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  1. #1

    Issues with Bluehost Throttling?

    Hey everyone, new to the forum...

    I'm currently running an IPBoard through Bluehost and have recently had some slow loading times. Invision suggested that I contact Bluehost as it looked like my server was bogged down by other websites, so I contacted Bluehost and they just said this:

    This is because your account is currently experiencing CPU limiting factors (throttling). During the past 24 hours, your account has been throttled for a total of 62455.518 seconds.
    [5:02:07 PM] There is an article that covers that issue in our Helpdesk, here. I would be happy to try to answer any additional questions you may have after you've looked over that article.
    The article referenced I can't link because I don't have five posts here yet, but its basically their answer for programming and database experts to fix things -- not someone without that kind of know-how.

    Now, that article is chalk full of suggestions beyond my means. IPB is the only significant piece of data (other than WordPress, which isn't heavily trafficked) on my server so I asked them what they could help me do and they said that it looks like the server is being "over sold" (?) and directed me here (webhostingtalk.com).

    I also contacted Bluehost again, and was given this response (and redirected to the same article again):

    Hello,

    Every 500ms the throttling daemon checks to see how much collective resources your account username is requesting or utilizing. If this exceeds 7% of total system resources, we "jail" your user to a single core; Meaning you may no longer pull from the total pool of CPU resources, and are isolated to a single CPU core with other jailed users. Once jailed we allow you to use 100% of that core's available resources. If in another 500ms window your load requests have dropped below the 7% threshold for 500ms or more, we'll "un-jail" you and put you back with the collective CPU resources pool.

    It is completely software-controlled and the transition from CPU jailing and back is seamless. The only time CPU throttling will cause you issues is if your site is consistently being jailed, THEN using all the available CPU cycles of the core you're jailed to.

    We have a really great article in our helpdesk that goes over some options to help reduce throttling.

    Looking at your account, I am seeing that upgrades are necessary for scripts installed via Simple Scripts. These upgrades are highly recommended and nearly always include security patches. In order to ensure your site isn't hacked, please use the Simple Scripts tool in your cPanel to upgrade these scripts.

    You will also want to make sure that all of your themes/plugins/widgits are also up to date. I have also found that if you remove any themes/plugins/widgits that you are not using, instead of just deactivating them, that will also help to prevent throttling.

    Please don't hesitate to let us know if there is anything else that we may assist you with.
    I've run the Simple Scripts update (it was just a WordPress update), and its not resulted in much difference. My server load averages last night, according the forum AdminCP, were 21.31, 24.31, 27.28.

    Currently, its at 17.74 and it hasn't budged from that in nearly 24 hours.

    Can anyone help me out and offer any suggestions about what I can do here or if Bluehost isn't really as cracked up as everyone I spoke to made it out to be?

    (For the record, the forum isn't particularly large -- we only have about 1,200 registered members right now with no more than 80-100 people online at any given time ... but that may soon change as the forum is being folded into a much more heavily-trafficked site than mine.)

  2. #2
    Join Date
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    Also, there are hosts, who provide plans that are not oversold, and actually manage those quite a bit better than BlueHost, I think with the current amount of users you have online at one time, and the likelihood it'll increase would make a managed VPS from a reputable company like WiredTree a good choice for you.

  3. #3
    Comparing to the current price/features from bluehost, I highly recommend you try out inmotion. But if you're running a forum site and heavy traffic is expected, you will finally have to switch to a vps.

  4. #4
    What kind of "heavy traffic" would warrant the switch to a VPS, in your opinions?

  5. #5
    Join Date
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    Quote Originally Posted by shawnmr View Post
    What kind of "heavy traffic" would warrant the switch to a VPS, in your opinions?
    Well it depends on a lot of factors, but mainly things such as how many concurrent users - if they heavily write, or mainly just read (caching can be applied if it is mainly reading), etc.

  6. #6
    Join Date
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    If bluehost is Throttling your account then it might be a good idea to switch to a vps or move to a hosting company that allows more resource pull.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Posts
    3,784
    80 to 100 people online at one time? On a shared hosting account?

    Most providers are going to throttle you, that's a bit much for $5/month, no?

  8. #8
    Join Date
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    Quote Originally Posted by nerdie View Post
    80 to 100 people online at one time? On a shared hosting account?

    Most providers are going to throttle you, that's a bit much for $5/month, no?
    Agreed. You may want to look at upgrading to a VPS
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  9. #9
    Join Date
    May 2010
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    Quote Originally Posted by shawnmr View Post
    Hey everyone, new to the forum...

    I'm currently running an IPBoard through Bluehost and have recently had some slow loading times. Invision suggested that I contact Bluehost as it looked like my server was bogged down by other websites, so I contacted Bluehost and they just said this:



    The article referenced I can't link because I don't have five posts here yet, but its basically their answer for programming and database experts to fix things -- not someone without that kind of know-how.

    Now, that article is chalk full of suggestions beyond my means. IPB is the only significant piece of data (other than WordPress, which isn't heavily trafficked) on my server so I asked them what they could help me do and they said that it looks like the server is being "over sold" (?) and directed me here (webhostingtalk.com).

    I also contacted Bluehost again, and was given this response (and redirected to the same article again):



    I've run the Simple Scripts update (it was just a WordPress update), and its not resulted in much difference. My server load averages last night, according the forum AdminCP, were 21.31, 24.31, 27.28.

    Currently, its at 17.74 and it hasn't budged from that in nearly 24 hours.

    Can anyone help me out and offer any suggestions about what I can do here or if Bluehost isn't really as cracked up as everyone I spoke to made it out to be?

    (For the record, the forum isn't particularly large -- we only have about 1,200 registered members right now with no more than 80-100 people online at any given time ... but that may soon change as the forum is being folded into a much more heavily-trafficked site than mine.)


    You're using far too many resources for a shared hosting account. you need to upgrade to a higher usage plan with some dedicated resources (VPS, dedicated, premium semi dedicated hosting etc) especially for $5 per month


    joe
    www.JGwebhosting.co.uk - CPanel Control panel, domain registration, Reseller packages And 24X7 Technical support! - Now Taking in Hosting Refugee's

    www.JGpcrepair.co.uk - Computer repair, New Systems, Software, Hardware

  10. #10
    Join Date
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    if you are constantly using 7% of the System resources, then plain and simple you have outgrown shared hosting and need to allocate more dedicated resources to your website.
    CPanel Shared and Reseller Hosting, OpenVZ VPS Hosting. West Coast (LA) Servers and Nodes
    Running Linux since 1.0.8 Kernel!
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  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by lakridserne View Post
    Well it depends on a lot of factors, but mainly things such as how many concurrent users - if they heavily write, or mainly just read (caching can be applied if it is mainly reading), etc.
    We have approximately 1,000 posts per day right now, which will probably grow over the next couple of months as we enter the summer season (its a movie forum) and gain more exposure from the new main website -- I'm projecting at least 1,500 posts per day by 2,000 isn't out of the question by May/June/July.

    Having said that, and looking at all of your suggestions, what might be some additional cost effective suggestions? Or other things I should look for in another provider? I'm not entirely sure, but $80-100/month might be hard to swing in our current budget right now.
    Last edited by shawnmr; 03-07-2012 at 06:03 PM.

  12. #12
    If you’re not making any money from your site and its costing you money to run I would shut it down no site is worth upgrading to a VPS if you’re not making money out of it and hello and welcome to the forums. Or maybe put a PayPal donation button on your site maybe raise funds that way you can keep it running or charge for advertising via your forum.These are only suggestions.I know if I had a forum and it was costing me money I would say bye bye to it
    Last edited by Ninjapanther Hosting; 03-07-2012 at 06:28 PM.

  13. #13
    If it were just me alone, I would probably consider it. As it stands, what used to be "my" forum (running on donations already) is now merging into another site (Boxoffice.com). Plus, the forum was founded because *another* site shut down theirs and the user base came to me and my site initially (Boxofficetheory.com).

    So getting rid of it is...not really an option. That's why I'm looking for the most cost effective way...plus, its not me personally that will be paying for it anymore, but my company.

  14. #14
    Assuming you need a VPS might be a little early. Try a couple things first:

    - Add caching to your blog and forum. This way you don't spend CPU time recreating pages in PHP; you just serve the ones you've already created. I'm not too familiar with IPBoard, but WordPress has multiple plugins that do caching for you (wp-super-cache, w3-total-cache, etc). Add one to WordPress and try searching for a caching addon/module/plugin for IPBoard.

    - Searches are usually the brutal part, so if you reduced or limited those (in some way) you'd probably reduce the problem. Jumping back to plugins, I've seen WP Search plugins that replace WP's search with a Google search bar. In addition to cutting down on resource use, you'd wind up with pay-per-click ad revenue (assuming you can stand ads). There may be something similar for IPBoard.

    - Tweak your forum settings. You can also try showing a few less posts per page or a few less threads per category. Other minor tweaks can also help mitigate the problem.

    - Bluehost does offer a Pro account, which is likely cheaper than any managed VPS account you're looking at. The Pro account comes with far less users on the same server and allocates more resources to you. If you're really using that much CPU (and assuming you otherwise like Bluehost) try upgrading before you go through the trouble of switching hosts.

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by Ninjapanther-Greg View Post
    If you’re not making any money from your site and its costing you money to run I would shut it down no site is worth upgrading to a VPS if you’re not making money out of it and hello and welcome to the forums.
    WTF? Some people run forums, web sites, etc. out of personal interest, passion, interest in a community, etc.

    Not everyone is on the Internet to make a fast buck. Shocking, I know.

  16. #16
    IPB does good caching out if the box, but it's better if it has a PHP opcode cache. Look at the phpinfo in your ACP and see if bluehost is using apc or xcache and adjust your conf_global.php accordingly. PM me if that doesn't make sense.

    Also you can set performance mode on the ACP, but then you're trading off features.

    I think a VPS is probably called for...forums are cpu-intense.

  17. #17
    Kicking you in jail if you exceed the web hosting server resources for half second is not exactly nice. Most of the time if you do this for 30 or 60 seconds is considered bad.

  18. #18
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
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    Quote Originally Posted by SiteServing View Post
    Kicking you in jail if you exceed the web hosting server resources for half second is not exactly nice. Most of the time if you do this for 30 or 60 seconds is considered bad.
    It's an oversold to death host, not a reasonable one.

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