What does this forum eat in terms of CPU (average if available or estimates are fine by me as are blatant lies and jokes) cycles, disk, and bandwidth?

KGIII

Apparently, it's always under 1.

iNET said a few weeks back, that they will not release any technical information pertaining to the cluster etc. I would imagine this falls under that category.

Why heck, then make some up? Sheesh... ;)

167.3 GB of bandwidth per month
47.8 GB of disk space
CPU1 @ 100% CPU2 @ 100% CPU3 @ 27.6% right now CPU4 @ 0%

There you go...

In other words, I have no idea but was hoping someone could because I'm curious as to what a forum this size eats. :| (No, I don't own one, no I don't want one... Not now, not ever...)

KGIII

It depends who is doing the peddling. If it is the gerbils, it slows down a bit, but when we use the squirrel backup, it runs like a charm ;)

How odd? My remote location would require that I agree to Draconian FUPs for satellite connection if I wanted broadband. I used to use trained squirrels to carry the packets back and forth to the ISP but then they went out of business. No, not the squirrels but the ISP. I assume that the squirrels are carrying packets for another company.

Anyhow, now I've upgraded to professional whistlers who mimic the sound of a modem to one another over a long string with tin cans on the ends. It seems they work in shifts with one hour lunch breaks but they're supposed to be better.

One local company, being the peak of technology here, offered wireless broadband but, well, that turned out to be a couple of female yodeling lunatics and a drunken opera singer. Ah well...

KGIII

When iNet took over WHT (two years ago?) it was using 7+ servers.

7+ servers??? Oh my... That is impressive. It has grown more since then too.

KGIII

It depends who is doing the peddling. If it is the gerbils, it slows down a bit, but when we use the squirrel backup, it runs like a charm ;)

I wonder how SWR feels about those squirrel backups... durned squirrels!

7+ servers??? Oh my... That is impressive. It has grown more since then too.

KGIII

7 servers for all of inets properties. That was Hotscripts, Webhostingtalk and several others.

They're hosted at rackspace, and probably use one of their managed clustered solutions to spread out the load across functionally-specific servers.

ie: load balancer that determines where to send request.

- images go to image server
- php goes to php servers
- database goes to db servers
- etc...

Ah! Thank you. I was, well, awe struck? I was thinking clustered servers - seven of them - for this one forum. I honestly haven't a clue what this sort of traffic would look like or this sort of disk would look like. I've both owned and hosted some sites in the past but, well, nothing like this? The average day here is amazing. The hit count is surely impressive and the potential for revenue based on ads is insane. (I don't see the ads - or any ads normally actually.)

7 servers for the INTERnet part of an enterprise is still not too shabby. At ICT we had 14 racks and a AS/400. We had three DAT machines that had 10 tape bays and one of which was dedicated to backup of remote data, one was current (4 hour pulls) and one was redundant and caged. Two servers were in sync with VA's servers for the data we needed, two of them for our own local data as well as (we simply handled the inbound call volume for the company - outsourcing at it's finest) a couple for syncing with the main company itself. All over three T1 lines as that was all that ran into Maine at that time... The rest were email, time clocks, and the domain server. The majority of seats were dumb terminals (older DEC and some AT&T stuff) with about 200 out of 600 seats being 98se systems. So, as you can tell, I've been out of THAT for a while but that's the biggest I think I've personally worked on. I was there until 2000 and then went to MBNA for a bit but I was with ICT long enough to grunt work through the 2k updates where we rolled out new boxes and started ramping the automation of the accounting and time clock figures with actual log-on times. (Don't laugh but we used MySQL (I'm thinking 3.x something?) for the database for that and it was solid as a rock even though we had Oracle licenses and a Delphi coder on staff.)

Wow I digress...

I really just wanted to know what this forum sat on. It lags at times and times out once in a while but that's PROBABLY my ISP and my remote location. I was wondering what it ate for disk space and bandwidth more than anything and, barring that, hoping to get a bunch of sarcastic responses because those are just as entertaining and I'm just as likely to use that data as I would the real figures.

I'm in the process, which had been kind of going on inside my head for a while, of making http://screwedbyyourhosting.info which is, I hope, to be a side stepping stone from WHT. People come here and rant about being screwed but it seems few people actually tell them WHAT to do about their issues. Worse? Every single jaded customer out there is generally one less that you or I could have. I'm not personally in it for the money but I am in it for the long haul. One of my sites gets enough traffic to make the amount I paid for a reseller account justifiable. If I can then tag on the hosting and SEO as a value-added service and break even on hosting and the support people make a few dollars I'm all set. I don't need any money and am pretty much happy just helping people.

However... It does have a forum except no one joins it... It's NOTHING like this. WHT is insane? I have seen loads of forums. I think, of all the communities, maybe - just maybe - there are a few Usenet communities that see more visits and some IRC servers (clusters really in that case). I'd go out on a limb here and say that I feel (with some certainty) that this is the largest and most active forum on the planet that is public. I don't personally KNOW of anything bigger or more active? Anyone else seen one?

I killed one domain, swapped it over to be G³ Solutions, added it to the MVP stuff from Microsoft's newsgroups, get 250 or so uniques daily, and still only have 30 or so people in the forum. A quick look at the home page of WHT and there are 750+ active users RIGHT NOW! Over 1/3 of them are members which means that there are additional SQL calls. That's freakin' intense!

If I could actually justify a need to advertise on WHT I'd probably grab that premium slot right now. I don't want a discount - I don't want to be that big. Not now, not ever. I suppose if I could raise 7.5 million (a price for the new data center built by salesforce.com) and find 250, or so, people who are dedicated then I might consider it but no! I just want the nice simple life. *grins*

Anyhow, I am sorry for the long rambling post but, well, I had a lot on my mind. First and most was the effort from the owners and the folks who frequent here who actually DO try to help. They're insane but appreciated by at least me and probably countless others. Second, the lack of a watch-dog (and WHT doesn't really cut it in those regards) for the community. No one watches the scammers. We all, and I'm just as guilty as you I'm sure, say, "Well, keep a backup of your data and don't let your registrar also be your hosting company. Hope you learned a lesson but you're screwed and you should try _______ hosting company instead." We send them on their way, hat in hand, and they go off and look for the next cheapest web hosting company who's likely to do the same thing to them again.

I put a poll on the site. Two people (and it's NOT even public or even linked so they had to type it into the browser or cut/paste it from reading the thread in WHT) have already voted. I haven't voted yet? I should and I will I guess. (Three times - really three effen times - is going to be my vote.) That's insane... Of course they probably came there from a specific thread but, wow? What sort of name are hosting companies getting from this?

Anyhow, it's late and I've rambled on enough and have stuff to do. I shall check this thread again in a bit...

KGIII

There are lots of forums that are bigger then webhostingtalk.

http://www.big-boards.com/

BTW - Good luck with your new website! It's a decent way to bring traffic to your own hosting site. It's similar in concept to the "find a hosting provider" sites that are basically just afilliate portals and places to sell advertising.

:)

I thought so except I plan on removing my own link as the space fills up. My point, my goal I guess, isn't to be filthy rich or anything silly. I don't care so long as I break even. I'm fortunate and, well, don't have to work any longer. I'm retired and well enough off so that I can afford (which is WHY I made the choice and something I stress to anyone who asks about the business - "Can you afford to lose the money?") to take a 100% loss.

And yes, those are some big boards! Thanks! Some of them I already knew about.

Oh, last (but not least) is the goal... If the site SBYH INFO loses money - I don't really care? I was going to pay that to host my own site anyhow. The idea is helping people who've been screwed by their hosting company. I've had it tossed to me three times and was about to be hosed again when I bailed. They "updated" a search script that came pre-installed on Horde. Never touched it, never used it, never liked it, would have deleted it but we don't go screwing with stuff we don't use, and it then indexed my forum (and every other page) 3000 times inside of a few hours. Which, of course, was then 10 GB of MySQL disk space which was "unlimited" prior to that but suddenly became "limited to 50 MB" (umm, I'd sign up for that why?) and a ~$1500.00 USD bill presented to me. I said, "Well, I'll pay for it but show me the access logs to show a single time when it was edited by anyone besides you or your actions." The response was something akin to, "Wow, I'm impressed with your traffic. I'll see what I can do about giving you more database space." Umm... That's fine but there's still the matter of this bill. We'd already been looking towards reseller as we need little support and the price made sense. Needless to say I have every intention of paying that bill the very second I see the evidence that I, anyone who had my permission to use the account, or anyone who managed to crack the password performed those modifications to the script. I'll pay it that instance without a second word and I'll tattoo "I am a goober" on my right shoulder. Better yet, I'll have a drunken friend do it for me. No evidence has been forthcoming at this point...

So, I stumbled back to WHT... (For the past few years I'd only checked it once a month or so.)

I lurked, watched, waited, and sure enough found the deal I wanted and harassed the snot out of support until I was happy that they'd tolerate me. Then, well, I noticed some serious changes...

I'd say that, on average, 75% of the people who come to complain in here are legitimate. I'd say that 3 to 5 in 10 of the REAL (not those who are coming to praise a host in hopes of gaining favor or false reviews) people with fewer than 10 posts have been scammed or unfairly treated in some way IF they're telling the truth.

That number affects your bottom line...

The other day I blew hours reading ICANN rules just to help some other company's ex-clients get their domains back and hopefully that works. Hours... Unfortunately I used the wrong registrar so ended up feeling bad for using man-hours from NameCheap so I bought that domain.

We're so far off topic it's not even funny but it's well worth the idea... Maybe I should ping the mods and see what they think about a thread based on it?

I'm thinking more an industry sanctioned watch-dog. Given the hours, based on consultant fees, it could never really be a for-profit but the act of gaining a charter status to do an NPO would be beyond my initiative at this point.

You have been here as long as I and have far more posts than I. PM me with your link and I'll add you to the "sponsor" list if you'd like MrZippy. I don't actually EXPECT anyone to pay to sponsor it, it was just the idea at the time. The way I figure it you'd not be able to scam your clients. At this point in your life you've got way too much invested in your name and reputation. Scorned customers are a rather aggressive lot and if you tried to bring a new business online they're sure to notice and find you and harass you for refunds until the day you die. So, by default, I'd wager the "fee" saying you're not one of them and probably (at times) you get just as pissed as I do (or anyone else does) at the effect the kiddy hosts have.

Me? Pfft! I'm pretty much a kiddie host. Sure. I have 3 clients total. However, I'm unable to imagine the type of person who would ruin their reputation or take someones business away from them simply out of ignorance. I just can't see it. Once I got burned by *the unmentionable* and once I sent a piece of hardware to *a company* which was never setup and when they sent it back it was a completely older nearly obsolete (and entirely different brand) server, and the last time, well I explained that. I do confess, the second one (hardware) did actually return a different system to me that was better than what I'd sent them except the company I was working for wasn't too impressed with the whole deal. They refunded the payments and everything and even replaced the hardware with better after they'd realized their mistake BUT the cost was (from the enterprise level) something they couldn't even begin to cover. But that's a whole other story which I'll likely put to pixels while protecting the not-so-innocent. I'm not into name bashing or hurting or getting even. I'm into looking to, hopefully, do something to try and better the image and to resolve issues and MAYBE educate people before it happens. Hah! Like that last one will happen... :|

Anyhow... I've digressed yet again.

That IGN site is huge! I'm going to email them (really) and ask what they run for bandwidth.

Thanks.

KGIII

That top one on Big-Boards uses a hefty amount of servers. Not suprising though with that many posts :)

That top one on Big-Boards uses a hefty amount of servers. Not suprising though with that many posts :)
Who is Online? - 32966 users. (28168 visible, 3798 hidden, 1000 guests)

Gaia has 549,893,828 articles posted with 3,382,631 registered users.
Most users ever online was 41,319 on Tue Nov 01, 2005 5:08 pm
Dang! quite a few users there.