hosting issue

[hlc]

Hello all. I have a shared hosting account at hostgator, which seemed like a reasonable decision since I am in the early stages of my forum and traffic is limited. I received several messages from hostgator this past week stating that the account had exceeded our extreme usage threshold for several hours, etc. These messages were not in keeping with my records, google analystics, etc. The hosting account was temporaritly suspended, and I had a programmer address some possible caching issues and then hostgator reactivated the account. A few hours later, the site was down again and I got a message from hostgator warning about excessive traffic. Again, there was no evidence of a spike in traffic from my end.
Has anybody has this kind of experiences (perhaps with host gator, if you have/had a smaller forum)?

Also, I am thinking moving to another hosting service. I'd appreciating any thoughts on that. I am considering blue host.

 

[MagnusB]

How many users you have online at a time? The solution might not be to move to another shared host, you might have outgrown that.

 

[hlc]

Thanks Magnus. According to google analytics I am getting about 20 visitors a day, and I when I check real time it is rarely more that 1 or 2 visitors at a time. That suggests that there is very little traffic.

I did notice, however, that the forum itself often shows 40 visitors (with 2-5 robots) at a time. I'm not certain why there is a discrepancy there (?).

 

[jayramfootball]

Thanks Magnus. According to google analytics I am getting about 20 visitors a day, and I when I check real time it is rarely more that 1 or 2 visitors at a time. That suggests that there is very little traffic.

I did notice, however, that the forum itself often shows 40 visitors (with 2-5 robots) at a time. I'm not certain why there is a discrepancy there (?).

Many of the 'guests' shown in the stats are actually robots... in fact most of them I think.
So,I would suggest that there are 40 or so robots accessing the site. I am seeing right now 44 guests and 14 robots on my site, which is probaly 2-3 guests and 50+ robots in reality, which is about normal...

Your numbers do not seem high even with the robots...

 

[hlc]

Intersting, jayramfootball. Doesn't seem high to me either so that's why I am considering leaving hostgator but still doing shared hosting. I guess I am concerned that I might encounter the same issue elsewhere, but I seems to me that hostgator is reporting misinformation.

 

[Mike Edge]

Also, I am thinking moving to another hosting service. I'd appreciating any thoughts on that. I am considering blue host.

You'll have the same issues at Blue Host. If you search, you'll find several threads within the last month on discussions of several people moving to us (xF Host) from Blue Host due to the same resource limiting issues your having with Host Gator

 

[MagnusB]

Thanks Magnus. According to google analytics I am getting about 20 visitors a day, and I when I check real time it is rarely more that 1 or 2 visitors at a time. That suggests that there is very little traffic.

I did notice, however, that the forum itself often shows 40 visitors (with 2-5 robots) at a time. I'm not certain why there is a discrepancy there (?).

Try asking Hostgator why they limited you. It might not solve your issues, but it will point you towards where to look. I was once limited by my then host, but it was due to me running phpbb3 and Joomla at the same time, so I was basically using more CPU time than what I "should". My guess is that something on your site is taking a bit too much CPU, or you are on the low end plan from HG.

You probably will want to still move to a different host, but at least you are able to verify the issue and maybe rectify it. I do agree with other people here though, that number should not get you limited, so you should try to troubleshoot a bit.

 

[WSWD]

Hostgator used to be a very good company. Then they were bought out by a group called EIG. EIG is known for buying successful hosts, then running them completely into the ground. It's a shame, but it is what it is.

Here is a handy list of EIG brands, so you can avoid them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endurance_International_Group

Secondly, you're now seeing the limits of "unlimited" hosting. There is no such thing as "unlimited", and unfortunately if you continue to look for the "unlimited" plans for a few bucks a month, you're going to be moving around quite often.

Come up with some real disk space and bandwidth requirements, and go from there. I'm sure there are many people here with various sized forums who can give you an idea on what exactly you need.

 

[hlc]

I actually was just in contact with blue host. My experience with their customer service was terrible. They were very rude. They made it very easy for me to remove them from consideration.

 

[TPerry]

I actually was just in contact with blue host. My experience with their customer service was terrible. They were very rude. They made it very easy for me to remove them from consideration.

Are you familiar with Linux? Comfortable enough to set up a VPS? If so, then RamNode has some good deals and fantastic ticket support. If you go to WHT you can find a discount code that is usually good for the life of the VPS account (and even carries across if you upgrade/downgrade the VPS). The coupon code can be located here.
If you would rather have a basic dedicated server, then ServerComplete has a heck of a deal on their base dual Xeon L5520 server. I have a couple of them and they are what I use on my forums.

 

[wickedstangs]

Hello all. I have a shared hosting account at hostgator, which seemed like a reasonable decision since I am in the early stages of my forum and traffic is limited. I received several messages from hostgator this past week stating that the account had exceeded our extreme usage threshold for several hours, etc. These messages were not in keeping with my records, google analystics, etc. The hosting account was temporaritly suspended, and I had a programmer address some possible caching issues and then hostgator reactivated the account. A few hours later, the site was down again and I got a message from hostgator warning about excessive traffic. Again, there was no evidence of a spike in traffic from my end.
Has anybody has this kind of experiences (perhaps with host gator, if you have/had a smaller forum)?

Also, I am thinking moving to another hosting service. I'd appreciating any thoughts on that. I am considering blue host.

wow, I am having the same issue right now.. Trying to move a buddy to Xenforo.. The generated full backup is missing mySql tables..

 

[wickedstangs]

chatting with them now