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| zpat |
 Posted: Mon Feb 10, 2003 12:26 am Post subject: |
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Jedi Council
Joined: 19 May 2001
Posts: 5866
Location: UK
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With less than 20 concurrently active users - you should be able to host a site like this on a virtual server. There are plenty of places where you can rent a virtual server with PHP and MySQL for about $30 a month.
I've certainly run a PHP/MySQL BB site on a virtual server successfully - alternatively www.rackshack.net have low priced dedicated servers. |
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| bduncan |
| Posted: Mon Feb 10, 2003 1:11 pm Post subject: |
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Padawan
Joined: 11 Apr 2001
Posts: 1554
Location: Silicon Valley
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I've noticed that with most virtual server packages you are highly restricted in terms of mysql database size for that $30. Many other phpBB sites use the automatic pruning to remove old posts. That works fine when your board is dedicated to chatting about the latest video games (which changes all the time), but because this site is used as a reference tool, I need to keep every post ever made here available to the current users. That means that at last count, the database is taking up 55 Mb. Most shared hosting packages offer in the neighborhood of 10-20 Mb of mysql space (which is independent of web space), and I'd be charged more for the additional space. Plus many hosts charge based on the number of database queries you make per month. In the end, it doesn't come out to be much cheaper, and being someone who's run his own ISP in the past, I definitely want full control over every aspect of the server.
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Brandon Duncan
IBM Certified MQSeries Specialist
MQSeries.net forum moderator |
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| zpat |
| Posted: Wed Feb 12, 2003 2:25 am Post subject: |
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Jedi Council
Joined: 19 May 2001
Posts: 5866
Location: UK
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It's your money but somewhere like
http://www.venturesonline.com/
For $24.95 pm, 500MB of disk space which can contain up to 10 MySQL databases, 20GB data transfer per month.
AFAIK they do not charge for MySQL queries (that's fairly rare I suspect).
Of course you can't mess about with detailed PHP and MySQL configuration at a shared host - but usually you don't need to. |
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| bduncan |
| Posted: Wed Feb 12, 2003 10:42 am Post subject: |
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Padawan
Joined: 11 Apr 2001
Posts: 1554
Location: Silicon Valley
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Well, I've already moved to a dedicated server. I think I got a pretty good deal - and it gives me plenty of room to grow, since we are already doing about 15Gb per month on this site...
Plus I've got some other sites I'm hosting on it...
Thanks for the info though!
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Brandon Duncan
IBM Certified MQSeries Specialist
MQSeries.net forum moderator |
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| zpat |
| Posted: Thu Feb 13, 2003 12:53 am Post subject: |
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Jedi Council
Joined: 19 May 2001
Posts: 5866
Location: UK
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Bandwidth is often the constraint - some hosts turn on GZIP compression and that saves a massive amount - however these virtual hosts do permit more and the excess charge is not usually that high.
You may be able to enable GZIP in the BB as an alternative - but it does consume CPU. Makes the pages appear a lot faster over a slow link though. |
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| bduncan |
| Posted: Thu Feb 13, 2003 10:51 am Post subject: |
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Padawan
Joined: 11 Apr 2001
Posts: 1554
Location: Silicon Valley
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Yes, I've been using that optimization for some time now... It definitely makes a difference for the 56K guys...
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Brandon Duncan
IBM Certified MQSeries Specialist
MQSeries.net forum moderator |
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| RogerLacroix |
| Posted: Wed Feb 19, 2003 9:50 pm Post subject: |
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Jedi Knight
Joined: 15 May 2001
Posts: 3264
Location: London, ON Canada
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Hi,
Well, I'm looking for a new web home too. Right now I have my site hosted at www.linuxmotor.net but it goes down at least once a month (usually for a whole day) and for the last 2 days I have been without email. Ahhhhhhh
Their web "submit problem form" is broken and when I call the main number I get " the number you are calling is not in service"!!! Uh oh.
So, I need to get off this train wreck. But I really don't need support for bulletin boards.
That Ventures Online site looks interesting - zpat, do you know anything about this company? i.e. How's there reliability, customer service?
later
Roger...
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Capitalware: Transforming tomorrow into today.
Connected to MQ!
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| zpat |
| Posted: Thu Feb 20, 2003 3:38 am Post subject: |
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Jedi Council
Joined: 19 May 2001
Posts: 5866
Location: UK
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I have my own dedicated server at rackshack.net - but I know people who have used VO and reckon they are good.
http://www.nxserve.com/
Look even better in terms of price/features but VO have been around for quite a while and might be a safer bet.
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/
Is a good place to seek recommendations on hosting |
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| scottbell |
| Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2003 8:28 am Post subject: IBm are no help |
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Newbie
Joined: 03 Apr 2003
Posts: 5
Location: UK
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brandon,
I am not surprised to find IBM are no help.
Basically I found them to be useless in a similar situation not so long ago. They are also such a huge company it is hard to speak to anyone with a decision making position.
hey dude, you really need a dedicated server to run this site, and you are looking at 5K a year.
what I suggest you do is get onto a MQ/IBM service company and strike a deal with sponsorship. THEY will be interested.
You host their logo on the top right of every page, and print some whitepapers from them.
easy. |
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| bduncan |
| Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2003 12:36 pm Post subject: |
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Padawan
Joined: 11 Apr 2001
Posts: 1554
Location: Silicon Valley
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Scott,
Thanks for the input. Yeah, I knew IBM was a long shot, but even a lot of third party MQ companies are balking when it comes to paying for a sponsorship - with the exception of Reconda - shameless plug 
But that's understandable because of the state of the economy, especially the tech industry.
I've solved my hosting issues and money isn't too big of a concern right now, but every little bit (donations hint hint) helps...
Hopefully once things at my day job get a little less hectic I'll try to push getting some greater sponsorship, especially because I plan on doing it in such a way that it benefits you guys... I'm not going to allow mindless popups everywhere. I want a sponsor that is going to provide whitepapers, examples, beta tests, useful information, etc...
So we'll see...
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Brandon Duncan
IBM Certified MQSeries Specialist
MQSeries.net forum moderator |
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| scottbell |
| Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2003 2:04 am Post subject: some more indeas |
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Newbie
Joined: 03 Apr 2003
Posts: 5
Location: UK
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I did manage to get money from IBM. I met someone from IBM at a conference, and basically we agreed a few $$$ per month. We are talking hundreds here.
So my guess is if you get a chance to speak to anyone from IBM. Have a go and see what you can get out of them. Lots of budgets exist for all sorts of things. They can squeeze you in.
Otherwise, I do think you could expand this website and even turn it into a small business by including an updated news section. Look at postnuke.com and see how easy it is to set up. Then start placing articles up etc. Get a newsletter going. You can then charge sponsorship out at 10K a year per sponsor, with say a 2K strong newsletter subscription.
You would also feel a lot happier spending time on it I expect.
In terms of donations, I don't use paypal. Can we send you a cheque?
Another idea I had was that you could set up a team of experts for MQ and then charge us to put questions to a private forum whereby you can answer them and basically do support. I don't know if there is huge demand for this, but I would pay $100 a year for it, easy. |
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| zpat |
| Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2003 2:14 am Post subject: |
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Jedi Council
Joined: 19 May 2001
Posts: 5866
Location: UK
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You can get perfectly powerful and reliable dedicated servers for $99 per month, that's $1200 per year.
www.rackshack.net
I have had one of theirs for 18 months and it's fine. |
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| Prahasith |
| Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2003 2:46 pm Post subject: |
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Disciple
Joined: 16 May 2003
Posts: 184
Location: Kansas City
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I would like to thank Brandon for his wonderful job in hosting this site.
Thanks a lot....
Prahasith |
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| Albator |
| Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2004 11:13 am Post subject: |
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Voyager
Joined: 04 Mar 2004
Posts: 75
Location: Toronto, Canada
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great site bduncan, I learned a lot on this site during the last few months...
Definitely deserves some donations! |
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| hguapluas |
| Posted: Fri Aug 06, 2004 7:55 am Post subject: Updated Donate page |
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Centurion
Joined: 05 Aug 2004
Posts: 105
Location: San Diego
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