Hi,

I was just notified today that my account has been suspended for CPU overusage (forum).

I have an active forum with usually 40-60 people online, sometimes as many as 100+. It is an ikonboard3. (I have heard iB3 is a pretty good script, maybe not the best, but please don't tell me to "just use vBulletin or PHP BB". I have 1500+ users and over 6000 posts now so unti good converters come out, I can't really change)

The forum pages recieve about 400,000 loads a month. Probably about 20GB on bandwidth needed for the forums and related files.

I am on Tera-Byte's R4 plan right now. I wish they had an upfront notice about people wishing to host forums (I heard from members within hours of announcing my new host choice that it may have been a bad move) but I will not knock Tera-Byte's service. From what I have experienced so far, it has been quite good. I am apparently over my CPU limit.

I could really use a host for $30/month or less. I don't know if it's possible. I don't really make jack on the site (well, maybe a buck a day about, hence my $30 target) I suppose I would go as high as $40-50 if absolutelye necessary (and would expect more disk and bandwidth as well though).

The long and the short: I need a good host that allows active forums and won't charge me out the nose. And they need to be fairly reliable/reputable (I guess by that I mean a few good recs here).

Thanks, I really appreciate any feedback you can offer.

You need a dedicated server not virtual host. If your website increases the server load to a very high number, any host will close your account.

But my site is not really that large. Is dedicated the only way to go? I have nowhere near the money needed for a dedicated server.

Your problem simply is that you are using ikonboard, it uses CGI rather than PHP/MySQL, and that right there is your problem. Most hosts will not allow CGI scripts such as forums because they are so server intensive.

I know you specifically asked that this response not be given, but your best bet is to find a converter for it, wbb from woltlab.de is a great free forum, it might include a converter.

Granted, you may find a host who allows it, but I would recommend switching forums.

Problem is I am on ikonBoard 3 which is new...so no conversions yet....or I'd move boards.

Some people have told me that iKonboard3 is a very lean CGI script, enough that it is on par with PHP forums. I have yet to find a definitive performance analysis/comparison of PHP vs. CGI (or CGI forums v PHP forums). If you know of one please point me that direction, I am very interested. I could obviously use an efficient script.

I'd get OpenBB... oBB 2 is coming out sometime soon, and oBB 1 Final is coming out pretty soon too. Its a pretty fast forum with a decent hack community... the site is www.openbb.net or www.iansoft.net, and the boards are community.iansoft.net.

There should be an iB3 -> phpBB2 converter out by now, otherwise it'll come very soon. Check out the phpBB2 forums..

http://phpbb.sourceforge.net/phpBB2/index.php

I thought iB3 DOES use MySQL, or at least gives you the option to use it? I'm nearly positive iB3 Gold does.

Originally posted by Unflappable
I thought iB3 DOES use MySQL, or at least gives you the option to use it? I'm nearly positive iB3 Gold does.

As far as I know you have the option to use mySQL instead of a flat file, but the problem was the CGI. And iB surely doesn't use PHP, then you really need a PHP board (where phpBB is the best).

Originally posted by SiliconIce
But my site is not really that large. Is dedicated the only way to go? I have nowhere near the money needed for a dedicated server.

No, its not the only way to go. Your forum doesn't sound that big that it is too large for a shared hosting account.

The problem is that most hosting companies use web servers that are single processor machines. They then put 300 accounts on that one server. In that model, they cannot have 1 account using 10+% of the CPU constantly to run scripts. It just doesn't work. That is why they want you off the server.

Look for hosts that can offer shared hosting on dual or even quad processor machines. Those machines can handle not only high bandwidth, but CPU intensive CGI scripts. (Because multiple processes can run literally at the same time on the same box.)

Also look for hosts that will tell you how many accounts they put on a server. If they limit it to a smaller number (say 50 or 100), then you will enjoy better performance, and less likelyhood that you will need to transfer to a dedicated machine later on.

Also, as you are already aware, keep a look out for a conversion option to a PHP or JSP based script. CGI/Perl forums will eventually hit a limit at which shared hosting is no longer practical - even with beefy multiprocessor boxes.

Take care,

Brian

Just get a RAQ dedicated server and host that one site.

For 100+ concurrent users, you really need a dedicated server...... Plain and simple....

Originally posted by The Prohacker
For 100+ concurrent users, you really need a dedicated server...... Plain and simple....

not necessarily true (well, probably in cobalt Raq ;) ). You could also be hosted in a semi dedicated server (or private/virtual server). I host two VB sites (as well as some other smaller sites) with total online concurrent user sometimes reaching 800-900. Server load does go high at times, but that's because of the IDE bottle neck (only one drive). I will post about this later .. My point, with a good specs server and some configuration (mysql/apache) tweakings, then I believe you can host your site in a virtual hosting environment even if you have 100-300+ concurrent users ... beyond that, you may need private server/semi dedicated hosting; dedicated server may not be needed.

cheers,
:beer:

Originally posted by dektong


not necessarily true (well, probably in cobalt Raq ;) ). You could also be hosted in a semi dedicated server (or private/virtual server). I host two VB sites (as well as some other smaller sites) with total online concurrent user sometimes reaching 800-900. Server load does go high at times, but that's because of the IDE bottle neck (only one drive). I will post about this later .. My point, with a good specs server and some configuration (mysql/apache) tweakings, then I believe you can host your site in a virtual hosting environment even if you have 100-300+ concurrent users ... beyond that, you may need private server/semi dedicated hosting; dedicated server may not be needed.

cheers,
:beer:


As a rule, on my shared servers, I never let anything above a load of 5, except for occasional spikes. And when you have two or three users with forums that size on a server, it gets up there, and running, cpanel, pop3, whm, proftpd, exim, it just goes up, you have to draw the line when it comes to customers, and how much they are allowed to use...

For you, you are hosting only a few sites, but to make a profit on shared hosting, you sometimes need to fit 90 customers on a server, and that usually fills it up.. Add in a user with 100+ users on his site, and that can kill a server that without them would normally be alright.....

This is my experience ... 100 concurrent users online will get my server load around 1 to 2 and sometimes even under 1... Even after I have 300+ concurrent users online, server load will usually be around 3-6. If you have 600+ users online, server load can go to 10-15. That's why I say for only 100+ users online, one does not need a dedicated server ... shared hosting can still be OK, but even if it's not OK, private server is still preferable since not all people would like the idea of managing their own server (hence private server can be a good option for some).

Regarding server load, here is my other experience ... A server load of 8.0 (just take a number) on a P3/733 Mhz with 256 MB Ram is very much different than a server load of 8.0 on a P3/850 Mhz with 2GB of memory ... In fact on my server (with P3/850 Mhz and 2GB of memory), a server load of 5-10 is usually still nothing ... The pages (httpd/mysql) will still load pretty fast ... But once it got to >15-20, things will start to be slow, and beyond that the server will be quite slow ...

Cheers,
:beer:

ikonboard now has a mysql board out
maybe look into that would very much help out resources

Originally posted by MarcD
ikonboard now has a mysql board out
maybe look into that would very much help out resources

This has already been said above. And mySQL doesn't seem the problem, CGI does...

One host I know has banned IB3 on the basis of the script being very processor intensive even though the mySQL functions are very lean.

Bottom line, the word is that IB3 needs to prune out a lot of unkempt code and unnecessary features before a lot of hosts will let it back on.

It is ~ 65$/month, but you might want to check it out:

http://www.venturesonline.com/hosting/v650.html

I just heard, if you want to run a large forum, you'd better have two HD, which is used for mysql only. Otherwise, it's not even better than perl scripts, because the access to mysql also consume a lot of resources.

a guy from vb also recommend this setting. If your forum is large, get a 2nd hd for mysql.

iB just announced a pure mysql/php board that should come out as a beta in the next few weeks.

http://www.ikonboard.com/aurora/brochure/what.html

Originally posted by ebird
I just heard, if you want to run a large forum, you'd better have two HD, which is used for mysql only. Otherwise, it's not even better than perl scripts, because the access to mysql also consume a lot of resources.


Hm ... I think that was my idea ... have discussed it here quite a while ago :D

cheers,
:beer:

Maybe :cool: , but I just read it on a Chinese forum yesterday.

What would you guys recommend as a good forum that allow guest posting?

I would definitely recommend phpBB (version 2!! It's in release candidate phase now). I think the link was posted above.. but you could find it by going to phpBB.com --> support forums --> phpBB2 forum (link all the way at the top). Best free php forum around :).

recommending a forum script is kind off topic.

anyway, I think most of the forums allow guest posintg, it really depends on how you setup the rules. I believe ikonboard, vB, phpbb can do this for sure.