Host to handle 100-200 concurrent users?

[RetroDreams]

Hello everyone!

I am looking for a new webhost as my forums are currently on a shared webhost account through BlueHost. Just for reference, our forums have the following stats: Threads: 11,746, Posts: 61,803, Members: 2,218.

We generally have 30-45 concurrent users online, however, after a game (it's a sports forum), we'll see traffic spike and we'll get hit with Bandwidth Quote Exceeded messages, thus killing the atmosphere and the boards.

I'm looking for a hosting solution that will allow for us to grow into it, and that can ultimately handed 100-200 concurrent users. Right now I'm paying $100/year, so I'd like to keep the costs at $100/mo or cheaper.

Anyone got any solid suggestions?

[Zachery]

Your going to need a decent peice of hardware to support 200ish users online.

[RetroDreams]

Your going to need a decent peice of hardware to support 200ish users online.

You think? It looks to crap out right now at 60 users online when it finally pops and gives me the "Bandwidth Quote Exceeded" message. I also figured BlueHost severly oversells their boxes since they have such a low level cost.

What would you recommend then?

[Zachery]

Usually after 50+ users online you are starting to look at a dedicated/vps enviroment.

I'd recomend anything above a 2ghz server class chip with 1-2gb of ram.

[RetroDreams]

Usually after 50+ users online you are starting to look at a dedicated/vps enviroment.

I'd recomend anything above a 2ghz server class chip with 1-2gb of ram.

Oh, of course. I wouldn't expect anything less. I'm trying to get this accomplished for under $100/month and would think I could do it, at least the VPS route.

Any company suggestions?

[Jealousy10312]

http://www.serverpowered.com/

Server Powered Review:

http://www.webhostingstuff.com/uptim...erPowered.html

** 100% uptime since Feb 08, 2006

Server Powered's VPS is $30 a month:

http://www.serverpowered.com/vps.php

(You can also view their servers in the top drop down)

They dont have a shared service. All they have is VPS & Dedicated.

It obviously will be more than $100, but quality is what matters.

http://www.site5.com

They also have great service. Fast, and reliable. I really dont think it matters whether or not you're on a shared server. Of course you'll get better results with a dedicated or VPS, but Site 5 is also very fast, and they dont over pack their servers.

If you do a Who Is on some of their clients, you'll see that they only assign a few people per server (or IP that is).

People I know that host with Site 5:

http://saintsrowforums.com

http://www.extremepixels.com/

Extreme Pixels Stats:

Currently Active Users: 362 (4 members and 358 guests)
Most users ever online was 1,380, 04-03-2006 at 09:04 PM.

Threads: 2,602, Posts: 12,294, Members: 11,375

Extreme Pixels Who Is:

http://whois.domaintools.com/extremepixels.com

(Reverse IP: 2 other sites hosted on this server)

[Jealousy10312]

http://www.ddgfx.com/forums/

They're also hosted by a Shared service, who uses:

http://websolvents.com/hosting.php

[Jealousy10312]

VPS

http://www.talkvb.com

They're hosted by http://Fatnetwork.net but they dont get as many people online at once, as you said.

[BIGMONAY2K]

site5.com is to good to be tru

[ThorstenA]

From 70 users online you should go dedicated route. From around 100 users online you have to go dedicated. Take an Athlon / Pentium 4 and a minimum of 1 GB RAM.

[Joshs]

www.softlayer.com for dedicated