What host do you guys use for big boards?
 

Hey guys,

I wanna know what host you guys use on your big boards. Do you guys still use shared hosting or dedicated? Please reply. Thanks. :D

I imagine dedicated as there is a lot of server load, but some people think that if you have a big board you have to fork out for a dedi server, this is not true. If you find a stable shared hosting provider they will let you host a big board doing this you wouldnt have to worry about RAM/CPU usage etc, but I would contact a shared hosting provider before buying and ask them if you can.

Regarding servers my top would be Softlayer ;).

We used a dedicated server from softlayer. They are very good :).

I use SoftLayer also and have been absolutely thrilled with their service. :up:

Softlayers prices aint bad at all so I would suggest picking up one of those bargain deals and have a nice speedy forum ;).

Jac

Thanks for the suggestions guys. :) I will try softlayer.

i am using hetzner, a german hosting company. It is a root-server.

I have 2 servers with Softlayer and 2 with LayeredTech. Both provide great service at a reasonable price.

I have one server from koreru.com, and I happy with them

Good Luck

Softlayer is great, if not amazing. But I still think unmetered collocation comes cheaper. :)

I have a dedicated server with simpli.biz - great group of people and excellent support.

Colocated @ LiquidWeb

1&1 root server(s).

Used to be with The Planet, narrowed my choices to Softlayer and LiquidWeb knowing I would be happy with either, got a great deal from Liquidweb - been there about a year, very happy...

I used to be with EV1/the Planet - and recently moved to Softlayer and am loving it so far.

we're with surpass hosting. I couldn't tell you the size of our equipment...I do know I have heard my hubby mention things like dual processors and that the next server we go to will have to be a second server that's like the one we're on now. It is a dedicated server. so that's nice. The shared one, we weren't sharing so nicely - our traffic was pulling a lot of load.

dedicated server at hostway.com, paying $200 a month. Been with them for about 5 years, I have no gripes. If I am paying more than what I should be, can somebody hit me up with a PM or something and let me know how much less I should be paying, and from where. thanx

^ that depends on what spec you have on your box:)

I've been with SiteGround for over a year. It's a shared server, and I must say, it's not the greatest. It runs you 5.95/month. I'm not happy because we have a relatively small forum, yet we constantly run in to server resource issues.

I'll be looking to moving to something else later, probably HostMonster, or possibly SoftLayer.

Currently I am with ASmallOrange on a VPS and I couldn't be more UN-HAPPY! Ugh. slowdown all the time, server is constantly going down. I do NOT want to move hosts again but I am going to have to it looks like.

VPS: http://www.futurehosting.biz/default.htm (hosted at softlayer), couldn't be happier. Great team, lots of knowledge and service is A+

My site: http://www.game-artist.net

Guys please, this is a topic about Big Boards. There is absolutly no need to post your VPS details here.

Just an update - we have a dedicated server and a colo at Liquidweb. Absolutely love the support. You can get someone on the phone 24 hours a day. We were moving 25 gigs of data to the new server and ran into a problem that required someone at the data center to get involved. We sent them an email request at 3 am. thinking it would take a several hours, it was done in 20 mins.

Haven't run into a problem they wouldn't fix yet. And always friendly. This report is after 11 months of service. Once we receive our server from our old host I'll tell you who to stay away from ;)

If its really a bid board, go dedicated. There are too many good hosts to list them all

Bongwater, nice site but at 175 members on, it's slow as molasses...

Don't know what you're getting for $200 but it's way too slow.

Softlayer.

How can some of you afford to host such small sites on Softlayer?

..and why do you respond to a thread about Big Boards, if you have a small site.

Not sure what exactly defines "big board" but we're hosted by LiquidWeb on a dedicated server. It was a huge $$$ jump going from VPS to dedicated, but it's been VERY worth it. Huge difference in load times and performance. LiquidWeb's support is unmatched. Love them and will probably never leave them :D

After reading this thread, I am thinking about moving to Softlayer too. Can I ask anyone hosting there what Softlayer's support is like. I need to be able to get people on the phone when and if things go wrong...

Do you guys have a fully managed server with SoftLayer?
I have a large forum in need of a good server.........badly!
I need them to watch it 24/7 and make sure it's secure

If you can manage your own servers and have a really big board, go to webnx.com. Great hardware, great pricing. They do configs the others would not even talk about. They maybe a little slow on new setups and upgrades sometimes, but they are always there when needed for support.

Been with them for 22 months. No complaints whatsoever.

Just received our server from our old host - Bizwala (formerly Ilon, formerly Remarkable). This was a fully managed dedicated solution, we had two servers with them. A few years ago before they lost their lead tech they were great. Since then I've had one of their dedicated servers with 15 of our sites get hacked into and was unrecoverable due to an old version of php/mysql installed. Upon trying to ask questions to get the problem fixed I was copied on an email that I was not supposed to read and found that the lead tech had called me an "idiot". Being the nice guy that I am I didn't realize he was referring to me right away. Needless to say I made plans to jump ship and find a new host that was more professional. I read countless reviews and found that Liquidweb had the type of support I needed. 24/7 phone support and great email support. They also stay on top of critical software updates on their own so I don't have to worry about it.

The sad thing is I had been with the my old host for years. The owner is a good guy and they had gone above and beyond many times in the past. But he needs more help from some more professional people. It's a small operation and the support tends to show it more than it should. It wasn't always like that.

Anyway, I'm extremely happy with the choice of Liquidweb.

we are paying $425 with our current host for
AMD dual opt dual core 280
4 gigs of ram
5x 16o gig drives

and they threw in a free reseller account, so I can setup some small sites here and there easily.

We use our current host because they have AIM support though.

I purchased my owner server and here are the specs:

2x INTEL XEON 5345 2.33GHZ 8MB QUAD CORE, This is 8 cores
4x 2048MB Memory giving me a total of 8GB of memory
4x 250GB hard drive setup as raid 10 = 500GB total usage
1x 250GB as a backup drive
1x 250GB a spare drive

I did a colo with this server through colo4dallas. In my opinion if you are going to keep a big board up and running it is cheaper to buy your own server and colo it. Renting or leasing a server is putting money into someone else’s pocket. Over a period of one year with the price you pay for using someone else’s dedicated server you could have purchased your own server. I am paying ½ if not lower then what everyone else paying because I own my server. If you going to buy a server of your own get something expandable so it will grow with you.

Thanks for the info - we are currently at 1.25million posts - okay we only have a 100 or so online at anyone time, but I am thinking about moving the site away from the planet.

I had never heard of softlayer but will take a look :)

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just had a look shame they do not seem to do managed servers :( Any recommendations for a host that can manage servers?

I just moved to Softlayer from the Planet because I was migrating a site and the person migrating it suggested Softlayer. The Planet was alway good to me and I may even move back in a month or so because of data transfer rate issues with Softlayer.

Comment: For those of you thinking of a dedicated server, if you don't know how to set up and manage a server you'll probably be paying lots of $$ for server management. Server management can cost you as much as, or more, each month than the server costs, not to mention it is difficult to find a really good management company or person that you can trust.

This is a very true comment. You get what you pay for with someone else managing you server.

I went through two cheap server management companies that were recommended from posts I read on other web sites. Some server management companies know just enough to get by or have long response times. You want a company that knows servers and all the ins and outs. You also want one with quick response times. When you have a problem with your server you do not want to have to wait 12 to 24 hours for them to look at it. The company I have now I have been very happy with for $65 a month. Granted you can find cheaper ones but like I said you get what you pay for. As Smitty also said you can find some that also cost just as much as your dedicated server. But keep one thing in mind. If you have a good company set your server up for you and if it was done right you should never had to have them mess with your server again for you unless you want something changed or you mess something up. So why pay someone a lot of money monthly when they are doing nothing except scanning your server for viruses for you and a few other things

Yes. The main thing is patches and stuff like upgrades that come out. Other than that, if set up correctly a server should pretty much run its self.

At first reading this thread title, I am interested of knowing which host does you big boards guys use. But more and more I read, the post arent anymore related to the title. Why not the mods delete or move these unrelated post to other thread?