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Warning about TheHostingSquad.com and Randy
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Comments
It's too simple to buy a cPanel VPS and start selling hosting. They then expect the VPS hosting provider to deal with any troubleshooting because it's "part of the VPS". When crap happens, they run around like a mad chicken trying to get it fixed, only for the problem to escalate further to the point nothing can be saved anymore.
On the other hand, what percentage of the VPS providers are actually capable of troubleshooting in depth OpenVZ/Xen/KVM problem when something breaks? How many VPS providers can honestly say that if there's a need to patch/custom compile Xen kernel, hack VZ's sources? Your guess is as good as mine
I've been in the Singapore hosting industry since cPanel was a relatively new thing, and my servers were FreeBSD based, everything was compiled through ports (where code hacking can happen before make), no cPanel/HSPcomplete/HELM. Due to a combination of cheap dedicated servers + cPanel in the 2000s, hosting companies were popping out by the dozens. I shook my head and sit back with popcorn to watch the kiddy host show , sure enough, one big disaster story when the server prices went up. Property boom caused colocation cost increase, offering unmetered bandwidth basically lead to abuse because they had no way to throttle or control. Add the fact many of them were between 15-20 of age and had school or national service (2 years compulsory for male citizens). Fun.
I dont think it is a good thing. Anyone buying a 3.95 $ windows VPS should expect trouble.
He is really young, we should not bash him, I am sure he is really learning from his mistakes, even before this thread he became more quiet.
imagine yourself in his place:
1. your dc is threatening to kick you
2. It is because an IP of someone you know from LET
3. You want to warn others
4. unrelated you enter the phase when chargebacks and mistakes done when rushing through phases come back to hount you
5. you have to face a big uproar about a few honest mistakes done with good will.
I am really sorry, some of this is deserved and will make him a better man, but I have the feeling we are going too far.
Please give him a break.
M
>
KEY WORK ALERTS! HES A CORPORATE MEMBER!
The only matter that concerns me is sharing a clients personal information on a public forum. Regardless of the situation, a company in general does not have the right to discuss anything that happens between the company and a customer on a public forum.
Wait what, LSN threatened to kick him because of an IP blacklisting? Either way none of what you listed is an excuse for his lack of professionalism, there is no way to defend a cracked Windows OS template as a company, I do not regret backing out of Randy's server management offer now. I'm surprised he used a cracked Windows template.
Come to think of it, this would be an interesting and valid question. I believe Randy is an 18 year old male from Singapore, he'll should having national service obligations anytime from now. Since there's mention that he's currently studying, this means he'll be going into national service once his studies complete. I believe it's mentioned in another thread that he's a one-man show? Of course if he's certified medically unfit (PES F), he can skip national service, but otherwise it'll be 2 years straight in the army/police/civil defence. How would TheHostingSquad be run during the 2 years?
I apologize for being another hosting provider to bring up something against Randy, but I believe this would be a more valid query for Randy and TheHostingSquad, rather than discussion about his previous incident which has more or less reached closure. After all this affects the future of the company as well as their customers.
tl;dr
At the end, is his Windows VPS licensed or not?
I remember there was an ugly black site and owner from Singapore that ran away... he also had broken English. I can't remember the name right now though.
It may be related.
Just googled him, Cripperz was the name.
I doubt it, Cripperz seemed to have a bit more experience.
I believe it was compromised and not cracked?
He posted LSN's email where they threatened to pull the plug due to the spam listing. As far as I'm aware, RUSKO listings not fun to be associated with, regular spam complaints are well, regular.
I asked this t Erawan and he promissed 2 times he will check, but forgot
M
Randy isn't related and Crippers didn't run away. Somehow they are still running their site but scammed all their VPS customers.
@Kenshin i believe @Randy said somewhere that he is "almost 17".
How did the point of "cracked Windows templates" come up? I've never heard of this before.
Dunno derp
i'm 17!
Would be awesome if i'm older then him :P
M
This is almost impossible to verify without talking to Microsoft + SPLA owner. Reason being for Windows 2003 installations, if you managed to get hold of an active SPLA CD KEY, eg. from a dedicated server provider who's SPLA licensed, the quickest check for validity would be Windows Update's page, which will show that the key is indeed licensed (since the current SPLA owner is still an active licensee). You'll need to contact Microsoft to validate the key against the SPLA owner, which again isn't foolproof since the key could have been obtained from another server by the same dedicated server provider, so everything matches up, until you question the SPLA owner.
I dunno, I guessed by that.
They are helpfull though, if I forget about the 1 hours server delivery promise, which took 72 hours.
At the end had chasis swapped, hard drives swapped, than hard drives upgraded for free, after that CPU swap (faulty, intel VT could not eb enabled) and yesterday had a broken RAID controller replaced in 20 minutes. Basically they kept working untill I stopped whining about the IO performance.
Thanks, I thought it is easier, after all MS is all against piracy, making it "hard" to crack and easy to report and all.
This whole windows vps thing is new to me.
M
Looks like a lot of bad luck for you...
M
Was a bit lazy to search his profile since he has REALLY a lot of useless posts to go through, LET's search not exactly very useful either. Thanks for the number, but 17 + school basically puts him in the same boat. In Singapore, secondary educations ends between 16 (4 years express) and 17 (5 years normal), then you either go to Junior College (2 years), ITE (2-3 years) or Polytechnic (3 years). Assuming he gets/is in to one of those options, then he'll be in line for national service in 2-3 years.
I usually use Google, for example: https://google.co.uk/search?q=randy+age+site:lowendtalk.com.
Please don't take the number i've said as a fact, it's just something i've remembered. You shouldn't believe me as long as i don't provide a source (which i'm too lazy too search for :P). Anyway it's somewhere between 16 and 18 so he'll probably have to join national service sooner or later.
Edit: i stand corrected, he actually said he's almost 18 [Source] (Thanks to @Infinity for the link)
High 5 on the lazy to search part
So he's still due in a year or two. Though exemption from national service is possible, though insanely rare.
He's a questionable host. The negative warning in the OP post is called for, I think. Let people make their own decisions.
Beyond that this thread is just-- to mix metaphors-- kicking a dead horse while he's down.
What could he possible say? He's pretty much in a really bad situation right now.
Yes, it does not look like he is having bad intentions, tho his insistence in closing the thread about giang was not looking like a transparent way of admitting errors, but this proves, in my view, that he was deeply sorry and so ashamed he wanted it gone as fast as possible and I can understand that.
I am sorry for him as well as for the ppl dogging him, he will probably fail with his business but we all had if not a lesson, at least some entertainment. He will remain as a case celebre in our minds and we will talk about ppl like him as "another Randy" when everything is settled.
Nobody lost the house here, he is the one that lost most materially but also benefited the most regarding life and business experience.
Maybe one day he will run a big business and lessons learned now will be the basis for his future success.
Please, ppl, at least dont make his problems worse.
M
I'll go on record saying that I do not believe Randy will purposely scam anyone, however if you are giving cash to a "business in learning" there is always the chance they will not be around for the long run.
Yes, But you do not learn while providing professional service. This is where Beta and Free things comes handy.
@Kenshin: AFAIK, the dude is about to go into Institute of Technical Education soon from my conversations with him.