Site Hosting Problem

[Shon]

This is an email I received from the hosting company of this site just a couple of hours ago:

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Your account game-dog.com is about to being suspended for violation of your terms of service and we wanted to give you a heads up and let you find an alternative host as quickly as possible.

Please read the policy notice on the sonomahosting site, in particular the paragraphs included at the end of this letter.

game-dog.com is growing and the forum has been very active lately but you are consuming an excessive amount of cpu resources (in violation of the TOS) and it is slowing down all server functions. Your CPU usage has been steadily increasing since December. We have traced back recent crashes and todays email problems and all are attributed to cpu overusage that maxes out the system and causes a shutdown. You need to think about being on a dedicated server for a site of this nature, especially as it grows. Your forum must be moved within the next few days or it will have to be suspended.

No hosting company offering plans like the one you are on with us will tolerate high cpu usage. Everyone has the same basic TOS contract that limits cpu usage you agree to by signing on for the service. Please consider moving to a dedicated server with the host of your choice. We would be happy to give to you a quote and thank you for your past business.

System Resources: Any one site or reseller account found to be utilizing in excess of 10% of the system resources at any given may shall be suspended. We reserve the right to terminate such account if we see fit.

Accounts operate on shared resources. Excessive use or abuse of these shared network resources by one customer (eg. in excess of 10% CPU usage) may have a negative impact on all other customers. Misuse of network resources in a manner which impairs network performance is prohibited by this policy and may result in termination of your account.

You are prohibited from excessive consumption of resources, including CPU time, memory, disk space and session time. You may not use resource-intensive programs which negatively impact other customers or the performances of Sonoma Hosting systems or networks. Sonoma Hosting reserves the right to terminate or limit such activities.

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I wasn't expecting to have to get a dedicated server so soon. I'm not sure exactly how much that is going to cost just yet, I'm waiting on a reply back from them.

Right now the site only has about $150 in it's account, and it's going to take most of that, if not all of it for only the first month with a dedicated server.

I have a friend that will host it for me if we can't get a dedicated server, but I would rather not put it on him like that. :(

[miakoda]

Let us know what we can do to help, Shon.

[buddylee04]

yea i will lend a helping hand

[CRG]

Let us know what we can do to help, Shon.yeah,just let us know what we can do shon

[devinben3]

I'm a new member and I love this site....I'm in to help in anyway

[Shon]

I just put 3 donate buttons at the top of almost every page.

Premium membership is also still available, I will probably be getting a list together of features and all pretty quick now that this has is happening so soon.

[Mudville_Monsta]

I just put 3 donate buttons at the top of almost every page.

Premium membership is also still available, I will probably be getting a list together of features and all pretty quick now that this has is happening so soon.how much is premium membership? what do we get from it? how long does it last? how does the donations button work? which ways do you except payment?
If the site goes down, just in case how will we find it again, and good luck.

[Classic]

WOW ! My suggestion is a little stringent, and probably will not be liked...
but I propose that only premium members can post...others can only view !

[Pit Blldg]

how about you get so much space for free and if you want more space (to post lots of pics) you have to pay xtra. and as a temp fix just dump some of the pictures that'll free up lots of server space.

[Classic]

Exactly !!!
It would be nice it some would re-think how many pics they have up and would delete some on their own...out of respect for the site and other members.

[Shon]

Well, the problem isn't really with the pictures themselves, we haven't used hardly any disk space and there isn't a limit on the bandwidth. The problem is the CPU usage, which is basically the processing of each page on the site, whether posting or viewing, and although there seems to be a lot of posting going on to many of you, there's not really a whole lot of that happening. ;x

I'm stilling waiting for an email back from the hosting company, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to move the server over to my friend's host. When that happens, the site will probably be down anywhere from 24-72 hours to update the DNS to the new server for everybody.

[Deep south]

hey if it will help you can dump all my post and pics

[Shon]

That wouldn't help, the only thing that would help without having to change servers would be to close the site, and that's not gonna happen :)

[Classic]

Wow...I guess I don't understand enough about the web hosting to make legit suggestions ;x

[Big River Kennels]

what are your plans?

[nc_pitbulls]

I Will Contribute To Anything..........We Need To Stay And Keep Fighting For Our Beloved Bulldogs.

[nc_pitbulls]

There Just Purchased Premium Membership :)

[Irish_Deciple]

maybe a time limit on pics Depending on a members activity? If some was banned or is never on the site i dont see a need for there pics to be up. I dont know how it is done now But ive seen posts of members who arent with us anymore im sure there is pics too. That would help free up space. Just a sug.

[Jenn]

WAY to GO NC_Pitbulls!

[DEACON ROM]

what if you split the site up on two differant adresses like a sister site. would that help regulate traffic?

[Shon]

what are your plans?
I'm not sure yet, I'm still waiting on another email back from the hosting company. If it had to happen right this minute, I would move the site over the my friend's server (but that would still take up to 72 hours to complete for everybody).

There Just Purchased Premium Membership
Thanks nc pitbulls, how do you like your new features? ;)

maybe a time limit on pics Depending on a members activity? If some was banned or is never on the site i dont see a need for there pics to be up. I dont know how it is done now But ive seen posts of members who arent with us anymore im sure there is pics too. That would help free up space. Just a sug.
Well, I'm thinking about limiting the gallery to a specific file size. The only problem with people posting pictures in the gallery is the time it takes for the CPU to actually process the requests from the different people viewing the pictures (not on pictures, but everything that is stored in the database). So it's not really the amount that they are posting, it's the amount that is viewing them mainly.

what if you split the site up on two differant adresses like a sister site. would that help regulate traffic?
That could have worked if it had began like that, but each would be completely separate (each has different members, different staff, etc.) and that takes away from the users.

[nc_pitbulls]

new features are very nice i love them!

[Shon]

Here is the latest email I have received from them, so I will have a lot of work to do pretty soon... I will be backing up the database and files on the server and probably begin the move tonight.

That means that the site will probably be down for about 72 hours :(

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Unfortunately gqme-dog is still drawing on too many resources and we cannot
allow this to continue much longer.

We are reaching critical load again and I need you to disable the forum
section on your site immediately.

game-dog is consuming 35% of cpu resources today and the system is
overworking and slowing everything down. I am going to have to take the site
off line by tonight the latest in order to stabalize the server. Please back
up and download all needed files asap and let me know as soon as you are
done.

I have some numbers for you on what we can do with a managed server and have
included them below. We can get this set up for you very quickly and it
would solve the problems we are having. You mentioned a friends dedicated
and we really need you to move to that within the next 24hrs if you are not
inclined to purchase the space now. This option will always be open to you
and we hope you consider one of these hosting plans in the future.
Thanks for your past business.

P4 2.8 (ht) Processor
1x80GB Storage
1200 GB Bandwidth
Dedicated IP Addresses
99.5% Network Guarantee
Online Help, Forums, & Support
Full Root Access
CPanel / WHM / Fantastico / RVSkin
Fully Managed
Fully Monitored 24x7
Setup Fee$50
$279.95/mo

We can split a server in half (with 1/2 the allowable resources) for
$160.00/mo

We can split a server in 3 (with 1/3 the allowable resources) for $120.00/mo
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[CRG]

So what is going to happend? you going to go with that plan.

[Shon]

There's no way we can afford $120 per month right now, and there would still be problems with that one because 1\3 of the resources is 33% and we've been using 35% of the server we're on right now just today.

I'm hoping I can just duplicate the site onto the new server and close the site so people will get a message on each page so they'll know what's going on. I'm waiting for them to email me back to see if that will be ok to do though.

While the site is down, that chat will still be functional if I can get them to not shut it completely down, but even if so, people can still connect directly to the IP address of the chat's server.

For those of you using mIRC, you should be ok as far as coming into the chat (unless they won't let it stay up).

I will be sending an email to everybody with instructions on how to come into the chat without the site.