Hello all,
I have been using IX for the last 2 1/2 years. In that time, they have absolutely gone to hell. They used to be amazing. Now my forums are down for hours at a time pretty often. I would like to move hosting immediately and could use some solid recommendations. My main concerns are uptime, especially for my database driven forums. I would also like a host with large email limits so that I can mass email forum members periodic updates and announcements. Since my site is art related and the forums have a gallery, I need a host that offer large disk space for not a large price.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

all the best,
Joe

I am sorry to hear about your experience with IX. Did you contact them and ask them to fix your issues?

I need a host that offer large disk space for not a large price

How much space are you looking for? Many hosts oversell and therefore are able to provide higher space for lower prices. However you must remember that you always get what you pay for. Too much overselling can drag down a server, especially ones that run dynamic websites (or forums).

I would also like to add that higher email limits (and database driven sites) require more processing power. So if uptime is important, get a better plan with a host that does not oversell too much.

Hello Joe

How big your forum is? (post/threads), how many visitors at the same time does it have (average/peaks)?.
Approximately how much space and bandwidth are you actually using?

How big is your forum? Average/max users online? How much bandwidth are you currently using, and whats your budget?

Edit: duh, Jedito got to it while I was posting

Edit: duh, Jedito got to it while I was posting
I'm too fast :D

Thanks for all of the fast replies.

The forums are not very big yet because we are pretty new, only 3,708 registered members. But we are growing fast and offer a free gallery for uploading of art, which currently has just under 8,000 images and growing. I don't know that I ever have that many users online at once, but I still get a lot of downtime and DB critical errors.

Here is my traffic details per my cp and I don't really know what that means in terms of performance: Incoming: 726.6 MB - Outgoing: 13.4 GB - Total: 14.1 GB

I am planning for the future also and know that my site will grow. So I want to take into account my future needs.

I would like to spend somewhere in the $7-$12 per month range if possible.

thanks again for your help.
Joe

The bandwidth doesn't seems to be a problem, however, how much space are you using? are the images stored in the DB or as a regular files?

The bandwidth doesn't seems to be a problem, however, how much space are you using? are the images stored in the DB or as a regular files?

Once the images are uploaded, they are stored in separate directory folders as files. Also, a thumbnail and midsized image are generated for each upload.

all the best,
Joe

Once the images are uploaded, they are stored in separate directory folders as files. Also, a thumbnail and midsized image are generated for each upload.

all the best,
Joe

Man joe, you got a freaking amazing looking site if it is infact http://www.asingularcreation.com/ :agree: . Good work there. Are you an artist, for that sweet site i would definitely be spending something like $12 - 18$ a month just to get reliable services.

Well you can look at steadfast.net or knownhost.com for reliable services i used them both but for a vps, i am sure their shared hosting works great too with good support.

Once again nice work, now i feel so jealous of you :blush:

Cheers

Your forum is not that big yet, any reasonable shared hosting company will servie your needs. Check out Hostgator, Mydomain, Dreamhosts for a few off the top of my head...

How much space are you actually using? I'm sorry, I was unable to see it if you already stated it.

Has the amount of DB connections been an issue for you?

How much space are you actually using? I'm sorry, I was unable to see it if you already stated it.

Only about 300MB

Man joe, you got a freaking amazing looking site if it is infact http://www.asingularcreation.com/ :agree: . Good work there. Are you an artist, for that sweet site i would definitely be spending something like $12 - 18$ a month just to get reliable services.

Well you can look at steadfast.net or knownhost.com for reliable services i used them both but for a vps, i am sure their shared hosting works great too with good support.

Once again nice work, now i feel so jealous of you :blush:

Cheers

Thanks for the compliment. If you want to get a preview of my redesigned home page coming soon, here you are: http://asingularcreation.com/index1.html

I will check out your recommendations.

Has the amount of DB connections been an issue for you?

Yes, that seems to be the major problem. I get a lot of critical errors, unable to connect to the database, a lot of timed outs, etc.

Your forum is not that big yet, any reasonable shared hosting company will servie your needs. Check out Hostgator, Mydomain, Dreamhosts for a few off the top of my head...

I have been eyeing up Hostgator and they seem to look pretty good. But I wanted to look into it a bit further and get a few more options before I commit.

thanks,
Joe

Thanks for the compliment. If you want to get a preview of my redesigned home page coming soon, here you are: http://asingularcreation.com/index1.html

I will check out your recommendations.

Nice, i might steal that idea of the header for building the new engineering website for the university i work for.

Hmm.. cool !!

I understand that you need space to grow with your site, however, if you don't mind a suggestion, avoid those hosts offering tons of space and bandwidth for a ridiculous low amount of money, you shall already learn the lesson with IX

I understand that you need space to grow with your site, however, if you don't mind a suggestion, avoid those hosts offering tons of space and bandwidth for a ridiculous low amount of money, you shall already learn the lesson with IX

I agree with you. That's very good advice. That is why I am here. I want to learn about hosting products from people who know much more than I.

thanks,
Joe

Check the connect file make sure its right. If you still want a new host look in a lot of places and compare yourself.
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That's a beautiful website :)

I'm sure there are lots of good hosts you could choose from, but I wonder what makes you think this is a host problem rather than a site problem?

Everyday I am looking at the logs and the processlists on our mysql servers trying to help customers who think we are giving them **** service (pardon my language) when in fact the problem is their own software generating mysql queries that cannot complete in a reasonable amount of time.

I see queries that require temporary tables to be written before the result will be returned.

I see queries that look one by one at several hundred thousand records before they can return a result.

I see 10 or 20 identical queries lined up, each one waiting for the ones before it to complete before they can begin.

I see connections sleeping for 30 or 40 seconds after completing a query because the connection has not been closed.

I see webmasters running administrative tasks that tie up tables and cause visitor accesses to fail.

Before you decide that your host started good and went bad I think you should ask your host for help. Very often the problem is that your site started quiet and got busier and that your software wasn't written to scale well.

This can happen even with good forum packages if you install add on modules that are not as well written as the main package.

That's a beautiful website :)

I'm sure there are lots of good hosts you could choose from, but I wonder what makes you think this is a host problem rather than a site problem?

Everyday I am looking at the logs and the processlists on our mysql servers trying to help customers who think we are giving them **** service (pardon my language) when in fact the problem is their own software generating mysql queries that cannot complete in a reasonable amount of time.

I see queries that require temporary tables to be written before the result will be returned.

I see queries that look one by one at several hundred thousand records before they can return a result.

I see 10 or 20 identical queries lined up, each one waiting for the ones before it to complete before they can begin.

I see connections sleeping for 30 or 40 seconds after completing a query because the connection has not been closed.

I see webmasters running administrative tasks that tie up tables and cause visitor accesses to fail.

Before you decide that your host started good and went bad I think you should ask your host for help. Very often the problem is that your site started quiet and got busier and that your software wasn't written to scale well.

This can happen even with good forum packages if you install add on modules that are not as well written as the main package.

Thanks for your reply. I appreciate what you are saying. I am 100% positive it is a hosting issue. My databases have not changed over the last year and I have been told by them that they are having SQL issues. Most of the time they are fine, but going down for hours at a time is becoming more often.

all the best,
Joe

Your forum is not that big yet, any reasonable shared hosting company will servie your needs. Check out Hostgator, Mydomain, Dreamhosts for a few off the top of my head...

I suggest hostgator ,

I strongly disagree. I have had many bad experiences with HostGator, and many of my friends have too. Particularly for forums actually.... Seems that there MYSQL servers keep on dying....
Go for someone that does not oversell.... think about it logically, can someone really offer you 7.5TB of bandwidth a month for $5? no.... it will cost them a lot more, if you were to actually use that.... go with someone that does not oversell

Take a look at downtownhost they are not an overseller and have the best reviews on the forum.

Singular set your budget to $12 and find the best package you can from any non-overselling hosts, and you shall be fine. Dont let overselling come in your way of having a site loading like crazy slow or having more downtimes than you expected.

Might i ask which hosts have you narrowed down to so far ?

cheers

Singular set your budget to $12 and find the best package you can from any non-overselling hosts, and you shall be fine. Dont let overselling come in your way of having a site loading like crazy slow or having more downtimes than you expected.

Might i ask which hosts have you narrowed down to so far ?

cheers

I really like what I have heard about Downtown Host so far. Nothing bad has been said about them from anyone. They look like the favorites.

I like Downtownhost a lot. IX is pathetic, from my experience. I would agree to not go with someone who oversells. steadfast.net and hawkhost.com seem reasonable and decent, too.