I have been having serious site performance issues with my current hosting company that have been dogging me since the beginning but have recently become absolutely unacceptable. I have given them more than one attempt at correcting the horrible latency issues that make my site unusable at times. The problem is not with my code or UBB Threads - it is them and I finally got them to admit it but they can't seem to fix it. So I am looking for advice on hosing companies and thought I would defer my research to you helpful people. I prefer a Linux server and at the very least need a minimum of 5 SQL databases, streaming video, PHP and e-mail.

P.S. - I am currently using Network Solutions

Here's a topic recommending a few different hosting services:

http://www.ubbcentral.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/216111/Forum_server.html#Post216111

Thank you for the PM's and the link...

I find it difficult to really discern any significant differences between all of the hosting companies out there. Do a search and visit different "host rating" sites and you get varied results. I really need to stay within a budget and shared hosting offers many cheap options but I am afraid that going from what I have now to a different shared environment will give me the same problems. From what I read around here a VPS plan might be worthwhile but again, plans vary and so do costs.

Does anyone use or have used Go-Daddy? They have some affordable Linux VPS plans. Personally, I think there is no way to tell what your experience is going to be and I guess I am going to have to just go and do and see what happens.

Word of advice; don't use a domain registry for a webhost... results show it's bad... Especially so with GoDaddy and NetSol

Could you expand on that? Now that you mention this, Network Solutions is currently my registrar AND my hosting company. When I move my web sites to a different host, should I simply leave Network Solutions as my registrar? or are Net Sol and Go Daddy not advisable to use BECAUSE they are registrys? Don't most hosting companies offer domain registration?

No no no no... I'm saying, you shouldn't use a company that specializes in domain reistrations as a webhost; IMO they spread themselves too thin...

From what i've heard from clients, NetSol sucks as a host (and IMHO they grossly overcharge for domain registrations).

And most hosting sites that offer registrations are using a reseller account (like me, all of my domain registrations for clients go through eNom vs operating my own retry,which would cost an arm and a leg) so they don't see the same overhead and have to do as much as compared to NetSol or GoDaddy

AHHH! Got it. Network Solutions is definitely spread too thin and that is my problem - too much traffic, too much latency between the SQL server and the server cluster my sites are on. It has been absolutely miserable the last few months and I cannot allow this to continue as my site is down or hangs 50% of the time during the holiday season... scratch Go Daddy too I guess...

WebHosting Stuff has a pretty good VPS Listing (with reviews and the like)

More homework to do - great link Gizmo!

One more question...

Do I REALLY need a VPS?

I ask this because I read many recommendations on going that way. Considering my recent problems it seems this will eliminate me server problems but I wonder if my problems were more the host than anything else. My traffic averages 5,000 hits a week.

Well, it depends really; you'd have guarenteed resources... But you could try virtual hosting; that link has a "standard hosting" section as well

More questions:

• What is a fully Managed VPS? Many of you here work in the industry or are IT guys but someone like myself who has limited knowledge and experience having the hosting company "take care" of running the server is a plus. I can only assume that is what managed implies. I do understand the advantages to having full control though.
  .
• VPS packages offer a choice of operating systems; CentOS, Fedora, SUSE, Debian - is there a most common or preferred OS?
  .
• There are also choices in control panels like WebMin, Plesk and cPanel. Are there differences other than preference? cPanel looks simple and easy to use.
  .
• Ruben Rocha mentioned to me that some hosts have a tool to allow a client to upgrade from a shared hosting plan to a VPS plan. Since I don't think I have a need for a VPS, (YET) the option is attractive. Is this common for a hosting company even if they don't itemize this option or is this really not that big of a deal?
  .
• Guaranteed RAM: what is the recommended minimum where a choice is a deciding factor? 128 MBs? 256 MBs? More?

You guys are awesome with the advice you offer the members here. Although you won't know what the results are going to be until you get there, I feel more confident in making an informed choice. I have narrowed my choices down to inmotionhosting.com, hostgator.com and am taking another look at webintellects.com and I suppose I will leave network Solutions as my registrar for the moment and figure that out once I straighten out my hosting.

Here are a few posts with answers to some of your questions
http://www.ubbcentral.com/forums/ubbthre...html#Post220190
http://www.ubbcentral.com/forums/ubbthre...html#Post219518
http://www.ubbcentral.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/220370/New_Server.html#Post220370

Thanx. I read through those a few times already LOL!

I've been happy with midphase.com using a shared plan.

Who recommended hostgator ? I don't know for sure but the page looks like one of the sites that basically said they offered a lot but when you got there it sucked.

Hopefully someone here recommended them, or someone else from a reputable site.

I have never had any success with these corporations hosting web sites. They all offer the world at such a low price you can't believe the deal. You sigh up and they are wonderful for 6 months to a year. Then the service starts to decline and the charges goes up as you need a dedicated this and that or your "maxing the CPU" or you are "requiring to much resources" and so on. You get what you pay for.

I have had more success with smaller companies and paying a little more to them in the past for a while.

I have even had one hosting company tell me "if you think you can do it better go ahead and try". Well I tried, I'm doing fine, and they are out of business.

My suggestion is to stay away from very large corporations who buy up tons of web hosting companies and try to corner the market on price. I know everyone looks at the bottom line but when it comes down to it the bottom is just that the bottom. The bottom line in price is also just that.

Fully Managed: they update for you (kind of cool but it'll cost more)
OS: CentOS or a RedHat Derivitave, updates will be simple with use of "yum"
Control Panel: Yeh, CPAnel is nice and easy, but it's not free, and your price will reflect this. It also uses a lot of resources. Webmin with Virtualmin installed is free
RAM: I'm fairly small and easily max out 356MB; though a 1GB swap keeps me in check

BTW, I haven't heard many good things about hostgator

And, Lock bro, I know you don't like the big guys, but you're beginning to seem like you're trolling the site for customers...

No Gizmo, I actually would turn down anyone who came to me for service through this site including you, even if they seen me on this site.

I always ask how they have heard of my company and I'm very picky who I host for. I turn down 15 customers to every 1 I take on as a customer.

I have extended the ability to Groupee and Rick to use a server here for testing of beta software and to try things on a different box and that is the total extent of my generosity. If that becomes an issue then I will no longer offer the box.

Related To My Previous Post

Above is related to my previous post about not looking at the large corporations offering cut through pricing and services on the internet. This thread is actually here in this site but in a different section.

What do you think of bluehost.com ???

Blue Host has been know to monitor and restrict your CPU usage and MySQL activities. If you run a server intensive message board you may have a CPU limitation problem if it is a busy site.

I have a friend who uses them and he is running a PHPBB3 message board with 69 registered users and it is not really a busy forum and gets the CPU crap very often, and I mean about once a month.

Well, I have about a thousand registered members there at Blue Host. So far I haven't yet had that kind of a problem.

I'm not sure what his hosting plan is.

what does anyone think of lunarpages.com. shared and vps plans
I think Sirdude was using them at one time but on a dedicated plan.

I use lunarpages, and they have been good, but every now and then disable my ubb for using too many system resources. I suggest you stay away, not very happy with their support.

MegaWhizz
What plan are you on?

Man, that would cost me $687.34 per month to host my beagle site for what I have now.

Where did $687.34 come from??

I took the package that was as close to what I have and added their add ons to get what I have for my one site. Of course I own my servers and all that so I pay nothing for my hosting. Makes me kind of glad looking at what is being offered and what the add ons cost.

The site I'm talking about to is running a 3Ghz processor, 4 gig of ram, Duel NIC's, Mirrored Terabyte HHD's.

OTAY.
When I grow up I will get one like yours.

Maybe I am slow but I still don't see $600 plus per month.

memory upgrade, hard drive upgrades, hosting, bandwidth, and all that stuff.

Just a update. I have tried hostgator,webintellects and lunarpages. For a shared hosting account.
I have not gone live but lunarpages is the winner right now.
They are the only host that activated my account without any support tickets.The others were at least three support tickets to install everything.

i swear by lunar's dedicated boxes.. that's what i have

I messed around with a VPS on GoDadday (price) as an experiment and setting up and running a server is a little much for me considering I have no experience and very little knowledge. So I did what I think you are doing, researching a few hosts and playing with a few. I decided on a Business Hosting plan with Lunarpages and I am currently moving my family site and a my other site. When I get those up I am going to renew my memebers area subscription and download UBBT 7.4 and move the Diesel Technician Society and end my Network Solutions nightmare!

It has been a long two months.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

the only thing about lunar that i didn't like is their shared hosting.. and what i mean by that is that they try to find a reason to push you toward more expensive hosting..

ie: too much CPU etc..

so i can't vouch for their shared hosting for a site that uses resources and is active..

great service and all that, though.. and i just love their dedicated box and VPS offerings... so i'd rate them 'bleh' for shared hosting and 'muhahaha' for VPS and dedi.. :2c:

Well, if it is warranted then you cant fault them for it but a baseline on server usage should be established in my opinion. They offer server stats so...

I decided on lunar because from all the reading I did I read the least amount of negative feedback, in fact, almost none. Now, there are plenty of hosts that there is no stats on but at least I read a lot of good things about them. I dont expect perfection, I just want my web sites to WORK and that is the bottom line.

As far as upgrading my service or eventually moving up to a VPS/VDS I suppose that may be inevitable. For now I need to get my sites onto a server that works well and I hope that is where I am headed with Lunarpages and then I will have time to learn about the future.

I am headed to Lunarpages this weekend for the dns change so far no hickups whatsoever. We will see what happens when people start visiting.

i wish you both well... i'm a lunarpages guy too.. only diff is that it's a dedi box..

and i LOVE their service

FordDoctor,
Both the basic and Business shared hosting are the same plan as far as resource usage goes. You just get a few extra apps and a dedicated IP.
The resource limit is pretty much the same.
If you had gone with the basic your next level would be a vps anyway not the business plan if they push you to upgrade.

Well once I got acclimated to the new control panel I loaded up two of my sites and changed my DNS settings. No problems so now I am working on moving my main site... the one with forums. As long as my sites performance is good I will be a happy camper.

Two days after dns changes for me and all is fine.

I'm on the shared hosting plan. Sorry for the late reply

Well I too am now on my new server having just pulled over my third and largest site; the one with UBBT forums. Everything is working properly and the server serves up my pages nice and snappy. GOOD RIDDENS Network Solutions!

Thank you to all who offered advice, suggestions and encouragement.

I cannot tell you how much I appreciate this forum. I spent time researching hosting companies and hosting types and packages. I tried a couple on a test basis and ended up on Lunarpages. I tried setting up a VPS account and for now, it is just not for me. I did not have the warm and fuzzy feeling you get with a managed hosting package and the one or two problems I encountered I had no idea how to correct them. Tech support, even with the grandest of hosts, is not always quick and reliable. If my web sites continue to grow and I need to move up then I will make another attempt at it. For now, I spent a lot of time researching and had to get my web sites running on a better performing server... and quickly. I know I spent about six weeks on the process but it was time well spent.

So here I am a happy webmaster again!