Webmaster forum - Hosting Advice Needed

Author

Hosting Advice Needed

Jez

2006-05-24, 7:19 pm

Hi,

I have just been told by my hosting company that my directory
http://www.absolutedirectory.com is using too much CPU time and resource
(it's on a shared server). They are trying to get me to upgrade to
Virtual Private Server (VPS) which I would also move my other 7 hosting
accounts to as well. The spec is a dedicated CPU, 20GB of space and
300GB of bandwidth for £39.99+VAT per month plus a one off £99+VAT to
transfer all my domains to the VPS. They don't say if this takes into
account the hosting I have already renewed this year or not.

Does this sound expensive? I do need to keep all of the domains on UK
servers (it would actually matter for the directory, typically) and
realise that I could probably pay less for US server hosting.

I would really appreciate some advice on this matter as I know nothing
about the fine points of hosting or really what I should be paying. Does
anyone know of a cheaper way of hosting this site (or all my sites).

Best,

Jez.

William Tasso

2006-05-24, 7:19 pm

Fleeing from the madness of the jungle
Jez <j.ez@virgin.net> stumbled into news:alt.www.webmaster
and said:

> Hi,
>
> I have just been told by my hosting company that my directory
> http://www.absolutedirectory.com is using too much CPU time and resource
> (it's on a shared server). They are trying to get me to upgrade to
> Virtual Private Server (VPS) which I would also move my other 7 hosting
> accounts to as well. The spec is a dedicated CPU,

really? that sounds rather generous.

> 20GB of space and 300GB of bandwidth

more important perhaps - how much RAM?

> for £39.99+VAT per month plus a one off £99+VAT to transfer all my
> domains to the VPS. They don't say if this takes into account the
> hosting I have already renewed this year or not.
>
> Does this sound expensive? I do need to keep all of the domains on UK
> servers (it would actually matter for the directory, typically) and
> realise that I could probably pay less for US server hosting.

What platform? it sounds reasonable enough

> I would really appreciate some advice on this matter as I know nothing
> about the fine points of hosting or really what I should be paying. Does
> anyone know of a cheaper way of hosting this site (or all my sites).

Do you know which part of your site is a resource hog? it may pay to
optimise and improve a little.

CPU time I can understand - what other resources did the host mention?

--
William Tasso

http://williamtasso.com/words/what-is-usenet.asp

Jez

2006-05-24, 7:19 pm

William Tasso wrote:

> Fleeing from the madness of the jungle
> Jez <j.ez@virgin.net> stumbled into news:alt.www.webmaster
> and said:
>
>
>
> really? that sounds rather generous.
>
>
>
> more important perhaps - how much RAM?
>
>
>
> What platform? it sounds reasonable enough
>
>
>
> Do you know which part of your site is a resource hog? it may pay to
> optimise and improve a little.
>
> CPU time I can understand - what other resources did the host mention?
>

Thanks for your reply. Can I email you the hosts email? You would
probably make more sense of it than I have.

My email address is valid if you don't mind dropping me an email to
reply to. If you don't want me to email, let me know and I will see what
relevance I can pick out of the hosts email to me and post it here.

Jez.

nnhanlv@gmail.com

2006-05-24, 7:19 pm

it's reasonable price for that VPN pack. But you must know the flatform
and CPU time such as P3 HT enable or just a P2 2.8GHz, mostly VPN
server's p4 or xeon, but the price is abit higher :) just look around
and do compare. if you need a truth hosting i can give you a link

<-----------
More about free pixel advertising www.freepixelads.biz

William Tasso

2006-05-24, 7:19 pm

Fleeing from the madness of the jungle
Jez <j.ez@virgin.net> stumbled into news:alt.www.webmaster
and said:

> ...
> My email address is valid if you don't mind dropping me an email to
> reply to.

YGM

> If you don't want me to email, let me know and I will see what relevance
> I can pick out of the hosts email to me and post it here.

I understand your wish for confidentiality but you are likely to get more
diversity of comment if you post here.

--
William Tasso

http://williamtasso.com/words/what-is-usenet.asp

Jez

2006-05-24, 7:19 pm

William Tasso wrote:
> Fleeing from the madness of the jungle
> Jez <j.ez@virgin.net> stumbled into news:alt.www.webmaster
> and said:
>
>
>
> YGM
>
>
>
> I understand your wish for confidentiality but you are likely to get
> more diversity of comment if you post here.
>

William,

I am not concerned with my confidentiality, just that it is a lot to
post. I suppose I could have snipped it down but want to make sure that
it legible still, thought it better to mail.

William Tasso

2006-05-24, 7:20 pm

Fleeing from the madness of the jungle
Jez <j.ez@virgin.net> stumbled into news:alt.www.webmaster
and said:

> William Tasso wrote:
>
> William,
>
> I am not concerned with my confidentiality, just that it is a lot to
> post. I suppose I could have snipped it down but want to make sure that
> it legible still, thought it better to mail.
>

ok - points arising

First off, your site is actually hosted in the states on a network managed
by http://www.hostdime.com/ - possibly in Florida.

I suspect the VPS you are being offered is the first package on this page:
http://www.hostdime.com/services/vps/ which, perhaps significantly to you
(but read on), makes no mention of a set up fee.

Your host is probably a reseller. They should know that the amount of RAM
available to a VPS is one of the most important metrics. There's nothing
wrong with being a reseller (I started in this trade as a reseller for a,
sadly, now defunct org). Resellers are often able to provide real added
value - for example: telephone support during local office hours,
migrating accounts &c. However, resellers generally have earned a poor
reputation for themselves not least because they frequently have no
control over their own servers - not their fault directly but endless
'me-too' resellers parroting the marketing nonsense from their upstream
verges on the side of mis-representation.

Next: the script you are running which is causing your host so many
problems appears to be part of a package called Gossamer Links
(http://www.gossamer-threads.com/scr...s-sql/index.htm) - later
versions of this script have support for staggered updates for use with
resource challenged servers. Have you looked at this option?

Finally, I have to ask: how big is your data-set? your home page boasts
nearly 19000 links which doesn't seem like a lot of data to me. Perhaps
you've outgrown your links manager?

--
William Tasso

http://williamtasso.com/words/what-is-usenet.asp

Jez

2006-05-25, 4:50 am

William Tasso wrote:
> Fleeing from the madness of the jungle
> Jez <j.ez@virgin.net> stumbled into news:alt.www.webmaster
> and said:
>
>
> ok - points arising
>
> First off, your site is actually hosted in the states on a network
> managed by http://www.hostdime.com/ - possibly in Florida.

That's surprised me. I had no idea it was US based. I thought UK servers
had to be UK based to be able to rank in UK google (which some of my
sites hosted there do)

>
> I suspect the VPS you are being offered is the first package on this
> page: http://www.hostdime.com/services/vps/ which, perhaps
> significantly to you (but read on), makes no mention of a set up fee.
>
> Your host is probably a reseller. They should know that the amount of
> RAM available to a VPS is one of the most important metrics. There's
> nothing wrong with being a reseller (I started in this trade as a
> reseller for a, sadly, now defunct org). Resellers are often able to
> provide real added value - for example: telephone support during local
> office hours, migrating accounts &c. However, resellers generally have
> earned a poor reputation for themselves not least because they
> frequently have no control over their own servers - not their fault
> directly but endless 'me-too' resellers parroting the marketing
> nonsense from their upstream verges on the side of mis-representation.

You are quite right. The host, or reseller has been excellent the phone
gets answered and I cannot fault them on their service. I have had a few
clashes with their technical support and had to get quite stroppy at one
point, but now I am guessing that he is not a part of the company I deal
with. It all starts to fit!

>
> Next: the script you are running which is causing your host so many
> problems appears to be part of a package called Gossamer Links
> (http://www.gossamer-threads.com/scr...s-sql/index.htm) - later
> versions of this script have support for staggered updates for use with
> resource challenged servers. Have you looked at this option?

Yes I have used the staggered build option. Usually I don't need to as
the site builds perfectly well most of the time, but the day that
spawned the emails from the host telling me I was using too much CPU
time, they were having server problems and I had to keep restarting the
site build, I used the staggered build a few times that day with no
difference.

In case it matters, the time to rebuild the site is approximately 7 - 8
minutes. Is the hosts server a bit of a wimp? :-)

>
> Finally, I have to ask: how big is your data-set? your home page
> boasts nearly 19000 links which doesn't seem like a lot of data to me.
> Perhaps you've outgrown your links manager?
>

No, I agree. I think the problem is that there are too many people on
the usually quiet shared server and my site is the greediest (though
probably not too bad realistically, but bad when put against sites that
have maybe 20 pages max and no sql database)

Supposedly, the links manager is good for unlimited links and have only
just upgraded it from Links 2.0 (not sql based) about one month ago, so
I hope not, it cost quite a bit.

Thanks for your valuable input and taking the time to research all this
William.

Best,

Jez.