Hi hydrO,

I've been doing a lot of research regarding XOOPS and shared hosting. My conclusion is that shared hosting is only appropriate for certain kinds of traffic patterns. Shared hosting will work if you have moderate to high traffic that is spread out over time. If you have a moderate to high traffic volume during certain times or all the time, then your site will probably slow to a crawl or lockup quite frequently (if your host doesn't shut you down before that happens). However, if the traffic isn't concentrated within certain time periods, then shared hosting may work out.

The most important consideration regarding moderate to high traffic is how concentrated that traffic is. Having 1500 registered members doesn't really tell us how it will affect the efficiency of Xoops. If many of the 1500 members tend to visit the site between 7:00 and 10:00 PM on weeknights, then the site will likely experience problems during that time, since it will be a struggle to obtain the necessary CPU/RAM/MySQL resources in a shared environment. If on average, the 1500 members tend to sporadically visit the site throughout the month, then there is less likely to be high concentrations of traffic at certain times.

Another factor to consider is the length of time that the average visitor tends to remain active on the site. If the average visitor just briefly visits the site to check for the latest news or updates, then the combined demand (of all current visitors) on resources at any given time will tend to be less (on average). However, if the average visitor tends to hang around for a while and move around the site quite a bit, then the combined demand (of all current visitors) on resources will tend to be higher (on average)

The big difficulty is determining how your traffic will behave prior to setting up an XOOPS site. Educated or common sense guesses may or may not be on the mark. The best information comes from observing what happens after the site goes live. Although, a frequently crawling or crashing site may turn away lots of visitors, and it is very hard to recover visitors once they leave in frustration. Thus, if you can afford a VPS or dedicated server, then I wouldn't bother experimenting on a shared server.

As for shared hosting, I don't know where the dividing line is between acceptable resource usage and resource usage that pulls down the efficiency of the site. There are many other factors that complicate this, such has how graphic intensive your site is, how many modules there are to use, how efficient the modules operate, how often other sites on your shared server drain the server's resources, and the limits that the host establishes for concurrent database connections and CPU usage (the hosts usually don't clarify this until there is a problem, or unless you ask or spend a lot of time looking for the fine print).

As for VPS, the more I research it, the more I like the sound of it. It "appears" that a VPS is much more able to handle an XOOPS site with a significant volume of traffic. I've been told that 256MB of RAM on a VPS will adequately handle a moderate traffic database driven site. 256MB of RAM seems to be the low end and cheapest of VPS packages. Although, for a moderate traffic site, I would probably look for at least a 512MB RAM package, with 1GB of burstable RAM (that is just my preference though, and I don't have any experience with a VPS to back that up). The only problem is that the price tends to jump quite significantly for 512MB packages.

Anyway, I'm going to put a low to moderate traffic XOOPS site on a shared server soon. I expect/hope that the traffic will be spread out enough, so that the server will handle it satisfactorily. I will let everyone know how it turns out. I also have plans for another site, but I'm waiting until I can afford a VPS, since I believe that the traffic will be too high and concentrated for a shared server.

Dave

Hi Jdseymour and Mowaffak,

The primary advantage that interests me about virtual private servers, is that other sites on the main server won't have any effect on the performance of my web site. What concerns me about shared servers, is that the efficiency of my site will at least somewhat depend on the percentage of resources that other sites on the shared server are using. Thus, if someone sends out a huge bulk mailing from the shared server at 10:00 am, then my site may slow down to a crawl at that time, since the bulk mailer is utilizing so much RAM and CPU resources.

I'm assuming that with the virtual private server, the bulk mailer would not be allowed to over utilize the RAM/CPU beyond what is allocated to the account. Although, as jdseymour mentioned, you need to be careful not to max out your allotted resources. This is why I'm wondering how much RAM,CPU,and bandwidth is adequate for a moderate to high traffic XOOPS site (on a VPS). I know this is difficult to determine, but I think there should be some kind of guideline for this. At this point, I feel like I'm driving down the highway in super powered sports car (Xoops), but I don't know what the speed limit of the highway is (the host server).

Jdseymour, have you noticed any boost in efficiency in the way your site(s) handle traffic on a VPS?

Also, I'm very concerned about possible limits on concurrent MySQL connections. Is there a separate MySQL database server for each VPS account, which allows unlimited connections within the limits of the allotted RAM/CPU capacity? Or, do all the accounts on the main server still access the same shared database server?

By the way, I joined your VPS group earlier today under my yahoo ID. I think the group is a great idea! There really needs to be a lot more research/discussion and information available regarding hosting options. Xoops, just like any web system, will only be as good as its weakest link. If the host server cannot efficiently handle traffic, then the CMS will fail or work badly at best. I think there needs to be a standard guideline for minimum host server requirements for various levels of traffic (for shared, semi-dedicated, VPS, and dedicated options). I know that there is no extensive information on this at the moment, but it would be good if there was some place to start collecting and organizing this information. Input from the hosting companies would be good too, as long as they are willing to provide unbiased advice and not just a sales pitch.

Dave

Hi everyone,

I've been doing a lot of research on shared hosting packages. My conclusion is that generous amounts of drive space and bandwidth are no guarantee that your site will function efficiently on a shared host. The details that most hosts don't tell you (or hide in the fine print), are that there are CPU usage restrictions and MySQL connection limitations. In addition, the efficiency of your site at any given time depends on the current resource usage of other sites on your shared server. At best, if a shared server is properly configured, you should be able to run a low traffic XOOPS site with satisfactory performance. From what I've researched, customers run into problems when traffic becomes moderate to high. This not only applies to Xoops, but especially to any web site that is dynamic/interactive in nature (uses forums, blogs, shopping carts, etc.).

The three traditional options for hosting are shared, semi-dedicated, and dedicated plans. Semi-dedicated has less restrictions and the resources are shared with less users. However, a resource hog can still slow down your site at various times. A dedicated server is ideal, but it costs a lot of money.

Today, I started looking into virtual private servers. "Supposedly," a virtual private server acts like a dedicated server in many ways.

Here are some of the "promoted" benefits of a virtual private server (VPS):

1) The CPU, Memory, and other resources are configured so each account is only allowed to use their allotted amount. This way, your allocated resources are always available to you, and cannot be drained by a spike in resource usage by another site. Another account cannot interfere with your allotted resources, which means you won't notice slowdowns at certain times.

2) The security is lot better on a virtual private server (in contrast to a shared server). This is because each account has its own file system. On a shared server, everyone shares the same file system, which means bad things can spread from one account to other accounts. This actually happened to me last week!

3) You have full control of your virtual private server, which means you can install your own software.

The above is what I've learned through some initial research. However, I still have questions. For example, I'm wondering how virtual private servers handle MySQL connections. Are there limitations on how many concurrent connections can be opened at the same time on a VPS, or is this not an issue? Are there any daily bandwidth limitations on a VPS? What is an adequate amount of RAM and CPU speed for a VPS package? Most importantly ,will a moderate to high traffic XOOPS site perform adequately on a VPS?

If anyone has any successful experiences with a VPS and can shed some light on the above questions, it would be very helpful. Also, some referrals to quality VPS plans would also be helpful. I'm hoping that VPS is a viable alternative to the inefficiencies of shared hosting and high costs of dedicated hosting.

Dave

Hi everyone,

Does anyone run a moderate to high traffic XOOPS site on a shared server? If so, what is your experience with uptime, downtime, page loading time, bandwidth usage, MySQL connection restrictions/errors, etc.

Also, if you are having success with a moderate/high traffic XOOPS site on a shared server, what is the name of the hosting service (and what plan are you using)?

I think this would be very useful information for anyone who is seeking a shared hosting plan that will actually hold up under traffic. It is very difficult to distinguish between a good shared hosting plan and a plan that "seems" to offer a lot, but really cannot support an XOOPS site that has significant traffic.

I realize that semi-dedicated and dedicated hosting is preferable, but many of us don't currently have the budget for that.

Any feedback and advice would be much appreciated.

Dave

While searching for a shared web hosting plan, I came across the issue of limits on MySQL database connections. This is not something that is openly addressed by hosting services. They emphasize the bandwidth and drive space, but I've not seen anyone "openly" mention the quantity of simultaneous database connections that are allowed at any one time. I had to ask around or read all the fine print in the terms of use sections.

Thus, you could have a hosting plan with 400GB of bandwidth, but with users receiving frequent connection error messages, even at low levels of site traffic. The problem is that the shared plans tend to have some very restrictive limits, such as only allowing 15 concurrent MySQL connections at any one time. This means that if 16 users attempt to open a MySQL generated page at the same time, then the 16th person will probably receive an error message and get locked out of the page.

I've been asking around, trying to find out what is an acceptable connection limit for a shared plan. For example, if there are usually 100 to 200 people using my site at any one time, then what is an acceptable limit for simultaneous database connections?

One host told me that I should have no problem with a connection limit of 25, if 100 people are using my forum at the same time. The assumption being that it would be unlikely for 26 people to trigger a database query at the same time. Obviously, the more people on a site, the more likely that the limit will be reached more frequently. I was told that I wouldn't have a problem with a 25 user connection limit, until I had about 700 to 800 active users on my site at the same time. Does this sound accurate? It doesn't sound too accurate to me.

Does anyone have any information on what would be acceptable limits for different volumes of traffic?

Does anyone know of any shared plans with unlimited connections or minimal restrictions?

Thanks,
Dave

Thank you martyboy and coopersita. The cache and template_c folders were hacked/infected with bad files. I followed your instructions, and now the site is back up and running normally.

Dave

Hi,

I've been working on an XOOPS site for quite a while, with no problems. I'm the only one with password access to the site and knowledge of the site, except for my host provider.

The last time I accessed the site was last week, and the site was running fine with no problems. I've not made any changes to the site in quite a while. However, when I signed into my site yesterday, I started receiving error messages and the site would not load properly. In fact, several times my IE browser tried to popup a porn site and triggered an installer program on my personal computer to start running.

One possibility is that the host server is running a bad script or virus. I ran a check on my on computer, and there are no viruses or malware problems. I don't have this problem with any other sites, but only when attempting to open my own site. The popups do not consistently occur, but the errors are always there. Given the fact that I've not changed anything in weeks, something must be happening on the host server, or somehow my files were corrupted or hacked. Also, I tried installing another test copy of XOOPS in another directory, and it seems to be running fine. Thus, whatever is happening seems specific to my original installation of Xoops. **Although, the test copy is not a duplicate of my main installation, since it doesn't have all the modules and upgrades installed (as the main installation does).

Here are the details of what happens:

I have the site turned off, and need to log into the "site down for maintenance page," in order to get to the home page. However, the text label on the user login button is not displaying correctly. Instead of correctly displaying the text "User Login" on the button, it displays the text "User Login", but with the addition of some some html code too (which shouldn't be displayed on the button). This error has been coming and going. It will be there one minute and gone the next.

When I submit my ID and password through the same page, I receive the following error:

Quote:

After I receive the above error, I attempt to move to the administration panel of my XOOPS program, by typing the URL: Quote:

However, I receive the following error message:

Quote:

The only way I can somewhat access my XOOPS system is by typing the URL: Quote:

However, this only works after I attempt to signon with my password.

The page that appears is extremely jumbled and distorted. If I click on other menu options, much of the formatting that should have been generated is not there, and there are other similar error messages. Some stuff does not come up at all, but just generates similar errors.

Does anyone have any idea what may be going on or what has happened? The only possibilities I can think of are a host server virus, changes made by the host to the server (which is affecting my system), a corruption that occurred to my files somewhere, or something being hacked. I'm not really even sure that the intermittent popups are directly related to the errors (or just a weird chain reaction of events).

I spoke with my host provider, and they are looking into it, but are implying that it is probably something gone bad in my XOOPS system. However, if this is so, I have no idea what could have happened, since it ran fine the last time I checked it (and I made no changes).

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Where do I start looking for the source of this problem?

Thanks,
Dave

Anytime I post the word firewall as content in a news article or wfchannel page, I receive an error that I don't have permission to access the specified index.php on my server. I narrowed it down to the word "firewall" after deleting all the the other text on test pages I made.

The weird thing is that when I first posted my article, the word firewall was in the text, but did not generate the error message. Now, I can't use that word in anything, without it triggering an error. Any idea what is going on? The censoring option is not turned on, so I don't understand what is happening. Is there some kind of censoring going on somewhere else in XOOPS or maybe on my server? If so, why would it censor that word?

Here is a copy of one of the error messages:

Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /modules/wfchannel/admin/index.php on this server.

Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Apache/1.3.33 Server at www.mysite.com Port 80

Thanks for the links!

It is difficult finding good sites that provide free graphics (without any kind of catch or copyright issues). However, these sites look good.

Dave

Does anyone know of a source of free graphics that I can use for topic images in my various blocks? My site will be information technology oriented, so I'm just looking for some basic images that I can use for each topic category. I'm artistically challenged, so the less that needs modified the better.

Thanks for any ideas.

Dave