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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Posts
    41

    * Do you have any experience of hosting FORUMS with Dreamhos and ******?

    I want to launch a new FORUM website, I am considering to host it with Dreamhost or ******.

    Do you have any experience of hosting FORUMS with them?

    My main concern is speed.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    canada
    Posts
    529
    Both hosts are a popular subject on these forums so you can try for some immediate responces : )

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    862
    I have a sort of forum at DreamHost. Fortunately, I don't have any speed issue.
    But the program is written by myself and highly optimized.
    Almost all forum pages are cached and served as static html data.
    So, CGI is working only when people post, edit or search (and when I do admin tasks).

    If you use one of popular but heavy PHP forums and if you have lots of users,
    you may encounter some problems (unless you do lots of optimization).

    I don't know well about ******.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    Goleta, CA
    Posts
    5,566
    dreamhost will probably be fine for you. You might be dissappointed with speed on both hosts. If you really care you can always get a dedicated server and highly optimize the backend software your forum runs on.
    Patron: I'd like my free lunch please.
    Cafe Manager: Free lunch? Did you read the fine print stating it was an April Fool's joke.
    Patron: I read the same way I listen, I ignore the parts I don't agree with. I'm suing you for false advertising.
    Cafe Owner: Is our lawyer still working pro bono?

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Posts
    41
    Thank you for fast responses.
    its relaunch of my forum, so expected traffic is:
    SMF Forum software
    20K+ posts( in backed database )
    3000+ users
    Avg user online at a time : 20
    Most user online : ~120 something

    This site was previously hosted on NETFIRMS. and they S****

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    862
    In my case, I don't use MySQL data base, because that's where lots of badly written PHP apps can cause the slowness.

    I tend to think it's more of the lcuk to land on the right server (or cluster) with good neighbors.
    And I have been relatively lucky.

    Even with a "good" host, you may land on the server with a few abusing people,
    and you can have some issues until the host takes care of them (by moving them, shutting down their sites or scripts).
    A host like DreamHost is free and permissible, and it also means not very strict (nor quick) about controling abusers.
    On the other hand, you can be treated as an abuser (if you use heavy forum), and then you'd prefer a relaxed host rather than a host with very tight control.

    Also, you should check if you can optimize SMF, further.
    Go and ask their user forum to see if you can apply agressive caching on it, possibly removing some features.
    These efforts can make difference between staying on a cheap shared hosting or going to a lot more expensive solutions.

  7. #7
    i would recommend a vps

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Brooklyn
    Posts
    77
    The DH specs are good, I think:
    Disk Storage at signup - 200 GB
    Automatically Increases Weekly By: 1 GB
    Monthly Bandwidth at signup - 2 TB
    Automatically Increases Weekly By: 16 GB
    MySQL Databases - Unlimited
    Looks good to me!

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Brooklyn
    Posts
    77
    May I ask what hosting, if any, WHT uses?

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Posts
    9,264
    I wouldn't chance the site on a company that oversells to those degrees.
    I'd recommend doing a search for either company before pursuing them further!

    With a forum you're going to want decent speed to keep users around: If the forum is unusable they'll go somewhere else. With a static site that doesn't rely on mysql/php -- you'd be great on either host as only uptime would really matter.

    With a forum that's relying on a good database speed and overall server load: I would say go with a host that oversells to a lot less of a degree.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Brooklyn
    Posts
    77
    With a static site that doesn't rely on mysql/php -- you'd be great on either host as only uptime would really matter
    Are you saying that MySQL/any database isn't a good idea/doesn't matter for a forum/Joomla?

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Posts
    9,264
    Quote Originally Posted by Willdex
    Are you saying that MySQL/any database isn't a good idea/doesn't matter for a forum/Joomla?
    Read the next line :/

    With a forum that's relying on a good database speed and overall server load: I would say go with a host that oversells to a lot less of a degree.

    You'll want something smaller packagewise and from a host with a decent reputation.
    With those types of prices even using the amount they're offering is going to be next to impossible with a dynamic site (forum/joomla) so it's best to get something a bit more realistic.

    Note: My apologies for any earlier confusion! I'll admit my spew was a tad ambiguous.
    Last edited by David; 11-01-2006 at 05:14 PM.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Brooklyn
    Posts
    77
    a bit more realistic
    Any ideas? Y! was/still is very reputable, that's why I've signed up for that. G doesn't offer web-hosting yet, but I'd go for that. DreamHost seems fine...It's all a matter of testing.

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Posts
    9,264
    Here's the most recent review I can find on dreamhost that contains the word forum:

    http://webhostingtalk.com/showthread...orum+dreamhost

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    East Coast // NYC
    Posts
    1,698
    Quote Originally Posted by Willdex
    May I ask what hosting, if any, WHT uses?
    WHT has dedicated box(es?) over at RackSpace...

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Location
    EU - east side
    Posts
    21,920
    1. With a forum, expecting to pay $1 per GB of data transfer used (or as close to it as possible) is not a bad idea.
    2. Hosting, even at that level, is cheap.
    3. Make the forum sustain itself (ads are the more common choice).
    4. If forum users don't want ads on a forum they use for no fee, they're unreasonable. Focus on the reasonable ones.
    5.
    My main concern is speed.
    If you want a fast car you don't look for the cheapest car on the market. Price is always important, but if you make it the ultimate criterion, adjust the expectations, and if the service/product turns out to be better than expected, take that as bonus.
    Last edited by ldcdc; 11-01-2006 at 06:19 PM.

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Posts
    41
    Thank you for that great piece of advice ldcdc.
    I was not using ads, just bcoz it was a new community.

    I have searched all over, and made two finalists DREAMHOST and ******
    DREAMHOST's has no live presentative to chat with,
    But I managed to catch one @ ******, and I think I will go with ******. The deal is :
    100 GB/1000GB
    upto 6 websites ( good for TESTING websites )

    for $96 via PAYPAL(+point) for 30 months hosting ($3.20/month)

    Please Do tell me If I am making a mistake, I dont want to loose my site again.

  18. #18
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Location
    EU - east side
    Posts
    21,920
    Please Do tell me If I am making a mistake, I dont want to loose my site again.
    It's not up to me/us to decide, but up to you. Just kep in mind that, ss can be derived from my previous post, you won't be able to push anywhere close to 1TB of data transfer with a forum, off a shared hosting account.

    I highly recommend you to use http://www.webhostingtalk.com/search.php and search for the name of any company you're considering using, and carefully read the reviews you find about them. If the results are too numerous, choose the "Search titles only" option to get to the more meaningful threads.

    Good luck!

  19. #19

    Thumbs up

    Quote Originally Posted by vivsin
    I want to launch a new FORUM website, I am considering to host it with Dreamhost or ******.

    Do you have any experience of hosting FORUMS with them?

    My main concern is speed.
    If you wanna host a forum then don't host on dreamhost or ******.
    Reasons behind it are:
    # They will restrict you in terms of resources.
    # They will restrict you in terms of per day data transfer, hits.
    # They even keep the records of per day, per hour, per week hits, traffic, pages view and data transfer and they will restrict you from it.
    # They are clustered servers which is very very bad for SEO

  20. #20
    Join Date
    Feb 2005
    Location
    Australia
    Posts
    5,849
    Quote Originally Posted by vivsin
    Thank you for fast responses.
    its relaunch of my forum, so expected traffic is:
    SMF Forum software
    20K+ posts( in backed database )
    3000+ users
    Avg user online at a time : 20
    Most user online : ~120 something

    This site was previously hosted on NETFIRMS. and they S****
    With a PHP forum peaking at 120 users online your resource usage is likely to be more than any $10 shared host will tolerate. A low-end VPS would also have problems. What was wrong with Netfirms? Did they tell you that you need a dedicated server?

    Whoever you go with, keep good, regular backups - I have a feeling you're going to need them.
    Chris

    "Some problems are so complex that you have to be highly intelligent and well informed just to be undecided about them." - Laurence J. Peter

  21. #21
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Posts
    41
    Oh my GOD, Thanks to ldcdc for advising search features.
    I cant find a single happy man who is using ******.

    I am lost, I know what to do, where to go.

    @ foobic:
    Here are the problems I faced with NF
    - they closed my account just after a week of purchas bcoz my IP addresses used to Make the payment and Login into control panel were different. ( no problem, they want to avoid fraud )
    At this time I was cool with it ( they converted my paid account into a free account with 25MB total space ) My site was safe.
    - After this I talked to them ( they suck in support area too ), There responses were Useless, after 100 mins on phone I made them understand that My developer lives in different country so IP problem will always be there. they said its ok.

    - 2 months later when I got 10K paid posts on my website it was down again for same problem (account was instantly converted into FREE account with 25 MB), I talked to them, they said sorry, BUT DATABASE was missing.

    - A lot of boom bang on phone afterthat, but no result.

  22. #22
    With an average of 20 users and a maximum of ~120 on at the same time you should start by looking at a VPS and then possibly aim at a dedicated server.

    You should not under any circumstances go with a shared solution for a forum with the requirements listed above.

  23. #23
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Posts
    41
    What minimum configuration (for now, as they can be upgraded later once site is properly up again) I should use for VPS to host my forum?

  24. #24
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Location
    Australia - NSW
    Posts
    1,053
    Quote Originally Posted by vivsin
    What minimum configuration (for now, as they can be upgraded later once site is properly up again) I should use for VPS to host my forum?
    If you use the cPanel control panel you should look at min. 512MB RAM.

    The servers what the VPS will be hosted on should be dual core/dual CPU.
    Recommended: Stablehost, Hivelocity, Fused

  25. #25
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Brooklyn
    Posts
    77
    Look what I've found: http://www.dreamhost-sucks.com/

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