Looking for a new webhost
May 23, 2008 3:36 PM Subscribe
Halp! I need a new host for a wiki. My RPG has a wiki, because we're wordy and five years old and ... well, we're dorks. Our current host is not so good for us anymore for reasons of database size.
We're hosting our wiki on mediawiki - right now we're several revisions back, I am looking to upgrade is to 1.12.0 as soon as I can get things working again.
Because we are wordy and many years old and there's lots of us (it's a LJ RPG, mefi-mail me if you really want the links), the wiki is surprisingly big for a RPG. Our current host limits mySQL databases to 100mb, we're currently over that by about 45mb. (They say it's a 100mb limit and really give you about 140-150)
What we need now is a hosting solution that allows for a reasonable mySQL database size and some growth. Ideally, being able to pay for extra space as we need it is ideal, but starting out with something biggish is okay too.
Since we're on MediaWiki, we need mySQL and PHP. FTP access, SSH access and being able to transfer our domain are also necessary.
We are NOT: Willing to switch off Mediawiki, willing to cut back on the info in the wiki, or willing to NOT have a wiki. We love our wiki, the wordiness is necessary, and we just got 40 players trained on mediawiki, we're not training them on something new.
We don't need tons of filespace or bandwidth, just a place to put a wiki and a database, with room to grow. It should also be affordable.
We're hosting our wiki on mediawiki - right now we're several revisions back, I am looking to upgrade is to 1.12.0 as soon as I can get things working again.
Because we are wordy and many years old and there's lots of us (it's a LJ RPG, mefi-mail me if you really want the links), the wiki is surprisingly big for a RPG. Our current host limits mySQL databases to 100mb, we're currently over that by about 45mb. (They say it's a 100mb limit and really give you about 140-150)
What we need now is a hosting solution that allows for a reasonable mySQL database size and some growth. Ideally, being able to pay for extra space as we need it is ideal, but starting out with something biggish is okay too.
Since we're on MediaWiki, we need mySQL and PHP. FTP access, SSH access and being able to transfer our domain are also necessary.
We are NOT: Willing to switch off Mediawiki, willing to cut back on the info in the wiki, or willing to NOT have a wiki. We love our wiki, the wordiness is necessary, and we just got 40 players trained on mediawiki, we're not training them on something new.
We don't need tons of filespace or bandwidth, just a place to put a wiki and a database, with room to grow. It should also be affordable.
You might think about trimming your versions, too. If you have a ton of revisions, you can recoup some space by deleting back n versions.
posted by boo_radley at 3:58 PM on May 23, 2008
posted by boo_radley at 3:58 PM on May 23, 2008
Deleting old revisions isn't a bad idea; let me know if you need help with crafting an SQL query to do that.
You might look for a reseller account. They're meant to host multiple sites, but generally give you more control over what you do / have generous size allocations. I was quite pleased with Dathorn quite some time ago... I left 'em a few years ago after I moved to a dedicated server, but I was quite happy. Of course, obvious disclaimer: I'm a few years removed from being a customer.
I'd actually argue that, unless you're willing to go for a very powerful server, there's plenty of logical in staying on a shared host: a lot of VPS offerings, especially if your budget isn't too great, include a tiny slice of memory and CPU, which can kill some things... A good shared host will be well-suited for something like this, especially if they've configured things well (e.g., running APC/Memcached, using MySQL query caching...)
Now I want to start a hosting company again...
posted by fogster at 4:11 PM on May 23, 2008
You might look for a reseller account. They're meant to host multiple sites, but generally give you more control over what you do / have generous size allocations. I was quite pleased with Dathorn quite some time ago... I left 'em a few years ago after I moved to a dedicated server, but I was quite happy. Of course, obvious disclaimer: I'm a few years removed from being a customer.
I'd actually argue that, unless you're willing to go for a very powerful server, there's plenty of logical in staying on a shared host: a lot of VPS offerings, especially if your budget isn't too great, include a tiny slice of memory and CPU, which can kill some things... A good shared host will be well-suited for something like this, especially if they've configured things well (e.g., running APC/Memcached, using MySQL query caching...)
Now I want to start a hosting company again...
posted by fogster at 4:11 PM on May 23, 2008
I use Site5 hosting and am pretty happy with them. Their shared account have 2 GB limit on MySQL database, seems like more than you need. Here is the link to their resource utilization policies. Search for "MySQL".
posted by bargainhunter at 4:14 PM on May 23, 2008
posted by bargainhunter at 4:14 PM on May 23, 2008
Just a word in edgewise: Before I went to VPS (and have been very happy, even under high load), I was with Site5. There were several annoying things that happened, but the worst was the extensive downtime and the constant blacklisting of both the webserver and mail server's IP addresses due to spam.
I now won't buy any hosting that doesn't come with it's own IP address.
A good place to look for hosting is www.webhostingtalk.com -- you can also check out reviews of hosting sites and the like.
posted by SpecialK at 5:19 PM on May 23, 2008
I now won't buy any hosting that doesn't come with it's own IP address.
A good place to look for hosting is www.webhostingtalk.com -- you can also check out reviews of hosting sites and the like.
posted by SpecialK at 5:19 PM on May 23, 2008
Check out slicehost. $20/month gets you a 256MB slice and it's blazing fast. Yes, you install what you need but it's easy. (e.g. yum install mysql) Shared hosting is really only good if you like web-based control panels (or want someone to run your mail server).
posted by kamelhoecker at 9:43 PM on May 23, 2008
posted by kamelhoecker at 9:43 PM on May 23, 2008
linode have always done me well and there cheapest should be fine for you at $20/month.
posted by DJWeezy at 10:26 PM on May 23, 2008
posted by DJWeezy at 10:26 PM on May 23, 2008
Response by poster: We ended up going with dreamhost, just so anyone still watching knows. ;)
posted by FritoKAL at 5:08 PM on June 17, 2008
posted by FritoKAL at 5:08 PM on June 17, 2008
This thread is closed to new comments.
I wouldn't recommend ANY shared hosting (Even 'grid' type hosting like Joyent) for an app that's as write-heavy as Mediawiki is.
posted by SpecialK at 3:51 PM on May 23, 2008