Forum Moderators: phranque
I've also had members tell me that they're getting page not found errors here and there.
I've called my hosting company (snip) and asked them.. they repeatedly insist that it's NOT on their end. That means nothing, the last 3 times I've had problems it has been on their end and they denied it.
I'm at my wits end here. I don't know enough to even figure out WHAT is going wrong! My hosting company tells me they don't know and basically don't care. Does anyone have ANY suggestions on where to start trying to figure out what suddenly went wrong?
If anyone wants to test it out themselves, sticky me and I'll send a link.
Thanks!
J
[edited by: trillianjedi at 4:16 pm (utc) on July 21, 2005]
[edit reason] Let's not name names.... thanks [/edit]
<snip>
[edited by: trillianjedi at 4:18 pm (utc) on July 21, 2005]
[edit reason] See above. Thanks. [/edit]
I'm all for moving to a different host. Are there any sites that give HONEST evaluations of hosting companies? I've yet to find one site that seemsto be honest in evaluating a host.. they all simply GLOW in their reviews... sounds unlikely to me!
And I still need to find out why the heck my site is so slow. Even if it's something I can pick up and point out to <my host>.. they said it's up to me to PROVE that the problem is on their end. THEN they'll look into it. That attitude didn't win any points with me!
J
[edited by: trillianjedi at 4:19 pm (utc) on July 21, 2005]
[edit reason] See above.... [/edit]
For phpBB, you need to do a custom install yourself with the latest package from phpbb.com. For best performance, you need to ensure you are using the external stylesheet for styles, not inline, you should turn on gzip encoding in the control panel (if your host allows this), and most importantly you should use the
template_file_cache.phptemplate.php
I don't consider my site to be all that large. I have under 300 members.. about half of whom are active enough to be there every other day at the very least, and usually more like every day. I have about 52K posts and right now am averaging about 180 new posts a day. The database is currently 53 MB.
Daily traffic is WAY down... I used to average 250 posts a day and 150+ MB of bandwidth used a day. Now I average about 60 - 70MB of bandwidth. Part of that (though not ALL) is due to it being summer. The nature of the topics of the boards means that my members are online less in the summer since they're busier with kids and family and vacation stuff. But I don't think I can attribute ALL the drop to this. I've had people email me telling me they can't deal with how slow the site is so they're not around much.
J
If you're already on a dedicated server, then clearly the problem is on your host's end; the traffic you claim just doesn't seem high enough to bog down a dedicated machine. If they won't acknowledge fault and are insisting you "prove" something to them, it's time to change hosts. Your downtime will be 24 hours, and if you announce it to your members ahead of time, I don't think many will mind. And, just to keep your current host from pulling a fast one, don't actually tell your customers you're switching to a different host. Instead, announce a period of "scheduled downtime" during which you'll be working on increasing your site's performance.
Trouble shooting your website? Just point a gun at it and pull the trigger! ;) Sorry, couldn't resist!
So this otherwise already busy weekend will be spent doing that. *sigh*
Whether it works or not, I WILL also move to a different hosting company when my year is over. I don't like the way my current company treats me when I call them. TO lay the burdon of the proof that the problem is on their end on my hands just doesn't sit well with me.
Hopefully downtime while switching servers should be minimal. I'll put a chat room up for my visitors to amuse themselves in while I'm working on it.
Jas
