some people fire their hosts, some hosts fire me...

[spacefem]

I don't know what thread to post this in, or even what forum, I just wanted to post because I know you guys are cool and I have had a really, really, horribly bad week in the web hosting world.

here's my situation: I'm a webmaster/webdesigner. I've designed about five little websites, and for each I'd gotten separate packages... I pay the hosts $10, the customers pay me $15, it all evens out.

I also have, scratch that, had, two big sites: spacefem.com, which has some database-driven quizzes and a 3000+ member phpbb forum, and advicenators.com, an advice column website with 7000+ members. both use php/mySQL. I made advicenators myself... wrote the code from the ground pretty much, and I'm really proud that it's been so successful.

the two big sites were hosted in wiredhub.com, which kept upgrading my packages because bandwidth was always pretty thin at the end of the month. Then last month, I asked for another upgrade, because I was pulling some 60/GB.

and they broke that horrible news that happens when a host tells you they'd rather just "be friends".

so okay, I can deal. I researched and read about reseller accounts, which are very cool, because I can combine all those "little" sites I've designed with my big sites and have them on one server for one low price. I found a website, hostgator.com, that got really good reviews everywhere I looked and they had a package that'd give me 100GB of bandwidth a month and unlimited domain names, so not only could I combine everything, I could buy domains for all the other cool ideas I have running in my head and just smush them all in. cool!

I signed up for my reseller account and paid my $50. I started to transfer databases over, which took some time because they had to be transferred in 10MB chunks and I had 700MB worth of gzipped SQL to get over there. But after a few days, I was okay.

And hostgator took me down.

"Too much CPU," they said. "You must have a dedicated server for this kind of stuff."

spacefen********spacefem.com****1.69****92.96***1. 6
Top Process*****%CPU 3.8********httpd [www.spacefem.com] [/blobs/blob0804/negativeblob.gif]
Top Process*****%CPU 3.3********httpd [www.spacefem.com] [/forum/templates/Spacefem3/images/icon_delete.gif]
Top Process*****%CPU 3.0********httpd [www.spacefem.com] [/forum/viewforum.php?f26]
advicena********advicenators.com********1.18****55 .04***4.6
Top Process*****%CPU 5.5********httpd [www.advicenators.com] [/]
Top Process*****%CPU 3.3********httpd [www.advicenators.com] [/img/bg1.gif]
Top Process*****%CPU 3.2********httpd [www.advicenators.com]

now, why would a hosting company offer 100GB a month of bandwidth if they can't actually handle a website with that much pull? Does that seem silly to anyone else, or am I just on crack?

So here I am, the cold, homeless webmistress. Dedicated server? I'm not confident enough to run my own server. what if there's a DoS? security patches? hackers? managed hosting is too expensive.

I guess I wanted to just cry on the shoulders of this whole forum. please don't come up and tell me your hosting company will be everything I dreamed of, I'm not looking for hosting offers here. I've heard all the lines... "unlimited bandwidth! customer service! love and happiness!" it's impossible. if someone has general advice I'll hear it... is it that I had too many SQL queries? too many hosted images? the phpbb forum was too big?

we may never know the truth but I'm too tired to fight hosting worlds anymore.

I am joining the roadkill of the information superhighway.

[John Scott]

Looks like that server hosts 851 sites, which isn't good. But it all depends on how much CPU you are using, and from what you've posted it doesn't look like that much.

[thebassman]

Why not a managed dedicated server? www.v7inc.com (Check out their v3 plan - might fit your needs)

The company I'm with, RWH (realwebhost) could handle that as well... check them out www.realwebhost.net Good luck

[John Scott]

I really doubt spacefem needs a dedicated server.

[spacefem]

Originally Posted by JohnScott

Looks like that server hosts 851 sites, which isn't good. But it all depends on how much CPU you are using, and from what you've posted it doesn't look like that much.

whoh... how did you find that out?

[John Scott]

whois.sc

They list a lot of interesting facts.

[se4b4ss]

Originally Posted by JohnScott

Looks like that server hosts 851 sites, which isn't good. But it all depends on how much CPU you are using, and from what you've posted it doesn't look like that much.

sorry to leave topic, but what is a normal range of sites/host? i ask because i use host gator and this post scares me.

regards,
steve

[John Scott]

Depends on the server, but I limit V7 to 100 sites per server (Dual Xeons with 2GB of RAM).

[Jonathan VanSchaack]

Originally Posted by JohnScott

whois.sc

They list a lot of interesting facts.

there not always right though :-p


It really does range with hosts and how much they need to profit off each server. I've seen ranges from 50 sites per server all the way up to 1000+. Hostgator is a big web hosting company able to loss customers and not care what other think about it. Most hosts would have tried to communicate with the customer and figure out why and host they could work out the cpu problem. But as all hosts have TOS their's probably says you cannot take up more then so and so percent at any given time.

[spacefem]

yeah, as it turns out, their TOS states that no user can take up more than 25% of the server resources for more than 90 seconds. darn.

still, I'm irked that they didn't try to work with me at all, just shut me down. They won't refund a cent of my money. I asked if maybe I could downgrade, use the money to host my little sites for a couple months, and they wanted additional fees for that. I don't feel like paying them any more money for anything.

I'm going to see if there is indeed a host that will support me before I talk too much **** on hostgator. Maybe I do need a dedicated server?

I will say this about them though: I'll never have the same faith in a host that offers "live support". They had a toll-free phone number and chat support, and neither did me an ounce of good because the people behind those support lines couldn't tell me why my account was suspended, they were just like, "This is a billing/technical issue, you have to e-mail support@hostgator.com". Then, via e-mail, every question took hours to address, and I work full time so I couldn't get to the answers and sit down and work anything out.

Apparently "live support" doesn't really mean "support", it means "simple pre-sales questions and showing you how the cpanel icons work" or something.

[I, Brian]

A lot of hosts will shut you down, actually. Hostgator seem to offer reseller plans mainly, so if a server seems overstuffed, that might be more likely due to the resellers themselves. Plus not all domains are actual working sites.

But, my crikey, dual xenons at just 100 sites each? Must have extremely small loads.

[Jonathan VanSchaack]

those 100 sites could get massive ammounts of hits, which would make the loads go up

[spacefem]

I should really quit posting, but I feel like it.

I talked to some friends and found out I really need a dedicated server for what I'm doing. the guys at realwebhost, who are really nice by the way, have one available for me and it's $230 a month. Since I just made $120 in two weeks with ad revenue on advicenators, I feel like we could pay for it.

it's just really freaking scary to put down that kind of money on a WEBSITE... I mean, that's my car payment, and this website stuff is just a hobby. it's scary. I'm used to being really small on the internet, and here this is... big.

[I, Brian]

I know exactly what you mean

I sold my old car a few months back for less than my new server's monthly plus set-up costs - and that's just leased.

But - business investments are business investments, and old cars...well, not money generators.

[John Scott]

Originally Posted by I, Brian

But, my crikey, dual xenons at just 100 sites each? Must have extremely small loads.

Low server loads = peace of mind.

[fcolor]

2 years from the moment since this thread has been created the problem with overselling is bigger... of course we have more advanced technology and hardware but we also have officially "unlimited hosts". I'm interested to see what do you think now about overselling... Do you think it is worth to discussi it at all?