Messageboard tech support - listen to me! (or, let's talk about running websites)

[Slacker]

This started out as a weak Pit rant, so mods feel free to move it there, but it seemed just too darn mundane not to be here. It's a weak rant because I still love vBulletin. My website ran on Infopop's UBB for it's first couple of years, and when a problem arose that they refused to fix I went to vBulletin. I was amazed at the difference! Tons more options, and amazingly faster! Light years ahead of UBB. It was love at first site (cough).

Anyway, this morning I decided to upgrade my messageboard to the latest version (2.2.8), partly to close a couple of security holes they had discovered, and partly due to the fact that I'll be forced to upgrade to 2.2.8 soon anyway if I plan to install vBulletin 3 (which I'm quite excited about).

So I make a backup (natch) and install 2.2.8. And.... IT CHOKES! The server load number on a usual day (20 to 30 people milling about) is under 0.5. On busy days, the load can hit 2 or 3. As soon as I turned on the board and people started coming back in, it went through the roof! When 5 people connected it shot over 10. When ten people wandered in, it rocketed to 25! I didn't even know it went that high!

So I submitted a trouble ticket with vBulletin, telling them the whole story from above. Their response? I need more memory. They're right, I do (160meg at the moment), BUT IT WAS WORKING THIS MORNING! I can't believe they were honestly telling me that I need 512 megs of memory to handle 5 people online at once.

So tonight I was finally able to restore my backup (I backup the static files as well as the DB, fortunately) and I'm working fine again on 2.2.6.

Does anyone here run a somewhat busy messageboard? If so - do you have a host that you're elated with? I'll likely be outgrowing mine soon, so I may need to look for a new one. My site typically has 20-30 people on it at once, with a few periods during the day with 40-50 visitors. The database itself is about 550 megs.

I may try to find a good deal on a dedicated server, but the setup costs alone on those are usually awful. I'm on a "Private Server" now - which is a server cut into pieces where I'm dedicated a certain amount of processing power, and a set amount of RAM. A heck of a lot better than shared hosting, but not quite a dedicated server either.

Anyway - any advice would be appreciated, or just ramble on about your own site hosting experiences. I'd love to hear either one.

[Seven]

I know another board running vB 2.2.6 on a virtual server and it kicks along just fine. It gets pretty heavy load. everyday (not quite sure of the amount of people but almost everyday brings in 4 pages of new topics in one forum with tons of replies in the others)

[Una Persson]

Have you tried doing a Contrast, WinDiff, or using BeyondCompare, to see what changed from 2.2.6 to 2.2.8? Having recently done the same exact upgrade, I can say I noticed no difference in speed whatsoever.

I can't comment on hosting options. I host myself. In fact, one of my dainty bare feet is resting on my server right now, soaking up the warmth. Now that's something you just can't replace...ahh...

Una

[Slacker]

Originally posted by Anthracite
Have you tried doing a Contrast, WinDiff, or using BeyondCompare, to see what changed from 2.2.6 to 2.2.8? Having recently done the same exact upgrade, I can say I noticed no difference in speed whatsoever.

I can't comment on hosting options. I host myself. In fact, one of my dainty bare feet is resting on my server right now, soaking up the warmth. Now that's something you just can't replace...ahh...

Una

lol one of these days I'll get a decent connection at home (the cable modem is only 128 up) and host it myself too.

And that's a good idea with BeyondCompare - I'll check that out tonight. Thanks!

[elmwood]

I run vBulletin 2.2.6 on a virtual hosting account at 100 Megs Web Hosting (http://www.100megswebhosting.com). So far, so good. They use vBulletin for their support board, which must mean something.