I'm on Communitech now in a unix virtual plan. They've suspended me twice and are probably going to boot me shortly.

So I'm looking for a dedicated plan. The major part of my site is a large UBB.

http://www.powwows.com

The site as a whole gets about 350k page views per month. The board has 1300 members and about 25-50 posts per day.

I've been looking at Rackshack and ther RaQ plans.

I've heard good and bad about them. Some people in the UBB realm say that they will not handle high loads well.

Does anybody here have experience with it?

Any other plans out there under $100?

thanks

Jonglenn posted this URL, 4webspace isn't mentioned but I'm sure you know about them (although not sure if they have any servers right now or not).

http://www.saburovo.net/

I'm wondering if you converted to vBull, maybe you'd be able to stay where you are?

Original thread this was mentioned in:
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?threadid=7683

To amplify what Chicken is suggesting: vBulletin (http://www.vbulletin.com) is a UBB clone that is much less resource intensive than UBB. Even if you can't stay with CT, if you switch to vBulletin you can probably get a virtual account with a host that is familiar with vBulletin and the resources required to run it, and can tell you right off the bat whether they'll be able to host a site with the traffic you're currently seeing. The switch in software is nearly invisible to users as the two products have a very similar user interface. vBulletin is what this forum is using. You may find it easier and cheaper to switch to vB and move to a virtual account with a different host, than to stick with UBB and move to a dedicated server.

Note too that there's been more than one account of CT exaggerating their reports of resources used by a website in order to sell dedicated services. One such incident was discussed here, posted by a former CT customer who found her site used (if I remember correctly) about a third of what CT had told her before trying to sell her a dedicated server with their usual "get dedicated or get the boot" scheme. She ended up getting dedicated services from another company, then coming here and asking "WTF?" when she saw her stats.

I agree, vB is much much better than UBB. I have used both and after I tried vB I would never switch back.

Well that raises more questions.

How hard is it to switch to vbulletin? Will it transfer member files and messages?

Another question...

I had the same thought about Communitech's practices. I really didn't think that my site would cause those kinds of problems. It is not a small site, but I'm not that big.

I'd like to move off of them still just for principle, even if I switch to vBulletin.

So the question, do you feel like my site with UBB or vBulletin would run well on a RaQ server?

Will I have the same reaction, WTF--why did I need this server?

thanks

You might be better off taking your questions to the vB forum (http://vbulletin.com/forum/index.php). There are many UBB refugees there, they'll be able to suggest hosts with whom you can run vB with your current traffic, whether or not you need to go dedicated now, etc. They'll also be able to suggest protocols for moving your website to a new host and translating your database to vB.

As for how hard it is, there's a translation utility available for converting a UBB to a vB.

Be sure to come back and give us an account of how things go with your new host!

Originally posted by pgowder
Another question...

I had the same thought about Communitech's practices. I really didn't think that my site would cause those kinds of problems. It is not a small site, but I'm not that big.

I'd like to move off of them still just for principle, even if I switch to vBulletin.

So the question, do you feel like my site with UBB or vBulletin would run well on a RaQ server?

Will I have the same reaction, WTF--why did I need this server?

thanks

Deb is correct. Once you install vB there will be an option in your administrative Control Panel to convert all UBB settings, member profiles and posts to the vB format. It's quick and painless; be prepared for the possibility of losing a *few* messages but generally it works like a gem.

RaQs shouldn't have too much problems running vB, as long as you have enough RAM and processor power on them to run it. Otherwise stick with a stable Linux box.

I thought that the new version of UBB was suposed to be less resource intensive?

Read their forum to see what people are saying about the resources issue.

Originally posted by Deb Suran
Read their forum to see what people are saying about the resources issue.

Thanks...It looks as if the new version is even more resource intensive.

With regards to vB 2.0...

We have seen sites' resource usage increase drastically after upgrading to vB 2.0. In fact, last night, I upgraded a private forum that I have from version 1.1.3 to version 2.0.0 b3 (the latest release), and the difference in resource usage was astounding. The fosums, after being upgraded to 2.0.0, almost killed the server (and that was the only site on the machine!).

I'm not sure why... but every time they make a new "less intensive" version, it always seems to be "more intensive". That being said... v2.0.0 is really cool. :D

Regards,
Matt Lightner
mlightner@site5.com

Site5-Matt,

what do you mean when you say

"The fosums, after being upgraded to 2.0.0, almost killed the server (and that was the only site on the machine!)" ?

Originally posted by Site5-Matt
With regards to vB 2.0...

We have seen sites' resource usage increase drastically after upgrading to vB 2.0. In fact, last night, I upgraded a private forum that I have from version 1.1.3 to version 2.0.0 b3 (the latest release), and the difference in resource usage was astounding. The fosums, after being upgraded to 2.0.0, almost killed the server (and that was the only site on the machine!).

I'm not sure why... but every time they make a new "less intensive" version, it always seems to be "more intensive". That being said... v2.0.0 is really cool. :D

Regards,
Matt Lightner
mlightner@site5.com hey Matt, by any chance you're running with mysql default settings ? of course vb 2 beta 3 has more features than 1.1.x but check out the beta 4 version coming at http://beta.jelsoft.com with complete optimised html coding for all templates as well :D

i'm running vb 2 beta 3 for my forum with up to 1900 new posts/day at http://animeboards.com/index.php?s=

bloody fast :D