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View Full Version : Recommendations for Large Site Hosting



Abe Babe
Thu 24th Feb '05, 3:41am
Hi all...

I recently found out that my host is closing down. My site - Advent Children.net - is pretty large, getting around 25,000 unique visitors a day to the site and with around 100-200 people online on the forums at a time [more if new info on the movie is announced]. We recently hit 1,000,000 posts and 10,000 members.

The thing is that my previous host offered a good offer on bandwidth allowing us to have 500 GB/month for around $60. Space really isn't an issue, we would need no more than 1000 MB and still have space left over.

From what I gather when you hit that amount most hosts are going to send you to a dedicated server. My problem is.

a) none of my site/forum staff have a clue how to manage a server
b) we are an ad-free site for various reasons, so rely on donations to keep going or otherwise I pay for the site myself.

I'm not looking for the cheapest of the cheap plan, but I'm looking for a shared host who can handle my site, is reliable and isn't going to tell me to go dedicated if we have too many visitors. Probably with around the same price range if possible.

I seem to be able to find hosts that either won't suit my needs, or they have that much bandwidth, but the cost is "too cheap" so it makes me wonder that the deal is too good to be true and the host may have too much downtime [uptime and speed are major issues for me].

So I guess I'm just seeing if anyone can offer any recommendations.

Abe Babe...

sross
Thu 24th Feb '05, 4:08am
I can't see you realistically getting by on a semi-dedicated or shared plan. My site isn't quite as large as yours (almost 6,000 members) but it's fairly active. I just today went from a semi-dedicated plan to a dedicated server. I was very nervous about this because I know the costs involved for a fully managed server. Well my host totally surprised me, giving me a decent dedicated box for $200 a month cheaper than I expected plus it is 100% fully managedn and I have any problems I just raise a support call and they go right at it. I've been with them over a year, never been happier. You can check them out here: http://www.realwebhost.com

Good luck in your search!