PDA

View Full Version : Looking to Change my Hosting



orion_joel
11-03-2011, 12:36 AM
Hi All,

I have been using the same webhost for the past 6 years, for the most part I have been happy with them, however there have been more and more small issues over the past month or two. Things like Email going off and on, sites loading slowly from time to time and now today Web Hosting Manager is blocking any actions because the partition is close to full.

I think one of the problems is they are a small hosting company. They have 3 or 4 servers, and I am guessing they are growing in client numbers, due to increaseing gaps in the monthly invoice number. I just don't think that they are built to handle the growth they seem to be having which is why these little problems are popping up.

So basically what I am looking for is a service that offers WHM and cpanal, at least Fantastico or Installatron (although i mostly only use Wordpress). Currently I have 40GB disk space and 400GB bandwidth, although not using all of this. Preferrably no limit on anything else, however depends one how the value is. Budget is up to $30 a month however again depends on the offer.

I have looked at Bluehost, and it is a maybe, but just want to see what else is out there.

vangogh
11-03-2011, 02:50 AM
When I saw the subject line of this thread, Bluehost popped to mind as a host I was going to recommend. I've also had good luck with Hostgator, which would be my other recommendation. At $30/month you can even start out on the VPS path. At that price you'd be on the lower end of VPS, but it's a step up from shared hosting if you're still on hosting.

orion_joel
11-03-2011, 03:34 AM
Thanks for the reply Vangogh.

I guess the problem I see in selecting hosting is that a lot of hosts are offering quite high limits now and many offering unlimited such as disk space and bandwidth. I just dont want to be landing myself with a host that could suffer downtime due to users over using the service.

The VPS option looks interesting but I just honestly do not have any idea what my requirements are. At this point I am looking at maybe 15-20 sites all running wordpress. However only 3 or 4 of them actually getting above 100 visitors a month at this stage.

The other issue I am going to have is transferring some of the accounts, one in particular is not mine it is a client and they have almost 1GB of mail in their account. But they store it there.

kerrylinux
11-03-2011, 11:57 AM
I just dont want to be landing myself with a host that could suffer downtime due to users over using the service.

While choosing a VPS will give you much more flexibility than shared hosting it still has the potential to become slow at times, because a number of virtual servers will be running on one single physical machine in the data center.
Given that you use enough RAM the virtual server will run sufficiently fast all the time but it will still share the machine's network interface with all the other virtual machines running on the same physical host. So the data transfer from and to the virtual machine could become the bottleneck that makes your websites load slowly although the virtual server could easily handle the traffic if it was running alone.

I am using a dedicated server for Euro 29 / month for a while now, which has its own network interface that isn't shared with anyone else, ensuring optimum speed at all times. And I'm very happy with it.

vangogh
11-03-2011, 12:32 PM
Joel my suggestion is to buy the most server you can afford. You won't know your exact needs and requirements all the time as a single spike in traffic might double your needs for a time. Ideally whatever your server needs are today they'll be more tomorrow as your site grows too.


The other issue I am going to have is transferring some of the accounts, one in particular is not mine it is a client and they have almost 1GB of mail in their account.

Is the client aware that the space they're saving their email on costs money? Are they willing to pay more to keep all their email there?

Webhosts will say they have unlimited this or that, but the truth is they don't. There's no such thing as unlimited. It means we'll give you more than you'll probably need so from your perspective it will appear unlimited, though if you do continue to need more there really is a limit.

billbenson
11-03-2011, 12:32 PM
I signed up for hostgator recently. I can't comment on the hosting other than they were helpful in moving the database (which is big). My site isn't live there yet. I did get the whm and it was the same as my other hosts whm.

MyITGuy
11-03-2011, 03:37 PM
I signed up for hostgator recently. I can't comment on the hosting other than they were helpful in moving the database (which is big). My site isn't live there yet. I did get the whm and it was the same as my other hosts whm.

The only thing to keep in mind with hosts that offer "unlimited" space/bandwidth is that they will suspend you without question when you begin to get any decent traffic on your website, so be sure to review the terms of service in detail and know what you can/can't do.

[edit]Also, don't forget to make your own backups! I lost count of how many posters I've on another bulletin board state that they lost their data (Not hostgator specific as it applies everywhere) and that they had to start from scratch.

cPanel makes this extremely easy for users, but it still goes unchecked :(

billbenson
11-03-2011, 09:05 PM
A month or two ago I got hit by a bot at the end of the month that used 20G of bandwidth or thereabouts. The host took the site down. I noticed that this had happened every 5 months or so. It was a small host. They put my site back online when I showed them what was happening and blocked the IP. A larger host may have been more rigid and not put me back online??

MyITGuy
11-04-2011, 04:23 PM
A month or two ago I got hit by a bot at the end of the month that used 20G of bandwidth or thereabouts. The host took the site down. I noticed that this had happened every 5 months or so. It was a small host. They put my site back online when I showed them what was happening and blocked the IP. A larger host may have been more rigid and not put me back online??

I can't speak with any certainty as I don't have any direct knowledge or first hand experience. But from some of the posts/reviews I've seen that would seem to be the case.

Here's a post from a representative of Host Gator who responded with circumstances that mirrored yours:
Web Hosting Talk - View Single Post - HostGator, the best host there is. (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showpost.php?p=7746866&postcount=62)

orion_joel
11-04-2011, 08:14 PM
I am still unsure for the most part. I will compare a few side by side, and see what will work out best, just want to be sure that when i move things that i wont need to move it again any time soon.

On a side note decided to try Godaddy's offering for one domain that i am doing a project on. Signup for for the most basic package for 3 months. All I will be doing is hosting wordpress there, and being a brand new domain doubt it will stretch the requirements to much. However I signed up what would be almost 48 hours ago and it is still sitting on pending DNS. While it is more that I have not had time to deal with it, I will get onto support today.

However on a first impressions note, I am surprised any beginners can figure out how to use Godaddy hosting, unless I am missing something the hoopes you need to jump through to get to your control panel is not just a straight forward click here, multiple screens and at this stage still cannot get to it due to the pending dns thing.

billbenson
11-04-2011, 09:43 PM
That's why I would stay away from hosts that also offer free hosting or site builders. They are more likely to want you to use some custom stuff that is nonstandard. I'd certainly put cpanel (and in your case whm) as a requirement unless there is something else that you really need. And stay away from Network Solutions and 1 & 1. Two many horror stories.

MyITGuy
11-05-2011, 01:14 PM
I am still unsure for the most part. I will compare a few side by side, and see what will work out best, just want to be sure that when i move things that i wont need to move it again any time soon.
If you stick with hosts that use cPanel as their control panel, then moving between providers is a snap with very little downtime (I moved about 50 clients from another hosting company I bought in just over 1 hour...with the biggest part of the move being attributed to 2 accounts that were using over 3GB each)

MyITGuy
11-05-2011, 01:36 PM
So basically what I am looking for is a service that offers WHM and cpanal, at least Fantastico or Installatron (although i mostly only use Wordpress). Currently I have 40GB disk space and 400GB bandwidth, although not using all of this. Preferrably no limit on anything else, however depends one how the value is. Budget is up to $30 a month however again depends on the offer.

I have looked at Bluehost, and it is a maybe, but just want to see what else is out there.

I don't see where I mentioned this previously, but I run cingularhosting.net and would be willing to work with you on a package to fit your needs. Feel free to contact me using this form: https://cingularhosting.net/submitticket.php?step=2&deptid=2 with your specific needs and I'll see what we can do.

The only caveat is that we are also a small host. But with our IT Background and tools we have in place to monitor our servers, it's unlikely you will have the same issues with our service.

billbenson
11-05-2011, 02:15 PM
@myitguy - What would be the best way to monitor bandwidth usage looking for a spike like I described earlier in this thread. My normal monthly bandwith is about 1.5 G if I remember correctly. It went to 30 G or so in one day and my host cut me off. When they cut me off they didn't allow access to cpanel so I couldn't do much to figure out what was going on. It also trashed awstats so when I did get back in I had no real info on what was happening. The host eventually emailed me the offending IP's and I blocked them in htaccess.

MyITGuy
11-05-2011, 02:46 PM
@myitguy - What would be the best way to monitor bandwidth usage looking for a spike like I described earlier in this thread. My normal monthly bandwith is about 1.5 G if I remember correctly. It went to 30 G or so in one day and my host cut me off. When they cut me off they didn't allow access to cpanel so I couldn't do much to figure out what was going on. It also trashed awstats so when I did get back in I had no real info on what was happening. The host eventually emailed me the offending IP's and I blocked them in htaccess.

If your on a shared server, the easiest/best method to do would be to login to cPanel --> Click on "Raw Access Logs" --> Check the box "Archive logs in your home directory at the end of each stats run".

This will archive your access logs, hopefully on a daily basis that you can then download/analyze for review. Combine this with a backup utility that sends your backup to an FTP Server under your own control (Matching the daily frequency of the logs) and it will give you something to work with if your host isn't cooperating quickly enough.

Unfortunately, this won't help if all of the traffic hits you on the same day and you will have to rely on getting this information from your host.

There are two recommendations I would make:
1st - Is your host sending out notifications when you're approaching your bandwidth limit? cPanel/WHM Servers have the ability to send out notifications starting at 70% and moving up in 5% increments, followed by 97%, 98% and 99% (Mine are set to 80,90 and 99%). If you check your e-mails in a timely manner you may be able to hop on your cPanel to grab the access logs before you're suspended

2nd - If you think you're prone to these attacks, or just want some peace of mind then look into CloudFlare (https://www.cloudflare.com/). Give their free product a spin and see if it helps you out any, or try their Pro version ($20 a month which may be cost prohibitive) which implements a Web Application Firewall that should stop some of these attacks. The only downside to this product is your relying on another third party to ensure their system is online, and it pretty much only works for regular http, static content.

billbenson
11-05-2011, 04:26 PM
I'm in the process of moving the account from one host to a whm account on hostgator. I haven't gone live with it yet. I'm not reselling on the whm, I just like the control of it for sites I'm playing with. My main site which is my money maker is just an account I set up under whm. I'll take a look at the auto email option as that is perfect once its moved over.

Thanks.

MyITGuy
11-07-2011, 11:24 PM
Thanks.

Anytime! Thats what forums are for =D

JSYS
11-09-2011, 08:54 AM
You should set up your own cloud server on Amazon AWS and host multiple applications - you will maintain full control that way and still leverage a world class infrastructure.

MyITGuy
11-09-2011, 09:53 AM
You should set up your own cloud server on Amazon AWS and host multiple applications - you will maintain full control that way and still leverage a world class infrastructure.

I would have to disagree on the "world class infrastructure" statement....

One of my clients did exactly what you suggested and their site performance is horrible. Their site takes 3.3 seconds to load with 10 users browsing the site, and jumps to 10.1 seconds with 30 users browsing the site (Stats generated by loadimpact.com). Ideally this should be under 3 seconds across the board.

Additionally, how many outages have they had in the last year that lasted hours? I can name several that I know off.

Finally, I'm sure most businesses would like to know what there going to pay each month for a service so they can budget for it. With Amazon they are charging you a usage fee for everything, so it's almost impossible to predict what your bill is (I.E. Hourly rates for your cloud server, usage fees for the number of requests made, amount of data you transfer, amount of data you store, amount of time you have an IP assigned to your account but aren't using it and more)

orion_joel
11-11-2011, 09:19 PM
I must say that I want to thank-you all for the repies, and glad to see that some other people have had some help from discussions in this thread.

I am still really deciding what I am going to do exactly, things have levelled out with my current provider for the time being, however I still want to get moved to something more stable in the long run.

I know for one thing that it is not going to be Godaddy. I think I mentioned I was trying it out on one account and to be honest I am appealed at the service they offer. Not only did it take 3 or 4 (maybe more) days for the DNS to resolve in which time I could not access the control panel. Then when I finally can get access, I go to install wordpress, and not anything like as straight forward as in cpanel, and to add to that it has already been going for 10-15 minutes, still saying it is installing. this is literally one or two minutes in cpanel from memory.

I cannot understand why they make it so diffcult, I could not imagine being a beginner trying to do this.

billbenson
11-12-2011, 12:19 AM
I must say that I want to thank-you all for the repies, and glad to see that some other people have had some help from discussions in this thread.

I am still really deciding what I am going to do exactly, things have levelled out with my current provider for the time being, however I still want to get moved to something more stable in the long run.

I know for one thing that it is not going to be Godaddy. I think I mentioned I was trying it out on one account and to be honest I am appealed at the service they offer. Not only did it take 3 or 4 (maybe more) days for the DNS to resolve in which time I could not access the control panel. Then when I finally can get access, I go to install wordpress, and not anything like as straight forward as in cpanel, and to add to that it has already been going for 10-15 minutes, still saying it is installing. this is literally one or two minutes in cpanel from memory.

I cannot understand why they make it so diffcult, I could not imagine being a beginner trying to do this.

Because they want to upsell people registering domains to hosting. Their upsell is a tangled mess.

I would like to make it clear, however, that they are a good honest domain registrar IMO. It's just a real pain because they try to upsell everything, particularly to get you to host. I register all my domains with them and feel very secure about that.

vangogh
11-13-2011, 09:38 PM
They definitely want to upsell. I still use them as a domain registrar and have sent clients to them to do the same. When I have a client sign up for a domain I always make sure to tell them not to click on the big giant button, since the option they want is usually the small link below the big button. GoDaddy certainly pushes the boundaries of acceptable marketing if they don't cross it from time to time.

MyITGuy
11-14-2011, 12:22 PM
I would like to make it clear, however, that they are a good honest domain registrar IMO.

Until you become one of their domain resellers, then they try to steal your clients away from you when their domains (Or other products) come up for renewal.

But yes, if all you're looking for is a few domains, then GoDaddy is probably the cheapest/best place to get them from (I have over 100 domains with them that I'm slowly moving away as they come up for renewal)

billbenson
11-14-2011, 02:12 PM
Who do you like just for domain registration?

MackTeck
11-14-2011, 03:00 PM
I use GoDaddy for domain registration. If you know how to navigate through the tangled mess of up-selling, they are a reliable domain registrar. Also, if you search google for a coupon code you can get a .com domain for under $8

I would never use them for hosting though. A few clients of mine use them against my recommendations and every time I have to make changes to their websites it is always harder than it needs to be because they don't give you access to the Linux cPanel, you have to use goDaddy's interface.

MyITGuy
11-14-2011, 10:52 PM
Who do you like just for domain registration?

I'm debating on enom and OpenSRS (From a reseller perspective). Enom is cheaper, but OpenSRS includes more perks for just slightly more money.

vangogh
11-15-2011, 12:01 PM
I use GoDaddy for domain registration.

Same here and for similar reasons. I also find the domains are easy to manage once inside their control panel. The key is paying attention at sign up or when renewing so you don't buy more than you really want.

@MyITGuy - I think both are fine. I've known more people who used Enom and can't say I remember many complaints, though it has been a few years since I've known those people. I think you have to decide if the perks are worth the slightly more money to you. Also know you're not locked into using either for life. If you pick one and it doesn't work as well as you'd like you can always switch to the other.

billbenson
11-15-2011, 11:44 PM
Hostgator sucks!!!

Now that I have that off my chest, here is what happened. I've been using a small hosting company. I don't think they are an affiliate. They own some servers and have email only support 24/7. I don't remember why, but I felt I needed to move to a larger host with telephone support. So I started an account with hostgator and moved my site and databse to them. It was simple. I backed up my database and moved my site via ftp to hostgator. Pretty straightforward. They installed the db backup for me from my old host.

Thing is, at least one table in the backup was missing 2k lines. That could be from either end. Its a large table.

Not much works on the new hostgator site, but at this point who knows why the db was corrupted / incomplete.

Their techs were competent, but they couldn't understand why I couldn't remotely connect to their db. I think I know - myitguy I'll make a post on this one.

In every conversation, their techs changed my passwords to my database and account. That means I have to go in and change them in various files.

The thing that has really upset me is that their techs are automatically disconnected from the customer after about 20 to 30 minutes.

So while they are in the process of giving me new passwords, their phone system hangs up on me. I don't know my passwords to get back into my control panel. Do you think they call back after being disconnected. Of course not.

-----------------------------------------------------

So if you have a simple website. their support will be fine. Techs are competent. If its more coplex, while the techs can solve your problem, the company isn't interested in supporting you.

They have wasted a week of my time in hours and linear time.

Hostgator Sucks!!!!!

MyITGuy
11-16-2011, 12:39 AM
Thing is, at least one table in the backup was missing 2k lines. That could be from either end. Its a large table.

If your old hosting account is still active, or you want to send your SQL backup, let me know and I'll take a quick look to see if the data is/was there to begin with.


Their techs were competent, but they couldn't understand why I couldn't remotely connect to their db. I think I know - myitguy I'll make a post on this one.

Didn't see a post yet, but have you given this page a read through (I seem to recall years ago when I first hosted with them, that I had issues connecting remotely...I think it had to do with the wild cards):
How to connect to the MySQL database « HostGator.com Support Portal (http://support.hostgator.com/articles/cpanel/how-to-connect-to-the-mysql-database)

They may be blocking it at a firewall level which they will have to open up/unblock for your IP and/or account.

vangogh
11-16-2011, 02:01 AM
I'm surprised as I've always had a good experience with them. I would think not being able to connect remotely to the database is a security thing. I'm guessing at that, but if that's the reason it makes sense. Most of their customers will be fine going through phpMyAdmin and I would think only a few want to connect directly to the database remotely, especially on a shared account.

billbenson
11-16-2011, 11:36 AM
Warning: mysql_connect() [function.mysql-connect]: OK packet 6 bytes shorter than expected in /opt/lampp/htdocs/fall-protection-products/management/php_classes.php on line 46

Warning: mysql_connect() [function.mysql-connect]: mysqlnd cannot connect to MySQL 4.1+ using old authentication in /opt/lampp/htdocs/fall-protection-products/management/php_classes.php on line 46
Could not connect. mysqlnd cannot connect to MySQL 4.1+ using old authentication

These are the errors I was getting. The best explanation I could find is at the link below.

Our versions of php and mysql are:

Hostgator / Me
Mysql 5.1.56 / 5.0.5
php 5.2.17 / 5.3.1

I'm using xampp for the php / mysql xampp has an upgrade for mysql 5.3. That may solve this issue. The article indicates I may need to also change my passwords to mysql. For now I'm going to revert back to my old host. If this is a version thing I should upgrade anyway. If its a firewall thing at hostgator, they didn't fix it. I did have to get them to allow my local ip in, but they did that (actually I did it through cpanel and they confirmed it was correct).

Any suggestions / opinions?




Quick tip: how to fix “mysqlnd cannot connect to MySQL 4.1+ using old authentication” onPHP5.3 « Mixu's tech blog (http://blog.mixu.net/2010/06/06/quick-tip-how-to-fix-mysqlnd-cannot-connect-to-mysql-4-1-using-old-authentication-onphp5-3/)

MyITGuy
11-16-2011, 05:19 PM
Looks like you're on the right track...the only concern I might have for you is if your old host is using a shared server to provide service to you...they may not be likely to make these changes/upgrades as they may affect other users.

Here's another article that may help with this issue:
php - Mysql password hashing method old vs new - Stack Overflow (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1892607/mysql-password-hashing-method-old-vs-new)

Regarding the remote sql connectivity, when you say local IP do you mean the one registered to your computer, or what appears in whatismyip.com?
If it was the IP in whatismyip.com, try putting a mask in the last octet...I.E. 65.66.67.% as some requests may appear to originate from your gateway in some circumstances.

billbenson
11-16-2011, 08:05 PM
Regarding the remote sql connectivity, when you say local IP do you mean the one registered to your computer, or what appears in whatismyip.com?
If it was the IP in whatismyip.com, try putting a mask in the last octet...I.E. 65.66.67.% as some requests may appear to originate from your gateway in some circumstances.

Thanks, I actually did put the wildcard in the D segment (or whatever it's called.) Yes I got the ip from an ip search. Perhaps its worth seeing if my isp will give me a dedicated IP but they usually only change the last segment on refresh.

MyITGuy
11-16-2011, 09:12 PM
Thanks, I actually did put the wildcard in the D segment (or whatever it's called.) Yes I got the ip from an ip search. Perhaps its worth seeing if my isp will give me a dedicated IP but they usually only change the last segment on refresh.

Did you also try it without the wildcards?

I wouldn't bother with a dedicated IP if the changes have been consistent, especially if you utilize your cable provider for internet service as their IP Addresses tend to stick to your modem a bit longer than a DSL modem will.

billbenson
11-16-2011, 10:03 PM
Yes I tried both. And the thing is, my old host didn't give me any problems with this. I'm kind of mad at myself for thinking I needed to change hosts from one that's working to " a better host " Probably a small operation that that owne's a few servers and gives only email support. I've used them for over 5 years. A bit of downtime but nothing really to complain about for a shared host. Problems resolved fast via email .

What good is having a host ie hostgator so I can talk to them if they hang up on me!!!!

MyITGuy
11-17-2011, 12:03 AM
Yes I tried both. And the thing is, my old host didn't give me any problems with this. I'm kind of mad at myself for thinking I needed to change hosts from one that's working to " a better host " Probably a small operation that that owne's a few servers and gives only email support. I've used them for over 5 years. A bit of downtime but nothing really to complain about for a shared host. Problems resolved fast via email .

What good is having a host ie hostgator so I can talk to them if they hang up on me!!!!

If it's not broke, don't fix it =D

Just out of curiosity, who is your old host? They might just be a reseller of a larger provider that may provide the phone support you seek.

billbenson
11-17-2011, 12:28 AM
Probably are - Stormwire is the host. Actually, I think email support is better than phone. At times you may need phone, but you and I both know its easier for our businesses to give good support via email!1

fivewarp
11-22-2011, 11:46 AM
If you want more control/freedom over the power behind your website, think about moving to a virtual private server (VPS) or you could switch to another shared host. We do provide both cloud hosting and VPS if you have any questions.