Hi,

For some reason, my site is loading slow or not even loading at all. It's only been happening for 1-2 days.

I run a free forum host, currently hosting around 60 forums, none of which are active. For some reason, when a user goes to a create a forum, it basically goes through half the process and then stops. This leaves them without a forum and me with a bunch of excess SQL entries.

Sometimes, the phpBB forum won't even load. Other times, I get a 500 server error. I contacted ResellerZoom and they basically told me to upgrade to their Advanced plan. I'm on a budget plan. I use around 200MB of space and less than 2GB of bandwidth on all my sites. How do I know if I am truly using too much server resources? I emailed customer support asking for proof that I am using too much resources but I have yet to receive a response.

I have no problem with RZ, they are really great people. There support is top notch and the speed is fairly good for the price. I just want to know for sure that it is in fact because of my server usage before I actually upgrade to their advanced plan. I don't even need that much space though. It's a tremendous price increase, all I need is the extra server resources I guess.

Any ideas? What should I say to them?

Open a ticket with them. There is no need to ask us about this, we have no way to tell you for sure if it is overusage as we do not have root on there servers.

Well, you may be a slightly heavy resource user but the problem likely lies with another user that has a popular site. The budget plans @ RZ have a lot of users on each server making it a bad environment for high CPU usage sites. Are all your phpBB boards up to date?

Yes, all the phpBB boards are up to date. What should I ask customer support to provide me with so that I know I am using enough resources to qualify me for their advanced plan.

Customer support just fixed the problem, I just hope it doesn't happen again.

Thanks for the help guys!

Originally posted by MaxS
Yes, all the phpBB boards are up to date. What should I ask customer support to provide me with so that I know I am using enough resources to qualify me for their advanced plan.
Ask them what makes them think you are using so many resources...there has to be a reason for them to come to this conclusion.

Originally posted by elix
Ask them what makes them think you are using so many resources...there has to be a reason for them to come to this conclusion.
They fixed the problem for the most part. I'm still getting the occasional 500 error. I have emailed tech support asking what them what's causing the problem and how they know. And most importantly, why I should upgrade.

By the way MaxS, free-hosts on Budget plans are being phased out. I recommend you upgrade to their advanced plans, as I have done.

Originally posted by ScreamingEaglePC
By the way MaxS, free-hosts on Budget plans are being phased out. I recommend you upgrade to their advanced plans, as I have done.
Most probably, I will.

Tech support told me that the server was under a high load and they were working on it. They said there is no way of finding out my account's server usage from my end. It works now. Either way, I'll probably upgrade fairly soon.

Originally posted by MaxS
Most probably, I will.

Tech support told me that the server was under a high load and they were working on it. They said there is no way of finding out my account's server usage from my end. It works now. Either way, I'll probably upgrade fairly soon. :) You'll like it alot better. You can also take advantage of the free features they provide. The free end-user support should be very handy for you.

Originally posted by MaxS

I run a free forum host, currently hosting around 60 forums, none of which are active. For some reason, when a user goes to a create a forum, it basically goes through half the process and then stops. This leaves them without a forum and me with a bunch of excess SQL entries.

Just so you are aware, we do not allow free services to be hosted on our servers according to section 28 of our TOS.

Originally posted by hzKiet
Just so you are aware, we do not allow free services to be hosted on our servers according to section 28 of our TOS. I thought you were allowing people to do free-hosting on their Advanced Plans?

They're paying for the space, wouldn't it be used just the same? As long as they screen each of the accounts to make sure there is nothing illegal going on?

Advanced accounts come with free end user support... Free hosts would put a heavy load on support with their tens or hundreds of small websites and inexperienced webmasters.

Always keep phpbb up-to-date or any other script for that matter, you might be risking your hosting if you do not. Some web hosts suspend accounts if the account is found to be using an older version of scripts with security exploits.

Glad to hear your issue was resolved with HZ :)

Originally posted by ldcdc
Advanced accounts come with free end user support... Free hosts would put a heavy load on support with their tens or hundreds of small websites and inexperienced webmasters. Ugh! I didn't even think of that.

Thanks for the reality check Dan :)

Originally posted by ScreamingEaglePC
I thought you were allowing people to do free-hosting on their Advanced Plans?

Hi ScreamingEaglePC,
It's not allowed on any reseller plan and needed to protect our network. If you have any furthur questions about it feel free to email me directly at kiet[at]hostingzoom.com. Thanks.