A WWYD?

[JustJen]

I own a forum and we just celebrated our 1 year anniversary. We are using phpbb3, with a free host. We have 1700 members, and have a home page hosted with a paid host. We did try to move our forum to the paid host, but they were unable to handle the load. Our free host is great, but currently offers no mods/hacks for the software, and I feel we're a bit limited by this (no quick reply, no hover, etc). Problem is, I'm not nearly tech savvy enough to 1) know what sort of hosting I need and 2) handle all the tech stuff.

I'm considering switching over to VBulletin, but I'm almost certain I'd screw this up. We get roughly 2k new posts a day. How much power/server space do I need? How much tech knowledge do I need? Should I leave well enough alone?

Oh and I'm new, btw!

TIA! And sorry if this is the wrong spot.

Jen

[CyberWizard]

Have you tried contacting HostGator? They should be able to handle your load and will move your website for to their server for free.

Also, if you do decide to convert to vBulletin, you have to remember that your members' passwords will not convert - they will all have to request new passwords to login after you convert.

[alter-ego]

Originally Posted by JustJen

I'm considering switching over to VBulletin, but I'm almost certain I'd screw this up. We get roughly 2k new posts a day. How much power/server space do I need? How much tech knowledge do I need? Should I leave well enough alone?

If you're getting that much traffic on your website then the chances are that shared hosting may not meet your needs, especially if your looking to move to vBulletin and start using mods. Many mods require additional .sql inquiries which in turn, increases server load on each and every page refresh. I'm not sure about phpbb (can't remember) but vBulletin usse ajax when posting so you can disable most of the "message posted" confirmation pages that you are prolly used to when replying in phpbb which should help a bit.

If you move to vBulletin you can find a phpbb to vB converter which will make the process a breeze. The only thing I caution you on is ensuring you practice the conversion process on a test database as if you screw up you lose nothing in the process. The absolute BEST practice is to download your database and rebuild your current site on your new server leaving the current site running where it is. This way you can see how your conversion takes to your existing content without risking anything in the process.

As for who's the best host, you'll get so many opinions on this that it will leave your head spinning. I know many people will say Hostgator but I've tested them apples to apples against Site5 and they actually couldn't keep up. Of course now Site5 has gone down the toilet as well IMHO so my advice to you is do your research and don't get too comfortable with one host especially should you choose shared hosting.

EDIT: I would definitely pose your questions to any webhosting company your interested in and monitor closely the responses. I've personally found that how they treat you in the shopping/researching process is a pretty good indication of how helpful their tech support will be. Don't be afraid to not ask questions, be afraid not to ask questions.

[bwb]

Originally Posted by alter-ego

Of course now Site5 has gone down the toilet as well IMHO so my advice to you is do your research and don't get too comfortable with one host especially should you choose shared hosting.

Why would you say we have gone down the toliet? We have one of the most undersold setups in the industry and great reviews. Just curious what problem you had?

Thanks, Ben
Site5 CEO

[CyberWizard]

Originally Posted by bwb

Why would you say we have gone down the toliet? We have one of the most undersold setups in the industry and great reviews. Just curious what problem you had?

Thanks, Ben
Site5 CEO

Here are 37 reviews on Site5: http://www.webhostingjury.com/reviews/Site5

[bwb]

Originally Posted by CyberWizard

Here are 37 reviews on Site5: http://www.webhostingjury.com/reviews/Site5

That site is a pure affiliate site guys, that site lives to do nothing but push people to hosts that pay the most per customer, which is why that site is so selective that some hosts rate well, and that hosts have no way to really respond to reviews well or contest them when they are not valid.

If you want valid reviews I would recommend RatePoint, which is a 3rd party that verifies them:

http://www.ratepoint.com/profile/15460

They also have if you rate it 1 or 2 it opens a dispute which we work with the customer similar to the BBB.

http://www.webhostingstuff.com/review/Site5com.html

Is not bad either, but make sure to check dates. Myself and Joel are the new owners of Site5 and took over Nov 1 2008 and you will see that the changes we made and continue to make have improved everything across the board.

You can see our quarterly posts on what we have been working on and plan to work here as well:

http://www.site5.com/blog/s5/state-of-site5/

The next one is coming November 1st, and we will also be making those monthly starting then, let me know if you have any questions,
Thanks, Ben

[CyberWizard]

Originally Posted by bwb

that site lives to do nothing but push people to hosts that pay the most per customer

I definitely believe that they push people towards hosts that will pay them more in their affiliate program. However, Site5 has a pretty competitive affiliate program as well

Also, keep in mind that even though they may delete the bad reviews about hosts they are making a lot of money from, that doesn't mean that the reviews about Site5 on that website are fake/false. Most of those review sites check to make sure that your domain was at one point hosted by the company your leaving a review for.

Overall, I see more negative reviews about about Site5 throughout the web than I see good ones. You can Google the phrase "site5 reviews". However, I am definitely not saying that Site5 is a bad company. Site5 has grown to be very large and you can't do that by providing horrible servers and support. However, there do seem to be quite a few disgruntled customers. But, any large company (especially in the hosting industry) is going to ruffle some customers feathers

I have actually looked into moving my open-source forum company to Site5 in the past and still consider to be a good company Furthermore, Site5 is one of the companies that I would recommend for my clients to use because I used them a while back for another website and never had any issues with them personally

[alter-ego]

Originally Posted by bwb

Why would you say we have gone down the toliet? We have one of the most undersold setups in the industry and great reviews. Just curious what problem you had?

Thanks, Ben
Site5 CEO

Site downtime was my biggest issue with you guys. The server I was placed on was unreliable and for months (yes months). I was told I'd be moved to a better server which never materialized.

Don't get me wrong, the beginning with Site 5 was a good experience, I just tired of being told one thing and never saw it actually happen. It actually got to the point that I would be formulating my support ticket if my sites hung between page refreshes. That just doesn't happen because I'm neurotic, it happens because I was starting to see my sites offline all to often.

[bwb]

Originally Posted by alter-ego

Site downtime was my biggest issue with you guys. The server I was placed on was unreliable and for months (yes months). I was told I'd be moved to a better server which never materialized.

Don't get me wrong, the beginning with Site 5 was a good experience, I just tired of being told one thing and never saw it actually happen. It actually got to the point that I would be formulating my support ticket if my sites hung between page refreshes. That just doesn't happen because I'm neurotic, it happens because I was starting to see my sites offline all to often.

When was this btw?

We took over Nov 1 2008, and over 6 months moved about 40% of clients to brand new hardware that were on old, and upgraded memory and systems of everything else. Which has helped tremendously plus a lot of internal improvements which stopped a lot of the cpu/mem problems happening previously.

Let me know, I'd be happy to give you a year free to see how great the improvements have been! Our support response times are around 10 minutes during week days as well.
Thanks, Ben
Ben@Site5.com

[Hades]

Hi guys, lets keep this thread on track and help the thread starter solve his issue. Any particular issue not related to the thread can be easily solved privately, and also keep in mind that we have a Web Hosting subforum, so feel free to create a conversation there if you need to

As for the original question:
I think alter-ego nailed it, you have to download the forum, install it locally and then run some tool to migrate to another forum software. The only drawback is that some information might be lost during that process (eg. encrypted passwords, or features that are in one system and not in the other).

Regarding the hardware, it depends on your growth, if in 1 year you went from 0 to 2k posts a day, I'd say you should considering moving to a dedicated hosting.

[CyberWizard]

Originally Posted by JustJen

We are using phpbb3, with a free host.

Can you please verify if you have access to cpanel?