BurstNET Reviews

Hello Everyone,
I decided to write a review of BurstNET Technologies, with the hopes that it will help others in deciding whether BurstNET is right for them.

Background
First of all, we signed up with BurstNET back in September of 2005. This places us about 4 months shy of being with them a full 2 years. When we came aboard, we were migrating from dedicated servers with Server4Sale (one of Burst's larger resellers), whom we had been with for approximately 2 months.

Our decision to move was based purely on a decision to begin colocating our own equipment. The decision to choose BurstNET initially, as well as stay with them when colocating, was based upon a reliable 2 months on their network, as well as their location, which happens to be only a few hours from us.

Support
During the course of my two years with BurstNET, the support I have received from their staff has not been perfect, but has been far from terrible. I would rate it as good, and that is saying something because my standards may be considered high. I expect a provider to provide support in an intelligent, friendly, and timely fashion -- and Burst lived up to this almost every time I needed them to.

On the occasions they did not meet all the requirements, it was usually only an issue with the speed of their response. We never once dealt with a technician who was unwillingly to help, rude, or impolite. Also, each of their technicians seem very knowledgeable, which is definitely a plus. I rate their support a 9/10.

Network
The network is relatively fast.. when it works. If you have ever read other reviews about Burst, you will probably have read that they used to have reccurring instances of prolonged downtime, usually due to a router failure. This is still occuring, despite promises of redundency. You may have read that they have supposedly been expanding their network and decreasing the likelihood of these outages from happening. I have not seen an improvement.

Over the past few months especially, the outages became unbearable. I cannot say for sure if they increased in frequency or duration, or whether I simply got fed up with having my server down for 2, 3, or 4 hours at a time every other month. However, I can say that I was dissatisfied with their network, but with an understanding. I came to accept several things with regards to the BurstNET network and their business practices.

First, I realized that their SLA prevents you from ever recovering any funds due to an outage. It shields them from any instance you will ever think of because outages are never, ever, ever, their fault. Second, (again) they promise that measures are in place to provide redundency for the network. However, the network continues to be unreliable.

Third, I realized that despite the fact that these outages continue to occur and customers continue to become increasingly more upset, BurstNET does not care. Please understand that this statement was well thoughtout, and I would not have said it if I didn't truely feel that I was not appreciate as a customer. Finally, I respect BurstNET for providing a network for those who are on a strict budget, and do not mind downtime. I will be the first to tell you that there is probably a large market of individuals who would rather pay less money and accept a certain percentage of downtime for their servers, however, I am not one of those individuals. Therefore, I rate the BurstNET network a 6/10.

Price
Prices are fantastic. BurstNET is by far the best I have found to date if you are looking for a BUDGET provider and don't mind downtime. I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt Shawn A (BurstCEO) is very eager to bring you on board if you are a serious potential customer and are looking for a custom plan. He is very helpful, extremely friendly, and overall a really great person, just like the rest of his staff. They provide affordable pricing for all their products, ranging from dedicated servers, virtual private servers, colocation, etc.

I feel that BurstNET's pricing can best be reflected by the old cliche "You get what you pay for". You aren't paying pennies on the dollar in terms of what you'd pay somewhere else, and you don't receive crappy service. You are paying sub-par prices, so expect a sub-par network and you'll never be disappointed. In terms of pricing, I rate BurstNET an 8/10.

Datacenter and Security
I visited the datacenter today -- to pickup my server and make a run for it. I had spoken to one of the technicians in a support ticket for the past few days, so he knew that I was coming. When I arrived, I said "Hi, I'm Richard from Tadunka, and I'm here to pickup my server." I was asked to sign my name, company, and the time, on a clipboard that was never checked. Another technician then went to the back, grabbed my server, and handed it to me without checking my ID. This disappointed me. In their defense, I will tell myself that they must have felt it would be extremely unlikely for an imposter Richard Sayer to show up at the exact time the real one (as mentioned in the ticket system) was supposed to show up, therefore no ID was required.

However.. had my username and password to their ticketing system been hacked, the attacker could have easily said "I'm Richard, I'll be there tomorrow to get it" and walked out with my server today without a problem. So.. take that for what it is. I'll also mention that the building their datacenter is in looks pretty runned down from the outside. When I arrived in Scranton and started looking for it, I was in total disbelief when I saw "BurstNET Technologies" on a metal plaque across the door of this ugly building in the middle of downtown.

I suppose by the pictures on their site (of the inside) I was expecting some high-rise building that looked like it was straight out of New York city. I wanted to open the door and feel the rush of refreshing cold-air slap me in the face as I walked up to a receptionist counter and asked what floor my server was on. With this expectation in mind, you can only imagine my disappointment when I opened the door and noticed only a small room plastered with "This facility is under surveillance." in every corner. While I waited to get my server (which again, thank god I was indeed me and not an imposter!), I observed rows and rows of racks filled with servers of all shapes, colors, and sizes.

It was beautiful, and they had them pretty well kept. I'll give them a point for this, it looked a lot better inside than it did outside. One thing that stood out was that there was exceptionally good air circulation, so there's atleast 4 points right there. My rating, 5/10.

Recommendation
To sum this up, I really recommend that you try BurstNET if you are looking for a budget provider and don't mind occasional downtime. Create a pre-made "We're sorry for the outage" mailing, and be prepared to send it to your customers every other month or so, and be sure to cover your bases in your SLA just as well as BurstNET did, so you never have to pay a dime.

I know that my review sounds like a back-handed compliment to them, but I am trying to be fair, and honest about my experience. Obviously we stayed with them through all of this for almost 2 years, so it was tolerable to some extent. Again I will remind you that if you are going to try them out, expect the worst, and if you receive better, you can feel happy about it rather than being disappointed all the time that your server goes up and down all the time.

Also, perhaps the thing to do is ask them to put a big sticker on the front of your server that says "ASK ME FOR ID". This little reminder may help save your server from a kidnapping someday, who knows?

Finally, if you try them out and you aren't happy with the service, don't be fooled by promises that it will get better. It won't. Reviews of BurstNET have not changed much over the past several years and many say the same thing about them promising the network reliability will get better, but that never seems to happen. I feel that BurstNET is a great provider for a certain group of people (extremely budget-minded), horrible for those who want absolute network reliability at BurstNET prices, and OK for those who are in-between.

I also feel that BurstNET is similar to a public-school system that lacks a budget, in that, they are doing the best they can with what they are given. Perhaps if they demended higher prices, they could provider a better quality network. I wish they had, because short of their network (and the security incident today), I have nothing extremely negative to say about them. I had often considered that if they'd provided a "premium network" alongside their current network, I would gladly switch over in order to stay with the great group of friendly people that work there.