About
Thirty-six years, two countries, one person.
UptimeNorth is one person: me, Stefan Breet, in Webster, Wisconsin. When you call, you get the person who will do the work. There is no queue to sit in and nobody to be escalated to.
I live to create, build, and optimize.
The route here
How I ended up doing this
1990–1997
Pretoria, South Africa
Learning what actually breaks
I started with hardware when hardware was all there was — building machines, chasing faults down to the component, and learning that most failures are boring, physical and findable if you are patient enough to look.
1997–2008
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Sitting on the business side of the desk
Eleven years working with businesses rather than only their computers. That is where I learned what downtime actually costs, and why an invoice nobody understands is a problem of its own.
2008–2026
ARBEZ
Eighteen years running my own shop
Design, build and automation work for clients who needed things built and kept running. Eighteen years of being the person responsible when it breaks at an inconvenient hour.
2026–
Webster, Wisconsin
UptimeNorth
A remote-first practice for the people around me: households, cabins and lake rentals in Webster, Siren, Danbury and Grantsburg. Same work, no drive, published prices.
In my own words
What you are getting
I am direct. South African, Afrikaans first — I say the thing plainly. I tell you the truth, and I do not waste time when there is a problem to solve.
In practice: if a machine is not worth fixing, you will hear that before you hear a quote. If the thing you asked for is the wrong thing, I will say so and then tell you what I would do instead.
I am not just watching the AI revolution — I am integrating it into everything I build.
In practice: local businesses drowning in repetitive work — bookings, quotes, first-line questions — can have a lot of it automated. That is a project, not a plan, and it starts at $1,000 plus $200 a month.
Worth knowing
The practical details
Based
Webster, Wisconsin 54893 — Burnett County.
On site
Burnett County and the towns either side of it.
Remote
Anywhere with a connection, including the cabin you have not driven to yet.
Platforms
Windows, macOS, Linux, and the network they all sit on.
Also
Automation and AI work for businesses that have outgrown doing it by hand.
What I will not do
- Call you first to say your computer has a virus. Nobody legitimate does that.
- Ask for your banking passwords. I never need them.
- Bury a parts markup inside a bigger number instead of showing it as its own line.
- Sell you a plan you do not need. Some households should just call me when something breaks.
- Talk to you in acronyms so the bill looks bigger.