Do you think I need to upgrade to VPS?

Today one of our forum sites was suspended by our host due to "use of resources."

Facts of the SMF-powered forum site:

1000 visits a day
170,000 posts
1,300 Members
1 Million Page views a month

This month's bandwidth is just 2GB.

What should we do?

 

My heart goes out to you. I feel like I'm hearing this more and more from people - their host cutting them off when server resources peak too much. Did you at least get a warning? That would seem to me to be the humane thing to do.

Can I assume that you're on regular shared hosting right now?

 

Yeah, we are on a shared webhosting plan. There was no warning. We were just cut off and sent an email that we are suspended.

 

What kind of server are you on? It doesn't seem like you should be using too many resources, but it makes a difference if you are on a Celeron vs. a Quad Core. How many resources are you using? did your host at least tell you. I have a forum that has over 5000 hits a day and they are still ok on shared hosting. What kind of software do you use? do you have a lot of addons?

 

If you arent facing any sow problems or host doesnt have any problems then no need

 

Ugh.

Well, if you feel like mentioning who these guys are, I'll be sure to avoid them for myself and my clients in the future. Cutting a customer off cold turkey is way uncool.

By contrast, there's a thread nearby about Hostgator sending out warning emails for VDS/VPS customers who've unknowingly accumulated too much spam, filling up disk space and exceeding resources. The warning email gives the customer time to rectify, along with information about the possible causes, and steps to fix the issue. And is very polite to boot. That's how to go about things.

 

I am on a shared hosting. I don't know if my host is using Celeron or Quad Core. I am using SMF. Add-ons/MODS are minimal, at least 5. I am not ready to move to VPS for I don't think my site is that big yet.

But my site is still down nearly 24 hours now.

 

Does your host have strict CPU limits, and did they tell you exactly what you were using too much of?

I wouldn't say you need a VPS just yet, maybe just a better host.

Jay

 

If I may remember it right, 1% of CPU. Is that fair enough? I'm hosting with Lunarpages.

 

1% of CPU for what period of time?

Unless you say something like 'forever', you really need to get new shared hosting. Drop IwhiC a PM.

Jay

 

Hi,

Lunarpages bases the CPU usage off the "CPU/Memory/MySQL Usage" area in WHM. This is a running average for a 24 hour period.

I would say that you were using a decent amount of processing power as the servers they use for their shared accounts are fairly high-end.

Unfortunately you would probably be better off finding a shared host that allows between 1-5% cpu usage.

 

Hi Xous,

Can you recommend a shared host that allows up to 5 % of CPU usage?

 

IwhiC allows up to 20% I think, or was that for the proxies. Dunno, just try

 

I am already sick and tired of this overselling host. People at webhostingtalk.com say that I don't need to upgrade to VPS as my resource requirement is not that big yet.

 

I would say yes, you don't need a top of the end VPS, just a small one with a about 50GB of bandwidth? you can save a lot of money with bandwidth.

 

You can find great deals on VPS, a started plan will be enough for your site.

 

I would suggest not to buy a VPS account. Just find some other best host provider and tell them (in the start) that what happened with your previous hosting provider. Tell them everything clearly. They will then guide you that whether they can host your site or not.

Also, how is this hosting provider www.hostican.com? their shared plan is very attractive. Anyone have used their services? would you suggest the OP to go with them?

 

Thanks for the heads-up. I'll be sure to avoid these guys with a 10 foot pole.

 

5% usage isn't much and should not be a problem. Although this does depend on the host server specs. 5% wouldn't affect a non oversold Quad core like it would a oversold Celeron.

 

Thanks guys yes you are allowed to use 20% of our server resources.. we host all accounts on 8 core servers with 4-16gb of ram so they can handle more then most servers can... 1000 visits a day is nothing compared to some of the sites we have on our servers, if you have any questions please ask..

Donald our proxys are on different servers and we really do not have a cpu limit for them as proxys tend to use more resources then other accounts..