iansltx Posted January 17, 2009 Report Share Posted January 17, 2009 First, let me lay out the situation for the more important questions (I'm iansltx on WHT by the way). I''m on staff at my college newspaper, The Oredigger (www.oredigger.net). Yes, the website looks atrocious; we'll be moving off of it and onto a Joomla system for the main site and Wordpress MU for the blogs. We have a Mac mini set up with Fedora on-campus as a staging server at the moment, but it looks as though it'll be nearly impossible to get a hole in the campus firewall (Colorado School of Mines) for HTTP access to the server from the outside. Since admins and students can VPN into the campus, that's all we'd really need but we'lllikely not even get that. In truth, the site (which currently averages 15-30K page views per month, with a maximum of about 1500 per day) doesn't need much in the way of bandwidth, storage and processing power, it would seem to me. We'll easily be able to fit into the bandwidth and space requirements here, for the basic shared plan, and if we need more bandwidth or space for rich media (high-res photos...we'll put videos on YouTube or Vimeo and audio, in all likelihood, on Libsyn) we'll likely put that content on SimpleCDN. Which leaves a Joomla and a WordPress MU setup, which will eventually host a dozen or so blogs. Forums? Maybe down the road, but I'm not seeing it right now. Heck, the MU setup is working passably on a 1&1 shared hosting account, along with an instance of RoundCube webmail (our campus e-mail system stinks and I had a friend set up the webmail UI to get around that issue) and my personal blog. But I know there's better out there. My questions: 1. How easy would it be to register our domain somewhere (domain.com or GoDaddy) then point it to an MDDHosting site? Easy, right?2. Considering our traffic and systems, we should be fine on the Basic shared hosting package, correct?3. If, at some point, we needed to upgrade to Semi-Dedicated hosting, would it be a quick, easy, no-reuploading-required deal? Sounds like yes. For that matter, how much trafic would we need to make semi-dedi a necessity? My second set of questions is a bit more low-key: I have various websites hosted on my personal account. None of them are very big, but there are maybe a dozen domains, maybe a few more than that, associated with the accounts. The "bigger" sites are WordPress not MU) and might get hit spikes of over 1,000 per day but normally are minimal-usage. Space-, bandwidth- and CPU-wise it'd seem like the basic account would work for me fine. After all, I'm surviving on 1&1 shared Linux hosting at $4.99 :/. But the number of domains I have on the account is maybe a bit higher than the 5 shown on the price sheet here. What to do? Thanks, and if I move my (and The Oredigger's) hosting over here, I don't think anyone would mind noting who we're hosted by somewhere in the system. Seems like SoftLayer/DAL is the fastest host from here (Denver area) where you can get decent-priced shared hosting, and some Denver hosts' networks don't even connect to Denver-based ISPs directly due to routing weirdness. So I'm glad to have found MDDHosting...just hope it works out for our/my needs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael D. Posted January 17, 2009 Report Share Posted January 17, 2009 First, let me lay out the situation for the more important questions (I'm iansltx on WHT by the way).Hello I'm on staff at my college newspaper, The Oredigger (www.oredigger.net). Yes, the website looks atrocious; we'll be moving off of it and onto a Joomla system for the main site and Wordpress MU for the blogs. We have a Mac mini set up with Fedora on-campus as a staging server at the moment, but it looks as though it'll be nearly impossible to get a hole in the campus firewall (Colorado School of Mines) for HTTP access to the server from the outside. Since admins and students can VPN into the campus, that's all we'd really need but we'll likely not even get that.That's not a good way to go if you can't get a hole in the firewall for HTTP, at least not in my opinion. In truth, the site (which currently averages 15-30K page views per month, with a maximum of about 1500 per day) doesn't need much in the way of bandwidth, storage and processing power, it would seem to me. We'll easily be able to fit into the bandwidth and space requirements here, for the basic shared plan, and if we need more bandwidth or space for rich media (high-res photos...we'll put videos on YouTube or Vimeo and audio, in all likelihood, on Libsyn) we'll likely put that content on SimpleCDN.From looking at your page it would likely be fine with the usage statistics that you've given even on regular shared hosting. You would have the option with us to upgrade to a semi-dedicated plan or a VPS if you needed at any time for no additional fee and we also could work something out so that you could use the SoftLayer CDN. Which leaves a Joomla and a WordPress MU setup, which will eventually host a dozen or so blogs. Forums? Maybe down the road, but I'm not seeing it right now. Heck, the MU setup is working passably on a 1&1 shared hosting account, along with an instance of RoundCube webmail (our campus e-mail system stinks and I had a friend set up the webmail UI to get around that issue) and my personal blog. But I know there's better out there.You would have access to webmail (roundcube included) with us on any of our shared and semi-dedicated plans as well as on our VPS and Dedicated offerings if you opted to use cPanel/WHM. My questions: 1. How easy would it be to register our domain somewhere (domain.com or GoDaddy) then point it to an MDDHosting site? Easy, right?Easy to the point of being trivial.2. Considering our traffic and systems, we should be fine on the Basic shared hosting package, correct?I don't see any indications as to why you wouldn't be ok, if there were any issues we would work with you to resolve them and if you did need an upgrade we would discuss it with you and your options.3. If, at some point, we needed to upgrade to Semi-Dedicated hosting, would it be a quick, easy, no-reuploading-required deal? Sounds like yes. For that matter, how much trafic would we need to make semi-dedi a necessity?You would be transferring to a totally different server as our regular shared and semi-dedicated servers are totally distinct machines. We would handle the transfer for you so it would be a no-reuploading-required deal for you. Generally it's not a traffic requirement but a CPU/Memory requirement that forces the move from Shared hosting to Semi-Dedicated. My second set of questions is a bit more low-key: I have various websites hosted on my personal account. None of them are very big, but there are maybe a dozen domains, maybe a few more than that, associated with the accounts. The "bigger" sites are WordPress not MU) and might get hit spikes of over 1,000 per day but normally are minimal-usage. Ok Space-, bandwidth- and CPU-wise it'd seem like the basic account would work for me fine. After all, I'm surviving on 1&1 shared Linux hosting at $4.99 :/. But the number of domains I have on the account is maybe a bit higher than the 5 shown on the price sheet here. What to do? We don't overfill or oversell our servers so we limit the amount of domains that can be hosted per account so that we can continue to keep the server profitable. If we were to allow unlimited (or a high number of domains) on our lowest accounts the server would very quickly become full without turning a profit. It's the flip side of not overselling your resources and can be seen as a good thing or a bad thing. The best option would be to upgrade to the next highest plan if you needed more domains hosted. Thanks, and if I move my (and The Oredigger's) hosting over here, I don't think anyone would mind noting who we're hosted by somewhere in the system. Seems like SoftLayer/DAL is the fastest host from here (Denver area) where you can get decent-priced shared hosting, and some Denver hosts' networks don't even connect to Denver-based ISPs directly due to routing weirdness. So I'm glad to have found MDDHosting...just hope it works out for our/my needs.You don't have to advertise/push us in any way unless you purely feel the desire to do so If you have any other questions or you want any clarification just let us know. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iansltx Posted January 18, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2009 From looking at your page it would likely be fine with the usage statistics that you've given even on regular shared hosting. You would have the option with us to upgrade to a semi-dedicated plan or a VPS if you needed at any time for no additional fee and we also could work something out so that you could use the SoftLayer CDN. SimpleCDN is a tad cheaper but SL's CDN would be a cool option. You would have access to webmail (roundcube included) with us on any of our shared and semi-dedicated plans as well as on our VPS and Dedicated offerings if you opted to use cPanel/WHM. Okay; is it bring-your-own-RoundCube or could I point the current install to the campus servers? Not a big deal either way. RoundCube works on LAMP so it should work with my own install. Traffic would be pretty minimal, just something for me and my friends to use instead of Horde. You would be transferring to a totally different server as our regular shared and semi-dedicated servers are totally distinct machines. We would handle the transfer for you so it would be a no-reuploading-required deal for you. Generally it's not a traffic requirement but a CPU/Memory requirement that forces the move from Shared hosting to Semi-Dedicated. Right. That works; I wouldn't expect Joomla/WordPress to take many resources, even with rotating ad banners etc. But it's nice to have the option. The transition process is just what I expected. We don't overfill or oversell our servers so we limit the amount of domains that can be hosted per account so that we can continue to keep the server profitable. If we were to allow unlimited (or a high number of domains) on our lowest accounts the server would very quickly become full without turning a profit. It's the flip side of not overselling your resources and can be seen as a good thing or a bad thing. The best option would be to upgrade to the next highest plan if you needed more domains hosted. Sounds remotely like overselling, but I can probably just forward domains to a subdomain of my main site if needed (unlimited subdomains, right?) if I went over. Plus, there are some domains that I don't particularly need You don't have to advertise/push us in any way unless you purely feel the desire to do so H,,. maybe if people ask about the host used I'll get a reseller account . But, if the hosting is good, I have no problem recommending it to everyone else. There are some hosts where I'm not sure why people go there, but for ignorance... I'm pretty sure you'll be hearing from me soon, or the other guy working tech at the paper. Thanks for answering the questions! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael D. Posted January 18, 2009 Report Share Posted January 18, 2009 SimpleCDN is a tad cheaper but SL's CDN would be a cool option.We have access to SoftLayer's CDN starting right at about $20/month and if you didn't use the whole thing we could offer you a slice of it cheaper. Okay; is it bring-your-own-RoundCube or could I point the current install to the campus servers? Not a big deal either way. RoundCube works on LAMP so it should work with my own install. Traffic would be pretty minimal, just something for me and my friends to use instead of Horde.If RoundCube can be installed on a regular shared account (I've never tried) then you could do it for sure but if it required any sort of root access to the system to install you would have to go with a VPS. I've never installed RoundCube so I couldn't say for sure but I'm willing to give it a shot Right. That works; I wouldn't expect Joomla/WordPress to take many resources, even with rotating ad banners etc. But it's nice to have the option. The transition process is just what I expected.WP/Joomla don't usually take many resources, and if if they do I believe there are cache plugins for both scripts that will greatly reduce resource usage. Sounds remotely like overselling, but I can probably just forward domains to a subdomain of my main site if needed (unlimited subdomains, right?) if I went over. Plus, there are some domains that I don't particularly need The limits are in place since we *don't* oversell if we did then it would be easy to say you could host unlimited domains on your account H,,. maybe if people ask about the host used I'll get a reseller account . But, if the hosting is good, I have no problem recommending it to everyone else. There are some hosts where I'm not sure why people go there, but for ignorance... Sometimes I'm not sure why people do the things that they do I'm pretty sure you'll be hearing from me soon, or the other guy working tech at the paper. Thanks for answering the questions!No problem at all, if you have more questions let us know! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iansltx Posted January 18, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2009 We have access to SoftLayer's CDN starting right at about $20/month and if you didn't use the whole thing we could offer you a slice of it cheaper. Nice to know. If RoundCube can be installed on a regular shared account (I've never tried) then you could do it for sure but if it required any sort of root access to the system to install you would have to go with a VPS. I've never installed RoundCube so I couldn't say for sure but I'm willing to give it a shot Do a traceroute to http://mail.minesapps.com. Yep, 1&1 shared. It's slow but works flawlessly The limits are in place since we *don't* oversell if we did then it would be easy to say you could host unlimited domains on your account Understood. Sometimes I'm not sure why people do the things that they do I don't like crappy products. As you may have noticed, the Viacom-powered outfit that we're on right now counts right up with the worst of 'em. If things work out, why not share the love? Thx again! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael D. Posted January 18, 2009 Report Share Posted January 18, 2009 Well we do also offer a no-questions-asked 30 day money-back guarantee. If you order and pay via PayPal and you request a refund the money is back in your PayPal account within about 6 to 12 hours at most. Just to let you know If you sign up for a year you will get an automatic 15% off (all yearly prices are discounted 15% before any other discounts). Just two things to keep in mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iansltx Posted January 18, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2009 That works. Again, thanks for all the info. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael D. Posted January 18, 2009 Report Share Posted January 18, 2009 That works. Again, thanks for all the info.No problem Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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