Hi there,

I need to put up a site for a high school. I was going to go with hostgator because I've had very good experience with them... however, they have a policy of suspending accounts if they use too much cpu-- I'm concerned that if the web site gets a spike in traffic, it could cause an outage at a crucial moment (for example, after a TV news spot on the school).

We're trying to raise money to keep the school open, so I have to have a system in place that can handle the occasional spike in traffic--- those visitors are potential donors.

I've seen a few scalable hosting options, but (Basso, I think).. but they start at $100 a month. The school pays $20 a month for fuitadnet.com at the moment and I'm not satisfied with their service.

Does anyone have any suggestions for a new web host that provides a reasonable package with a flexible bandwith agreement under $20 per month ?


thanks.

You should be able to find one within $20/month. What are you disk space/bandwidth requirements? Do you have preference of Server location? Do you need ms sql databases?

Hello,

The problem is not disk space and bandwith, but you are concern with the fact that your site will use alot of server resources correct? Fot that, we will suggest you to start with a hosting package and if needed you can upgrade to a VPS later.

Hello,

I agree, the VPS server is more advanced solution.

Regards

Hmmm, no-one has asked what kind of cpu resources it's actually using at the moment. What code are you using on the site that uses the cpu resources?

What you are looking for is a host that doesn't offer unlimited this-that-and-the-other. Well priced hosts build in the possible cpu usage into the pricing of their packages, so you CAN use the resources that you are paying for.

Otherwise, you are definately running a risk of being suspended due to many possible things (that mass-oversellers are notorious for).

Bandwidth and CPU usage are independent. Yes, they can be closely related, but you can have one inefficient script running that will kill your usage limit at a shared host, while using virtually no bandwidth. So what you need to do is make sure that the site is as optimized and efficient as possible. Once you do that, do your research on hosts and focus less on bandwidth and more on resource usage limits. Finally, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

A semi dedicated server might do the trick for you as they offer potentially higher CPU usage allowance compared to standard shared hosting.

I thought Fuitadnet is currently is on a load balanced configuration or atleast thats what was informed when I last worked with them.

Anyways, The thing you need to ask yourself and look at is, What is the average traffic you receive, and estimate your spike from that. Also as others suggested you need to look at how cpu intense your scripts are and how they'll effect your site/server when the spike comes in.

Best Regards
Kumar Kommukuri

school web site should be in the best place of server.

why not considering to take all in one hosting solution, not just scale able bandwidth?

Medialayer has done a great job of handling my sites when they get "Dugg" or "slashdotted"

I have no issue recommending them. My sites are very database heavy and get very significant traffic and I've had no issues. Its the best shared hosting I've ever used.