Ignite Servers bad business practices

[tr1cky]

I just wanted to leave this here, I don't know if it is the right category to write this in, so please forgive me if not.


Today I noticed my servers with Ignite Servers were down, I noticed this after they were already down for ~4 hours.
I wrote a ticket and that is where the fun started:


I was told that my servers were scheduled for a migration, some time later I was told that my servers were migrated.
When I logged into SolusVM my servers showed as offline and I couldn't boot them.


The support then gave me two different IPs, so they changed the IPs of my servers without notifying me and the old IPs were still displaying in SolusVM.
Later I was also notified that the SolusVM URL changed and I could access the servers again.


In the meantime this is the only thing you can find about their "server migrations":



I received no email, I received no notification about the IPs getting changed and, wait, there's more:


My server were moved from Canada to London!


What proably also vanished is the DDoS-protection they had before because they used OVH in Canada and I hosted something on those servers that gets attacked frequently.


If you are a provider you now know what you shouldn't do:


- Change IPs without notice
- Only provide the new SolusVM URL if specifically asked
- Move servers to a different continent without notification

 

[drmike]

New York location = Buffalo ?


That brand has been on my radar...  Smells funny, acts funny..

 

[AuroraZero]

I have been watching them as well. The whole operation came on the scene rather quickly. To quickly some would say. I have seen some public scrutiny so far and some people defending them, but that does not count for much with me. Time usually tells with these things and I am sure it will here as well. 

 

[Awmusic12635]

Anything posted on their announcements page beforehand?

 

[mitgib]

That brand has been on my radar...  Smells funny, acts funny..

Put your shoes on, small gone?

 

[vRozenSch00n]

@drmike do you smell any acquisition?

- Change IPs without notice
- Only provide the new SolusVM URL if specifically asked
- Move servers to a different continent without notification

Those actually are unacceptable. I can imagine the hassle to change settings on the server (if you can login due to IP change), the downtime, data integrity during migration, change on network routing from Canada to UK and especially the uneasy feeling as if you are not important as a customer. 

 

[drmike]

@drmike do you smell any acquisition?


Those actually are unacceptable. I can imagine the hassle to change settings on the server (if you can login due to IP change), the downtime, data integrity during migration, change on network routing from Canada to UK and especially the uneasy feeling as if you are not important as a customer. 

I'll look


Have a link / reference on this?   PM me info.

 

[Joshua]

My server were moved from Canada to London!

That's the part that I can't seem to grasp. Why in the world would you move your clients to a whole different continent without telling them? 

 

[drmike]

Let me start with this bombing:


Domain Name: IGNITESERVERS.COM
Registry Domain ID: 1956411492_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.enom.com
Registrar URL: www.enom.com
Updated Date: 2015-08-30T12:05:38.00Z
Creation Date: 2015-08-30T19:05:00.00Z
Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2016-08-30T19:05:00.00Z
Registrar: ENOM, INC.
Registrar IANA ID: 48
Reseller: NAMECHEAP.COM
Domain Status: ok https://www.icann.org/epp#ok
Registry Registrant ID: 
Registrant Name: KALON BENTON
Registrant Organization: IGNITESERVERS
Registrant Street: 2 S SALISBURY ST.
Registrant City: RALEIGH
Registrant State/Province: NC
Registrant Postal Code: 27603
Registrant Country: US
Registrant Phone: +1.8444729258
Registrant Phone Ext: 
Registrant Fax: 
Registrant Fax Ext:
Registrant Email: [email protected]
Registry Admin ID: 
Admin Name: KALON BENTON
Admin Organization: IGNITESERVERS
Admin Street: 2 S SALISBURY ST.
Admin City: RALEIGH
Admin State/Province: NC
Admin Postal Code: 27603
Admin Country: US
Admin Phone: +1.8444729258
Admin Phone Ext: 
 


What to note?


1. They just sprung to life as of August 30.


2. While their WHOIS info is public, it is FRAUDULENT.


3. The 2 Salisbury Street address in Raleigh is quite a trip.

Spoiler

At this location







Division of Publications



State Government Office·S Salisbury St

 








Lobbyist Registration



State Government Office·S Salisbury St





 








N.C. Government: Secretary of State Corporation



State Government Office·S Salisbury St





 








North Carolina Department of the Secretary of State



State Government Office·S Salisbury St


Opens at 8:00 AM





 








Notary Public



State Government Office·S Salisbury St





 








Uniform Commercial Code



State Government Office·S Salisbury St








This address is a State Government building.   It is an old building that looks like a bank per se.   It is not an office building open to public to rent space or mailbox drops.


It is literally across the street from the North Carolina State Capitol.


4. While one would send documents here to incorporate, this is not a place to use as your mailing address.


5. If Ignite Servers is incorporated in North Carolina they aren't incorporated as Ignite Servers.  No matches or similar were found see: https://www.secretary.state.nc.us/search/index/corp


6. If Ignite Server was incorporated or is incorporated I'd expect to find Kalon Benton in records.  No matches were found for Mr. Benton as an agent.


7. Ignite Servers is listed in some places as an LTD.  Unsure what that is about.   Usually points to the United Kingdom.  Doubt this is an LTD or any incorporation.  I searched neighboring South Carolina and found 0 matches also.


8. Only Kalon Benton I am seeing is in Arkansas and has moved about the country a bit.


9. Advertises over here: 


http://osbot.org/forum/user/189522-igniteservers/


For Runescape bots.


Also features a rather young looking fellow in photo.


I think LET has some rules about WHOIS info... Time to contact the moderators over there and get this offer poster squashed.  Fake WHOIS info and the "company" is meh, less than 3 months old.

 

[ISG]

Would just like to touch base on some of the aspects of this thread. Somethings are correct and some are not however I will not argue with anyone just say my peace about it and that will be all.


First off I would like to say our network migration was scheduled 2 days before the nodes were migrated. A mass email was not sent out to all of our clients however our network status and twitter was updated throughout the migration. This migration was in progress simply because we acquired our own hardware in Ashburn, VA meanwhile the intent of the migration was to move our clients nodes to London for 4-5 hours and revert them back to our new nodes in Ashburn, VA within 5-6 hours. The migration to London was simple, to reduce the downtime of clients VM's. However all 5 of our Ashburn nodes are now online and we are allowing clients to be transferred back to USA North East location.


Although I am not going to deny that it was specifically a bad choice on my behalf or my companies behalf myself and my technical officers agreed it was the best move for us to take to reduce downtime and such things. I did not intend to put a bad taste in any of my clients mouth everyone is entitled to their own opinions.


I appreciate you for voicing your opinion and I will be sure to asses our migration protocol next time something like this arises. I doubt anything will be changing in the near future as we have put hardware in multiple data centers and are now stable on our own hardware.


@tr1cky If their is anything I can do you accommodate you for the experience you are having with IgniteServers please feel free to let me know.


Kindest Regards


Kalon Benton

 

[drmike]

Welcome Mr. Benton,  that was quick  < 2 hours ... Impressive.


@ISG so what is the legal status of you company? Incorporated where and under what entity name?   Planning on fixing your address to a real one?


Thanks!

 

[HalfEatenPie]

Would just like to touch base on some of the aspects of this thread. Somethings are correct and some are not however I will not argue with anyone just say my peace about it and that will be all.


First off I would like to say our network migration was scheduled 2 days before the nodes were migrated. A mass email was not sent out to all of our clients however our network status and twitter was updated throughout the migration. This migration was in progress simply because we acquired our own hardware in Ashburn, VA meanwhile the intent of the migration was to move our clients nodes to London for 4-5 hours and revert them back to our new nodes in Ashburn, VA within 5-6 hours. The migration to London was simple, to reduce the downtime of clients VM's. However all 5 of our Ashburn nodes are now online and we are allowing clients to be transferred back to USA North East location.


Although I am not going to deny that it was specifically a bad choice on my behalf or my companies behalf myself and my technical officers agreed it was the best move for us to take to reduce downtime and such things. I did not intend to put a bad taste in any of my clients mouth everyone is entitled to their own opinions.


I appreciate you for voicing your opinion and I will be sure to asses our migration protocol next time something like this arises. I doubt anything will be changing in the near future as we have put hardware in multiple data centers and are now stable on our own hardware.


@tr1cky If their is anything I can do you accommodate you for the experience you are having with IgniteServers please feel free to let me know.


Kindest Regards


Kalon Benton

What I don't understand is why you even thought this was a good idea.


Why not keep your original location in Canada for a few more hours (since after all you said it yourself, it was only for a few hours it needed to be in London) and move it directly from Canada to Virginia?  The amount of hassle to move it around twice instead of moving it just once is literally doing double the work for nothing.  Unless, lets say, you were careless and realized your servers were about to be "expired" in a few hours.  


Come on mate.  At least send out an email to your clients letting them know you were going to migrate them around.  At least give them a plan of action as to what's about to go down.  Just suddenly jumping around without any notice is bad bad news.  You didn't even give people time to change their DNS records.  This is obviously not a legit "serious" operation.


I've got a bit of news for you.  Surprisingly, there are many people who don't use twitter or care enough to follow you.  People don't check the Network Status page 24/7.  You know what people do check though and in the end also helps make sure you get paid?  Emails.  People check emails and in addition, people use email to pay you (as the invoice is emailed to them).  You took a very critical and crucial step out of the process and expect everyone to be fine and dandy about it.  While the network status pages and Twitter may be a nice "bonus", in the end direct provider <-> client communication (most commonly held in the form of an email) is important to cover your legal butt in case of issues.  You did not take this precaution.  


This shows 100% that your operation was under-prepared for the migration and operation.  In addition to the fact that false whois information on your domain and no legal registration (as far as we can tell anyways) shows that this is a highly sketchy operation.  

 

[ISG]

Actually @drmike we were looking into registering the company in NC which is actually why our address is that way. We started the process but we did not happen to finish it in NC the address is that way simple because the placement where the process was taking place. However our business is in progress of being registered in Texas everything has been paid for we/I am just waiting for papers and such to come in until then our address will stay the same. Their is no fraudulent activity anywhere in my company to whom it may concern. Just a waiting process for documents.


We currently are operating our of a small business office in Texas in which our address will be updated to this one as soon as documents are in hopefully that will be soon.

 

[drmike]

Actually @drmike we were looking into registering the company in NC which is actually why our address is that way. We started the process but we did not happen to finish it in NC the address is that way simple because the placement where the process was taking place. However our business is in progress of being registered in Texas everything has been paid for we/I am just waiting for papers and such to come in until then our address will stay the same. Their is no fraudulent activity anywhere in my company to whom it may concern. Just a waiting process for documents.


We currently are operating our of a small business office in Texas in which our address will be updated to this one as soon as documents are in hopefully that will be soon.

Texarkana?

 

[ISG]

What I don't understand is why you even thought this was a good idea.


Why not keep your original location in Canada for a few more hours (since after all you said it yourself, it was only for a few hours it needed to be in London) and move it directly from Canada to Virginia?  The amount of hassle to move it around twice instead of moving it just once is literally doing double the work for nothing.  Unless, lets say, you were careless and realized your servers were about to be "expired" in a few hours.  


Come on mate.  At least send out an email to your clients letting them know you were going to migrate them around.  At least give them a plan of action as to what's about to go down.  Just suddenly jumping around without any notice is bad bad news.  You didn't even give people time to change their DNS records.  This is obviously not a legit "serious" operation.


I've got a bit of news for you.  Surprisingly, there are many people who don't use twitter or care enough to follow you.  People don't check the Network Status page 24/7.  You know what people do check though and in the end also helps make sure you get paid?  Emails.  People check emails and in addition, people use email to pay you (as the invoice is emailed to them).  You took a very critical and crucial step out of the process and expect everyone to be fine and dandy about it.  While the network status pages and Twitter may be a nice "bonus", in the end direct provider <-> client communication (most commonly held in the form of an email) is important to cover your legal butt in case of issues.  You did not take this precaution.  


This shows 100% that your operation was under-prepared for the migration and operation.  In addition to the fact that false whois information on your domain and no legal registration (as far as we can tell anyways) shows that this is a highly sketchy operation.  

Like I mentioned before everyone is entitled to their own opinion of the matter. What matters to me is recovering from the migration and the clients that felt it was a bad move.


Thanks.

 

[ISG]

Texarkana?

No sorry Arlington will be the new business location.

 

[drmike]

I'll keep an eye on Texas incorporations data in expectation of seeing yours in there.


Nothing in the taxable entity database yet:


https://mycpa.cpa.state.tx.us/coa/servlet/cpa.app.coa.CoaSearch?Search_Nm=ignite&Submit=Search+by+Name&Pg=tpnm&Button=start


Reason why I am on companies that show up and get noisy is that most of them are amateur fraud operations (not saying you are).  However, the bad address surely isn't allowed to make offers on LET.  Even they have some standards about who can make offers (moreso lately allegedly).  Get that cleaned up before the regulars over there notice and the house does the necessary. Surprised everyone on LET slacked this long on you and didn't hit you with a garbage can.


As for your CAN-a-duh to LON-done move, terrible.  Never move people to another continent.  Might be violating laws exporting and importing data abroad, definitely super bad idea. Email is point of contact most likely to reach your customers, use it, cheap and simple.

 

[ISG]

I'll keep an eye on Texas incorporations data in expectation of seeing yours in there.


Nothing in the taxable entity database yet:


https://mycpa.cpa.state.tx.us/coa/servlet/cpa.app.coa.CoaSearch?Search_Nm=ignite&Submit=Search+by+Name&Pg=tpnm&Button=start


Reason why I am on companies that show up and get noisy is that most of them are amateur fraud operations (not saying you are).  However, the bad address surely isn't allowed to make offers on LET.  Even they have some standards about who can make offers (moreso lately allegedly).  Get that cleaned up before the regulars over there notice and the house does the necessary. Surprised everyone on LET slacked this long on you and didn't hit you with a garbage can.


As for your CAN-a-duh to LON-done move, terrible.  Never move people to another continent.  Might be violating laws exporting and importing data abroad, definitely super bad idea. Email is point of contact most likely to reach your customers, use it, cheap and simple.

The full process should be completed in about 10 days I myself am not too sure how long it takes for the registration to be completed but hopefully soon.


Also thanks for the input appreciate the enlightenment.

 

[tr1cky]

I'm sorry, but Ignite Servers clearly have no idea what they are doing.
I appreciate them trying but the conversation that emerged by all the downtime that was involved with the move was just too funny to take it all serious anymore.


Basically Ignite Servers claims to have 5gbps ddos protection in London and they say they can boost this up by "installing a script on your vps".


I guess any experienced provider on here will know that you can't stop a network level ddos that overwhelms the connection by installing an iptables script and still Ignite Servers is here to tell you that this is wrong and their superior iptables script will stop L4 attacks:














And I thought they were exploiting Indians, but I guess it's Indians exploiting them.

 

[drmike]

Their script could help with nuisance Layer 7 attacks and lowly stuff.  But, that approach has severe limits and will melt virtualized resources quick (as containers should be capped on various abuse prone / get kicked in the teeth resources.


That isn't DDoS protection, it's just house keeping people should be doing generally.  Sure it's something, not going to devalue it to zero.  But against a real attack of any size over any sustained time, it won't do very good and not for very long.  A little blue pill will give you more uptime.


Doing this in the container, meh, wrong place to be trying to perform magic as a provider... my opinion purely.  As an end user, sure, if modules enabled and all, about all you can do and sanity thing like I said - housekeeping.


@tr1cky which location were you in that ate 30Gbps worth of attack?