10.19 - 500 Server error, blah

[madbean]

So, I'm sure people have noticed some error messages recently when trying to access the site. This is something that really has not been a frequent problem here in the past, so I got curious and started digging to find out what the deal is.

Turns out that my host has implemented a new restraint on shared plans involving "resource points" according to how much server hardware a particular site is exploiting. Each site gets a maximum number of "points" and once you go over that, you start down the bottleneck. Basically, it's kind of a crap deal...the bandwidth and usage for the website is about the same it's been all year, but now that they are enforcing the "point system" it's going to cause problems on a frequent basis since apparently madbeanpedals consumes twice as many points as allocated. This may cause them to suspend the account if it continues, which obviously I am not too happy about.

So, I'm looking into alternatives right now, including a different host and possibly a virtual server plan. I do not know yet how quickly this transition will happen but I expect pretty soon. In the meantime, if the site goes down now and then, it is only temporary (so I hope). Please try to refrain from constantly reloading pages if you get errors. Just come back after a while and hopefully things will be back to normal. Once I know for sure if and when a migration happens, I will let everyone know.

[slacker775]

I've used a small Amazon EC2 instance for my companies website for quite a few years and its worked out great.  You have complete root/admin etc.   If you reserve the instance, the rates are even cheaper.  If you are only paying like $20/mo, it's way out of that price range but if you are more in the $50-100/mo range, it would definitely compare.

[aziltz]

I recently moved to Hostgator and have had only good experiences thus far.  I got a good deal by paying for a few years in advance, and its much easier to use than my previous host.

[Chi_Boy]

Do embedded pictures and attachments impact your points?  It seems logical that they would.

[madbean]

Do embedded pictures and attachments impact your points?  It seems logical that they would.

I don't know exactly how the point system is tabulated but my wife, who is a web administrator, looked at it and said "well this really should not be an issue". I'm pretty in the dark about most of this stuff, so I just gotta trust what I've read and her expert opinion, ha ha.

And really, I don't expect over the top service for the $7 / month shared hosting plan we have so I'm not concerned about upgrading to a better plan (despite the added expense). Really, my only concern is end user impact over the next few days while I sort this out.

[slacker775]

Do embedded pictures and attachments impact your points?  It seems logical that they would.

If they count against storage and/or bandwidth used, then embedded ones would count.  External links wouldn't however.

[electricstorm]

Yeah, it really sucks. But I know it's not your fault.

During my Spring semester I had to take Humanities. The theme for the class was technology & Society. One of the papers I had to do was on Net Neutrality Pros and Cons. What it boiled down to was what Brian is experiencing with his ISP for the forum. ISP's want to be able to "throttle" back the access to certain websites and information available on the web, unless you are willing to pay a premium for the info. Think of it like a tiered pay scheme like cable or sattelite TV.

It was a real eye-opener for me because during my research, I also read about a forum that had information deleted and emails erased by their ISP provider because the provider felt the information was not necessary to the forum (this was not an ISP sponsored forum, but an individual's forum similar to so many we might visit). AT&T and Comcast were the worst violators of Net Neutrality. There were others, but I won't go into details. Any way, the whole Net Neutrality thing has to do with keeping the internet free and accessible to all and not interferred with by the ISP provider. Research it sometime if you would like to know more about it.

Sorry, thought you might like to know a little history on it.

Jim

[alanp]

Another forum I'm on (a LOT) scrapped their graphics intensive optional layout thing, and everyone has to use the blue and white simple layout for the same reason.

"We want your money for webhosting, but we don't want to have to do any WORK while webhosting. So don't actually attract many people, 'kay?"