An Announcement to Our Alpha Red Clients

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Posted by Alpha_Red_Management, 10-03-2008, 10:21 PM
We want to thank you for your patience over the course of the past day, and offer you some reassurance and information regarding our efforts to sustain a viable future for Alpha Red and our valued clients. As of this afternoon, we have received a Letter of Intent and have entered into negotiations with CWIE Holding Company, Inc, parent company of CCBill on an agreement to further protect and secure your ongoing service. Please know that we are working diligently with CWIE, and our hope is to bring more details to you as they become available through the weekend, and into Monday. Many thanks!
Posted by PhireFast, 10-03-2008, 10:23 PM
1st post, no history, wrong forum category. How do we know this is a legit announcement?
Posted by Jacob Wall, 10-03-2008, 10:23 PM
For some reason I just think your a fake person.... because the fact AlphaRed is a known company on WHT and most known companies already have WHt accounts... not created today.
Posted by anon-e-mouse, 10-03-2008, 10:50 PM
Thread moved and I can confirm that the OP is from alphared.
Posted by Jacob Wall, 10-03-2008, 10:52 PM
Thanks AEM, just found it a bit strange.
Posted by RyanD, 10-03-2008, 11:02 PM
One porn company saving another
Posted by nonparity, 10-03-2008, 11:15 PM
alphared pricing structure doesn't really compare with cavecreek. Interesting if cavecreek does indeed buy them..maybe they want the network more than anything.
Posted by Rooter, 10-03-2008, 11:35 PM
Thank you for the updates. I look forward to seeing the company, staff, and network continue to function and grow in the long-term, despite the recent complications.
Posted by RyanD, 10-03-2008, 11:51 PM
They already own the network, CWIE holdings owns BandCon which is the network provider for AlphaRed. Looks more like the situation when you can't affoard to have your biggest client tank you might as well take the hit and scoop up what you can of their revenue stream.
Posted by SuperGrego, 10-03-2008, 11:53 PM
Just a quick note here to throw out to the beer drinking doomsday sayers that just love stuff like this; I was actually Alpha Red's first colo client. And I am still with them to this day. To those of you saying that their site is down, no, actually it's not. I have been logged onto my uberbox for the last few hours. Their site was never down, nor my sites. E-Mail back and forth to them works fine. I was at their COLO Monday and it's fine. I've dealt with James for a good number of years, since around early 2004, and while I don't know him personally, only business to business, he has always been 100% fair and honest to me, and provided top notch quality service at an excellent price. Fantastic tech support. In fact a few times they bent over backwards to help me, to make sure my company could succeed. There are a few comments here by former employees whom I have heard from those people personally, so I know who they are, and you know, beating a dead horse doesn't really solve anything. Wayne.... Okay? What I am concerned about is WA state saying that they would try to get an injunction to shut down Alpha Red. I don't see how they could do that as that would be like driving a truck bomb into a mall and destroying every business there (just because the mall owner is accused of a civil violation), instead of taking in peaceful unarmed civil attorneys in a civil case and dealing with only the mall owner. Alpha Red provides service to hundreds if not thousands of other companies that have no direct tie with James or AR, other than the fact that they are a service provider. Those companies (like mine) do not deserve to be destroyed by Microsoft of the WA State AG because we had nothing to do with anything. If the WA Attorney General on behalf of Microsoft, does get an injunction with complete disregard to my company and destroys my company, I will sue Microsoft. Something of this whole issue reeks. To begin with I don't think James would do anything that stupid or dishonest, because he's never tried to slight me, and I was the first colo customer. If he just partnered to sell a product where the vendor (in the Bamamas, do your research children) was sending message SPAM, I can see how he could have been targeted, because Microsoft can't go after someone in the Bahamas so easily, as a more close target, a very successful businessman. In Texas, easily within reach. I don't know what happened, and I don't plan on even asking him about it. But people concerned about their hosting at AR need to just relax I think... I am staying there (but I am looking for a host for backups in Chicago). I was looking for a backup host anyway due to hurricanes. But things like this process (the lawsuit) will take years. Even IF he is innocent (which is what I believe based on my personal business experience), Microsoft can only collect up to $2000 per incident they can PROVE he did, IN WASHINGTON STATE!!!!!!!!!! PERIOD! The law, it's new, and it's only valid in Washington state. Only since 2006. All this is, is a publicity stunt by Microsoft, leading up to their next piece of junk virus that emulates an OS, called Windows 7. I hope James prevails, sues the living crap out of Microsoft and builds Alpha Red into a competitor that Microsoft is afraid of harassing again. SG Last edited by SuperGrego; 10-04-2008 at 12:03 AM.
Posted by RyanD, 10-04-2008, 12:04 AM
Wow man, talk about rose colored glasses.....
Posted by Mr Terrence, 10-04-2008, 12:07 AM
You're gonna need some serious cash to go up against Microsoft
Posted by SuperGrego, 10-04-2008, 12:14 AM
Call it Rose colored glasses or whatever you want. If James had been a con artist, I would have been able to detect it over the years I had been there. He and Alpha Red have dealt with my company and my business on a very professional level, NEVER with any indication of wrong intent. And there's not a person on here that can claim to have done business with them as long as I, as I am customer number 001. You know, I love to down a few and get online and read about the most controversial BS I can find. I love mayhem, and I like to see those that did wrong get smacked down. But in this case, I feel like my very company is under threat. The statement that the WA AG made that they were going to try to get an "injunction" to shut down alpha red, just so happens to equate fully to a terror threat towards uninvolved companies. I am working on filing an emergency report with CERT in regards to this threat to my company (by WA AG) on behalf of unknown numbers of other companies, because that IS exactly what that is, a THREAT to destroy part of the US economy as collateral damage, when our companies did nothing wrong.
Posted by David, 10-04-2008, 12:19 AM
Something smells..
Posted by Rooter, 10-04-2008, 12:35 AM
Please elaborate; however, keep in mind I believe it would be wise to stay away from making any assumptions at this point until we hear more directly from Alpha Red.
Posted by nonparity, 10-04-2008, 12:36 AM
I didnt realize that I do think WA state is over reaching but it will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Posted by SuperGrego, 10-04-2008, 12:41 AM
At this point it's not a matter of having to have serious cash to go up against microsoft. Us Internet business owners have a resource called the US-CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team). In my opinion, the threat issued by the WA Attorney General that they were going to try to issued an injunction to shut down Alpha Red, scares me more than if someone called my house and said they were going to come destroy the company spent years building, even thought I did nothing wrong. See folks, THAT is a THREAT against the economy and I guess she never thought about it when she said that.
Posted by David, 10-04-2008, 12:43 AM
CERT has nothing to do with what you're spouting, don't waste their time -- they've got real threats to concern themselves with.
Posted by SuperGrego, 10-04-2008, 12:55 AM
Oh I am sure they do have other threats to deal with. That doesn't excuse dealing with this one as well... Do a search on C-Net for "Reporting Level 3's Terror Attack on United States Commerce: reader comment" When that report of that attack on US Internet service was made, it was restored within 45 minutes. Do your research. US Cert is what restored the net split. US Cert is not excused from dealing with another threat, and the very statement that the WA GA is going to "seek an injunction to shut down Alpha Red" is the most severe terror threat that I am aware of on the US Internet today. What they are basically saying is that they have filed a civil complaint and even without the "sued" party being able to respond yet, that they are going to destroy hundreds even thousands of other innocent, uninvolved companies even before waiting for any due process against the accused, and with no due process against the innocent customers. Not only is the threat extremely clear and plain, but it was made by the WA AG. Not like they can retract that statement now. US Cert needs to be made aware, as this is a reckless threat against the US economy and innocent business. I am sure US Cert has the phone number for whom made the threat (WA AG)..... God how stupid! Vote responsibly and vote often! Last edited by SuperGrego; 10-04-2008 at 12:59 AM.
Posted by RyanD, 10-04-2008, 12:58 AM
You think CERT is what settled the cogent de-peering issues? Might want to climb back into that rocker, you've obviously gotten off it.
Posted by SuperGrego, 10-04-2008, 01:35 AM
CERT did in fact issue the order to re-instate peering. And I just got off the phone with CERT. Not good news. While they did ack that what the WA AG stated, by threatening to damage other Mom and Pop companies while attacking AR, is in fact considereed by US CERT to be "a threat" it is now out of their hands because it is a civil matter now and US CERT only has authorization to act on criminal threats. If Paula Sellis has made a threat to destroy our companies reliant on Alpha Red before the civil suit was filed, they could have taken action. And as much as they may want to take action now, Microsoft and thier associates at the WA AG have made it civil, where they actually can threaten and cause damage to the very infrastructure of small business on the Internet. Legally. How nice huh?
Posted by SuperGrego, 10-04-2008, 01:45 AM
And I should have mentioned that CERT informed me that Paula Sellis is not the only WA Attorney General working on the case, nor is she the final decision maker, and that it's very possible that she did not mean to issue a threat towards the Internet by claiming that an injunction would be sought that included destroying innocent companies, and that she may not have known about the other companies. I was not provided any advice by CERT but I will be sending certified mail to the judge, and Ms. Sellis, letting them know that if they shut down Alpha Red that it will destroy my company and my family income, and that has to be the same case as many others, as large as Alpha Red is. Asked CERT if they would agree with an AG shutting down AOL because a user (or even owner) spammed, and naturally they said no way. And this is the same, even while AR is not as large as AOL, it's the same situation. The WA AG can not shut down my company because of something my ISP did, or I will sue them and Microsoft. Tired of this subject for today, but hopefully this has helped put the situation into a more logical stance that others can understand. Yeah it sucks. And yeah I am scared. Doing nothing wrong and it looks like Microsoft can destroy my company by manipulating and being in bed with the Washington State Attorney General. Who can back up my sites and get me live on 3-4 servers with 1tb each using 20mbps constant unmetered for cheap? Feel free to email me. I've paid my bills with Alpha Red no problem for the last 6 years or so. And hate to move. In fact I am not moving. But I want a backup plan.... Any Attorney ready to sue The Washington Attorney General and or Microsoft if they do this? Feel free to email me as well. Thanks Last edited by SuperGrego; 10-04-2008 at 01:49 AM.
Posted by KarlZimmer, 10-04-2008, 01:59 AM
That's exactly what I was thinking....
Posted by RyanD, 10-04-2008, 02:40 AM
Please keep in mind providers on these forums *CAN NOT* contact you with offers as that is against forum rules. You are however welcome to search around these forums and I would suggest searching and doing your research on any potential host you may do business with to look for somewhere estalished and with a quality reputation. Best of luck
Posted by SuperGrego, 10-04-2008, 02:47 AM
No problem, and thanks for the heads up. As you can see I have been on here since 2006 and never said much. I see a good way of contacting who I want to look into from sigs and thats cool. Thanks. greg
Posted by Coolraul, 10-04-2008, 04:14 PM
Shutting down Alpha Red or any one hosting company isn't a threat to the Internet by any sane person's definition. The de-peering issue could have had a much larger effect on the internet. I am not saying CERN did it but these two situations are totally different.
Posted by Shock Monkey, 10-04-2008, 06:32 PM
All in all, it's good to see that Alpha Red looking for solutions. From what I know, CCBill and Cavecreek are solid and they take care of their clients. They are well respected in the industry, have weathered many market turns and always provided top notch service to thier clients through it all. I think it's great news for Alpha Reds customers.
Posted by SuperGrego, 10-04-2008, 07:23 PM
It appears to be real to me. I just got it in my Alpha Red Uberbox E-Mail...
Posted by WEBAIR, 10-04-2008, 09:20 PM
get out while you still can ...
Posted by ameen, 10-04-2008, 09:42 PM
Bandcon is a CWIE Reseller, they are not the same company, bandcon simpley brokers cavecreeks large bandwidth commits, I think now bandcon with some providers no longer uses cwie for "new" contracts.
Posted by Rooter, 10-04-2008, 09:42 PM
Thank you for your insightful commentary; move along please.
Posted by planethitsradio, 10-04-2008, 09:58 PM
It looks like they are working on something. As for getting out, it's completely your opinion. I decided to port my servers over to another provider. The cost is a bit more, but I think the service is the deciding factor. AR has been randomly closing my tickets with no replies. Just as an example, I submitted a server cancellation last week and got no reply to it, and a random closing of the ticket. I have sent e-mails to support, sales, and the higher-up contacts as per visa's request and they are not getting responded. Technicial support chat is useless, I am muted and cannot be unmuted unless a mod allows me to speak. Telephone support is useless, all extensions are not valid, operator rings off the hook and any extension you get voice mail with no response back. Support as of the past 6 months has gotten worse and worse. As of right now 7 of my 10 machines are online, 3 are down and not pingable. I have put a ticket into support about it, no response since Thursday. I prepaid for my next billing cycle, and Visa will definitely help me in regards to a dispute with AR. As of right now, I am not officially cancelled but I have notified them in writing several times that I would like all servers pulled immediately and disconnected. I am not paying for broken servers. Whoever stays with AR, good luck to you in the future (if there is one, there is no permanent agreement yet). Whoever leaves to another provider, after all of the stuff AR has been doing lately, do you blame them?
Posted by David, 10-04-2008, 10:13 PM
Extremely insightful, then again anyone still with them after those last few fiascos really isn't all that SMRT
Posted by SuperGrego, 10-05-2008, 12:31 AM
Great news! I just got home, checked my servers, then looked at messages here, and out of curiosity I send an email to Alpha Red support. Not only did I get a response back in less than 60 seconds (didn't even have time to go grab a cold one), it was a very re-assuring message from Geoff who is their extremely talented main Hardware guru. Excuse me for yelling for just a second; ALPHA RED'S TELEPHONE SYSTEM WAS JUST FIXED AND SUPPORT IS THERE AND AVAILABLE BY EMAIL AND OR PHONE! So ya'll try to calm down a little, because all of this yelling fire in the theatre when you don't really know what's happening, just simply isn't cool when there are people trying to run companies and work jobs support their families. I'm going to say this one more time, I was Alpha Red's first customer, I am still them and I am staying with them. James McCreary and his staff have consistently been honest with me, helpful to my company even by bending over backwards to help, a few times. The concern is totall understandable and I have updated my backups in another colo which should be done anyway. Now that I have heard from support and their phone is fixed, gonna relax the rest of the weekend, knowing that what I have paid for is there, just fine.
Posted by AcroGeoff, 10-05-2008, 01:25 AM
planethitsradio: Hello I am the Hardware Supervisor at Alphared. I just want to confirm with you that all of your servers are online. We will continue to operate 24/7 as normal. I have submitted a ticket to you and have left you a voicemail. One server was down for 5 minutes, the other for 13 hours, which we apologize for. If you would like, I can post the monitor logs for each server.
Posted by SuperGrego, 10-05-2008, 05:10 AM
Just another quick update. Since last night I have received at least 5 E-Mails from tech support at Alpha Red about non-urgent issues, (all within just minutes) and I have personally tested the telephone support. Not only did I get a person on the phone in less than 1 minute, I am getting help with a project I am working on (hurricane backups being done remotely). So Alpha Red's tech support is there, they are enthusiastic and doing exactly as I have come to expect over the last 6 years or so. I am a night owl, work at night and do my best work at 3am. And I want a company that's there at 3am when I am working. Alpha Red is. And before I end this rant, while I may have mentioned this before, I was PERSONALLY at Alpha Red in downtown Houston this week. I live in another city, but when in Houston I like to check my servers, clean the fans, (I am sure Alpha Red would do that free if I just asked them) and just basically touch them and bode them good tidings for the work they do for me. When I was there I was given VIP treatment, a personal escort (manager George) and I walked the whole facility. Even visited the business offices to personally greet billing agent, Monica. I watched management staff answering phones, dealing with calls, checked their moral and overall stability (stuff I must know about and check on at times, as a business owner that trusts them). I was very impressed. And they had no idea I was coming. I just showed up un-announced. I enjoyed my visit very much. I had to move around about 1000 pounds of servers, by my own choice due to what I was working on, and instead of being left on my own, I actually had up to 4 people there helping me at one point. No kidding. (4) (count em) four people helping me. And not complaining but having fun with what they do. I even poked my head into the tech support desks to spy on the people at terminals for a few minutes. Found some tech heads, having fun. Very positive fun, good and professional people at work. Exactly what you want to see when you trust a large chunk of your own personal business to a COLO. Now if that's not god damned good service from a COLO, I don't know what anyone could possibly expect. Even while the building itself had obviously suffered some minor damage from hurricane IKE (broken windows), it looked to me that clean up was almost done. Issues with post hurricane clean up were being done by the Wedge Tower that Alpha Red leases space from. The COLO facility was very clean, organized and the thousands of humming servers I saw, including my own, looked perfectly safe. Air conditioning was working great and it was very cool in there. All the work desks and complimentary tools and wires and stuff was there, and most importantly a large amount of staff was there, of good geekish people, the exact type of people you need when you rely on the Internet for income. In fact Alpha Red survived a CAT 2 that did more damage to Texas than ALL damage Hurricane Katrina did. And they NEVER went down. So there's just a few other issues to consider, from an actual real customer with more personal on hands experience with Alpha Red very recently, AND overall than anything else I have read on here. Running an Internet company can be a terrifying thing at times, when you have to support your family and it all comes down to trusting machines, data centers and or colos, having competent support available at 3am, and even mother nature. I got lucky to find Alpha Red when I needed them (2002) because they let me and helped my business grow. And I don't see any indication that that is going to change anytime soon. So if anyone that reads this is considering using them, leaving them or just plain curious, on a scale of 1-5 I give them a 5 and that was hard well earned, and they deserve it. I am an extremely demanding consumer, very picky and about as quick to complain as anyone, and I have had some very bad experiences with COLO's in the past (like one that tried to steal my servers). But in 6 years I can not put my finger on one single bad incident, issue or even remote concern I have ever had with Alpha Red as a whole. They did have an employee there that was an *** hole, but that was just him and not their problem. Alpha Red can't be beat in my opinion. They kick serious tail. It's a company of good people, I know, I have met them. Anyone else care to chime in there on that type of personal contact? Anyone else that has dealt with them for half the time I have feel any different? I would be curious to know. Last edited by SuperGrego; 10-05-2008 at 05:19 AM.
Posted by planethitsradio, 10-05-2008, 06:26 AM
Wow takes me 3 days to get some sort of response. Thanks Geoff for responding, but that for a company in unacceptable. Telephones breaking is unacceptable. What do you expect to think when you hear AR is going down the tubes, and all you find is a lawsuit in the news, no chat, no phone, no e-mail, no panel, no nothing. If you want to keep me happy and maybe come back to your company in the future, you will refund my money that I prepaid and tried to cancel with no response, and let me go on my own way. If not, then it's going to get ugly and inconvenient and i'll always think of that when thinking of returning. Oh and by the way, wrong account Geoff, it ends in 71 not 34 Have a great day everybody! Last edited by planethitsradio; 10-05-2008 at 06:26 AM. Reason: forgot to preview
Posted by planethitsradio, 10-05-2008, 06:39 AM
Response back in 60 seconds? wow 10 minutes and counting... I expect it to be days and counting.
Posted by SuperGrego, 10-05-2008, 07:15 AM
Why don't you just try their tech support phone line. I called them last night just to chit chat and while the phones were busy and they put me on hold (since I dont have an emergency), twice, they talked to me as long as I wanted. They were handling business just fine, and the people I talked to were excited about the future. The phone lines being disrupted in the building probably has nothing to do with the James vs. Microsoft bs. Anyone happen to remember Hurricane IKE? Yeah, there are still over 300 people missing in Texas. You know, not that exciting as a lot of news lately, like Tina Fey making Palin look like the dumb cNT she is (can we say **** on here)? Anyway, the Wedge tower building had phone problems. Because of a gaint hurricane that wiped entire cities off the map Alpha Red is there and the phones work now. I would not just go out on the Internet and support this company unless I really did have good service with them. So, who am I? Greg Deeter Boomspeed.Com So go ahead and tracrt me all you want, find my illegitimate children, track my porn viewing patterns, complaints about me on usenet, whatever... heheh... I am watching Alpha Red closely, I have reported my 6 year experience, weekly experience and even today's experience, and my opinion has not changed. If you are not getting an answer to your E-Mail in 10 minutes, for gods sakes man, pick up your phreaking old fashioned phone and call them. Want me to call them for you? No, I won't. Just call them, and perhap consider cutting down on the alarmist statements you are making here, or I will debunk them based on facts. Have YOU CALLED ALPHA RED? Yes or NO? Do you need the phone number? Last edited by SuperGrego; 10-05-2008 at 07:26 AM.
Posted by planethitsradio, 10-05-2008, 07:26 AM
I don't need support anymore. I need someone who can handle my cancellation and billing requests. I would assume I have to wait until Monday for that. I don't care about the support side of things anymore, all my data is moved over to another provider. I'll be on the phone come Monday.
Posted by planethitsradio, 10-05-2008, 07:30 AM
Yes I have, several times Thursday, several times Friday, Visa tried to call them on my behalf Friday, and I tried last night around 10PM EST and it was still broken. Although, people are saying the telephones are working now, I will definitely be giving them a call.
Posted by SuperGrego, 10-05-2008, 07:40 AM
The phone lines being disrupted in the building probably has nothing to do with the James vs. Microsoft bs. Anyone happen to remember Hurricane IKE? Yeah, there are still over 300 people missing in Texas. You know, not that exciting as a lot of news lately, like Tina Fey making Palin look like the dumb cNT she is (can we say **** on here)? Or OJ getting slam dunked. Texas and HOUSTON WAS HIT BY A HURRICANE, and the cities of Bolivar, Crystal Beach, Caplen, Gilchrist, Rollover Pass and High Island have been destroyed, as in they look like the MOON now. And this was only a CAT 2. It's actually a small miracle that Alpha Red maintained 100% up time during the hurricane, phone service to their building and switching and restoration of that is no surprise to me, as being down for a short time. The paranoia about the future viability of AR is totally understood, but it's overboard, and dude, you just complained here, and in the time you could have spent typing what you did, you could have just called their tech support on the phone, and you are already fully aware that it is open. So, what's your agenda?
Posted by SuperGrego, 10-05-2008, 07:47 AM
Okay good. This is not Thursday, nor is it Friday. This is Sunday morning, and if you look at the very message you just responded to, I have reported that their phones are now online and tech support is available. "People" are not saying the phone lines are working again, I said that. I know they are as I called them. Once again, do you want me to call them for you or have you tried? I have real trouble understanding why you would post a message here saying that you were going to call for support and have not yet tried. What's up with that?
Posted by planethitsradio, 10-05-2008, 08:15 AM
Good morning all, and an update on this. I have spoken to Geoff and he explained to me what is happening. I am currently in talks with them in regards to a resolution regarding my issues. Geoff is a very nice support supervisor, and I appreciate him taking the time to talk to me about the issues recently. Lets see how the resolution pans out and we will go from there.
Posted by SuperGrego, 10-05-2008, 08:21 AM
Okay well now I am jealous. Geoff didn't explain to me what was going on (but I didn't ask)... Hahah! Glad you got some resolution. And by Jesus I need to get to sleep. And I can go to sleep knowing that my stuff at Alpha Red is gonna be fine... Sorry I may have been rude, I am just tired of reading stuff by people that are, well......... I'll just say that I support the notion of having to get a license to talk in public on the net.... Over and out from Central Texas Greg Last edited by SuperGrego; 10-05-2008 at 08:31 AM.
Posted by planethitsradio, 10-05-2008, 08:25 AM
Greg, Thanks very much. Your points are very up to the point, and yes I should of been doing something. I wanted to speak to billing and I assumed that I would have to wait until Monday but Geoff was very nice and will speak to Ben and Monica for me about what I need done. I told AR that their support (at least in my case, has been lacking the past 6 months or so) and Geoff agreed with everything I had to say. He told me that there is staff restructuring (James is gone bye bye and so is Dan) happening immediately, and people that are staying with the company are putting their whole effort in making AR succeed. All I asked is a reasonable request, let me port providers, and refund my pre-billed charge. If I decide after all of the kinks are worked out to come back to AR, I want it to be a friendly business relationship... and I would like to keep it that way. Anyways Greg, there's no problem, I am a big boy, I can take it Have a great nap... I did that 2 days ago during the panic of the century. Regards,
Posted by AcroGeoff, 10-05-2008, 08:51 AM
planethitsradio: Glad we could talk. As a company, we respect any decision you make. Everyone should expect great things to come and we are going to make this happen!
Posted by SuperGrego, 10-05-2008, 09:34 AM
planethitsradio Hey thanks for the update... I'll dribble a few more keystrokes here before I really have to crash..... When it comes down to it, all of us here on this fabulous WWW that do business and rely on it, have to still have some human contact, most importantly people we can trust. When it comes to feeding your kids, that doesn't leave any margin for extraordinary explanations, you do it or you don't. I am concerned about James and Dan not being there anymore. In regards to James McCreary, I only remember meeting him once. That was when he started Alpha Red like in 2002. Alpha Red was just a, well, a closet like on the 12th floor of the Wedge tower in Houston. It was like a switch room that AT&T or some phone company used to use. It was not ideal, but the price was right and I signed up as their first colo client. I was treated like royalty, given a GIANT rack (bread rack), and pretty much all the tech support I could use. And they grew. And grew. I remember when they leased the entire massive COLO or data center (now only one of two in Houston) in the same building, set up offices and hired new people. One of my friends even went to work for them before he went to NASA. And all through these years I was always able to call James if I was ever really concerned about the safety of my business, for any reason. And while I may have only talked to him half a dozen times over the years, I know he even took my personal calls at like 3-4 AM, didn't complain, and just helped me. And I know he and his company were very against SPAM. Someone used an open relay on one of my servers to SPAM once, and as great of a customer as I was, I was told to fix it or go somewhere else. Alpha Red, and James McCreary are in the fact the most reputable, trustworthy and reliable budget pipes that Houston has ever know. And I really wish him the best. Since I don't know him personally, I will give this situation with Microsoft a year or two to pann out, and then maybe call him. Dan, I think I only talked to him once or twice. I know that once I needed Alpha Red to just LOAN me some external hard drives for an emergency backup I had to make because of a server that was going out, and if memory serves me correct, I called him like between 2am and 5am and not only did he not get off on me about the out of normal hours phone call, I remember that they loaned me the stuff I needed, had someone in tech support do what was needed, and I don't think they ever even charged me for it. Even though I was in fact the very first COLO client AR ever had, and while they may have treated me well, just because they knew me, I have heard others that I recommended to them, tell me like stories, where support treated them like they were the most important client on Earth. See, that's a business model that is rare in this day and age. And that's why I would speak up, state my real name, and actually support them, in this time when they are having layers of challenges. The hurricane was bad enough, and then the MS hurricane to come in right after..... I dunno what else to say. I like the people at Alpha Red. Do you even realize that it's a small miracle that ANYONE was ever even able to talk to Geoff again? It's not common information, but he's been with Alpha Red for some time. And last year when leaving work in downtown Houston, he was involved in a head on car collision caused by the Police mis-directing traffic and he was nearly killed. He was in the hospital for months, and I actually was on the phone with others from tech support that were choked up and in tears, thinking he was gonna die. And for the longest time, I, me, -I_ felt reponsible, because I had him doing something totally outside of my service for me, and he stayed late doing it. And he almost got killed when he left. And I felt like it was my fault, because had I not been on the phone asking him stuff, he would have left earlier. Yeah, that's the Geoff that you just dealt with. He's back. And I can go on ever more about the real HUMAN people at Alpha Red. Monica in billing. She is a sweetheart. She is a gem of a person. She helped me, far beyond the call of duty, with my bill, a few times. You can't take advantage of her cause she's tough, but she's a real person, and she will listen to you, talk to you and if probably the most fair billing rep I have ever met. I actually got to meet her for the first time, IN her office in Houston, and while she has a two ply window, her outside window was blown out by the hurricane, and the building still needs to fix it. See, these are the personal contacts I have had with Alpha Red. And I just want people to know. On the web today it's way too easy for people to encite a riot, when they don't know what they are talking about, yet have just been online reading fodder, and perhaps full of beer (oh imagine that!) post some stupid, not well thought out, and totally uneducated diatribe, that could actually hurt other, well intended people just trying to make a living. Alpha Red is a remarkable, cutting edge, reliable company to do business with, and I am saying that from 6 years of actualy real experience. The direction of the company has to have come from it's founder, James McCreary. And maybe Dan helped too... And regardless of what Microsoft is trying to enforce in the US state they have purchased (Washington), that's not going to eliminate the years of experience, training, dedication, passion, nor even the desire and need that the employees of Alpha Red have learned and will sustain. Because they are people. Good people. Isn't that what anyone wants most when trusting a colo or data center? regardless of how wired we are, humans are STILL involved, and they probably still will be for a while. I want to ask one simple request of other netizens, I am asking it kindly and saying please actually.... Before you jump on some bandwagon and start slamming Alpha Red, please consider the human people that work there, and fully read my documentation of my history of business with them, including my very recent visit just this last week. There are a lot more things on the Internet that we can get all tanked up about, without harming innocent people just trying to work, and doing the best they can. How about that Palin eh? hehehe. And OJ is going to the can man! heheh! Thank you to the Alpha Red people that have helped me and my business, and that includes James McCreary and Dan Woods. Maybe you didn't know that you had such a pleased customer, and I guess I didn't know it either, until I was presented with a rare opportunity to speak out about a company in a situation where I actually have the greatest of all experience with. I hope that everyone with Alpha Red will do well, including James and Dan, and I have a positive feeling for the future. Which is why I am staying right here. Greg Deeter Boomspeed.Com PicBuddy.Com
Posted by AcroGeoff, 10-06-2008, 01:39 AM
planethitsradio: We're glad you're going to stay with us You are going to see many great things to come.
Posted by ewhost, 10-06-2008, 02:18 AM
SuperGrego: boomspeed, eh? i've heard of you guys back in my days when on 56.6kbps good to know there's still some websites from back then that are still up, other than yahoo and hotmail
Posted by planethitsradio, 10-06-2008, 11:05 AM
A respond to all of the other previous postings regarding AR by me. I spoke to Geoff and Robert yesterday and asked a lot of questions, I won't get into too much details. I am very excited about the overall boost in morale, you can definitely see it in the way these people are diligently working to serve their customers. I will officially be REMAINING a customer with AR as the transition completes with a backup provider just in case. AR has been very understanding with my concerns and are working on addressing them. I have had 3 issues with support, due to some machines that were down Thursday and Friday. I can immediately get someone in chat, tickets are being responded rather quickly, and telephone calls are instant... just the way support SHOULD Be. As for Geoff and the new gang, keep it up. This is the way a hosting company should be run, and if it remains the same, I will be an AR customer for more years to come. I am very confident with the changed support team, and I am willing to back AR with my full support at this time (This is from a customer that has been with AR for almost 2 years now) Thanks all for your understanding.. and let the comments begin!
Posted by LiamEagle, 10-06-2008, 04:50 PM
I just spoke to CWIE, and they put out a press release about 15 minutes ago confirming that they had acquired Alpha Red. There isn't too much information available right now, but McCreary isn't going to be involved with the company following the acquisition. We've got a story up about it on the WHIR right now. Liam Eagle Last edited by LiamEagle; 10-06-2008 at 04:51 PM. Reason: signed post
Posted by planethitsradio, 10-06-2008, 04:56 PM
CWIE Buys Embattled Alpha Red By Liam Eagle, theWHIR.com October 6, 2008 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- CWIE Holdings Company Inc. (www.cwie.com), the parent company of CCBill (www.ccbill.com) and CaveCreek Web Hosting (www.cavecreek.com) confirmed on Monday that it had agreed to acquire hosting company Alpha Red (www.alphared.com), a deal that has reportedly been in discussion since Friday. The company issued a press release late Monday saying it had acquired all of Alpha Red's hosting assets, including its two privately-owned data centers in Houston, Texas, 300Gps of Internet connectivity and connections in 16 carrier neutral facilities. Alpha Red's fate has been a matter of discussion since last week, when it was reported that Microsoft had teamed up with the state of Washington to file a lawsuit against Alpha Red, its CEO James McCreary and another company allegedly belonging to McCreary, Branch Software, which the suit accused of distributing illegal "scareware." After a period of silence that invited a great deal of online speculation, Alpha Red said late Friday evening in a message board posting that it had entered into discussions to be acquired by CWIE. In a call with the WHIR, CWIE VP of education and marketing Laurie Biviano said the acq uisition discussions began following the announcement of the lawsuit. While not many details of the deal were yet available, including what parts of the Alpha Red staff would remain with the company following the acquisition, CWIE, director of business development Walter Hirsekorn did say that McCreary would not be associated with the company any further. Hirsekorn says he expects that while specific officers of the company were named in the lawsuit, that Alpha Red would not be facing the threat of shutdown from the suit following the acquisition. CWIE, he says, has a long-standing partner relationship with Microsoft. Understandably, the company has no desire to get in the way of a legal battle. Alpha Red specializes in providing hosting - including dedicated servers, colocation and dedicated Ethernet transit connections - to bandwidth-heavy customers. According to the press release, the acquisition will enable the company to retain long-term operational funding to continue serving its clients. "We are extremely pleased to announce this purchase and to welcome Alpha Red and their valued clients to the CWIE family of companies," said CWIE CEO Ron Cadwell, quoted in the press release. Biviano said more information about the acquisiton would become available in the next week or so.
Posted by Garfieldcat5, 10-07-2008, 11:49 AM
We plan on staying with alphared, the servers have been solid, thr bandwidth great, and tech support has always been helpful. Matt... radiostorm.com Last edited by Mike V; 10-20-2008 at 01:59 PM.
Posted by corvett, 10-07-2008, 03:57 PM
Hi guys, mark from cavecreek/ccbill here. As far as Alphared is concerned, its business as usual. The support teams are answering phone calls and emails right now, and everyone should be getting good support. If there are any problems at all, please do not hesitate to email me mark@cavecreek.com. Ill get back to you right away. Thanks
Posted by RH Swaroop, 10-09-2008, 09:52 AM
We've always been and will continue to stick with Alphared, they rock!
Posted by sirrenny, 10-09-2008, 03:46 PM
Hell of a ride.
Posted by purplezebra, 10-09-2008, 03:49 PM
My server has tanked for over 1 hour and noone is answering the phone. Does this mean that I should start shopping around?
Posted by nonparity, 10-09-2008, 03:54 PM
did you place a support ticket? i know you tried callingbut did you also place a support ticket on the website?
Posted by purplezebra, 10-09-2008, 04:01 PM
Yes...the web site is down. I e-mailed, got one response but nothing else.
Posted by nkawit, 10-09-2008, 04:15 PM
I got connectivity from various locations, and none from others 12 xe-4-1-0.xcr1.lnd.cw.net (195.2.25.54) 241.278 ms 213.500 ms 251.927 ms 13 ge-11-0-0.xcr1.nyk.cw.net (195.2.25.18) 289.000 ms 272.127 ms 371.453 ms 14 xe-0-0-0.xcr1.ash.cw.net (195.2.21.182) 277.070 ms 327.901 ms 293.871 ms 15 * * * 16 * backbone.fiberstorm.com (69.80.233.189) 364.695 ms * 17 * * * that seems to be the culprit
Posted by planethitsradio, 10-09-2008, 04:23 PM
I was able to get a hold of telephone support earlier, and they told me that there is a problem in Houston and they are working on it. That was at 2:30 this afternoon EST. I'm trying to get through again.
Posted by DLGx, 10-09-2008, 04:40 PM
I've never had any problems with alphared (got 2 servers there), except the odd long downtime while I was overloading a machine a lot. Being in Europe I've never tried calling support but the ticket and chat system has always worked well. When I had a hardware failure on one of the machines I got a new one built and was back online within hours too. Hope things get sorted.
Posted by purplezebra, 10-09-2008, 04:44 PM
Still down...a few times where the server came back up for a minute or two, but then back down.
Posted by nkawit, 10-09-2008, 04:46 PM
same problem here aswell purplezebra
Posted by DLGx, 10-09-2008, 04:46 PM
Which site? I seem to be unaffected by the current routing problems going on.
Posted by purplezebra, 10-09-2008, 04:48 PM
64.72.117.50 Time to go shopping around. This is ridiculous! Feel free to send solicitations if you'd like. All I am looking for is a reliable 10mbit unmetered server that I can host about 4 to 5 small shoutcast servers on. I was paying $59 at alpha red..which was probably to good to be true, but I would like to stay in that price range. Please send me any offers to vertical@thedetour.us
Posted by ajonline, 10-09-2008, 04:49 PM
Can someone please post alphared support phone number. Thanks
Posted by DLGx, 10-09-2008, 04:54 PM
Works fine
Posted by planethitsradio, 10-09-2008, 04:54 PM
1-800-210-8386 you get the hold and then nothing right now.
Posted by purplezebra, 10-09-2008, 04:57 PM
I wonder if it is just because of the area I am in. May I ask your location?
Posted by DLGx, 10-09-2008, 04:58 PM
Well I'm in Europe A fellow webmaster I know is also having problems and can't access his sites while they work perfectly fine for me. He's in the states. Must be using different routing depending on where you're connecting from.
Posted by echangnet, 10-09-2008, 05:13 PM
My servers are down as well.. and I am unable to reach their phone support..
Posted by Rooter, 10-09-2008, 05:13 PM
Upon testing their site and the ticket system from my AT&T DSL connection in Houston, they are both loading. For me, at least, the main site is just loading slower than it normally does, but the ticket system (on a sub-domain) comes up without any issues whatsoever. To be of use in correcting the problem, first open a ticket with AR, e-mail them at "support@alphared.com" or call their support telephone number. If you are experiencing difficulty accessing a particular server or web site, please report the IP address and or domain you are trying to access as well as your own IP address (and optionally your city, state, and ISP); knowing your IP can help those with sufficient access troubleshoot where the problem may be at. If you must post on the forums here, please at least include the same information you relay directly to AR support so we have some idea where you're coming from and can better diagnose what ISPs or routes may be involved.
Posted by planethitsradio, 10-09-2008, 05:17 PM
Well right now I am having issues with my machines in Houston routing with Softlayer in Dallas. It goes to the level 3 edge router of Alpha Red and dies there. I have opened a ticket, ticket 828541 with support. I am unable to get to the telephone support at this time. I will keep you updated.
Posted by echangnet, 10-09-2008, 05:20 PM
This is what I heard first hand, but take it with a grain of salt if you wish: CWIE pulled out, cogent started blackholing alphared, network will go offline within 24h if the situation doesn't change I hope something will be done to prevent this..
Posted by DLGx, 10-09-2008, 05:41 PM
What do you mean by first hand? Starting to get worried here. While this routing issue does not affect me, download speeds are. Would be impossible to get fresh backups downloaded.
Posted by supportomatic, 10-09-2008, 05:49 PM
I've been down for hours now and unable to reach anyone at AlphaRed. Getting about 85-95% packet loss when doing extended pings. Everything I'm seeing definitely points to some sort of routing issue. Could very well be that they're being blackholed, but then again hopefully it's something else entirely. I'm hoping this is just a bad dream and everything just comes back up. I really don't want to have to piece everything back together at a new host. If the CWIE deal has actually fallen apart, I'll gladly step in and offer $1,000 for the whole operation. That's my official bid... What do you say, Alpha Red?
Posted by Adam_OC3, 10-09-2008, 05:50 PM
CWIE has INDEED PULLED OUT. They just walked out about 20 minutes ago. Every one get your data off NOW. All the techs are now officially fired, and CWIE has left the building. http://avn.com/internet/articles/32761.html Last edited by sirius; 10-09-2008 at 06:19 PM.
Posted by sirius, 10-09-2008, 06:20 PM
REMINDER: Sirius
Posted by purplezebra, 10-09-2008, 06:44 PM
It seems like it is back to normal. My server's output is fine again. Any known changes?
Posted by nkawit, 10-09-2008, 06:44 PM
I am busy rsyncing my clients data via another server in FL .... going at about 1Mbit/s ... praying that I get everything up to date It was just one week ago we moved all our clients over to our servers at AR ... painfull .... and now this.
Posted by nobody24, 10-09-2008, 06:49 PM
boxes UP now but....
Posted by supportomatic, 10-09-2008, 06:50 PM
I'm seeing much lower packet loss now... enough to where i can actually view my sites in a browser (whereas they were completely inaccessible before), but things still aren't 100% perfect.
Posted by nkawit, 10-09-2008, 06:53 PM
i am scared *less now .... copying all my data over as fast as I can just incase, set all my DNS TTL's to 300s
Posted by nobody24, 10-09-2008, 06:54 PM
8% packet loss now it is ...
Posted by supportomatic, 10-09-2008, 06:56 PM
How do you do that? Will that help ease the pain of a DNS propagation lag?
Posted by DLGx, 10-09-2008, 06:58 PM
Hard to get the data off when you get 10kb/sec download speeds.
Posted by nkawit, 10-09-2008, 07:19 PM
seems uberbox is also now offline?
Posted by DLGx, 10-09-2008, 07:38 PM
Yeah....seem to just pull the plug, no warning or anything....
Posted by nkawit, 10-09-2008, 07:40 PM
I must maybe think how i'm going to get about $4k of equipment that I own back anyone got any ideas?
Posted by DuBz, 10-09-2008, 08:09 PM
All of my servers seem to be online and doing fine, I've talked to a couple other people there and they aren't having any issues either?
Posted by Fernis, 10-09-2008, 08:19 PM
My servers are also doing fine, but I am highly concerned about this situation. I hate not knowing if they will pull the plug tomorrow.
Posted by DLGx, 10-09-2008, 08:20 PM
Well they're online now, but who knows for how long. There is no real official info being released, and no one seem able to reach any support, it's like everyone's left the building. One problem I've got is that I can't use my cPanel...it won't verify the license anymore. The uberbox client area seems to worka gain though
Posted by nkawit, 10-09-2008, 08:33 PM
I logged a 911 request a few hours ago. Cannot get hold of support by phone. Cannot get hold of support by email. Cannot get hold of support by live chat.
Posted by purplezebra, 10-09-2008, 08:42 PM
Can you please give your customers more details or a statement? Can you please update us on any timeframe for Houston's shut down? Are there any pertient steps that we need to take? Will our servers continue to be functional once they are moved out of Houston? Should we do anything to initiate the transfer out of Houston? Should I start to look for another data center?
Posted by Fernis, 10-09-2008, 08:43 PM
So will the Dallas data center be affected? Last edited by Fernis; 10-09-2008 at 08:52 PM.
Posted by planethitsradio, 10-09-2008, 08:45 PM
Moving servers to The Planet as we speak. In software installation mode.
Posted by nkawit, 10-09-2008, 09:15 PM
Guys ... back up your data as soon as you can and try make alternative plans. From what I've heard "AR will not exist".
Posted by jzone, 10-09-2008, 09:15 PM
Jonathan I've been trying to reach you but can't HELP - how can I get through to you? My sites are in HOU and were down all day, they appear back up but I don't know what that means going forward.
Posted by MrBox, 10-09-2008, 10:40 PM
I can't give a statement with time frames on providers shutting down. I will however recommend you back everything up and start moving to a new host asap. This is an unfortunate situation but I am doing everything in my power to fix as much as I can! I am not an alphared executive. I do not want to see peoples' business die. Move your hosting ASAP!
Posted by Eleven2 Hosting, 10-10-2008, 12:03 AM
/subscribes...and gets the video camera ready Last edited by anon-e-mouse; 10-10-2008 at 01:29 AM.
Posted by habibjr, 10-10-2008, 12:37 AM
Man, i cant belive im going through this. But, im moving to www.oc3networks.com/ www.pacificrack.com
Posted by DuBz, 10-10-2008, 12:42 AM
I believe they still are up? My network is anyway.
Posted by AcroGeoff, 10-10-2008, 01:05 AM
Hello! I'd like to say... whoa I can't believe this. I thought we would be OK for sure. I did everything I could but I guess it want enough. Please email me at spymodem@verizon.net or msg me on AIM - spymodem and gtalk - geoffalphared if you need any assistance with anything. Thanks to all AR clients and employees. I had a blast working my butt off daily for 2 years.
Posted by disgust, 10-10-2008, 01:23 AM
does anyone know if it will be possible to physically purchase the hard drives from the servers we had with alphared? that's practically my only chance at complete data recovery at this point.
Posted by Douglas, 10-10-2008, 01:25 AM
This is a reminder that everyone on WHT needs to be mindful of the rules. Thread seriously cleaned up, even though I did get a few chuckles from some of the replies here. Thanks!
Posted by anon-e-mouse, 10-10-2008, 01:33 AM
In case they missed it, let's try again.
Posted by DuBz, 10-10-2008, 01:39 AM
So how are we supposed to even switch to another host if were a colo client... does anyone have any idea how to go about getting our servers out of there. I have about 20k in equipment sitting in that place right now
Posted by techyinneed, 10-10-2008, 01:42 AM
I don't think we will be getting our data. Under their policies and user agreements, it says that the client is responsible for backing up their data. they fired all their staff, and vacated the premises. As we speak, they are rather quickly shutting down. I'm not sure (being that they are involved in the civil suit against Microsoft) that we have any way to retrieve anything, or the ability.
Posted by BloggerDude, 10-10-2008, 04:13 AM
Does anyone know which other hosting company has similar rates as AlphaRed for dedicated servers?
Posted by jmsinet, 10-10-2008, 04:25 AM
OK, I may be naive here, but what exactly can we expect at this point? CWIE is out. No word on any other takers, I assume? I've been with AlphaRed since it was ExtremeRack (several years) and through the ups and downs (mainly support and server issues) they've taken care of me... But, the past 2-3 weeks, phone calls don't get returned, 911 support tickets sometmes take 10+ hours for a reply. Promises are made and are not kept. Recently the support manager was let go and she was who I relied on to get the fire under departments to get things done. Now I have no options to appeal for help.
Posted by BloggerDude, 10-10-2008, 04:33 AM
I hear you man. I have been with them for more than 4 years. They have been a great Hosting Company for me, always giving great support and excellent price deals. I am very sad to hear all this going on, and we don't have any official word of that is going to happen. I have only see Vultures trying to get Alphared customers for the last week and a lot of speculation.
Posted by NWSTech, 10-10-2008, 06:02 AM
im just hoping i can salvage data here, got a full wget mirror running from my friends alpha server to mine , but its 140+gb worth of data, any rumours on how long before alpha totally dies ? EDIT: can someone confirm what providors AR actually haev left, as from the traces im seeing my connections going mostly via cogent but im sure it was mentioned to be down earlier ?, just trying to get info Last edited by NWSTech; 10-10-2008 at 06:15 AM. Reason: Removed My sig, dont want to be accused of trying to theive clients
Posted by planethitsradio, 10-10-2008, 06:19 AM
Geoff who is the hardware support manager and Jon the sales manager both concur that AR has been "abandoned" therefore it's pretty much certain that they will cease to exist very shortly. I wish all of you people luck in moving providers.... I got 3 of my 6 servers provisioned at TP so still waiting on the other 3
Posted by NWSTech, 10-10-2008, 06:21 AM
i guessed that one, im just hoping this transfer im doing finishes, only done 21gb of 140 so far so its not looking to good
Posted by planethitsradio, 10-10-2008, 06:23 AM
oh no! Thank god I was smart and make backups periodically on my softlayer machines. Just moving the files over to TP now on the 3 machines, still waiting for the other 3 to be provisioned.
Posted by NWSTech, 10-10-2008, 06:27 AM
i have backups elsewhere if needed, just older ones (lucky my mates still got his old server he had before he got AR one, but theirs about 40gb worth of data not on that server so at most thats what'll get lost, seems to be downloading fast though at the moment (200+kb/s so might be lucky)
Posted by planethitsradio, 10-10-2008, 06:29 AM
200KB/s woo look at that 100mbps pipe fly! lol
Posted by NWSTech, 10-10-2008, 06:31 AM
LOL. 1gbps actually lol. me friends servers 20mbps dedicated on 1gbps port , oh well at least its working, EDIT: doesnt help my servers at volumedrive though lol
Posted by kgp43, 10-10-2008, 06:33 AM
Have a guy driving up there in 10 hours from now, to get my servers. Hope they have some staff there to let him in. Last edited by kgp43; 10-10-2008 at 06:41 AM.
Posted by NWSTech, 10-10-2008, 06:35 AM
apprently not, from whats been said in this thread their are NO staff at all now, which is bad if a server needs reboot
Posted by planethitsradio, 10-10-2008, 06:38 AM
Yep no one is there for all I am told. If your server goes down you're screwed. Hurry up TP!!!! provision fast fast fast!
Posted by kgp43, 10-10-2008, 06:42 AM
What about our colocated servers then? I have a guy up there in in less than 8-9 hours from now. I need my servers out
Posted by NWSTech, 10-10-2008, 06:42 AM
im sure TP (and probably every other large provider) are working their guts out getting servers up ASAP for people though, ive seen this a few times and it always amazes me how the other providers step up to the mark and try their best to at least help (excusing the stupid sales posts of course)
Posted by NWSTech, 10-10-2008, 06:44 AM
id say good luck to you, though if you own the servers you have legal comeback if you dont get them
Posted by planethitsradio, 10-10-2008, 06:50 AM
lol... I know alot of my competition will be broken, alot of providers use AR as their main streaming machines... I don't. They were the broadcast machines, but they are already at a temp server and will be moved to TP as soon as the servers are provisioned and files are over there. Hopefully today will be a good day for me
Posted by kgp43, 10-10-2008, 06:50 AM
They are all mine. Trying to contact some of the staff members in here, would even pay them to meet at work today, to make sure my staff member have access to my servers.
Posted by NWSTech, 10-10-2008, 06:52 AM
yeah my friend used his AR server for heavy streaming (huge games sitewith loads of videos) so hes gonna have to shop around for a new box, then gues who has the joys of reinstalling everything
Posted by NWSTech, 10-10-2008, 06:53 AM
depending on what state AR left in the DC may just allow you to collect your servers if you can prove their yours, - dont hold me on that one though
Posted by planethitsradio, 10-10-2008, 06:54 AM
Right now, since the influx of new people moving over to other providers, bandwidth aint gonna be that cheap. I paid a 40% premium over AR to go to TP but I believe it's worth it.
Posted by planethitsradio, 10-10-2008, 07:00 AM
Let's not! hahahahahaha! Yeah I am able to do quite ok because my ISP (Rogers) connects directly with their peering in Chicago From SL, forget it!
Posted by NWSTech, 10-10-2008, 07:18 AM
lol yea i know what you mean, my servers going via cogent though from what i can tell
Posted by BloggerDude, 10-10-2008, 07:30 AM
Where are you guys moving? I have my dedicated server with AlphaRed, but I still don't know where to move on.
Posted by RyanD, 10-10-2008, 07:35 AM
Their Cogent connection was restored sometime yesterday afternoon which is a good thing for those trying to move things out.
Posted by NWSTech, 10-10-2008, 07:39 AM
ahhh thanks wiresix i must of missed that post
Posted by JFSG, 10-10-2008, 07:48 AM
What happened to AlphaRed?
Posted by NWSTech, 10-10-2008, 07:59 AM
they are in the middle of legal proceedings from microsoft andf have fired asll staff, they are lookin to be going down though that is unconfirmed
Posted by kgp43, 10-10-2008, 08:04 AM
How do you know that they have fired theire staff yet?
Posted by NWSTech, 10-10-2008, 08:09 AM
im going off posts on previous pages in this topic. do not know factually but from what people have said it seems that way, especially from how geoff worded his response previously it suggests he nolonger works for AR
Posted by kgp43, 10-10-2008, 08:12 AM
all i want is to get my servers out of that place now.
Posted by NWSTech, 10-10-2008, 08:30 AM
dont blame you and good luck doing it aswell
Posted by kgp43, 10-10-2008, 08:37 AM
me too, thanks
Posted by BloggerDude, 10-10-2008, 08:38 AM
Where are you guys moving? I have my dedicated server with AlphaRed, but I still don't know where to move on.
Posted by NWSTech, 10-10-2008, 08:40 AM
dont have a clue yet, still researching,
Posted by planethitsradio, 10-10-2008, 08:44 AM
I am moving over to The Planet for the machines I have at AR. Right now it's find another provider and quick. Softlayer is good too. Look at the offers forum, I'm sure there's ally of des for migrating AR customers. Good luck
Posted by ashagg, 10-10-2008, 09:14 AM
Hey guys .. I have an AlphaRed server which is in Dallas .. is that also cause for worry or ..?
Posted by pietjepuk, 10-10-2008, 09:27 AM
Entire AlphaRed is affected by this, including Dallas. I know that some parties are active in the Colo4Dallas that could move you internally within the facility, non AlphaRed affiliated hosting companies. However I am not too sure if they are trustable. I ordered a box with Choopa Tuesday night, and it was online by Thursday night. Transfering everything out there now. Already have a complete backup offline. What I heard is that CWIE bailed them out for the bills of (most) the bandwidth providers untill the end of the month. I got confirmed that Level3 and TimeWarner are paid off untill the end of the month. Not sure if this also counts for Cogent, or that they are rather providing a grace period for the customers to move over so they can save some business. My advice is: GTFO there ASAP, it's going down foregood real soon and noone will step up to save the company, it's beyond saving after what James pulled off. The bandwidth providers might stay up, but there are also the hardware vendors etc. that might speed up the process of dissolving the company.
Posted by BloggerDude, 10-10-2008, 09:37 AM
I thought there was a Page 12 for this topic.. It suddenly dissapeared along with many posts. Weird.
Posted by sirius, 10-10-2008, 09:40 AM
Yeah, that would be because of this: Thread cleaned and folks removed from the thread.
Posted by nobody24, 10-10-2008, 10:39 AM
any news? what is going on with AR?
Posted by kgp43, 10-10-2008, 10:51 AM
Still trying to contact them, no one taking the phone. All my servers are locked up inside the buildning atm, and i have no idea what to do - if I cant get in contact with any of them.
Posted by Extreme John, 10-10-2008, 11:31 AM
Hey everyone. I have been with Alpha Red from the very beginning when it was AS Networks, long before James was inspired by one of my companies Extreme Paychecks, to start Extreme rack, back when it was Tulin Online and up to it's current point of disaster. Im not going to get involved in bashing James, I considered him a good freind of mine up until the point he pulled this crazy ****. James has been on cruises with me and my family, was here for my New Years eve party a in January, took him to the PB Mansion 2x, he use to fly wherever I was just to meet with me and check on things, last minute and constantly. James built an amazing hosting company from the ground up we did over 1gbps with them consistantly and never had issues. Wherever James may be doing whatever I hope he gets his head straight. Now I have been in touch with a few of the staff from AR over the last 24hrs, it's been a long one. IF you have Dedicated servers that you were Colocating there they might be able to help you as well, they helped me for the last 14hrs straight and got my stuff back up, thankfully. My Icq 51299342 IM NOT SELLING ANYTHING and don't wish to, I simply will give you an email of someone there to contact so they can hopefully grab your equipment, again YOUR SERVERS YOU OWNED. For those of you with Virtual boxes if you havent already backed up your stuff, your wasting valuable time. This unlike so many other situations is not a "Dooms Day Theory", it's a "Dooms Day Reality", treat it as such or your going to lose your data and have to start over. There will not be a warning when it goes dark, it will just go dark and it will be over. I don't work for Alpha Red, im just some guy that had 100 plus servers with them, lived with them through the Cogent piering issues and plenty of other issues, they always came through and James never screwed me. Not saying he did or didn't this time, just saying im willing to help where I can because I know what it's like to be ripped from the web, I just went through it for the last 12hrs.
Posted by Webdude, 10-10-2008, 11:49 AM
John, we have people trying to get a hold of anyone there that can let us in so we can pull out people's equipment and move them. Right now people cant even get their own equipment out, and we have no way to help them.
Posted by supportomatic, 10-10-2008, 11:53 AM
I was told by Geoff @ AR via e-mail early this morning that "The servers will be online for the next 30 days so you can rsync any data you need now." I have no idea how accurate that info is, and I'm certainly not counting anything beyond 24 hrs, but I figured I would share what I was told. Hopefully what he shared is based on some sort of commitment from power & pipe providers... It would be great to have some definitive information moving forward.
Posted by BloggerDude, 10-10-2008, 11:59 AM
Sounds good, but I will make sure to move my stuff ASAP.
Posted by pietjepuk, 10-10-2008, 12:02 PM
@supportomatic: did he mention anything about the facilities? Bandwidth providers are no good without power and rackespace.
Posted by David, 10-10-2008, 12:05 PM
To anyone that remains there or is considering it, I'd highly recommend you grab frequent backups of any dynamic data & full backups of static content. Anything that remains there -- consider it lost, simply because there's really no official statement at this point other than the initial post which from what I can see, things have gone extremely downhill since that point. Backup, backup, backup.
Posted by racked_solutions, 10-10-2008, 12:26 PM
Any body able to acess vps servers over at alpha red? looks like my web office is gone. Wasnt alpha red under the same umberella of pacific rack/orange fiber/ oc3 networks ect?
Posted by supportomatic, 10-10-2008, 12:27 PM
That was all that was said, he didn't elaborate on what the 30-day estimate was based on. Geoff's e-mail addy is spymodem@verizon.net .
Posted by planethitsradio, 10-10-2008, 12:39 PM
Status update, phone is useless, but AR's website is still online and the panel works. Transistion for me is almost complete...took less than 12 hours for TP to deploy 6 machines for me. And I got a confirmation call from my sales rep this morning. Talk about service!
Posted by kgp43, 10-10-2008, 12:43 PM
Okay, got some news to the ones having servers inside the AR buildning (colo). Robert Rice from Optiquest is driving down there now. If he cant get in then we will get a forced entry court order. So if you need your server, then call theire office asap! 281-364-0519 His nickname at WHT is Webdude btw.
Posted by DuBz, 10-10-2008, 12:57 PM
Anyone have any idea how one could go about getting their servers out and shipped back to them who doesn't live anywhere near Texas?
Posted by Scott.Mc, 10-10-2008, 02:24 PM
I'd look at signing with one of the providers who clearly have access (probably a tad shady too) but it's better than nothing and then once you have your equipment you can cancel and move elsewhere.
Posted by Extreme John, 10-10-2008, 02:26 PM
Yes hit me up on Icq and Ill get you an email address or phone number.
Posted by disgust, 10-10-2008, 02:31 PM
can anyone confirm if there's any way for dedicated server customers to purchase the hard drives of the servers they've leased out? as I said earlier, I'm trying to back everything up but it's a colossal amount of data.
Posted by kgp43, 10-10-2008, 02:31 PM
hey John, added you to ICQ.
Posted by DuBz, 10-10-2008, 02:32 PM
Whats your icq number?
Posted by kaplan, 10-10-2008, 03:00 PM
I would like to know this info also, beacause I'm so far on Houston to go to take my servers out, thanx.
Posted by Extreme John, 10-10-2008, 03:05 PM
Icq number 51299342 I will be online for about another hour.
Posted by Extreme John, 10-10-2008, 03:08 PM
Ive heard mixed things on this, mixed things make me uncomfortable. I really can;t comment on that without talking to someone directly. Let me see what I can find out.
Posted by Extreme John, 10-10-2008, 03:11 PM
I just spoke to my contact and inquired about being able to purchase drives here is the response: "I dont think thats going to be possible."
Posted by DuBz, 10-10-2008, 03:28 PM
K I've added
Posted by Extreme John, 10-10-2008, 03:34 PM
Just message me, I use Adium and with the recent upgrades it's been a piece....
Posted by nonparity, 10-10-2008, 04:37 PM
hell the provider that has access may not even be that bad and one could stay with them
Posted by disgust, 10-10-2008, 05:32 PM
is there anyone left I could contact directly? a rather large, rather popular, non-commercial site could go down forever if I can't get my data out via other means, which I am of course trying desperately to do. "you may just have 24 hours, HURRY" helps little when we have well over 1tb of data to transfer. appreciate any help anyone can give Last edited by disgust; 10-10-2008 at 05:39 PM.
Posted by Alfalfa_Head, 10-10-2008, 05:56 PM
I am available to duplicate data, get hardware, or whatever, but I can't do it for free. I don't want to have to say that, but I also don't want to be destitute. Nobody at Alpha Red has been paid for at least two weeks (it has all been on a volunteer basis while the merger was pending), and filing unemployment is not an option for any of us due to previous Alpha Red management decisions, every employee that toughed it out is in pretty dire straights. This is not the fault of CWIE, or Ben. Both did their best to make things happen, and went out of their way to assist us, but for reasons I can't get into, the merge just didn't happen. There is also another small company in the same building that might be able to host some clients, depending on needs. I can put people in touch with them if necessary. Last edited by Alfalfa_Head; 10-10-2008 at 06:00 PM.
Posted by BloggerDude, 10-10-2008, 06:01 PM
I found a new hosting company and am starting to move on. However I think that most guys with dedicated servers on alphared will have a few days until it goes completely down. Not just a few hours. Try to choose a good company and then move on. You have a few days. Although this is a Russian Roulette. Those who are on virtual, could have their site down any second.
Posted by Alfalfa_Head, 10-10-2008, 06:08 PM
I'd like to clarify that Ben P. did his best to help employees during this whole mess. I don't blame him for what happened, most especially knowing what he had to go through to even get us one check after the lawsuit was announced. Without him, we would have all been summarily fired with no paycheck at all, and no possibility of unemployment benefits. I can't get into specifics, but I know he tried his best to get us at least some money, and save the company after the actions of others pretty much destroyed it. We do appreciate it. CWIE was also good to Alpha Red employees during the attempted resolution of the various issues. I'm sorry it didn't work out, because they certainly presented themselves in a professional manner and appeared to have a clear vision for the future of the company. It would have been a pleasure to work for them. Bad things happen (hopefully very rarely) in life I suppose. It's been a rough few weeks, but things will get better. They certainly can't get much worse
Posted by UNIXy, 10-10-2008, 06:42 PM
I live in Houston a few miles away from downtown. I can relate to this to some extent. If you need a benevolent remote hand just email me (email address is on main page and it goes to my BB). Just to be clear, I'm not offering to do anything that will put me or anyone in harm's way. Good luck to all /unsubscribe from thread
Posted by Host Ultra, 10-10-2008, 07:28 PM
Alfalfa_Head (or anyone who works for AR) can you tell me until when do we have to collect colo servers from the datacenter? ie. until when will there be someone at the datacenter to let us in to collect servers? I want to get enough time to copy my data to temporary servers, but i dont want to leave it too late and be locked out without my servers.
Posted by Alfalfa_Head, 10-10-2008, 07:33 PM
There are people at the datacenter from time to time, but there's no official schedules because there are no employees. Everyone was officially fired weeks ago, and has been volunteering. The merge/transition failed, and I don't see any hope of recovery at this point. Hopefully the original investor will make an announcement/decide how the hardware is going to be handled. Until then, my best suggestion would be to speak with someone who was previously employed there to see if you can schedule some time with them. Alternatively, I would hope at some point that the party with the remaining investments/interest in AR will step forward and make an official announcement, decision, or determination as to what is going to happen to equipment. So far that has not happened. I do not know officially how long we/people have to collect equipment. The remaining controlling member of the 'old' AR has not communicated with their ex-employees (as far as I know) in any way. Last edited by Alfalfa_Head; 10-10-2008 at 07:37 PM.
Posted by TarballX, 10-10-2008, 07:34 PM
Orange Fiber was one of the names AlphaRed used to run under, I believe. They have nothing to do with oc3 networks or Pacific Rack.
Posted by _AR_, 10-10-2008, 08:45 PM
If any client of AR needs any help I am available to try and do so. You can email me at skirn1@gmail.com or reach me on GTalk under the same email.
Posted by Adam_OC3, 10-10-2008, 08:50 PM
To clarify. We are in absolutely no way related to alphared/orangefiber. Never have been at any point in time. The only link between the 2 companies is an employee that used to work at alphared works at pacificrack now.
Posted by AcroGeoff, 10-10-2008, 08:54 PM
I will be able to access the Datacenter Monday. We can access DC2, but DC1 on Monday.
Posted by jon-f, 10-10-2008, 08:55 PM
Yeah , I think that its best for people with servers still there to get out. I have a client with 6 servers there, last night his server for mysql mysteriously went down. No response on tickets, no one answering phone. Id say that a lot of people are going to be left hanging. I also would think that if someone takes over alphared then they wont honor a lot of the setups. I know my client got bandwidth like $5/mbit with a few dedicated 100mbit and a dedicated 2gbit. Anyway, I think if the company was going to be transferred or took over there would be someone there to answer the phone and tickets. I also think that some servers are starting to get shut down already UPDATE: Read some of the above posts. Does anyone know this is a fact about the transition faiiling? I think its crappy of alphared not to announce this earlier. We just seen a notice on the control panel 3 days ago. Will take at least a week to move out stuff. Looks like we may be in some trouble. From the looks of everythng alphared knew this was happening for weeks, as they said everyone was fired just volunteering for weeks. Sure would have been nice to know something then
Posted by Webdude, 10-10-2008, 08:55 PM
I just got back from there. What a mess. Dmitry, Robert, and others are doing their best with what they have. They still have some time at the Fannin location. However, we found out the Louisiana Street location has been deadbolted by the landlord and a notice on the doors. Nobody was willing to let us get anything. Of course, the management office was for some reason on light staff today because it's friday, and nobody with any real authority was there. I have been told the full story on everything going down, at least I think I have, and it is a seriously messed up one. What you are reading here isnt the half of it. However, it is not my place to repeat that story out of respect for the guys hanging around trying to keep your servers going. I will be back there Monday. If you "own" equipment at that location, you may want to get a hold of our Operations office on Monday (they only work normal business hours). Louisiana isnt going to let people come and go, we'll even be lucky if WE can get let in. Right now you have the weekend to get together your proof of ownerships. The guys at AR will be right there helping us. I think they have a good plan in place for the Fannin problem, so people who are there I think are safe, I hope. If you have services there but do not "own" the hardware, get moved ASAP. Maybe Dmitry, Robert etc can help you on those, I dont know. Due to legal issues, they cannot touch hardware owned by AlphaRed until if/when certain matters are taken care of. I should also mention that due to a certain situation, AlphaRed cannot be bailed out. So dont be hoping someone will come along and buy them up. The last one that tried that lost about $2 mill I think. And the guys there are exhausted, if they sit down, they chance falling asleep. So be patient with them. They are working long hard hours..... for free. Last edited by Webdude; 10-10-2008 at 08:59 PM.
Posted by Alfalfa_Head, 10-10-2008, 09:33 PM
Nothing was said because everyone believed the CWIE transition was going to succeed (they put time and money into this, and their short and long term plans certainly were logically and financially sound). If people knew issues were going to come up that prevented a successful transition, or if they believed things were not going to be fine (and even better than before) they certainly would have said something earlier. Since everyone believed things were going to be fine, raising alarms at that time would have caused unnecessary losses to the transitioned company. On top of that, who in their right mind would volunteer (aka: get no paycheck) for WEEKS if they believed (even for a second) that the plans for the future would not work, and that everything would be better than before? It would be a complete waste of time on everyone's part. Ultimately, that's what happened unfortunately, but my point is nobody sounded alarms because they believed things were going to be just fine. This is correct. Information surfaced late Thursday that made this clear, unfortunately. Last edited by Alfalfa_Head; 10-10-2008 at 09:43 PM.
Posted by AcroGeoff, 10-11-2008, 01:35 AM
ATTENTION: A negotiation has been formed and the company will continue to keep servers online and operate 24/7 as normal. Staff will be limited and short, but we will be here. Updates will me made as they become available. We are still alive.
Posted by DuBz, 10-11-2008, 02:26 AM
/me crosses fingers!
Posted by nonparity, 10-11-2008, 02:38 AM
i really hope something can come out of the negotiation but my take on the issue is i really doubt it..
Posted by AcroGeoff, 10-11-2008, 02:57 AM
My contact information is posted in previous replies. gtalk - geoffalphared icq - 394889 - geoff@exchange.alphared.com. Thanks!
Posted by plumsauce, 10-11-2008, 03:32 AM
Just a suggestion for those who are casting about looking for refuge in the storm. This seems like a perfect match for the Amazon storage thing. You pay metered for storage and bandwidth. So, just sign up for an account, move your archives over there. When you find a place to go, bring it back. Just a place to park your files until you find a home. The equivalent of an internet public storage warehouse. Non-promo. I don't own Amazon
Posted by kaplan, 10-11-2008, 05:32 AM
Hi, how can I contact with you? I'm interested in that someone can duplicate our data and also give us our servers, please let me know. Thanx
Posted by DLGx, 10-11-2008, 08:23 AM
Feeling lucky that I don't have any co-located server for sure. I just finished securing my sites on temporary semi-dedicated accounts while waiting on the definitive word here...
Posted by Extreme John, 10-11-2008, 10:57 AM
I tell some great stories, but this is one for the friggin ages.
Posted by orsnetwork, 10-11-2008, 11:01 AM
If there is a way to help alphared how can we help them? Maybe all of us need to put some money to buy alphared and keep the servers going how much do you think it will cost to save alphared lets say 1000 customers put $2000.00 to save the company will that help? Any Ideas how hot help save Alphared Or maybe we can Write to microsoft telling them that they are hurting our business they are actually crushing us because we host our servers with alphared lets tell them that we are loosing money Microsoft should know this maybe they will understand that we are not part of any spyware that they are going after, Lets get together the customer from alphared and write to bill gates (Microsoft) or send a letter to a congress asking for help because for me this is a big problem after all we are the small business that move America thats what they say all the time so now its time to help us lets do something about this problem since its not just alphared problem but actually its our problem to since its affecting all of us and we need to let some big guys know that we the small people are in need of help to I know there are a lot of customers that feel the same way I do having lots of servers with alphared and now seen them go offline with no faith that they will come back anytime soon its terrible Lets do something to help alphared or at least make our voice heard because it seems that nobody care about us the small business that moves America Rafael
Posted by pietjepuk, 10-11-2008, 11:08 AM
I'm sorry, but you are very naive. Why would anyone want to pay up for the debts and mess that James accumulated? I for one, wouldn't.
Posted by David, 10-11-2008, 11:09 AM
Microsoft didn't hurt your business, Alphared & the management did by getting themselves into this mess. They obviously walked leaving you to fend for yourself.
Posted by supportomatic, 10-11-2008, 11:14 AM
If someone were to purchase AR, the last thing you would want is to purchase the alphared entity as it stands as all debts and other legal liabilities come along with it. Best to buy the assets and establish a new corporate entity. Sounds simple enough, but there's obviously something else going on that makes even an asset purchase unattractive...
Posted by BloggerDude, 10-11-2008, 11:20 AM
So AlphaRed will stay online until when?
Posted by orsnetwork, 10-11-2008, 11:25 AM
Yes I understand that but we are stuck in the middle of a fight if Microsoft knows this they may understand and be soft on alphared we are paying the price already for been customers of alphared someone has to step up and say look you are not just killing alphared but a lot of small business inside alphared are in need of help. Now there are a lot of other Datacenters that are saying come in will help you, sure you are going to help us but charging us double for servers some have no choice but to move there, if you ask for lower prices they will say no because they know you are in a hurry to move to a new datacenter goof for them bad for us.
Posted by netyco, 10-11-2008, 11:28 AM
Hello, I would like very much please if someone can tell me with presición if I should remove my data in HR or if the new company we will continue to offer the hosting service thanks.
Posted by David, 10-11-2008, 11:28 AM
Sure, but perhaps the underlying reasoning behind all of this (and the fallout on the attempt of purchase) was as a result of the original pricing structure. Who knows, people don't just walk away from their companies because of a lawsuit.
Posted by habibjr, 10-11-2008, 11:29 AM
That's a very desperate idea. You need to keep on calling different webhosting providers. some of them can get your collo equipment out of AR's DC. Try calling up www.pacificrack.com
Posted by pietjepuk, 10-11-2008, 11:39 AM
I am pretty sure that lawsuit would have been the bankruptcy of James. I heard that PacificRack is matching the AlphaRed rates, but if you want to move FAST, I'd rather look into some nearby companies (unless you only want to transfer your data).
Posted by orsnetwork, 10-11-2008, 11:52 AM
At least some hope.
Posted by orsnetwork, 10-11-2008, 11:55 AM
Geoff-Alphared Is there anything that we can do with the servers that are offline? Can we bring them back online?
Posted by Webdude, 10-11-2008, 12:27 PM
I dont know where you are getting your information, but you can ask ANYONE who is dealing with us. We are "matching" what they have at AlphaRed AND we are in there on site yesterday and this coming monday trying to get their equipment. It's costing us money to help them, and may cost us much more if we have to get a court order to gain access. Come monday, we will let the building management make the decision. It will be up to them to do the math and determine if it is a financially sound decision to let us to walk out the door without an acceptable resolution. They have a right to hold AlphaRed's property, not the property of others that had no agreement with the management. The final outcome of our next move if we walk out empty handed will be quite predictable. Despite what they may think they know, the legal reality is that possession is NOT 9/10's of the law. Dmitry talked to their attorney over the phone in front me. I'm sure the attorney will end up making this point quite clear to the building management. Of course, I am sure everyone involved from the customers, to us, to the management, hope all goes smoothly. They are, afterall, after AlphaRed, not AlphaRed customers. For now, they have agreed to keep electic and A/C on and monitor it. Last edited by Webdude; 10-11-2008 at 12:30 PM.
Posted by DuBz, 10-11-2008, 01:42 PM
Scary thing is that if the colo client had any type of term contract there then most likely they do have the legal right to deny equipment being removed from the facility
Posted by DuBz, 10-11-2008, 01:49 PM
I'll be more interested to see what comes out of this anyway!
Posted by jshanley, 10-11-2008, 02:26 PM
Contact information is in the profile.
Posted by Alfalfa_Head, 10-11-2008, 04:07 PM
Sorry, I just realized some people cannot send/receive PMs due to being too new on the forums. You can email or call. jshanley@gmail.com (or) 877-776-7248 Thanks.
Posted by Host Ultra, 10-11-2008, 04:21 PM
What is required for proof of ownership?
Posted by Webdude, 10-11-2008, 04:28 PM
They didnt specify. However, I would generally put this down as reciept of purchase. For example, if bought from ebay and you still have the emails, etc. If bought from AR... that might be tough since those are also locked away in the Louisiana Street location. Basically, anything you have that might help...
Posted by Host Ultra, 10-11-2008, 04:37 PM
I dont have any emails anymore, i guess i could try ask rackmountsetc where i bought my servers if they could resend them. AR does not have any records of who owns the servers? Would a bank statement showing the AR charges be enough? I didnt buy any servers from AR but i always shipped them to louisiana street, so i guess thats where my servers are, are you able to tell which dc im in by the ip address? When i submit tickets they used to be forwarded to DC1 but the recent ones are all DC2 so i dont know.
Posted by Extreme John, 10-11-2008, 04:42 PM
I have been reading all of these people talking about "The pricing structure causing this", etc and I have to be honest when saying if anyone here thinks that AR wasn't making money your very mistaken. Here are two simple things to consider: 1) My hosting bill with AR at one time was $30,000 a month, even when our highest rate of sustained traffic began to drop off our hosting bill remained almost $30,000 a month. I would venture to say after the first year our hosting bill realistically could have been probably $12,000 and AR would have still made money. 2) Wal Mart's pricing structure is to be lower than everyone else as well, there was a time when every Mom and Pop place and everyone else thought Wal Mart would never last or be able to sustain seasonal or volital market times. At this point it's safe to say Mom and Pop along with all of the other doubters were very wrong. A lot of things can be said about James, Dan and Alpha Red I can assure you none of those things have to do with poor profits. People can say what they say but James built a Multi Million $ network and did it selling mass qauntaties of Bandwidth at the very least, all while keeping the assets and cost of doing business low.
Posted by jon-f, 10-11-2008, 04:55 PM
UPDATE on our side. There is someone at the network. We had a file transfer script running on a server we have with a dedicated/unmetered 100 mbit connection. We was not even using over the full 100 mbit. Someone from alphared or whoever there came in the server from the console and tried to kill the processes. They was in screens so they either couldnt find them or successfully kill it. So the ended up deleting all php files on the site! I guess they did this because of the outgoing bandwidth. But the client paid over $5k just at the first of the month for their bandwidth and servers. Anyway so we are trying to move a few tb of video files to limelight and I have to be on guard from someome coming in through the console and messing with stuff trying to stop it. Shame on whoever done that! Anyway I think they new something for a while now. The client Im managing was paying only around $5 per mbit. We have yet to find it that cheap anywhere else. And for a while there we was using every bit of it. Last edited by jon-f; 10-11-2008 at 04:59 PM. Reason: changed some mistypings and spelling
Posted by Host Ultra, 10-11-2008, 04:58 PM
change your root password, i always changed it after i gave it to them for any reason, and never put them in uberbox.
Posted by AcroGeoff, 10-11-2008, 08:00 PM
Attention to all clients: We are continuing to operate as normal and we will have staff available 24/7 as always.
Posted by DuBz, 10-11-2008, 08:16 PM
Great, is there any updates you can provide yet? Also could you PM me your ICQ? The one you posted doesn't seem to work.
Posted by KingPhilip, 10-11-2008, 10:11 PM
For sure ask RME to see if they still have a copy of an invoice or anything. Every experience I've had with them has been awesome, and I know you're not the only one having to do this. I talked with building management yesterday asking exactly what kind of proof would be needed as we may not be able to find an official receipt for our servers. In short, anything you can find to help prove that they are your servers will help. If you have a copy of a contract, any statements that have "server" on it, any saved conversations with AR, anything. As for AR having records - yes, but supposedly right now nobody is allowed to have access to them. We have to wait until Monday when the guy's "supervisor" comes in to get any official word. Whatever, this whole situation is so crazy, and has turned into a mass panic. And I have to say, a HUGE thank you to the AR guys that have been helping!
Posted by BloggerDude, 10-11-2008, 10:19 PM
Ok, but my server went down 10 minutes ago. I just submitted a ticket, can you guys check it out? Thank you.
Posted by BloggerDude, 10-11-2008, 10:25 PM
Ok, they just fixed it. I was afraid because it's saturday night.. But it looks like they still have people working on site. Thanks.
Posted by WebDork, 10-11-2008, 11:38 PM
Hmm - so is Alphared up or down ? I too had excellent service for a number of years, but cannot currently SSH into my box to reboot it etc. Tickets dont seem to be getting answered still ?
Posted by Host Ultra, 10-12-2008, 12:22 AM
Im confused here. What is "as normal" i thought the building was locked and nobody could get in. What about power/bandwidth is it going to be cut off any minute or is it paid?
Posted by KingPhilip, 10-12-2008, 12:30 AM
Bandwidth has been paid until the end of the month (see earlier in the thread), and as of Friday Building Management made an agreement to keep Power/AC up and running through Monday.
Posted by Host Ultra, 10-12-2008, 12:40 AM
Mon 13th? so after that there will be no power?
Posted by Ilya74, 10-12-2008, 01:24 AM
Support is now available. I gave a response in the ticket. At what I understand, now staff are in DC1. Last edited by Ilya74; 10-12-2008 at 01:28 AM.
Posted by KingPhilip, 10-12-2008, 01:38 AM
All I know is we are guaranteed until then, if anybody else has more information about this, that would be good to know. My guess would be it's going to stay on longer but like I said, I'm not for sure on that. - Also, according some AR staff they are back up and operational so my guess would be that we'll have more time. Can an AR staff member confirm this?
Posted by Host Ultra, 10-12-2008, 01:44 AM
which is address is DC1 and DC2?
Posted by Webdude, 10-12-2008, 03:00 AM
Fax all documentation to 281-364-0562 Include on that documentation all your contact info. If I can get access Monday, we will remove anything we have documentation for. We will request billing information from AR for any that choose to move to us. We will set you up ASAP in our facility and are matching the AR offers you are setup under. I am discussing options with our management to possibly be able to work with other centers/hosts that need their new customer's servers removed from AR. Here is what I am proposing... That on your behalf, we retrieve the equipment of people moving to you. We will package and ship from our location to yours. We will be held harmless for any and all damages as we will not be inspecting either hardware or software. Remove/Transport/Package/Ship is all we will promise. We will not be held responsible for equipment anyone forgets to list (switches, routers, kvm, etc). If it's not on a list, we're not touching it. You will pay us reasonable labor rates, packaging, and shipping costs. In otherwords, you cover our costs to help you. Obviously we will take the best care possible of all equipment. However, we dont know what things are like in there yet, so is hard to plan out. We dont know the current condition of the equipment, etc, etc. An example is there could be 10 servers not listed, which are stacked on top of a server that is on the list, and no rails/screws. That will pose a problem trying to safely remove the server we need to get. We wont have time to log into servers to shut them down properly, pulling the poswer could of course cause problems when you go boot it up. We cant be held responsible for these things. I will post here if I get approval for it. This opens the door for customers to choose what datacenters they want to move to, and opens the door for these centers to get involved as well. For those wanting deddy's with us, you can certainly go ahead and order via our site, but we will be too busy for a bit with the other stuff to really help move your content over. So if other centers are offereng to do that for you, I suggest you use them instead. Last edited by Webdude; 10-12-2008 at 03:05 AM.
Posted by Adam_OC3, 10-12-2008, 05:19 AM
What contact email or info do we use to schedule a move out with you, Robert? As of the moment, we have a client with 10 servers and a switch he needs out asap. Last edited by Mike V; 10-12-2008 at 01:01 PM.
Posted by TheStig, 10-12-2008, 05:34 AM
I have had a server with you for the past 2 years or more and don't realy want to move due to very good support but if any one can let me know a good dedicated hosting for the following Managed T1 support 10 meg burstable to 100 4 gig of ram 1x Quod core 2 x 1500 rpm HDD raid 1 let me know the size you have CentOS and Cpanel WMH with 8 ip's please
Posted by Webdude, 10-12-2008, 09:10 AM
Use operationsocscorp.com and cc me at rriceocscorp.com Thus far most people in the front office only vaguely knows about everything going on. So ignore any strange replies you may recieve before I get to update them. I seriously doubt my plan will be refused, so you will want to go ahead and send all proof of ownership information as well as an offical letterhead stating we will be held harmless for etc, etc. Your customer will probably want his servers overnighted, but make sure he understands the high cost of that, and so on.
Posted by Webdude, 10-12-2008, 11:59 AM
http://www.wedgegroup.com/contact.html That is the contact for the Louisiana Street location... Wedge Tower.
Posted by Host Ultra, 10-12-2008, 12:34 PM
Could someone at alphared please confirm something for me. 3 years ago when i joined AR i was told to ship my servers to the lousiana st location, and i done that ever since. But when i login to uberbox and "view device" it says "Facility: 1301 Fannin, Houston" So which DC is my servers in? Is it normal for me to have shipped servers to louisiana st and AR send them to fannin st?
Posted by vb28, 10-12-2008, 12:37 PM
who knows zshare.net? because they are hosted with alphared and it looks like their server is down... also mine too
Posted by DLGx, 10-12-2008, 03:37 PM
This is just getting more and more confusing....up, down...up again? cPanel/WHM licenses obviously haven't been paid since they're all deactivated for a while now.
Posted by Webdude, 10-12-2008, 04:08 PM
I'm glad you brought that up. I totally missed that. Anyone moving to us will need to let me know that they use cPanel so I can activate their new ip's.
Posted by purplezebra, 10-12-2008, 04:27 PM
[4:24:56p] <@geoff> BE ADVISED: we are here 24/7 as always. Tomorrow Monday we will be able to access DC1 [4:28:46p] Are you confident that it will be business as usual? [4:28:58p] or back to normal? [4:35:02p] <@geoff> yes. [4:35:06p] <@geoff> i am extremely confident. [4:35:11p] <@geoff> and i wouldn't be here if i thought otherwise. [4:35:12p] <@geoff> This is great news I think! Last edited by purplezebra; 10-12-2008 at 04:41 PM.
Posted by AcroGeoff, 10-12-2008, 04:40 PM
Zshare.net had some issues today which have been resolved by our awesome staff. Zshare is now up and running full swing.
Posted by Host Ultra, 10-12-2008, 05:01 PM
Try submit a support ticket, i got a response in an hour earlier today so there seems to be someone there at least. My cpanel licenses work fine so its not everyone. http://verify.cpanel.net/index.cgi?i...16.199&x=0&y=0 If yours doesnt work explain the problem to cpanel and ask for a 15 day trial license so you have time to move, they have done this for me in the past.
Posted by AcroGeoff, 10-12-2008, 05:11 PM
Yes, we are working tickets. If you submit a ticket, it will be handled. But keep in mind DC1 access will be available tomorrow.
Posted by Dougy, 10-12-2008, 05:16 PM
Can you please summarize what's available now and what's not? I'm trying to follow what's going on, but something is and then isn't. You have access to DC2 now and will have DC1 tomorrow? I'm so confused.
Posted by AcroGeoff, 10-12-2008, 05:19 PM
Yes, if your server is in DC2 Fannin we can do what you require. Tomorrow DC1 will be unlocked and techs will have access to do what's needed. Tomorrow will be FULLY 100% operational in both datacenters.
Posted by DLGx, 10-12-2008, 05:21 PM
Will a full story of this mess be disclosed?
Posted by AcroGeoff, 10-12-2008, 05:40 PM
I'm unaware. I'm sure as soon as a statement is available it will be made publicly.
Posted by jon-f, 10-12-2008, 09:14 PM
have we still got a date when all will be shut down? that is what i need and Im sure eveyrone else does too. Even a rough estimate will help I guess as long as its up until wednesday my client will be ok as we are moving all
Posted by Eleven2 Hosting, 10-12-2008, 09:19 PM
If anyone needs any help in Houston, let me know. I am not selling anything to anyone or want anyones money, but I would go down and get your servers and send them out to you free at charge. Again, we have no rack space in houston or servers available right now, so I am not trying to sell you anything, just offering some honest help as I hear some people are getting the shaft from some of these 'helpers'.
Posted by DuBz, 10-12-2008, 10:00 PM
Its my understanding that they arnt? From the sounds of it they are staying up and running. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Posted by AcroGeoff, 10-12-2008, 10:21 PM
Yes we are up and running. Only people who will be moving anything out are former Alphared staff such as myself.
Posted by DuBz, 10-12-2008, 10:42 PM
Can you confirm that its staying open, or is it only still open on a temp basis?
Posted by DLGx, 10-12-2008, 10:42 PM
What does that mean exactly? I can read a few different things out of that.
Posted by netyco, 10-12-2008, 11:09 PM
the truth, I do not understand anything that happens, tomorrow there official announcement about the future of alphared? or it is definitive closure of this company?
Posted by BloggerDude, 10-12-2008, 11:31 PM
Geoff, are the servers going to stay up and running until tomorrow, monday? Or are you going to stay up longer? Thanks for your feedback.
Posted by planethitsradio, 10-13-2008, 07:08 AM
Who knows what's going to happen. I got the following on Saturday evening. Makes me think they are going to be around now, but there is no way I trust them to keep dedicated servers there. Buh bye Alpha Red... won't be going back. Geoff, make sure if you are still staying around, cancel everything and don't you dare send me an invoice. I ain't paying it.
Posted by Extreme John, 10-13-2008, 08:15 AM
If you mentioned you already moved your stuff days ago, honestly why keep going with the comments about billing and whatever else? You moved your stuff? Great move forward, let Geoff take the time to go out of his way to help people he can help with the limited tools he has. I doubt VERY highly that Geoff is sitting and just waiting to invoice you for all anything. Geoff is one of the few remaining that are trying to do some good, these guys haven't been paid and have had to overcome some real adversities just like many of us have. I will never understand how people can't come to grips with facts sometimes, here it is plain and simple. James and Dan are gone, along with that so will be Alpha Red and the name as we know it. The people that stuck around to help people and worked around the clock driving to DC1 and back to DC2, etc are hardly your enemies. Everyone crying about tickets not being answered going into the weekend and whatever else, it's like, "Hello, wake up! What don't you understand there are major issues and major issues and resolutions in business don't happen overnight. If you have not put together some kind of back up plan or started downloading backups by now there is no one else to blame but yourself. You cant be in the online business and not be prepared with backups and whatever else. Im sorry not trying to be a pain but I honestly can't stand the repetitive questions, comments about "tickets not being answered" and "Dont bill me", "I don't trust them". The people there now are people trying to pull off a miracle for those of you still left there , they are not there to listen to people run their mouth about a situation that NO ONE KNEW WAS COMING. Everyone is pissed, everyone wishes things were different, everyone has gone through some crap in the last few days... Deal with it, it stinks but it's part of doing business, especially online.
Posted by Webdude, 10-13-2008, 08:24 AM
I agree with John here. The guys that hung around are doing everything they can. They have some plans in place that I was priviledge enough to be let in on. I really hope those plans work. The plans hinge on a few things, but they feel everything should go as expected.
Posted by Extreme John, 10-13-2008, 08:49 AM
Thank you Webdude, I appreciate that. I have just always been one to say your never going to move forward if your letting the anger of the past hold you back. Gotta move on, stinks to say but it's true. Not to mention I went through something JUUUUST like this with Hostcentric back in the day and let's just say the staff wasn't as helpful with that issue as they have been here, and those people were being paid, this staff isn't.
Posted by planethitsradio, 10-13-2008, 09:10 AM
John and Robert, I have already moved on. I shall say that Geoff and the gang are helping other people with their servers endlessly, and that's appreciated. For something mission critical as my servers, I can't affoard to have downtime. It costs time and money, just like everyone else's businesses. I took the path I chose to take, and moving on with that. I am just posting this because of previous problems I havd had with AR. I can understand tickets are not being responded, they have more important things to do at this time. I wish them all well and hopefully this new company will be alot better than Alpha Red, but at this time, I wish not to be involved in the new company, and that's my right, just like every other customer that has a decision to make. I won't be posting anymore to this thread, seems everytime I post something I always get negative comments. I am only stating my facts, you may have different experiences, but these are mine.
Posted by Webdude, 10-13-2008, 09:20 AM
Planet, I wasnt being negative. I'm not with AR and some clients are moving to us. I just have a hard time looking at those guys negatively because of them sticking to it even with being screwed over by AR owner. I was there friday and saw everything going on and will be there this morning.
Posted by DLGx, 10-13-2008, 09:26 AM
It would really be good to know how the invoices will work though, if the company is trying to reform will invoices be sent out in the meantime? Or postponed/delayed? I for one would hate to pay an invoice until everything is sorted out. I've already secured all my "bill-paying" websites on temporary hosting so paying for that now, but I really liked the latest AR server I had, best working box in my 10 years of renting dedicated servers.
Posted by planethitsradio, 10-13-2008, 09:33 AM
Exactly, I have had billing problems before. I hope they don't invoice anyone until this is straightened out... but they have bills to pay like everyone else, and need money to do it. If they don't bill, then they wont be able to pay their expenses. If they do bill, they might see more people jump ship to another provider. Only time will tell in this case.
Posted by Garfieldcat5, 10-13-2008, 11:02 AM
I thought this was your last time posting? Seriously dude, we don't care what you're doing with your business. On another note, does anyone know what will happen with the clients that are at Colo4Dallas? They will have to put out a statement about staying in business for at least 6 months before people will pay those invoices, I doubt if people will trust rumors on a forum.
Posted by planethitsradio, 10-13-2008, 11:28 AM
Was my last post about my business? No. I was just providing some advice. If you don't like it, please skip it. Thank you.
Posted by Extreme John, 10-13-2008, 12:46 PM
I wasn't asking you not to post anymore and I was actually trying to be the exact opposite of negative, I was simply stating it might be a good idea to move on. In regards to Alpha Red, at this point it's safe to say "Everyone gets it" we know crappy billing practices.... for some of you.. Not all of us support stunk for the last 6 months.. again above applies this list can go on and on for the 20,000 views it has and Im sure plenty of people can throw something in. For me I dont have the energy for it, instead Ill move the stuff I want to move and I will leave what I want to leave and see where the chips fall. Business is about risk and not everyday can you make money, some days we lose money... thats life, it stinks and WE KNOW. So please don't stop posting and don't take it as being negative take it as, "We get it", next step please. Thats all, I wish you luck with your business and I hope everything goes great at your new host and I am very happy everything turned out Ok for you, and I mean that.
Posted by Extreme John, 10-13-2008, 01:01 PM
I am looking at it like this for the current moment, could be the wrong way but it's just my way and it helps me to not even sweat it and move on. 1) Im not paying any Alpha Red invoices. Period. 2) When billed from the new company, I will assess my service and ensure proper billing and pay my bill. As for that bad *** server get the specs or talk with a new trusted host and I am sure they can build you something just as good if not better. James built some monster servers for me over the past 9 years but it doesn't mean someone else couldn't have done the same
Posted by Webdude, 10-13-2008, 03:06 PM
UPDATE I just spoke with legal council for Wedge Management. If I am provided with absolute proof of purchase to show them along with a letter of release from you, I can have one of the guys at Fannin escort me in to retrieve the equipment. This is ONLY for OWNED equipment, not leased. I would also recommend that you dont take the absolute view of "I am leaving no matter what" because the guys there are doing everything they can and seem to me to have a good plan in place. I am just doing this update here because you are all monitoring this thread, and too many people are contacting me via email for me to keep a proper track. Again, I have to be able to show a valid proof of purchase, not simply a printout of your account info from your AR login or your monthly statement.
Posted by Extreme John, 10-13-2008, 04:07 PM
Thats great news, nice follow up. I also think your 100% right about the guys their and their current plan.
Posted by supportomatic, 10-13-2008, 04:21 PM
Will we be advised at some point regarding the 'plan'?
Posted by Webdude, 10-13-2008, 04:43 PM
The reason the plan isnt being released is due to tweaking. There are a number of points that can change as they work it out. If they were to post their plan as it now, then it was to change, they would catch a lot of flack over it. The general view of the Wedge management seem to be they believe it will all have a positive outcome. They arent looking to cause any problems for the customers, and this type of situation is new to them. They are owed quite a bit of money, but they understand that shutting down the revenue stream won't get them paid. So if current customers continue to pay their bills, it will keep the situation stable. Keep in mind that James took off with all the company's money. The company needs you to pay your bills on time more than ever because of that.
Posted by Garfieldcat5, 10-13-2008, 04:50 PM
We will gladly pay the bills if they can guarantee us the company will exist in 2-3 months.
Posted by DuBz, 10-13-2008, 05:01 PM
Exactly, I have no problem paying the bills either as long as I know the day after I pay its not gonna shut down.
Posted by Webdude, 10-13-2008, 05:45 PM
I think your safe. I happen to know of a backup plan in place in case all else fails.
Posted by nonparity, 10-13-2008, 07:13 PM
I wouldnt say anything is safe until a formal announcement is made and even at that point until we see some changes they are still locked out so that is a big issue that needs to get resolved.
Posted by bvc100x, 10-13-2008, 07:55 PM
so, what is the future of alphared?
Posted by planethitsradio, 10-13-2008, 08:19 PM
They have not gained access to DC1 yet? I thought they were supposed to gain access today. Does anyone have any more information?
Posted by Webdude, 10-13-2008, 08:56 PM
Wedge legal said they would have access shortly. That was this morning, so they may have access by now. Wedge does not want the revenue stream going offline by not allowing access for maintainence.
Posted by B1HADMIN, 10-13-2008, 08:56 PM
God , you have to be the dumbest f**k alive
Posted by Webdude, 10-13-2008, 08:58 PM
Who you talking about??
Posted by Host Ultra, 10-13-2008, 09:16 PM
Webdude, a few days ago in this thread you were saying alphared could not be rescued, now you are saying we are safe. so which is it and what happened?
Posted by B1HADMIN, 10-13-2008, 09:24 PM
I was speaking about Super Grego, but if you want to include yourself go ahead, James is a crook, always has been a crook and to bury your head in the sand will not stop the inevitable, Alpha Red is gone
Posted by Webdude, 10-13-2008, 09:34 PM
That's right, the entity known as "AlphaRed" cannot be saved. Look at it this way. If you and a bunch of other employees worked for a fair sized place that has a lot of customers and a good profit level, the owner gets in deep legal mess, and high tails it leaving both the company and the employees high and dry. What would you and the left over employees do? What do you think the next obvious step would be? Keep in mind, I am not at liberty to disclose anything they are doing or planning to do, so cannot give any direct answers on the subject, only help you figure it out on your own so that you know everything will be okay.
Posted by nonparity, 10-13-2008, 10:25 PM
that is a good sign..if they have received access again
Posted by nonparity, 10-13-2008, 10:31 PM
what about legality..the employees need a legal right to assume customers of their parent company...i am sure an NDA is in place with them as well. However on the other side since James just took the money and ran I am sure he is not going to try to legally fight the employees..after all he hasnt paid them in some time now.
Posted by DLGx, 10-14-2008, 03:02 AM
Another problem with paying any invoices is who gets that money right now? Maybe it doesn't go to the right place.
Posted by nonparity, 10-14-2008, 04:17 AM
yeah until something is officially released I think it wouldbe foolish to pay
Posted by Webdude, 10-14-2008, 07:13 AM
I doubt they would have the merchant account depositing to the same old bank account to which James would still have access. You may want to contact them and find out if thats all settled up.