Upcoming server move.

Greetings all,

In light of recent events, HostingDiscussion.com is in the process of looking for a new server. We don't yet know for sure whether our new home will be with our current partner of 6 years Micfo, or another company.

While we go through an overwhelming response from companies making us offers (I barely have time to copy/paste the offers in staff forum, much less discussing them in detail), we ask for your patience with dealing through slow page loads (I know they are annoying as hell) and occasional DB downtimes from server overload. That is exactly what we are trying to fix by upgrading.

I will obviously keep you all updated on when the move is going to take place, as most likely we will have to turn off the forum for a few hours (hopefully less).

Best,
Artashes

This is one of those times I wish I sold Dedis lol Oh well, I hope you find a good host for the forum.

With nearly 25 offers on the table from companies of all sizes in less than 24 hours... this is going to be a tough call!

It better be fast when all is said and done.

CrazyTech said:

It better be fast when all is said and done.

Click to expand...

Talking about pressure for a new hosting provider wanting to carry this forum forward.

I'd like to keep everyone updated about what's taking place with the search for a new hosting provider and server move. I think the search and the decision-making factors should be a public affair. After all, the chosen company will receive more or less a public face (our site's performance so to speak). Additionally, as server move concerns all users, we want to make sure we please them all (or at least the vast majority) by providing a good forum usage experience.

First of all, I would like to sincerely thank each company that replied to a sponsorship open-call. After sending a newsletter late at night, I woke up to 20+ offers in my mail box. By the end of the day, we had direct interest from 26 companies (not counting our current provider)! I did not expect such an amazing response and I spent two consecutive full time days providing further information and having discussions.

In no particular order, these companies are: Micfo.com (current provider), Hostirian.com, *************, HandsOnWebHosting.com, Hivelocity.net, **********.com, WeHostAnyone.com, ZipServers.com, RebelNetworks.com, Burst.net, ********.com, Host Color, Site5.com, OthelloServer.net, BeanTownHost.com, 247-host.com, PivotalWeb.com, HostKitty.net, AYKsolutions.com, PearTreeUK.com, FastServers.net, Blackmesh.com, iWeb.com, ServInt.com, KnownHost.com, XMGnetworks.com, ScribeHost.com, TurnkeyInternet.net

We were stuck with a difficult task of following-up on each company, their level of interest and conditions.

After three days of evaluating specific offers received, we brought the list down to TOP 8 offers (again, in no particular order):

Hostirian
*********
HandsOnWebHosting
RebelNetworks
Host Color
OthelloServer
FastServers
Blackmesh

late acceptance from these companies were added to our Top List:
TurnkeyInternet.net
Site5.com

The selection process continues and we hope to be left with out final Top 5 tonight.

As part of the evaluation process, at this time we are looking at few key factors: data center location, network providers, server management services, people that run the company, company history. If you have any input regarding the process, we welcome your feedback.

I could have never guessed the process of choosing was going to be this difficult. After heated and active discussions, communication with each provider we are down to our TOP 4:

Hostirian.com
HandsOnWebHosting.com
RebelNetworks.com
Blackmesh.com

The selection process continues.

Is it me, or has anyone else tried to come to HD and have the site load very slow at times? or the site doesnt even load at times? Anyone else experiencing this?

romes said:

Is it me, or has anyone else tried to come to HD and have the site load very slow at times? or the site doesnt even load at times? Anyone else experiencing this?

Click to expand...

This is why we are changing providers.

lol yeah...so it is not just me.

Thanks for feedback of some users and our staff member, we are down to two providers:

www.handsonwebhosting.com
www.blackmesh.com


A decision might just as well be a coin flip at the end of it all.

usualy i would say to myself any host is good, as long as they dont sell you OLD hardware, but when you come to think of it...
why dont go to a major provider like choopa / theplanet / OVH ?

see my point , it sounds better to get a server directly from the ISP itself.
try looking up your OWN local ISP they may have a good deal for you too!

I don't know if my vote would matter to you art, but in my opinion handsonwebhosting.com would be the choice.

But, who ever you pick lets hope the service is good

romes said:

I don't know if my vote would matter to you art, but in my opinion handsonwebhosting.com would be the choice.

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Thank you for your opinion, romes. Based on few last communications with few members like you, I decided we'll go with HandsOnWebHosting.com at this time. Conor has been heavily involved in the whole process and he has also praised Blackmesh.com for their setup, which turned out to be his first choice if his company wasn't participating in the bid.

I think that Blackmesh.com is an outstanding outlet. Their team is very well known in the industry (some of them speak at various IT events), but at this time I think that HandsOn can carry us on in a very family-like environment just as well. We will be in good hands. HandsOnWebHosting.com offered RAID setup, remote backup space and hourly backups, so we'll sure be secure on that front.

I will be coordinating work with HandsOnWebHosting.com and we will keep you updated on when the server move will take place.

Right after the move I hope to proceed with announcing last month's most valuable winner as the pages will load a lot faster and will simplify work for me to go through every single post.

Yep, I hope the move is nice and smooth and nothing goes wrong

I'm definitely looking for faster speeds - hoping all transitions well.

I have just decided that the current server is too unstable for us to wait and schedule the actual move process without downtime, so we are moving on with server transfer a.s.a.p.

As a result of my decision (tired of waiting and watching DB go down almost on a daily basis), we might actually experience brief downtime. But as long as it is the last time this week, I will be happy.

I am really sorry for all these DB errors (trust me, I am not a fan of those myself), and for the inconvenience these downtimes and slow page loads might cause to your business, but we'll get it resolved soon.

Can't wait for this to be over and as soon as we are, I will ask our new provider HandsOnWebHosting.com to post our new server specs and setup here. They are better than they were initially!

Its ok...Overall, it will be better to have some downtime and get it done now, instead of wait and make things more difficult.

The server move is now complete. We should be now fully running on a new server courtesy of www.handsonwebhosting.com

Its quite amazing to see the server load average go from sometimes up to 5-7 (I've seen 8-10 just before DB was overloading and going down) on an old machine to just 0.20/0.15. :thumbup:

While the company continues to work on small tweaks here and there, I will ask Conor to post the specs of our new shiny hardware in action, without giving "too much" information for wrong eyes to see.

I hope you are enjoying the faster community! Feel free to ask any question or give your feedback on your experience.

That's super. Hadn't even thought about it until I read your post. Haven't had any problems this morning.