Well, everyone loves the new blog but my host server.
I have received several letters of complaint from him over the last week about the traffic and the strain on his cpu. He is CORRECTION recommending that I get a dedicated server for my website. That would cost $260 a month.
Since we are not getting significantly more traffic than we did in any single month last year, I do not know what the heck the problem is. He is saying the new site simply uses so much more memory that he must dedicate an entire server to it.
He clarifies here because he says I do not understand what he is telling me, which I think I have also made clear, as I don’t know what the problem is.
“If I thought a vps would do the trick for you I would have recommended it. I sell vps servers also. They are much cheaper than a dedicated. They are NOT powerful enough or will be considerably slower than what you are currently enjoying.”
He continues: “I personally believe it is the way the wordpress blog is doing something. I really don’t know. Lots of folks use wordpress on this server. I use it for two of my own personal sites on this server. Heck, I recommended it to you in the first place and got you off that phpbb message board. I’m a fan of wordpress. But something is screwy on your blog that is causing a large cpu spike each time someone visits or clicks on any link on your blog.”
I have no idea why the new site would use so much more memory than the old one did. Is it the ads?
Any suggestions? Am I simply going to have to move to a different hosting service? If so, got any ideas?
So, since we have always had good service from this server, I have had no complaints in the past. We just don’t know what’s going on. I’ve redone ALL my images to be lower res.
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Hi Colleen,
You could consider one of the virtual dedicated servers (a.k.a. VPS or ‘slice’). Or, failing that, WordPress.org recommends a number of hosting companies all of whom will likely show more understanding than your current hosting company.
Thanks for that! I am looking into it right now. My host server says that no matter where I move, my cpu use will be huge and I need a dedicated server. I am looking around, and have forwarded the complaints to my designer. I really don’t want to move my server, but I can’t afford the price he is asking, and even if we did need a dedicated CPU, we can find much lower costs than $260 a month. I checked out that VPS idea of yours and they show around $50 a month.
Criminey. I don’t need this right now.
There are other providers, such as Dreamhost http://www.dreamhost.com/ (disclaimer: I am a client but do NOT work for them) that offer unlimited bandwidth hosting at a significantly cheaper rate, even with Mike’s suggestion of VPS. It could be had for around $20-30/mo. Prices are out there for everyone to see; definitely use that to your advantage and best of luck.
Oh yeah, that’s uncool.
I host with Godaddy. Yeah, their commercials are annoying and stupid but I’ve had awesome customer service from them and my site has never had outages since I’ve been with them. I have had some of the worst hosts ever before this (this is my fifth company, two of which took my money and then folded, one of which said it owned my domain name) but in the three years I’ve had it at Godaddy, nothing but praise.
Admittedly I don’t use near the bandwidth yours does but I do host a TON of images.
I know it’s a hassle to move.
I am definitely looking at all my options.
I am also shooting all the comic pages down to lower res, which is a pain in the butt, but I am hoping it helps.
I’ve just reloaded a bunch of art at a much lower res. I think most of it looks fine, but some of it looks pretty fuzzy. What do you think?
My server has asked me to clarify his position, and I updated with quotes from his letters. I haven’t heard back on whether the lower res images have helped any. He did not demand but merely recommended a dedicated server. So, there you go.
I was gonna suggest just buying your own server — but considering your dubious internet connection, that’s not really an option. Unless you get someone else to house it.
My server guy – who has been great lo these many years – is very upset that he has been characterized as the bad guy here and says he is willing to work with me. He recommends but does not demand that I get a dedicated server. Which I can’t afford anyway.
But the problem remains that he has a complaint about spikes in the cpu load, and I have no idea what to do about it. I’ve just spent all day trying to fix it.
wow, my post got truncated. I’m hoping that was you, Colleen.
The lower res pictures may cut some usage in the short term but that won’t solve the problem. You anticipate loading all of ADS to the web, and you’ve just started. If your server cannot handle it in the beginning, then you really should start looking into moving it to someone who can, because it’s just not a good fit for your future needs.
Nothing personal; it’s a business decision. You shouldn’t have to wreck your art and your pages over it (and yes, the low res pics are fuzzy). And you shouldn’t have to waste your precious time and energy downsizing your site to fit your server’s needs, either. You are the client.
**Especially since he’s got the time to read your blog, complain about being unfairly characterized, and send “several letters this week” about the issue–time that would have been better spent trying to diagnose the root cause rather than upsell you a dedicated server. Just sayin.
He was upset and asked me to clarify his position, so I have. He did not use the word “demand” as I wrote, but naturally, I was alarmed about possibly needing a new dedicated cpu. I almost fainted. I simply can’t afford it.
But you make a great point. If all of ADS is loaded, and we are having problems now…holy cow.
I am not at all happy about how fuzzy the art looks. The lower res just isn’t going to work for me. It was OK at first, but some pages are hard to see. I have the highest quality monitor. If they look like this on my monitor, they must look very bad on lesser quality monitors. 72 dpi is not going to work.
It does appear Roberto has the best advice, that there is a script problem in the wordpress program. If it turns out to be related to the ads, I really can’t do anything about them. I need those ads. They pay for the site. At least, I hope they do. I have only had them for a few weeks.
And yes, the server needs to serve my needs. Not vice versa.
My fine designer is looking into the problem, but come what may, I will not settle for fuzzy images. The problem will be solved. Very soon.
Hi Colleen. I’ve been the webmaster for two different companies and have designed a few dozen sites working for myself over the last 12 years and have become familiar with several web hosting companies. If things come to the point where you’re considering switching hosts, I’d be happy to recommend alternatives. Let me know.
And I’m still loving the new site, it’s really great to reread ADS for the first time in…God, I don’t know, more than 15 years maybe? Anyway, keep it up!
I would look into possible issues with the site that could be fixed. There’s been a problem I’ve had since you’ve moved to the new site in that I can’t view the images in Firefox. I’m on a laptop with a Vista OS, and the only way I can view images is to switch the rendering engine on the tab to view the site as if I’m viewing it on Internet Explorer. I signed in and used WordPress’ suggestion to use Gears and it didn’t help. So while I can see your paypal buttons, no other images, including background and banner images can be seen. I’ve ran firebug and it doesn’t appear to find the image sources. Since my wife’s been able to see images using Firefox on her desktop computer, I figured it was just a quirk with Firefox on my laptop as ADS loads fine on IE, Safari and Chrome.
I ran an error console and got this:
Error: syntax error
Source file: javascript:%20http://adistantsoil.com/
Line: 1, Column: 24
Source code:
http://adistantsoil.com/
Hopefully things can get worked out.
Very interesting! I can see the images in Firefox myself, so I don’t know what’s up. I just sent your note to my web lady. Once again, I am deeply grateful for all the suggestions from you guys out there in interwub land.
Funny thing: I had complaints from readers that some of my images could not bee seen on the web, and those images I had scanned as CMYK. I took them down and uploaded as RGB and they were fine.
But this is the first note I have gotten from someone that they could not view ANY images. Thanks sp much for letting me know!
The kind and gracious web lady Diana McQueen speaketh:
“This sounds like a very specific error native to his system.
We’ve made sure to test it on all browsers, and if his wife is seeing
it on firefox and we all use firefox here, I’m guessing it’s a weird
configuration problem with his set up.”
That’s what I was thinking which is why I didn’t bring it before now.