Forum Hosting

[Katana]

If your forum starts attracting a larger amount of users, you will probably want to move your forum over to a dedicated server. I know from experience that shared hosting can be very slow at time.

[admin]

I've never had any site grow that large.  But lots of my favorites are on shared.  It's fine as long as I have enough connections to the db and cpu allowed.  I can't afford a vps or dedicated.

[server_guy]

You could always use a cache - though its difficult to cache a forum and it can mess up big-time, but if you set the cache to generate a new cached version of the page only if a new reply or a new topic is posted then it will cut down on your cpu usage and it will drastically cut down the number of db connections you use - eg if it takes 20 requests to generate a page every time a user visits and you get 5 users just looking at the pages in a day then there will usually be 100 db requests. if you cache the page, provided that no one makes a new post then that will be reduced to 20 requests (only the requests used to make the cached page). if every user posts a new topic, or a reply then the total number of requests made to the database would be the same as if there was no cache.

[admin]

But I get 50 concurrent connections.  As long as they're not all on at the same time it doesn't matter.

[server_guy]

50 connections per page load. not 50 connections per user. It can get to be intense if your traffic suddenly jumps! imagine 100 users at the same time - that's 5000 database requests just for the index page! I don't run any forums so don't really have experience of the traffic they generate and the load on your host (and you said you were using 1and1 so they will be able to handle it)

[admin]

It is per user not per page.  That's what they said.  And no I don't use 1and1.  I use hostnine.com.  1and 1 is just for the domain names.  And hostmonster only offers 20 concurrent connections.  But this other site I like to visit has over 40,000 posts so shared is good a medium size site.

[admin]

See he says 100+ users on at the same time and no problems.

http://www.jaguarpc.com/forums/archive/ ... -2837.html

[Katana]

I'm not sure you have the option to configure a cache on a shared hosting solution. Caches take up server memory and if everyone did that the server would run out of memory quickly.

[rcpalace]

Theirs a big problem with shared hosting, and I'll list a few. If you have a huge site, one you worry about if it goes down for just a millisecond, then move to dedicated right away. If a new customer has a site on the same server your site is on and he/she makes a mistake and crashes the server (which happens very often), all the sites will go down, including yours. However, if you have dedicated, your sites are on it and whatever makes the server crash on your end is your fault and no one to blame.

[admin]

Yes, but dedicated is 100 per month.  And I can't afford that.  Unless there's a way to host it myself.  But that's not allowed where I live and is a pain anyway.

[server_guy]

It takes more than one connection to your database to get the data from your forum. I run a blog and it generates 29 requests to my database to generate the front page. 29 requests every time someone goes to my front page (well, 29 requests the first time someone goes, then it gets cached and after that there are no connections till someone visits an un-cached page) every time there is a query in your code that counts as one connection - I'm sure there is more than one query to get all the data from your database (eg, one query to get the topic names, one query to get the number corresponding to that topic, and one query to get the data inside that topic, etc

[rcpalace]

Yes, but dedicated is 100 per month.  And I can't afford that.  Unless there's a way to host it myself.  But that's not allowed where I live and is a pain anyway.

Well, as they say. You get what you pay for. Having your own server isn't a pain if you know what you're doing. You must remember this always before building your own server. "If it goes down, will I be able to recover it?". No live chat will help you with your own built server. ;P

[admin]

Yes but it's not even allowed in the first place by most internet providers.  I just switched to att uverse.  They don't allow it do they.

[mcgroove]

A site "Shared hosting or reseller" could have 200 connections and not need a dedicated server. A site I know has 600 connections and runs on normal hosting.

[admin]

600, wow?  Which site is that?

[mcgroove]

http://www.ncaabbs.com/

Had over 3000! Ovcourse you will probz need a dedicated server then, at 600 you dont

[admin]

Actually we seem to be doing fine so far.

[salenfl35]

Bobby-joe was riding in Jeds truck

Jed pulled over, got out and pointed down yawnder and said, "Thats where I first had sex."

Bobby-Joe said,"How was it."
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Bobby-Joe yelled,"Oh shit, what did she say??"

Jed repiled "Baaa"