@SWN_Michael said:
Spearware Networks LLC has reached an agreement for our VPS hosting offerings in Tampa, FL and Montreal, QC to be acquired by Slacker Networks.
This was not an easy decision to make. As some of you may be aware, a few members of my wife's family are suffering some severe health issues that's taking up a large percentage of my time. As a result, customers have had to wait extended periods of time for support, which was not my intent.
On the brighter side of things, we are not closing our doors for all services. We will continue to offer colocation services to current and future customers.
As part of this acquisition, the service locations and hardware will not be changing. Tampa customers will remain in Tampa, Montreal customers will remain in Montreal.
I will be employed by Slacker Networks to ease the transition and assist throughout the next few months to make this as seamless as possible.
I would like to thank all customers for their patronage and support throughout this time. Rest assured, you will continue to receive the highest quality of support and service throughout this transition and going forward.
Below is a message from Slacker Networks on the acquisition, and I must say — they have some pretty awesome things lined up for VPS customers!
About Slacker Networks
We're a Canadian owned and run business with presence in Montreal, QC. We take pride in offering fast, reliable and affordable solutions for our customers, and we welcome the Spearware Networks VPS customers onto our platform.
Our Platform:
We're committed to providing top-notch services, and we're not stopping there! In the coming months, our in-house OpenStack-powered virtual server management portal will be live and all Spearware Networks customers will be transitioned on to it.
With our panel comes new features such as:
Block Storage
Object Storage
Network Load Balances
NVMe local storage
BGP Sessions
Unmetered bandwidth
Floating IPs
and tons more great features!
What's changing immediately?
This week you will receive notification of your account being migrated from the Spearware Networks billing portal to the Slacker Networks billing portal. We ask that all customers open a ticket upon receiving notice their account has been migrated with their service IDs and we will migrate your services to our portal. You will be able to pay all future invoices with Credit/Debit, Crypto Currency and PayPal through our portal.
The Best News:
Nothing is changing when it comes to pricing, plans and the underlying hardware. Gradually over the next 3 months, we will change your IP address(es) assigned to Slacker Network's owned IP addresses. The gradual IP change will make the transition process smoother for all customers.
Upcoming Changes:
Within 60 days, Slacker Networks will be offering Path DDoS Protected IP addresses for $3/month per IP address (estimated: 30 days)
Within 180 days, Slacker Networks will give 30 days notice of transition of IPv4 addresses (estimated: 60 days)
We welcome all Spearware Networks customers to the Slacker Networks family!
I am having trouble believing he is dumping the VPS business because a few members of his wife's family is severely ill. Were they not severely ill when he expanded to Montreal a week ago?
for anyone who cba with the drama, tl;dr version curtisg has a troubled past, he lied to get accounts on LET+LES again under a new company, he is very creative with the truth by omission, once found out he closed down and pretended to sell up, it is actually him again under a new busienss name.
@Xenos said:
I am having trouble believing he is dumping the VPS business because a few members of his wife's family is severely ill. Were they not severely ill when he expanded to Montreal a week ago?
There's a difference between wife's family is sick. Vs extended family is sick. Story maybe different than what is being told.
But hey, atleast fella gave proper notice and didn't Deadpool.
I will be that guy again. When he shut his last host (HostMaxim) he blamed it on COVID to which I responded.
So you launched this service in late January, barely 3 full months have passed and you are closing the service blaming the pandemic? I smell BS.
I can understand an established business losing clients that caused an issue, but I just don't believe in 3 months a provider largely focussed on LET for customers has built up a sustainable business and at the same time lost that sustainability due to COVID.
So he launched HostMaxim in Jan 2020, close it in April 2020.
He launches Spearware in Feb 2021, too lazy to even create a new template for his grand opening offer on LET, just copies the one used for the grand opening of HostMaxim a year earlier.
And 3 months later again bails.
So yeah, history suggests a pattern of behaviour. If he really does have ill family he should be ashamed for using them to cover up his antics as that is actually worse than closing down/selling out again.
But this time he's only selling the VPS part he says. The rest of his services (???) will remain with him. Reason is that they take up too much of his time. So in 3 months he managed to establish a business with hundreds of customers (his words), which then take up too much of his time so he decides to sell it instead of hiring staff? Hmm, alright I guess.
@Lee said:
Turned into a real shit show now on the OGF.
Too much PMS. The Ghostsolutions discussion is a light read in comparison
it was just a matter of time before info like this would be posted there and as the HS thread was fading out.... something had to replace it.
@InceptionHosting said:
for anyone who cba with the drama, tl;dr version curtisg has a troubled past, he lied to get accounts on LET+LES again under a new company, he is very creative with the truth by omission, once found out he closed down and pretended to sell up, it is actually him again under a new busienss name.
PS. Already got asked on discord to send bitcoins to someone who claims to be @SWN_Michael to help his ill father.
I assume that is someone trying to take advantage of the situation (not @SWN_Michael ) and make some money.
“Technology is best when it brings people together.” – Matt Mullenweg
I don't know this Michael guy and I can't verify his past business ventures or behaviour. However, the way I see it is if he wants to close down his business, at least he's trying to go about it the right way. Giving notice, giving refunds, trying to transition customers to a reputable provider with a similar location etc. Some people on LET aren't satisfied with this.
Yet conversely, when another provider goes offline with no warning - sells IP space customers are using, potentially sells hardware, and gives a handful of updates over a few months of downtime those same people say "it's fine, just give him time!".
These people either have a serious case of double standards or just want to watch the world burn and disagree with anyone just to have an alternative opinion.
Either way, I'm glad this place is more civilised.
Apparently the sale is off? Curtis (wdmg) posted this:
Hi all,
I wanted to login to the forum to discuss this acqusition. We first started working with Mike when he was interested in offering services in Montreal, QC which sprung out of this thread (https://www.lowendtalk.com/discussion/172144/vps-in-montreal-outside-of-ovh-datacenter). Mike knew this is something we could help with, and was a customer of ours already prior to this, we helped him build his network and router.
After discussing with Mike where he'd like to see the company go, we decided to form a partnership in which we provided him a 21 GB memory limited reseller on our Ryzen infrastructure in Montreal in exchange for pricing at cost. After signing the paperwork for this, we created Mike the reseller account and helped him link it to his WHMCS instance for selling. Shortly after, this thread was created by Mike to advertise it (https://www.lowendtalk.com/discussion/172270/spearware-networks-has-arrived-in-canada-we-have-ddos-protection-and-ryzens-were-not-using-ovh).
At the same point of beginning this trial phase partnership, we were doing due diligence on the company to see if a financial investment was the best route to continue, or, a takeover. As we were discussing, Mike began expressing interest in selling the VPS portion of the company. He shared more in-depth financial status information (monthly recurring revenue, semi-annual recurring revenue, annual recurring revenue) along with information on his current costs to run the operation and node specifications.
As we evaluated the information and obtained more from Mike, it seemed to line up and match all the expectations. At this point, we began negotiating a buyout price and the next steps. Mike was very insistent on nothing changing which was our goal as well. Once the negotiations were made, we took 2 days preparing the joint statement and a plan of action. Once this was made, the LET post went live by Mike.
All was going well on the acquisition front and we received full access to all the hypervisor servers and the full client data export to prepare our import of clients. The client export was 157 customers once we removed pre-existing customers whom are also our direct customers in our system.
We then began to investigate the hypervisors for any potential problems (predictive maintenance planning) and noted 2 hypervisors were under hefty load and CPU maxing out, while the third (newest) hypervisor was under-loaded. We quickly tracked this down to a series of 3 VPSes abusing and applied caps. At this point, we noticed that there was no default CPU utilization cap set on any of the virtual servers we investigated, allowing the CPU to be punched.
Once this issue was resolved, we started being contacted by existing Spearware Networks customers to ask questions such as if the plans are changing, to which they were not. We also had questions regarding things like if the customer can keep their unmetered 2Gbps port or they were not specific about their exact port speed.
This began causing red flags as we were not informed and nor did our due diligence point out that there was more than 400Mbps-800Mbps speed being offered. Continuing our investigation, we identified that machines with 16GB of memory had caps set at 2Gbps. We also learned that during Spearware Network's migration to Virtualizor from ProxCP the network caps were never applied.
Spearware Networks had a 10Gbps port with a 2Gbps commitment on it, however, with no network capping being applied this means there are virtual machines with access to 10Gbps unmetered for around $5 per month.
As we kept diving more with hands-on access, the inconsistencies kept growing and there were things that Spearware Networks failed to disclose.
This leaves us in a difficult position as we do want to help the Tampa customers, however, with the inconsistencies and issues identified, we cannot in good faith continue this agreement. In accordance with our buyout, we have elected to terminate our agreement.
What does this mean for you?
If you have any services with Spearware Networks in Tampa, I suggest speaking with Mike directly, or, finding a new home for your services. @Francisco has offered to help migrate your data to BuyVM, but there is no discounts/price match/etc. Please contact him with your service IP and we will confirm it and transfer a disk image Miami.
If you have services in Montreal, please contact us directly and we will move you over and honour Mike's pricing/plans to you, in additional to offering you a three month service credit for the inconvenience this has caused you.
I sincerely wish the best for all involved and I deeply regret that we were not able to close this acquisition.
@Freek said:
Apparently the sale is off? Curtis (wdmg) posted this:
Hi all,
I wanted to login to the forum to discuss this acqusition. We first started working with Mike when he was interested in offering services in Montreal, QC which sprung out of this thread (https://www.lowendtalk.com/discussion/172144/vps-in-montreal-outside-of-ovh-datacenter). Mike knew this is something we could help with, and was a customer of ours already prior to this, we helped him build his network and router.
After discussing with Mike where he'd like to see the company go, we decided to form a partnership in which we provided him a 21 GB memory limited reseller on our Ryzen infrastructure in Montreal in exchange for pricing at cost. After signing the paperwork for this, we created Mike the reseller account and helped him link it to his WHMCS instance for selling. Shortly after, this thread was created by Mike to advertise it (https://www.lowendtalk.com/discussion/172270/spearware-networks-has-arrived-in-canada-we-have-ddos-protection-and-ryzens-were-not-using-ovh).
At the same point of beginning this trial phase partnership, we were doing due diligence on the company to see if a financial investment was the best route to continue, or, a takeover. As we were discussing, Mike began expressing interest in selling the VPS portion of the company. He shared more in-depth financial status information (monthly recurring revenue, semi-annual recurring revenue, annual recurring revenue) along with information on his current costs to run the operation and node specifications.
As we evaluated the information and obtained more from Mike, it seemed to line up and match all the expectations. At this point, we began negotiating a buyout price and the next steps. Mike was very insistent on nothing changing which was our goal as well. Once the negotiations were made, we took 2 days preparing the joint statement and a plan of action. Once this was made, the LET post went live by Mike.
All was going well on the acquisition front and we received full access to all the hypervisor servers and the full client data export to prepare our import of clients. The client export was 157 customers once we removed pre-existing customers whom are also our direct customers in our system.
We then began to investigate the hypervisors for any potential problems (predictive maintenance planning) and noted 2 hypervisors were under hefty load and CPU maxing out, while the third (newest) hypervisor was under-loaded. We quickly tracked this down to a series of 3 VPSes abusing and applied caps. At this point, we noticed that there was no default CPU utilization cap set on any of the virtual servers we investigated, allowing the CPU to be punched.
Once this issue was resolved, we started being contacted by existing Spearware Networks customers to ask questions such as if the plans are changing, to which they were not. We also had questions regarding things like if the customer can keep their unmetered 2Gbps port or they were not specific about their exact port speed.
This began causing red flags as we were not informed and nor did our due diligence point out that there was more than 400Mbps-800Mbps speed being offered. Continuing our investigation, we identified that machines with 16GB of memory had caps set at 2Gbps. We also learned that during Spearware Network's migration to Virtualizor from ProxCP the network caps were never applied.
Spearware Networks had a 10Gbps port with a 2Gbps commitment on it, however, with no network capping being applied this means there are virtual machines with access to 10Gbps unmetered for around $5 per month.
As we kept diving more with hands-on access, the inconsistencies kept growing and there were things that Spearware Networks failed to disclose.
This leaves us in a difficult position as we do want to help the Tampa customers, however, with the inconsistencies and issues identified, we cannot in good faith continue this agreement. In accordance with our buyout, we have elected to terminate our agreement.
What does this mean for you?
If you have any services with Spearware Networks in Tampa, I suggest speaking with Mike directly, or, finding a new home for your services. @Francisco has offered to help migrate your data to BuyVM, but there is no discounts/price match/etc. Please contact him with your service IP and we will confirm it and transfer a disk image Miami.
If you have services in Montreal, please contact us directly and we will move you over and honour Mike's pricing/plans to you, in additional to offering you a three month service credit for the inconvenience this has caused you.
I sincerely wish the best for all involved and I deeply regret that we were not able to close this acquisition.
BE CAREFUL: There is a person on discord asking for money. He claims that his name is mike and that he is from Spearware network. He says he needs money for his dad that is very ill. Please do not fall for this.
Vladimir S. - IT Consultant, Entrepreneur, Web Developer, and Disability Advocate.
@phxwolf said:
BE CAREFUL: There is a person on discord asking for money. He claims that his name is mike and that he is from Spearware network. He says he needs money for his dad that is very ill. Please do not fall for this.
This is not me. If this person contacts you please report them to discord and let me know. My ONLY discord account is mike1s#9106
@phxwolf said:
BE CAREFUL: There is a person on discord asking for money. He claims that his name is mike and that he is from Spearware network. He says he needs money for his dad that is very ill. Please do not fall for this.
This is not me. If this person contacts you please report them to discord and let me know. My ONLY discord account is mike1s#9106
There are many that are willing to take advantage of the situation.
“Technology is best when it brings people together.” – Matt Mullenweg
@kuroneko23 said: @mikho sorry to bother you, maybe edit the provider list and remove the tag?
Technically @SWN_Michael is still a hosting provider and the only bad judgment I can see at this moment is trying to sell it to a person known by the community for shady business and bad behavior.
On the other hand, as this is his second (?) venture, I would advise taking caution when thinking of buying from this man.
It's not a crime to make bad business decisions.
I will talk with @Mason about this and we will come to a decision.
“Technology is best when it brings people together.” – Matt Mullenweg
@kuroneko23 said: @mikho sorry to bother you, maybe edit the provider list and remove the tag?
Technically @SWN_Michael is still a hosting provider and the only bad judgment I can see at this moment is trying to sell it to a person known by the community for shady business and bad behavior.
On the other hand, as this is his second (?) venture, I would advise taking caution when thinking of buying from this man.
It's not a crime to make bad business decisions.
I will talk with @Mason about this and we will come to a decision.
@kuroneko23 said: @mikho sorry to bother you, maybe edit the provider list and remove the tag?
Technically @SWN_Michael is still a hosting provider and the only bad judgment I can see at this moment is trying to sell it to a person known by the community for shady business and bad behavior.
On the other hand, as this is his second (?) venture, I would advise taking caution when thinking of buying from this man.
It's not a crime to make bad business decisions.
I will talk with @Mason about this and we will come to a decision.
Go ahead and kill my tag I don't need it anymore.
cool... will do that...
“Technology is best when it brings people together.” – Matt Mullenweg
@kuroneko23 said: @mikho sorry to bother you, maybe edit the provider list and remove the tag?
Technically @SWN_Michael is still a hosting provider and the only bad judgment I can see at this moment is trying to sell it to a person known by the community for shady business and bad behavior.
On the other hand, as this is his second (?) venture, I would advise taking caution when thinking of buying from this man.
It's not a crime to make bad business decisions.
I will talk with @Mason about this and we will come to a decision.
I don’t know anything about the buyers history, but basing an opinion based on OGF posts the buyer has stated reasons not to continue and the seller hasn’t disagreed with those reasons. Shrug.
@kuroneko23 said: @mikho sorry to bother you, maybe edit the provider list and remove the tag?
Technically @SWN_Michael is still a hosting provider and the only bad judgment I can see at this moment is trying to sell it to a person known by the community for shady business and bad behavior.
On the other hand, as this is his second (?) venture, I would advise taking caution when thinking of buying from this man.
It's not a crime to make bad business decisions.
I will talk with @Mason about this and we will come to a decision.
I don’t know anything about the buyers history, but basing an opinion based on OGF posts the buyer has stated reasons not to continue and the seller hasn’t disagreed with those reasons. Shrug.
It is sad how it ended. Regardless of what it is, atleast Michale given his users the courtesy of proper notice and refund, unlike two other providers who Deadpooled this month.
Despite his history, thank you @SWN_Michael for atleast respecting your customers.
@kuroneko23 said: @mikho sorry to bother you, maybe edit the provider list and remove the tag?
Technically @SWN_Michael is still a hosting provider and the only bad judgment I can see at this moment is trying to sell it to a person known by the community for shady business and bad behavior.
On the other hand, as this is his second (?) venture, I would advise taking caution when thinking of buying from this man.
It's not a crime to make bad business decisions.
I will talk with @Mason about this and we will come to a decision.
I don’t know anything about the buyers history, but basing an opinion based on OGF posts the buyer has stated reasons not to continue and the seller hasn’t disagreed with those reasons. Shrug.
It is sad how it ended. Regardless of what it is, atleast Michale given his users the courtesy of proper notice and refund, unlike two other providers who Deadpooled this month.
Despite his history, thank you @SWN_Michael for atleast respecting your customers.
Comments
@SWN_Michael
For us who don’t click on links, care to update here as well?
“Technology is best when it brings people together.” – Matt Mullenweg
so pretty much he has said that he will transfer clients to a different company called slacker networks. however if you see the link i put there is some suspicion regarding this company since it is only a few months old https://www.godaddy.com/whois/results.aspx?checkAvail=1&domain=slackernetworks.com
obviously suspicious...
Curtis (for the drama)
https://ipinfo.io/AS39967
https://opencorporates.com/companies/ca/12504898
Oh my…..
Well, good luck then.
“Technology is best when it brings people together.” – Matt Mullenweg
Here's the whole announcement:
dnscry.pt - Public DNSCrypt resolvers hosted by LowEnd providers • Need a free NAT LXC? -> https://microlxc.net/
companies selling to each other here and there. shady shit
I bench YABS 24/7/365 unless it's a leap year.
From one silly name, to another. I don't expect much gets done at Slackers1
It wisnae me! A big boy done it and ran away.
NVMe2G for life! until death (the end is nigh)
I am having trouble believing he is dumping the VPS business because a few members of his wife's family is severely ill. Were they not severely ill when he expanded to Montreal a week ago?
for anyone who cba with the drama, tl;dr version curtisg has a troubled past, he lied to get accounts on LET+LES again under a new company, he is very creative with the truth by omission, once found out he closed down and pretended to sell up, it is actually him again under a new busienss name.
https://inceptionhosting.com
Please do not use the PM system here for Inception Hosting support issues.
There's a difference between wife's family is sick. Vs extended family is sick. Story maybe different than what is being told.
But hey, atleast fella gave proper notice and didn't Deadpool.
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I will be that guy again. When he shut his last host (HostMaxim) he blamed it on COVID to which I responded.
So he launched HostMaxim in Jan 2020, close it in April 2020.
He launches Spearware in Feb 2021, too lazy to even create a new template for his grand opening offer on LET, just copies the one used for the grand opening of HostMaxim a year earlier.
And 3 months later again bails.
So yeah, history suggests a pattern of behaviour. If he really does have ill family he should be ashamed for using them to cover up his antics as that is actually worse than closing down/selling out again.
But this time he's only selling the VPS part he says. The rest of his services (???) will remain with him. Reason is that they take up too much of his time. So in 3 months he managed to establish a business with hundreds of customers (his words), which then take up too much of his time so he decides to sell it instead of hiring staff? Hmm, alright I guess.
LinuxFreek.com
Wait, this is the same guy? It feels like that post was only days ago.. sigh
Michael from DragonWebHost & OnePoundEmail
Turned into a real shit show now on the OGF.
Too much PMS. The Ghostsolutions discussion is a light read in comparison
———-
blog | exploring visually |
it was just a matter of time before info like this would be posted there and as the HS thread was fading out.... something had to replace it.
PS. Already got asked on discord to send bitcoins to someone who claims to be @SWN_Michael to help his ill father.
I assume that is someone trying to take advantage of the situation (not @SWN_Michael ) and make some money.
“Technology is best when it brings people together.” – Matt Mullenweg
Gettin' pretty toxic over there.
♻ Amitz day is October 21.
♻ Join Nigh sect by adopting my avatar. Let us spread the joys of the end.
I've said it there, and I'll say it here.
I don't know this Michael guy and I can't verify his past business ventures or behaviour. However, the way I see it is if he wants to close down his business, at least he's trying to go about it the right way. Giving notice, giving refunds, trying to transition customers to a reputable provider with a similar location etc. Some people on LET aren't satisfied with this.
Yet conversely, when another provider goes offline with no warning - sells IP space customers are using, potentially sells hardware, and gives a handful of updates over a few months of downtime those same people say "it's fine, just give him time!".
These people either have a serious case of double standards or just want to watch the world burn and disagree with anyone just to have an alternative opinion.
Either way, I'm glad this place is more civilised.
Apparently the sale is off? Curtis (wdmg) posted this:
https://www.lowendtalk.com/discussion/comment/3247384/#Comment_3247384
LinuxFreek.com
i think what he is doing is only going to be able to sell the montreal portion. curtis or whatever does not want the tampa portion
BE CAREFUL: There is a person on discord asking for money. He claims that his name is mike and that he is from Spearware network. He says he needs money for his dad that is very ill. Please do not fall for this.
Vladimir S. - IT Consultant, Entrepreneur, Web Developer, and Disability Advocate.
[email protected] | www.ivlad.net
This is not me. If this person contacts you please report them to discord and let me know. My ONLY discord account is mike1s#9106
There are many that are willing to take advantage of the situation.
“Technology is best when it brings people together.” – Matt Mullenweg
@mikho sorry to bother you, maybe edit the provider list and remove the tag?
Technically @SWN_Michael is still a hosting provider and the only bad judgment I can see at this moment is trying to sell it to a person known by the community for shady business and bad behavior.
On the other hand, as this is his second (?) venture, I would advise taking caution when thinking of buying from this man.
It's not a crime to make bad business decisions.
I will talk with @Mason about this and we will come to a decision.
“Technology is best when it brings people together.” – Matt Mullenweg
Go ahead and kill my tag
I don't need it anymore.
cool... will do that...
“Technology is best when it brings people together.” – Matt Mullenweg
I don’t know anything about the buyers history, but basing an opinion based on OGF posts the buyer has stated reasons not to continue and the seller hasn’t disagreed with those reasons. Shrug.
Michael from DragonWebHost & OnePoundEmail
It is sad how it ended. Regardless of what it is, atleast Michale given his users the courtesy of proper notice and refund, unlike two other providers who Deadpooled this month.
Despite his history, thank you @SWN_Michael for atleast respecting your customers.
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I always try to do so.