The move that never came
Another nail in the never-ending server blues coffin
Nerd alert: A while back I announced once again that we needed to move to a new server. You visitors are just too keen on surfing our site, and suck down hundreds of gigabytes of data, which we have to pay for.
So I planned on moving to a host with free bandwidth and no disk limits. At the same time I wanted one based in the US in order to service our many US visitors better.
I found Host Department, who touts all the server, traffic and diskspace you can eat for almost nothing. I should have known back then that this was too good to be true, and in hindsight I really regret starting this move to them at all.
They promise the latest and the best, but deliver systems and software, which is not at all geared to running a large and complex site such as ours.
I burned my fingers again!
Numerous unsolved support tickets, numerous mails, numerous tricks and smart ways of doing things reprogramming the site core code, and I suddenly realize that the reason for my problems is that they run old, unsupported versions of the software we use!
I have for a while now been corresponding with Jessica - the company's Account Executive Officer, whose job it seems to be to make me feel good. She did at first.
Her first mail said "As a part of our commitment to provide excellent service, I would like to request your participation to provide us with valuable feedback and suggestions.
We will do our best to utilize this information to improve our service quality standard and hence meet your expectations."
So much for that service. Her last mail said: "I suggest you to find another hosting company which support MySQL 5.0 and PHP 5.2.0"
Needless to say that I have ended our relations and that I'm now (once again) looking for a host that can provide what we need.
Recommendations are welcome. We need:
- A fast BSD Unix-based Apache server with good bandwidth, preferably in the US
- Lots of disk space - 10-20 Gb at least, no limits at best
- Free traffic - we currently move 100-200 Gb a month and are growing rapidly
- PHP 5
- MySQL 5
- Imagemagick
- FTP or SCP access
- SSH access
We don't need a control panel thingy or DNS control. We don't need mail or other services.
Should you know a host that provides this at a reasonable price, please let me know.
I think will go fishing now and clear my head.
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Since you got this far …
The GFF money box
… I have a small favor to ask.
Long story short
Support the Global FlyFisher through several different channels, including PayPal.
Long story longer
The Global FlyFisher has been online since the mid-90's and has been free to access for everybody since day one – and will stay free for as long as I run it.
But that doesn't mean that it's free to run.
It costs money to drive a large site like this.
See more details about what you can do to help in this blog post.
Comments
Hehehe, server blues
Hehehe, server blues eh Martin? ;) Awhile ago I moved our website to a dedicated webhost provided by www.ehosting.ca. They are based in Vancouver so if something goes wrong, I can always drive over and strangle someone. ;) Anyways, I find their service very reasonable, and always doing whatever they can to meet my needs. Not sure how much it would be for your specific requirements, but for me, the dedicated webhost provided 150gb/month of bandwidth and data storage, for CAD$120/month. At first I was shocked by the price, but later on realized that it is quite reasonable compared to other dedicated webhosts. Anyways, good luck! I might see you in June. :)