Hi, Folks. I have a website which draws about 3000 visitors a day which offer a free service. It's been running on a shared hosting for a few years with such traffic. Suddenly the hosting says that my site consumes too much server resouces and urges me to move to a dedicated server. I'am not a techie. It bewilders me very much how can my site suddenly consumes too much resources after running smoothly for a few years without any significant increase in traffic. I have a comment system with a captcha system added recently and robots.txt file keeping away unauthorized robots. Shall i move to an expensive dedicated server? Thanks for your insight on this.
The cost of a dedicated server will be a far cry from that of a virtual shared hosting. Before doing that, ask your hosting company to provide detailed logs on why they assume that your site is consuming so much resources that you need a dedicated server. Also in the meantime look out for a VPS which can be cheaper than a dedicated server. But do get the data from your hosting company first as this will help you decide on your options.
Since you are not a techie, I would recommend a managed VPS. Check out http://www.wiredtree.com If you decide to choose WiredTree, I suggest you go over to www.webhostingtalk.com and look for a coupon as they always have sales in which you can save a few bucks. Best of luck.
Thank you all for the relies! Can anyone teach me how to decide whether my site is abusing server resouces or not from my site log? I cannot get a clue. Will consider your suggestion for a VPS.
Who are you hosting with, and what resources do you currently have available on the shared hosting plan? If your usage hasn't changed it may be that your host has been overselling resources and they've decided to get rid of heavier users such as yourself. Or perhaps the recently added comments system is taking up a lot of processing power. Either way, a VPS sounds like a good way to go, you will get more resources and more control over the way your site runs, but as others have said there is more administration work involved and if you're not comfortable with that it's best to get a managed service.
You need to get from your host. I am sure your host can generate the reports of some kind. Since they have the capability to detect you as an abuser I am sure they can give you more details. You need the details before choosing another hosting or VPS or dedicated server. Don't just jump into an offer without knowing your requirements and your actual usage.
I am currently on a shared hosting with Siteground. The website is a site generating images which are uploaded in advance. The site has been there for about one year with no significant growth in traffic from my analytics. But recently spams through the comment system increase. I have added a captcha symtem which have warded off spammers.
Siteground seems to be offering a lot # 750 GB web space # 7500 GB traffic Won't be easy to overuse such a generous offerings.
I am quite suspicious of that my site is using too much resources. I am now using only 15907.31MB out of 7500000 MB monthly bandwidth and 590.05MB out of 768000 MB Storage space.
Did you read their TOS? Any small prints on extraneous things like CPU usage etc? Frankly best if you ask them politely on what areas have your usage been exceeded and see if they can give you a valid answer.
I have asked them. They only show me a jpg file which implicates my cpu usage and excution time are above average.
Check their TOS if they had specified any CPU usage and execution time for their hosting clients. Also how high is your CPU usage to make them push you to a dedicated server? From your description, you don't really seem to be over using. Maybe try shopping for another host but check with them on their CPU usage policies first.
Bro, try to tell them that the increase of CPU usage might not be long. Sometimes websites get it's jumps and increase resource usage but that doesn't mean that it's gonna be like that for a long period of time. But, those kind a suggestion always comes to me very fishy. And I always hate those web hosting provider that offer upgrades rather than taking a little time knowing the causes of the increase usage of resources and finding solutions to those problems, their option is always "UPGRADE". Well, I think that's the way those KIND a people make money.
image hosting normally consumes more cpu so probably some hot links have increased also wrt your site
Some 2 years ago I had same problem with my previous 1and1.com hosting despite the fact that I was FAR below the package limits. But again I had lots of pics and a gallery2 just a few months earlier installed. The host had it "too much resources" reason and gave me 3 weeks, change to 2 weeks a day later. TOS are of no value - IF yoiur host forces you to move to dedicated server - OR - reduces your overall quality by moving your site onto another heavily overloaded slow new server-machine ... Hence If your host unhappy with you - then you have to BECOME techie unless you are RICH, REALLY rich to afford managed dedicated server or a REALLY qualified admin doing YOUR work in HIS time. another person doing YOUR work always is MUCH more expensive than yourself doing your own work!! I did my move to an excellent dedicated server for some 59 EURO per months with excellent performance, dual 300 GB sata drive AND much more! meanwhile the same package/price includes dual CPU and even better performance. My own rewards instantly - i.e. starting the hour after the move - was an instant traffic increase of some 30% thanks to new country new IP and no censorship for my new hosting country. Hence a dedicated server financially is peanuts compared to what you make with adsense if you are fully adsense optimizing and creating new exciting content. currently a little more than 12 hrs adsense pays for the full dedicated server-cost PER MONTH. hence some 2% of revenue to pay for server ... I have doubled my traffic in past 2 years and would for NO MONEY in the world want to go back to VPS. having full control is a huge benefit by far rewarding for the additional learning needed to succeed. of course I have the exactly same OS / version on my laptop as I selected for my server. Install a decent OS on your local machine - get a copy of LAMP image of the Linux distribution of your choice ( unless you have WIN ) on this local machine and then learn to do offline locally what you'll be doing online. Today you are like a "cherry girl" - knowing its painful - but also knowing its a great benefit and much fun later on ... look for the benefits and all pain will be gone - take some time to prepare yourself TO BE a techie, sooner or later a webmaster HAS to be techie to take full control of his work. the benefits are infinite. to argue with an unhappy host is of no use - if your host unhappy with your usage then what sense does it make to argue. it slike staying with an unhappy partner ... try to limit temporarily any abuse of your web space to gain another few weeks or few months. time you may need to GET really prepared. then go for a dedicated server!
I have the same problem with my host, I bought the hotlinker script and found out was someone hotlinky to my jpgs. Godaddy told me everything look good after I install the hotlinker alarm.
I just received an email from SiteGround about the same CPU usage and asked me to upgrade. I guess SiteGround is doing this for lot of people lately. Check out one more case here... http://www.wpconfig.com/2008/11/16/...-shared-hosting-account-“abuseâ€-continue/
Changing hosts might be your best short term option. imho try Hostgator....their low-end reseller package at $25 a month should suit you well...