xenForo/forum optomized hosting

[Tempest]

I'm wondering exactly how these hosts differ from other hosts. Exactly how do they "optimize" the performance of the forum software. To get the most I can out of my forum and website, I upgrade the port, ram and processor, all hardware side. Can someone explain to me without getting too technical how these hosts optimize forum software without using dedicated server level service? Are they reliable? Are they worth it?

 

[Forsaken]

I'm wondering exactly how these hosts differ from other hosts. Exactly how do they "optimize" the performance of the forum software. To get the most I can out of my forum and website, I upgrade the port, ram and processor, all hardware side. Can someone explain to me without getting too technical how these hosts optimize forum software without using dedicated server level service? Are they reliable? Are they worth it?

I think about the only difference is that the company is familiar with XenForo and can provide support specifically for a XenForo install.

If I'm wrong someone else can correct me, but I'm going to stay out of this topic now .

 

[Shamil]

I can't speak for everyone, but I'm going to try to be short about Radon Systems before Safari decides to reload the page.

-The web server, MySQL and PHP operating environment are optimised by configuration and build for high-performance applications, aka XenForo.
-The operation system is configured to offer the best performance possible, with the minimum downtime.

Apart from this, the server is continuously monitored for performance and stability. Small configuration changes are made along the way to ensure maximum operating efficiency. In the case of Radon Systems, seen here, there is additional support as Forsaken suggested.

 

[ragtek]

I'm wondering exactly how these hosts differ from other hosts. Exactly how do they "optimize" the performance of the forum software. To get the most I can out of my forum and website, I upgrade the port, ram and processor, all hardware side. Can someone explain to me without getting too technical how these hosts optimize forum software without using dedicated server level service? Are they reliable? Are they worth it?

I don't think they differ in any way, the only thing is IMHO the much bigger price.
I don't know how much shamil wants..
How can i trust somebody, if even his "support & order page isn't working as it should"? (sorry shamil

)

edit: i've found in http://xenforo.com/community/threads/xenforo-optimised-vps-hosting.12973/#post-169739 that it costs 630$/year ~ 34€/month

My first webhost was 5€ / month => 60€ / year and it worked fine for years for 2 small forums, and some joomla & typo3 pages)
As it started getting slow, i moved to the next package ( 15€/month)

IMHO the big packages as shamil is trying to sell, are EXTREMELY unnecessary for the avarege joe forum admin...

Who needs 50 gig in the first months (or even years???)
Some of my forums don't even need 2 gig space because people don't need attachments...
Even if people upload things, how fast will you get the 50 gig full?
People should start thinking about this things once there forum start to grow and not from the first day...

The second problem is the support.
The "small hosters" often don't have real access to the servers, they own only some machines where other are responsible for them. So once there's a problem, you have to contact your hoster, and he have to contact his hoster, which can take days...

 

[a legacy reborn]

I don't think they differ in any way, the only thing is IMHO the much bigger price.
I don't know how much shamil wants..
How can i trust somebody, if even his "support & order page isn't working as it should"? (sorry shamil

)

edit: i've found in http://xenforo.com/community/threads/xenforo-optimised-vps-hosting.12973/#post-169739 that it costs 630$/year ~ 34€/month

My first webhost was 5€ / month => 60€ / year and it worked fine for years for 2 small forums, and some joomla & typo3 pages)
As it started getting slow, i moved to the next package ( 15€/month)

IMHO the big packages as shamil is trying to sell, are EXTREMELY unnecessary for the avarege joe forum admin...

Who needs 50 gig in the first months (or even years???)
Some of my forums don't even need 2 gig space because people don't need attachments...
Even if people upload things, how fast will you get the 50 gig full?
People should start thinking about this things once there forum start to grow and not from the first day...

The second problem is the support.
The "small hosters" often don't have real access to the servers, they own only some machines where other are responsible for them. So once there's a problem, you have to contact your hoster, and he have to contact his hoster, which can take days...

I mostly agree, although in some cases the server is truly optimized. Although whenever I think of an optimized server it is usually extremely optimized but if you want to make it just for xf then you will have to customize it yourself. I don't think any 1 configuration will work for all different site(even when running the same software).

 

[Shamil]

I don't think they differ in any way, the only thing is IMHO the much bigger price.
I don't know how much shamil wants..
How can i trust somebody, if even his "support & order page isn't working as it should"? (sorry shamil

)

edit: i've found in http://xenforo.com/community/threads/xenforo-optimised-vps-hosting.12973/#post-169739 that it costs 630$/year ~ 34€/month

My first webhost was 5€ / month => 60€ / year and it worked fine for years for 2 small forums, and some joomla & typo3 pages)
As it started getting slow, i moved to the next package ( 15€/month)

IMHO the big packages as shamil is trying to sell, are EXTREMELY unnecessary for the avarege joe forum admin...

Who needs 50 gig in the first months (or even years???)
Some of my forums don't even need 2 gig space because people don't need attachments...
Even if people upload things, how fast will you get the 50 gig full?
People should start thinking about this things once there forum start to grow and not from the first day...

The second problem is the support.
The "small hosters" often don't have real access to the servers, they own only some machines where other are responsible for them. So once there's a problem, you have to contact your hoster, and he have to contact his hoster, which can take days...

To respond to this,

Ordering issue fixed.

Yes, some of the specifics are unnecessary, however, as always the capacity to expand is there. Is the package for everyone? No.

The servers are co-located. We can't really contact the datacenter to fix a problem with our servers, they're only support is for the network we're provided with.

 

[Forsaken]

I can't speak for everyone, but I'm going to try to be short about Radon Systems before Safari decides to reload the page.

-The web server, MySQL and PHP operating environment are optimised by configuration and build for high-performance applications, aka XenForo.
-The operation system is configured to offer the best performance possible, with the minimum downtime.

Apart from this, the server is continuously monitored for performance and stability. Small configuration changes are made along the way to ensure maximum operating efficiency. In the case of Radon Systems, seen here, there is additional support as Forsaken suggested.

Worth mentioning; most VPS providers will do the exact same thing as what you are offering at a lower price for managed customers.

The only difference is your familiarity with XenForo but that doesn't justify the larger pricetag.

 

[Tempest]

Thanks for the input guys. I think I'll stick to my low-end dedicated server.

 

[Shamil]

Worth mentioning; most VPS providers will do the exact same thing as what you are offering at a lower price for managed customers.

The only difference is your familiarity with XenForo but that doesn't justify the larger pricetag.

Most VPS providers don't offer LiteSpeed licences to their customers and provide support for it (non-general support). Most VPS providers don't continuously look at optimising the environment based on changes at regular intervals.
Most providers do not offer direct platform support.

 

[chrisj]

I've been using lightspeed hosting for the past couple months on reputable shared hosting that are known for underselling, but I still can't understand why my webpage is getting poor results from google webmaster tools and pingdom. (pingdom having far worse results of over 4 seconds average while google webmaster tools indicates a little over 2 seconds). I've been thinking about testing a vps with a nginx setup. Btw I optimized all images and javascript. I understand location matters a great deal. Am I just missing the power of a good server that hopefully something like Linode will offer?

 

[Shamil]

I've been using lightspeed hosting for the past couple months on reputable shared hosting that are known for underselling, but I still can't understand why my webpage is getting poor results from google webmaster tools and pingdom. (pingdom having far worse results of over 4 seconds average while google webmaster tools indicates a little over 2 seconds). I've been thinking about testing a vps with a nginx setup. Btw I optimized all images and javascript. I understand location matters a great deal. Am I just missing the power of a good server that hopefully something like Linode will offer?

Would you mind posting your website address?

It could be that for some reason, a slower network path/route is being used.

 

[chrisj]

Would you mind posting your website address?

It could be that for some reason, a slower network path/route is being used.

www.ngpforum.com, my traffic has gone down since last week, a sharp drop especially from google traffic. I'm trying to figure out how to solve it, and one that I have noticed was page load was not the best. Other issues could be duplicate content (since a great deal of conversations are discussing external articles) and loosing google's beginners help. I switched hosting a couple days ago but it doesn't seem to be an improvement, perhaps worse.

 

[Jason]

It's all about configuration. And what works for one site won't necessarily work for another (as mentioned earlier). You don't need LiteSpeed to get blazing speeds. You can achieve the same or better results using free software, provided you don't mind putting in some effort to properly configure things.

For example, I've seen an Apache+Varnish setup perform laps around LiteSpeed. Or you could use nginx as a front-end to Apache, or just go nginx all the way. In short, there's better things to spend your money on, imo, when great free solutions already exist (with active communities behind them).

 

[Forsaken]

It's all about configuration. And what works for one site won't necessarily work for another (as mentioned earlier). You don't need LiteSpeed to get blazing speeds. You can achieve the same or better results using free software, provided you don't mind putting in some effort to properly configure things.

For example, I've seen an Apache+Varnish setup perform laps around LiteSpeed. Or you could use nginx as a front-end to Apache, or just go nginx all the way. In short, there's better things to spend your money on, imo, when great free solutions already exist (with active communities behind them).

Not to mention the VPS edition of LiteSpeed is for a single CPU, where LiteSpeed really only sees a benefit over the competition with multiple cores.

Anyone who actually has a need for LiteSpeed will be using a dedicated.

 

[Shamil]

It's all about configuration. And what works for one site won't necessarily work for another (as mentioned earlier). You don't need LiteSpeed to get blazing speeds. You can achieve the same or better results using free software, provided you don't mind putting in some effort to properly configure things.

For example, I've seen an Apache+Varnish setup perform laps around LiteSpeed. Or you could use nginx as a front-end to Apache, or just go nginx all the way. In short, there's better things to spend your money on, imo, when great free solutions already exist (with active communities behind them).

In the small test case scenarios we have done with Apache + Varnish, or Nginx + Apache or Varnish, we gained similar results to what George (eva2000) from vBulletin.com got - LiteSpeed just outperformed them both. We had someone external configure both instances for performance, appropriately.

Not to mention the VPS edition of LiteSpeed is for a single CPU, where LiteSpeed really only sees a benefit over the competition with multiple cores.

Anyone who actually has a need for LiteSpeed will be using a dedicated.

We don't use VPS licenses. VPS licenses also have a RAM limit of 2GB, I believe.

 

[Shamil]

www.ngpforum.com, my traffic has gone down since last week, a sharp drop especially from google traffic. I'm trying to figure out how to solve it, and one that I have noticed was page load was not the best. Other issues could be duplicate content (since a great deal of conversations are discussing external articles) and loosing google's beginners help. I switched hosting a couple days ago but it doesn't seem to be an improvement, perhaps worse.

The page load seems fast enough for me, averaging under 3 seconds. First page load was about 5 seconds maximum.