Recommended Plan & Questions

[Swede78]

Hello,

 

I am a web designer for a small company. We currently host 4 websites on another host, CrystalTech. We started about 5 years ago on a shared server. We experienced a lot of downtime and were eventually forced to get a dedicated server for two reasons. 1) We were tired of all the downtime. Actually it wasn't so much the amount of time, it was more the frequency of downtimes. 2) They didn't offer PHP at that time. We really needed to switch from ASP/Access to PHP/MySql to improve performance.

 

Now, I have all of our sites using only PHP and MySQL. There's no reason for us to be using a Windows Server that we have to manage. I'm a web developer, not an IT. So, it makes me nervous to be responsible for our server. When things go wrong, they charge $60/hour to fix it.

 

I've been doing a lot of searching, and found you. So, I'm interested in TCH. The Dedicated and 100% managed server looks like a great deal. More bandwidth, more harddrive, faster computer with more memory, and 100% managed. Sounds great! Crystal Tech has excellent service, so that would be my only reason to stay with them. But, yours seems pretty good from what I can tell without being a customer.

 

Now, I'm not sure if we need a dedicated server. Maybe a shared server or semi-dedicated would be adequate. Our concern is how often our site would go down on each of these types of servers, not how many minutes. Could you provide an average?

 

Also, what are the differences in accessibility with the different server types? With a dedicated server, would we be able to install our own software? Would we have access to server logs, .htaccess files, permissions, etc.? (I'm not really familiar with Linux, so I apologize for my ignorance here)

 

What type of interface is available for controlling the MySQL database? Currently, I have 100% control as the root user, and I use a program called "Navicat" MySQL Administrator. I know that phpMyAdmin is popular, but I'm hooked on Navicat. It can connect to remote servers, but do you allow this?

 

I think that's about it. I thank you in advance for any replies. If all sounds like it will work, we'll probably sign up, set up and test everything and switch the DNS.

 

 

Thank you,

Anders

[Swede78]

OH, one more question...

 

What type of data backup services are available and prices for them?

 

Thank you,

Anders

[LisaJill]

I'm really tired so bear with me, I probably should let someone else answer but hey. =)

 

A shared server may be fine for you - it sounds like a reseller account would be perfect. Really here, what it comes down to, are certain things:

 

1) Do you need a streaming server?

2) Do you need shell access?

3) Do you use an absolute ton of bandwidth/high CPU intensive scripts?

 

As far as downtime, it is very low but these are computers and they're not entirely predictable. I, personally, have only seen about 2 downtimes and they lasted about 5 minutes max over the course of my stay here - I'm on a shared server. =)

 

.htaccess - yes, full ability there as far as I know.

Installing scripts - as long as they don't require shell access, absolutely. You will also need to be careful with cpu intensive scripts.

logs - yes

permissions - yes, obviusly you want to be careful with this.

 

That's with a shared server. With a dedicated server you can pretty much do what you want within the terms of the AUP. Things like CPU intensiveness won't matter as it's only your sites you'd be affecting. =) Shell access etc as well. I'm not sure if we have dedicated servers available right now so you'd need to submit a ticket to sales about that.

 

Yes we use MySQL manager and PHPMyAdmin. You can do remote sql connections but I'm not experienced with Navicat. I THINk someone here is using it but that may just be a thread that was about it, not someone using it. I'm tired is all. =) A search on navicat may yield info on that.

 

You also get a 30 day money back gaurantee, so you can test out plans and see what you need, etc.

 

Hope that helps!

[LisaJill]

Oh, one more answer =) TCH does automatic weekly and monthly backups. No cost. =) As far as other backups you really should do your own and you can set cron jobs to do backups - there's no cost for that, of course.

[Swede78]

Thank you Lisa,

 

1) Do you need a streaming server?

No, we have MP3 clips that can be downloaded. But, they're just downloaded like any other file. No movie clips.

 

2) Do you need shell access?

 

I'm not 100% sure what you mean by this. I assume it's like a direct access to the system via some sort of terminal. We have that with our current host, but that's because it's an un-managed dedicated server. I, as the web-designer, do not need this. But, we have a software developer who may need this to implement some scripts/programs. Not sure, but if he does need that type of access, I take it that a dedicated server would be required.

 

3) Do you use an absolute ton of bandwidth/high CPU intensive scripts?

 

Most of our web pages use MySQL queries. But, nothing is high CPU intensive scripting. We average about 30 simultaneous users and use about 50 GB bandwidth per month (which is mostly from graphics and mp3s). Currently, our databases are just 20, 5, and .5 MBs. Our total CPU Processes are probably under 10% average at any given time.

 

We have commercial / retail stores that we would be hosting on your servers. So, I would think our sites may be ok on a shared server. But, we'd probably go with a shared dedicated server at minimum, to minimize the downtimes and CPU sharing. Which brings up another question... how many other users/websites are on the regular shared servers and the shared dedicated servers?

 

 

Thank you again, Lisa. I appreciate you taking the time to answer our questions. Now, get some sleep.

 

 

Anders

[LisaJill]

You see, now it's 7:14pm and I just woke up from a nap. Bets are my answers will still be unintelligible, I could try them in Latin for both of our amusement?

 

Anyway,

 

Shared dedicated server? It's either dedicated or shared. Do you mean dedi-semicated? I'd love to tell you how many people are on the different types of servers but I can't - not because i don't want to but because I don't know. =) I remember reading some statistics and somewhere in my head there's a number 4 floating around but I'm not sure why. Thank goodness autumn recess is nearly here!

 

What I can tell you is that the servers are routinely undersold so as to ensure more than enough resources and minimal downtime. A tech, or someone with a better memory, may be able to offer the harder numbers you're after. =)

[TCH-Rob]

I remember reading some statistics and somewhere in my head there's a number 4 floating around but I'm not sure why.

 

That is a valid number. Though the users may be few on semi-dedicated that doesnt mean there are fewer resources being used.

[Swede78]

Yeah... I meant semi-dedicated.

 

Good point Rob. Even if there were a limit of 10 accounts per semi-dedicated machine, I guess that still doesn't tell me how much of the systems resources are being used up. But, it gives me a bit of comfort knowing that only 10 other accounts might cause the system to slow down/crash, versus hundreds of users.

 

Thank you guys very much for the info. I'll be contacting your sales in the next week or so.

 

Thank you

Anders