Lost Video Island

Noj · Intermediate Vidder Joined: 07 Feb 2006 Posts: 204

Not trying to tell you how to run this place or anything, i don't know the first thing about how you guys go about it, but whats the situation with the server? Are all the problems, ie slow loading or being down most of the time, due to the company doing maintenance or is it just because the company's poor? Whats the odds on moving to somewhere new?

*waits for beatings*
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Tear The World Apart - Just To See If You're Right

Aislynn · Council Member Joined: 03 Feb 2005 Posts: 35782

No need to fear beatings, Noj!

The only one we're angry with is the server!

But you know how it goes when you're dealing any sort of tech support -- they're not exactly in a hurry.

But we (which usually means Warren

) are definitely in there trying to get this sorted out as quickly as possible. I have no doubt that he'll get it straightened out or he'll get us onto a new server. One way or the other, LVI will get back on its feet!

Thanks to everybody for your patience!

Hobbes · Council Member Joined: 28 Jan 2005 Posts: 11211

All you need to really know is... it's being handled. Unfortunately, simply switching servers may not be the answer.
But if you know any really good ones, post them here and we can check them out.
In the meantime, I'm trying to make our site as efficient as possible so it uses less resources and doesn't cause the server to crash

. But I'm starting to think that there's only so much I can do before it becomes the server's fault

.
So in short: we're the ones going over the limits, but it's the server that has stupidly-low limits

. So perhaps a server change is in order.

I'm particularly looking for a server which specializes in SQL databases. Know any?

SuperKC · Expert Vidder Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 3667

*doesn't know*

But I missed the site so much!

*huggles site*

I hope you find someplace. Cause this is crazy! If you keep going over your limits, is there really a way to stop that? I mean, as long as the site keeps growing, user-wise and all. What else can you do BUT switch servers?

*thinks real hard*

I got nothing!

Hobbes · Council Member Joined: 28 Jan 2005 Posts: 11211

See, that's the funniest part

We're still far from the limit limits. We're just hitting one of the stupid little "we're wussy so we won't let you do this" limits

.

But we're looking at other hosters a closer now. Finding a host with a limit a bit less pathetic than this would certainly be the easiest way to go about this problem

. But then again it might not be enough either.

The suckiest thing is if we do switch now, we're throwing 6 months worth of hosting away, since we're paid for iPowerweb until November.

Aislynn · Council Member Joined: 03 Feb 2005 Posts: 35782

*shoots iPowerwhat'sit with a rocksalt shotgun*

Hey, they and their wussy limits have well and truly vexed me. And when I'm vexed, I pull out the rocksalt shotgun.

SuperKC · Expert Vidder Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 3667

LMAO Ais, I love your rocksalt gun!

Noj · Intermediate Vidder Joined: 07 Feb 2006 Posts: 204

Hobbes wrote:

All you need to really know is... it's being handled. Unfortunately, simply switching servers may not be the answer.
But if you know any really good ones, post them here and we can check them out.
In the meantime, I'm trying to make our site as efficient as possible so it uses less resources and doesn't cause the server to crash

. But I'm starting to think that there's only so much I can do before it becomes the server's fault

.
So in short: we're the ones going over the limits, but it's the server that has stupidly-low limits

. So perhaps a server change is in order.

I'm particularly looking for a server which specializes in SQL databases. Know any?

I own a forum that runs just that. We run on Vizaweb, and we had some trouble at first but for months now its been completely flawless.
http://www.vizaweb.com/
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Tear The World Apart - Just To See If You're Right

Hobbes · Council Member Joined: 28 Jan 2005 Posts: 11211

Looks promising! I sent them an email to find out some more.
(could you post a link to your forum, so I can get a sense of what kind of pressure you're putting on their server?)

Right now, we're taking a close look at Dreamhost (http://www.dreamhost.com/). Anyone hosted by them at all?

Noj · Intermediate Vidder Joined: 07 Feb 2006 Posts: 204

www.ford-force.com
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Tear The World Apart - Just To See If You're Right

Hobbes · Council Member Joined: 28 Jan 2005 Posts: 11211

Oh, nice!
Flawless you say? How flawless LOL? (How many connections do they give you usually anyway?)

Fan4Lost · Advanced Vidder Joined: 12 Jan 2006 Posts: 2224

How much are you looking to spend Warren? Seriously, most hosting providers are going to charge you if you go over the limit or in the current case just cut you off. There are no hosts out there that I know of that offer a huge bandwidth for little money. Unfortunately, when you have a site that gets a lot of traffic you have to pay a lot to keep it running smoothly.

Perhaps, if you did database optimization. Sometimes that can reduce a lot of the load on the server. I don't know if you know what that is, but it can sometimes help.

As for servers, mine is pretty good but we're not as busy.

Hobbes · Council Member Joined: 28 Jan 2005 Posts: 11211

Quote:

How much are you looking to spend Warren? Seriously, most hosting providers are going to charge you if you go over the limit or in the current case just cut you off. There are no hosts out there that I know of that offer a huge bandwidth for little money. Unfortunately, when you have a site that gets a lot of traffic you have to pay a lot to keep it running smoothly.

Bandwidth, and all those little things, we're fine on. It's the hidden crap, like Database Connections, that we're getting screwed on. And most sites don't offer that (even those expensive big multi-terrabyte sites)

Dreamhost does though. 300 connections (as opposed to the mere 100 right now

)

Quote:

Perhaps, if you did database optimization. Sometimes that can reduce a lot of the load on the server. I don't know if you know what that is, but it can sometimes help.

Did it, a lot of it. But there's not really an automated way for this unfortunately, so I'm not sure if I got enough of it

. I'm not even really sure it's the load on the database or server so much as it's just that we're making too many connections

(and it would suck if that's all it is... because that is something I could probably fix, even if it would make the site a lot more susceptible to hacking... ug.)

Quote:

As for servers, mine is pretty good but we're not as busy.

I heard you guys had to switch servers. How was that?

Fan4Lost · Advanced Vidder Joined: 12 Jan 2006 Posts: 2224

Quote:

It's the hidden crap, like Database Connections, that we're getting screwed on. And most sites don't offer that (even those expensive big multi-terrabyte sites)

You're best bet would be to contact a hosting company and ask them if maybe they can offer you more database connections. Not sure how much that will cost but its worth looking into. Sometimes they'll cut a deal.

Quote:

I heard you guys had to switch servers. How was that?

Gah! Much better! The other hosting company was horrible! The bandwidth was being sucked up almost every month. The new guys are great. They have 99.9% uptime and a bunch of goodies. Not sure about your issue though but you can check them out if you want.

http://www.hostmonster.com

Hobbes · Council Member Joined: 28 Jan 2005 Posts: 11211

Quote:

You're best bet would be to contact a hosting company and ask them if maybe they can offer you more database connections. Not sure how much that will cost but its worth looking into. Sometimes they'll cut a deal.

Yep, already have

. Like I said, Dreamhost gives us 300 (!) JUST for LVI. (and in comparison, iPowerweb has 100, shared among the entire server of like 50 sites

)
It almost seems too good to be true though, which is a little scary.