself, also there are other VM management systems out there such as Solus, etc that one can use if he needs a cheaper offer, it's not unheard of for companies to completely revamp their systems with a different solution in order to fit their offer better.

Going out of business is a hard thing for anybody to do, so I feel for the team that had to make that decision.

Carlos


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## pmelt (Sep 12, 2014)

I got the email with the Sep 30 deadline and was preparing to move my sites this weekend. This is my world and my business. 

Yesterday my server hung, and now a restart request has been hanging for 24 hours, and no one will answer the phone or tickets. I had a backup plan with them as well. I have some old site backups, but no recent backups and NO database backups. 

Anyone have any idea what i can do to get in touch with SOMEONE. This is really bad.

Thanks.


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## DomainBop (Sep 12, 2014)

> Anyone have any idea what i can do to get in touch with SOMEONE. This is really bad.


They've deleted their Facebook and twitter accounts which isn't a good sign, so if they're not answering support tickets or the phone, then about your only other way of contacting them is to contact Kasra through either LinkedIn or Elance and hope he answers https://www.linkedin.com/pub/kasra-owji/60/92/484 or https://www.elance.com/s/stylexnetworks/


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## XFS_Duke (Sep 13, 2014)

I added Karsa or however you spell the name on Skype. They supposedly don't want to sell or allow their client base to go. He wants $2500 for the site and something like 8 or 9 hostbill licenses. $500 just for the domain and site. So apparently they don't care about it anymore.


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## concerto49 (Sep 13, 2014)

XFS_Duke said:


> I added Karsa or however you spell the name on Skype. They supposedly don't want to sell or allow their client base to go. He wants $2500 for the site and something like 8 or 9 hostbill licenses. $500 just for the domain and site. So apparently they don't care about it anymore.


This most likely sounds more like a contract dispute or similar. Perhaps they can't even get the machines back. Is why it all suddenly shut off.


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## Serveo (Sep 13, 2014)

I dropped them an e-mail earlier regarding takeover as we were interested, but without responds. Reading this and what I read I assume they got overdue with their colo/IP supplier.


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## Serveo (Sep 13, 2014)

@NullMind

Ha Carlos welcome to the board! ;-)


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## concerto49 (Sep 13, 2014)

Serveo said:


> I dropped them an e-mail earlier regarding takeover as we were interested, but without responds. Reading this and what I read I assume they got overdue with their colo/IP supplier.


Multacom are nice guys though. Really shouldn't happen unless they've really blown it.


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## NullMind (Sep 15, 2014)

Serveo said:


> @NullMind
> 
> Ha Carlos welcome to the board! ;-)


Thanks


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## HalfEatenPie (Sep 15, 2014)

concerto49 said:


> Multacom are nice guys though. Really shouldn't happen unless they've really blown it.


Another...  BurstNET/VolumeDrive brewing?!!!!! *insert dramatic music here*

Sarcastic jokes aside, yeah it's definitely not good that they shut down early.  I originally thought they were a pretty reasonable host (although only experience/service I had with them was a free 256MB OnApp VPS).  Although I could state it's difficult to run a budget OnApp service (except for @Chris Miller's VirtuaClub).


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## DomainBop (Sep 15, 2014)

HalfEatenPie said:


> Although I could state it's difficult to run a budget OnApp service (except for @Chris Miller's VirtuaClub).


VirtuaClub announced last month they were dumping OnApp:



> We are currently ditching OnApp and going to a different cloud platform
> 
> _full announcement: _http://lowendtalk.com/discussion/comment/683693/#Comment_683693


CloudFlow (by SeFlow) is the only OnApp powered cloud I know of that has (some) budget priced offerings. 

OnApp has a history of bugs and unless you're very knowledgeable technically/a good programmer (I'd classify the guys at SeFlow as extremely knowledgeable technically)  you will probably encounter insurmountable problems like Stylex did or be forced to switch to another platform. 

I know from reading Matteo's WHT posts that they had issues with the last upgrade a few weeks ago but they were able to work around them and as a customer I didn't experience any problems (100% uptime on my CloudFlow thing over the past 4 months, 1 short outage in nearly 6 months which was a reboot in May).


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## HalfEatenPie (Sep 15, 2014)

DomainBop said:


> VirtuaClub announced last month they were dumping OnApp:
> 
> CloudFlow (by SeFlow) is the only OnApp powered cloud I know of that has (some) budget priced offerings.
> 
> ...



Ahh, well then.  Didn't know   Thanks for the information!


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## Serveo (Sep 16, 2014)

DomainBop said:


> VirtuaClub announced last month they were dumping OnApp:
> 
> CloudFlow (by SeFlow) is the only OnApp powered cloud I know of that has (some) budget priced offerings.
> 
> ...


We are working with Onapp from the beginning, no downtime and we run with a fully redundant setup with a Nexentastor HA cluster. We encountered small bugs and these are known, maybe its because we still back in the earlier versions.

Oh, btw now you know two providers that offering budget cloud offerings with Onapp (-;


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## concerto49 (Sep 16, 2014)

Serveo said:


> We are working with Onapp from the beginning, no downtime and we run with a fully redundant setup with a Nexentastor HA cluster. We encountered small bugs and these are known, maybe its because we still back in the earlier versions.
> 
> 
> Oh, btw now you know two providers that offering budget cloud offerings with Onapp (-;


Everyone offers budget stuff with OnApp now


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## Serveo (Sep 17, 2014)

concerto49 said:


> Everyone offers budget stuff with OnApp now


From of yesterday you mean? ;-)


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## Francisco (Sep 17, 2014)

Serveo said:


> From of yesterday you mean? ;-)


That's the joke.

Francisco


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## DomainBop (Oct 13, 2014)

DomainBop said:


> OnApp has had some bugs  and some more bugs but I don't think it was the main cause of their downfall.


Just thought I'd update this to say: SOME MORE BUGS IN ONAPP 3.3!

WHT thread started by Matteo that is worth a read: OnAPP 3.3 stay away - my nightmare story (long...)


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## Serveo (Nov 12, 2014)

DomainBop said:


> Just thought I'd update this to say: SOME MORE BUGS IN ONAPP 3.3!
> 
> WHT thread started by Matteo that is worth a read: OnAPP 3.3 stay away - my nightmare story (long...)


This is the reason we stay back from upgrading to even 3.2. 3.0 and 3.1 seem safe with "minor" bugs that can be easily overcome.


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