Back online!!
We’re back online!! Sorry for the down time!
At about 21:00 on Monday night all my websites suddenly stopped working. Over the past couple months, my web host, Dreamhost, have been sending me threatening e-mails warning me that they’ll shut down my service if I don’t cut down on my CPU utilization. Heavy traffic plus a resource-munching Wordpress blog is tough on the machine. So I tried to work with my webhost to resolve this issue, I decreased the number of blog posts on the front page – I continued asking them for assistance (is it my calls to the database that are causing the issue or too much php or ??) and they gave zero support except “You’re using too much CPU units, fix it now.” And of course their e-mails took 48 hours to come each time because their support is awful. I told them that the Finnish Presidential elections were probably causing alot of the traffic and after they were done, my traffic would decrease. And the traffic did die down by about 20%, yet they told me my CPU utilization had doubled since election day – which I knew was a big fat lie. I asked them for some sort of proof of this, some screenshots or logs or something, they’ve ignored my request.
So finally they disabled my account and Monday I frantically search the net for a good dedicated server. Yesterday I had some trouble moving the MySQL databases, when I did an export I didn’t use the “compatibility=40″ switch, I assumed that the default settings were fine since I was going from a 4.x database to another 4.x database…but I guess not.
So anyways, we’re back up and running and I apologize for the delay. We’re now running on a dedicated Pentium IV 2.4GHz, 512 MB RAM, 80 GB HD, 1 TB/month bandwidth…we shouldn’t have any problems for a while. Tip of the day: Never signup with Dreamhost, it’s a scam.
Apparently the good people at Dreamhost have been totally occupied with their new “kick-ass jackets”, so it’s no wonder they haven’t had the time to respond to you…
Comment by Joonas — Wed, Feb 8th, 2006 @ 10:00 pm
Can u tell what the hosting company you using now? I am not satisfied with mine, but lil bit confused how to transfer my databases into the new one…
Comment by Igor — Wed, Feb 8th, 2006 @ 10:29 pm
You may want to try PHP code caches, they give huge performance boost and lower CPU usage considerably.
http://eaccelerator.net/ or http://pecl.php.net/package/APC
Comment by Antti — Wed, Feb 8th, 2006 @ 10:29 pm
perhaps dreamhost needs a slew of comment bombs on the above “kick-ass jackets” link.
Comment by Anonymous — Wed, Feb 8th, 2006 @ 10:42 pm
Yeah, private companies suck. If we’d live in communism…
Comment by Sale — Wed, Feb 8th, 2006 @ 10:51 pm
I see Dreamhost Blog has got some new comments from Finland
Comment by Sale — Wed, Feb 8th, 2006 @ 10:53 pm
How can a host threaten to shut off a customer if they use too much of their service? Kinda like a grocer would threaten not to sell you food anymore if you buy too much food.. .
Comment by Anton — Thu, Feb 9th, 2006 @ 9:11 am
Well, in the “good old days” pre 1972 or so one had to have a “booze card” to buy spirits. And you could only buy from your dedicated neighbourhood store. And if you bought too much the shop manager would ask you in for a lecture for alcoholism. Yay! Kekkoslovakia!
Comment by Hank W. — Thu, Feb 9th, 2006 @ 3:30 pm
By the way, what’s with only 512MB of memory on a server? I trust that your database server at least has an SCSI HD.
I see that your blog is getting huge. You should be able to utilise it in terms of €€€, at least to make ends meet. I’d hate it to stumble on technical difficulties.
I’ve been fantasising about writing a full-fledged n-tiered J2EE blogging system. If I only had the time. Any takers if I start a project of SourceForge?
Comment by Freeridin' Franklin — Sun, Feb 12th, 2006 @ 5:12 pm
ON SourceForge, dammit.
Comment by Freeridin' Franklin — Sun, Feb 12th, 2006 @ 5:13 pm
The panda checjet foundation is more expensive, that me
http://www.pxcheck.info/5648780.html
Comment by Jeremy — Fri, Feb 9th, 2007 @ 8:58 am