(09-01-2012, 09:57 PM)Mid Life Crisis Man Wrote: Most days I find I am locked out of RC forums due to "server overload" (see below) and have to perservere before I can get in. Is anyone else seeing this or is it just me?
OK thanks, beat me to it. The problem is that admins don't get the overload message, so I was unaware that the problem was persisting.
Here is a summary of what has happened since we last discussed the issues. (WARNING - pretty dull fare.)
I've just been reading the myBB forums to find out if others have the same problem. Some do, and it is probably linked to the amount of spam registrations we get. And yes, I have always had anti-spam plugins installed, but they don't seem to help as much as I'd hoped.
Anyway, after the previous problem, when the hosting company suspended the forum, I carried out the various servicing tasks within my capabilities - oiliness change, egos pumped up, a few forum nuts tightened, exhaustion checked, hot air filter changed, loosened timing belt a notch or two, that sort of thing, and all seemed well for a period. The hosting company were happy and reactivated the forum.
I also researched other forum products, and decided phpBB had some nice 'themes' (have never liked this one). Looked into installing and migrating the data from here. Could do it myself, and still might, but not sure I can spare the time and effort to do it rigorously enough. So I advertised on elance.com to see how much it would cost to get some pro help. Offers so far range from $107 to $450 though most seem to be from halfwits. Am considering haggling with an Indian chap who wants $170. Or I could do it myself.
Another option investigated is to move from the current hosting arrangement on a shared server (i.e. we share with other people, unknown), to a dedicated server or 'virtual private server', or VPS. Dedicated would be good but too expensive. VPS, a halfway house is a better possibility. The advantage with making this sort of move is that I can request the sort of configuration changes to the server that would ease the server load. On shared hosting, this option isn't available.
I'd not followed this up further as I mistakenly thought this was no longer causing trouble. That's where I am.
I'll wait to see if others are having problems before deciding what to do.
