# Centarra.com Closing as of September 1, 2015



## drmike (Aug 4, 2015)

This one is going around... Heard it a few days ago...  Today some emails out in the wild and viewed.

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Dear Centarra Clients,

As of September 1st, 2015 all Centarra services will be discontinued. Please backup and move your data off of the services as soon as possible. Any data will not be recoverable after August 31st, 2015.

We apologize for any inconvenience caused.

If you have any questions you may submit a ticket at https://billing.centarra.com before August 31st, 2015.


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## MannDude (Aug 4, 2015)

Saw something in IRC about it earlier but didn't think to share it.

I thought Centarra was of decent size? I don't keep up with all the random hosts as much as I maybe should. At least they gave customers a one month notice and aren't pulling the rug out from beneath them with no/little notice, so +1 to that.


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## drmike (Aug 4, 2015)

Thought they had their own cage.   I pegged them at around 10 racks a while back.


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## MannDude (Aug 4, 2015)

I know they have a shit ton of IPs. Probably can sell those for quite the pretty penny. Strange that the clients are being kicked out instead of sold off during this.


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## shahrul (Aug 4, 2015)

does IPSYSTEM LTD own by Centarra?


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## DomainBop (Aug 4, 2015)

shahrul said:


> does IPSYSTEM LTD own by Centarra?



IP hijacker IPSystems Ltd (AS62741 /  342,016 IPs)  is a Centarra  (AS40440 / 65,280 IPs) client...and so is RobertClarke (AS20150, CubeMotion/ServerCrate / 18,432 IPs)

edited to add: a high percentage of what is hosted on Centarra's network is shit:

https://www.cleantalk.org/blacklists?record=AS40440

http://www.senderbase.org/lookup/?search_string=centarra


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## shahrul (Aug 4, 2015)

Aha, no wonder my vps is down for 2 day


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## drmike (Aug 4, 2015)

Clark recently was migrating to Psychz... Unsure if he's moved his gear over....

IPSystems no one wants to owe up to... but someone in this group knows who is behind that front.

Seems like Centarra is off to cash in on IPs...  No other use for them than *questionable longer term investment*, which IPs are not and will not be. (Yeah I said that, remind me 3 years from now).


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## MannDude (Aug 4, 2015)

Didn't realize Clarke left them, I thought him and Centarra were one in the same to be honest. I always thought they were buddy buddy. Clark's operation is pretty decently sized if his IP space is any indication. I know he's popular with the Minecraft stuff.


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## drmike (Aug 4, 2015)

They are buddies for sure.   I'd expect that they discussed this closure date long ago and such was future have to move thing.


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## OSTKCabal (Aug 4, 2015)

MannDude said:


> Didn't realize Clarke left them, I thought him and Centarra were one in the same to be honest. I always thought they were buddy buddy. Clark's operation is pretty decently sized if his IP space is any indication. I know he's popular with the Minecraft stuff.



They're best buds, indeed. I'm not really saddened to see Centarra go given both of these fine gentlemen's histories.


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## MikeA (Aug 4, 2015)

> MannDude said:
> 
> 
> > Didn't realize Clarke left them, I thought him and Centarra were one in the same to be honest. I always thought they were buddy buddy. Clark's operation is pretty decently sized if his IP space is any indication. I know he's popular with the Minecraft stuff.
> ...


If you're a competitor of course you're not saddened to see them go.

I won't write up the paragraph of text that I want, but I've used Centarra for over a year and the network has been solid for me (being local to Dallas). Despite past of individuals ChrisK has helped out quite a bit in the past with a past business I co-owned at the time and I respect him for that. I don't agree with starting a business just to obtain large IP space and sell it, of course, but shit happens and there's nothing we can do about it.

I'm moving my servers over to Psychz since they're in Dallas also next week.


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## CVPS_Chris (Aug 4, 2015)

> ChrisK has helped out quite a bit in the past with a past business I co-owned at the time and I respect him for that.



Would this business be Exodus Hosting @MikeA ?


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## Robert (Aug 5, 2015)

MannDude said:


> Didn't realize Clarke left them, I thought him and Centarra were one in the same to be honest. I always thought they were buddy buddy. Clark's operation is pretty decently sized if his IP space is any indication. I know he's popular with the Minecraft stuff.


I have never been involved with Centarra, just a customer. We'll be moving out of the DC soon.


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## Tyler (Aug 5, 2015)

Good riddance Centarra. Chris could be in jail for his IP hijacking anyway.


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## HalfEatenPie (Aug 6, 2015)

Robert said:


> MannDude said:
> 
> 
> > Didn't realize Clarke left them, I thought him and Centarra were one in the same to be honest. I always thought they were buddy buddy. Clark's operation is pretty decently sized if his IP space is any indication. I know he's popular with the Minecraft stuff.
> ...


Never involved with Centarra in a sense that he didn't go down to Texas to help ChrisK move hardware out of the CoreXChange datacenter. 

No problem.


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## OSTKCabal (Aug 6, 2015)

MikeA said:


> > MannDude said:
> >
> >
> > > Didn't realize Clarke left them, I thought him and Centarra were one in the same to be honest. I always thought they were buddy buddy. Clark's operation is pretty decently sized if his IP space is any indication. I know he's popular with the Minecraft stuff.
> ...


That's fine, we all have our experiences. I've got plenty of stories I could share about my experiences with both Robert and Chris, and both were usually intertwined into the same... lets call it conflict. And none of them were particularly positive.


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## ChrisK (Aug 6, 2015)

Tyler said:


> Good riddance Centarra. Chris could be in jail for his IP hijacking anyway.



That's a very serious allegation, I do not have anything to do with IP Hijacking. A customer at one point in time did have some questionable blocks under his ASN however a block with their upstream was co-ordinated and the problem resolved.



drmike said:


> They are buddies for sure.   I'd expect that they discussed this closure date long ago and such was future have to move thing.



Despite what you may think all customers were given notice within a day or two of each other, nobody really got a head start.


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## matteob (Aug 6, 2015)

Why they not sold the customers to another hoster? Just kick them off and say "goodbye" is not for gentlemen


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## MikeA (Aug 6, 2015)

> Why they not sold the customers to another hoster? Just kick them off and say "goodbye" is not for gentlemen



You're basically saying that you would rather be a monetary asset rather than a valued client.


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## drmike (Aug 6, 2015)

> > Why they not sold the customers to another hoster? Just kick them off and say "goodbye" is not for gentlemen
> 
> 
> 
> You're basically saying that you would rather be a monetary asset rather than a valued client.


Yeah I agree on this.   Clients shuffled around as the core asset are meh, how things go, but I am rather not fond of such.  But honestly, customers are the main asset in any business, like it or not.  Exception is R&D heavy companies squatting on patents and licenses for very high level stuff.  Every other company almost is about customers and brand that dictates placement and therefore future customers.

Kudos though to ChrisK for giving nearly a full month to folks.    I am so use to seeing instant closures..


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## matteob (Aug 7, 2015)

MikeA said:


> You're basically saying that you would rather be a monetary asset rather than a valued client.


Not exactly, is not important if you sold for money, for nuts, for a kiss, but watch on customer side, if you're poor skilled or not had time for a migration do you prefer a mail that force you to move away or receive a mail like:

"hi, we brought the customer base and now are moving you under our direct control, please apologize us for next 12 hours to do the move..." 

Then you will be free to choose if move away or give a try to new company.


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## William (Aug 7, 2015)

1.: Open Company

2.: Sign up for ARIN

3.: Sell cheap VPS without any contracts

4.: Acquire more ARIN space

5.: Cancel said VPS after a few months

6.: Sell said IP space at 7$+ per IP, or 6$ when you are desperate

7.: ?????

8.: Move to Hawaii

No, like, seriously, who did not expect that? lol, a typical ChrisK venture, that was clear from the start.


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## drmike (Aug 7, 2015)

> 1.: Open Company
> 
> 2.: Sign up for ARIN
> 
> ...



I thanked this not because it's ChrisK specific, heck he's been around for a long time....  so if anything should have acquired space a long time ago... and no I haven't looked at allocation dates....

I thanked this because there are many companies who did / are doing just this.  Companies with no interest in providing services, no customer support, no intention to be around a year from now.  I do not see these folks getting $6 an IP any time soon.  Really.  Maybe $2-4 tops.  Which if a rental box business with no liabilities and little sales, I guess is alright money to go get high and screw off in a corner for a year.

There is a saying about money easily acquired, it goes away just as easily.  So when guys torch things like this they better not be coming back around.   Cause I'll be around to remind people of who they were and why to avoid.   Take your onetime get easy money scam and run with it.  But when life hits the fan and cash runs dry, don't come back to hosting, cause slaps will happen.


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## ChrisM (Aug 7, 2015)

Someone is really spewing out the crap on their network they are currently #1 on Senderbase for Spam! https://www.senderbase.org/static/spam/#tab=3


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## DomainBop (Aug 23, 2015)

drmike said:


> Dear Centarra Clients,
> 
> As of September 1st, 2015 all Centarra services will be discontinued. Please backup and move your data off of the services as soon as possible. Any data will not be recoverable after August 31st, 2015.



Everything appears to have gone down 10 days early on the 21st without notice.

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1507430

AS36137 (64.5K IPs now single homed to Amanah, AS40440 (11.3K IPs) still Cogent/TeliaSonera/CubeMotion


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## joepie91 (Aug 23, 2015)

DomainBop said:


> drmike said:
> 
> 
> > Dear Centarra Clients,
> ...


My Centarra VPS in the UK is still up.


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## drmike (Aug 23, 2015)

DomainBop said:


> drmike said:
> 
> 
> > Dear Centarra Clients,
> ...


64k IPs,   who is buying?


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## DomainBop (Aug 24, 2015)

joepie91 said:


> DomainBop said:
> 
> 
> > drmike said:
> ...


The UK servers are rented so you have until the end of the month.  Everyone who had a server in Dallas is officially fucked since the servers were shut down 11 days early without notice, deracked, and put in storage, and Centarra is claiming it would be too much trouble to give customers access to their data.  From WHT:



Quote said:


> Originally Posted by Chris Kondrat
> 
> I appreciate you being a +customer for years, unfortunately all the servers are de racked now and *access to data is now impossible*.
> 
> ...


For some reason, Centarra's sudden packing up of its equipment reminded me of a mining company that was forced to pack up its equipment in the Congo 



Quote said:


> On the night of July 30, Banro was forced to pack up its most sensitive equipment and evacuate its Sakima concessions in the face of the latest rebel advances, says Vice-President [xxxx] Kondrat


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## Francisco (Aug 24, 2015)

Originally Posted by Chris Kondrat

I appreciate you being a +customer for years, unfortunately all the servers are de racked now and *access to data is now impossible*.

Originally Posted by Chris Kondrat

Centarra has hundreds of servers in a storage unit currently , it would take tens of hours to locate the vps node your VpS resides on.. I'm sorry but it's not possible to do this

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1507430&p=9520259#post9520259 

That makes me sad 

Poor clients, but it does sound like an upstream forcing their hand.

Francisco


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## OSTKCabal (Aug 24, 2015)

That's extremely unfortunate. While clients perhaps should have transferred off earlier, eg soon after the announcement, there are many situations where it's simply not possible or ideal... for example if they couldn't find a suitable replacement provider... so the provider shutting down over a week before the expected shutdown date isn't good. Heart goes out to any businesses/sole proprietorships that resided on their services and I'd be interested to hear a detailed explanation of why this happened.


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