Time for an update, sensation-seekers. The biggest CWOB-related news is that I’ll be moving the site to a new host soon. Page load times degenerated to such a point where I practically dreaded doing anything that would encourage people to, you know, actually visit Ihnatko.com. Every time I’d go on Twitter and post a link to a new article, I could count on a flurry of replies in which the word “borked” featured prominently.
That said…I couldn’t be happier about my current webhost.
Last year, a friend of mine was kind enough to offer me a directory on his own server so that I could install a bunch of different content systems, pick a winner, and learn the system. It was a very generous offer and allowed me to really take my time choosing a winning horse (which is what I have here with Wordpress).
Obviously, he’s not set up as a webhost and so when bottlenecks and other various problems cropped up, my banging on doors for a fix was simply not the best way to show my gratitude for his kindness. Instead, I kept pulling Scrabble tiles out of a bag at random, hoping that a solution would present itself. Lo and behold, the letters spelled out “Pay for real hosting, you cheap, pathetic bastard.”
(No, there aren’t any punctuation tiles in Scrabble. But I pulled out blank pieces after the G and the D and I; the Fates may be fickle, but don’t claim they don’t know the rules of Scrabble.)
One of the (many) benefits of my job is that minor annoyances can become fodder for good columns, and the problem of choosing a webhost is no different. And I have an awesome resource helping me out: the 7,000 people following my Tweets. I’d already surveyed the landscape of webhosts by the time I put out a query on Twitter, but over the next couple of days the opinions, details, and character assassinations that were put before me were invaluable.
At this point, I think I’ve homed in on three candidates: Pair, Media Temple, and A2Hosting. I’ve come to casually think of them as “Rock-solid hosting maintained by steely-eyed missile men,” “Lots of online hosting tools that I can actually understand, even as static screenshots” and “The folks who have been responding to my emails quickly and in great detail.”
These are all good things. Negotiations are still underway and I don’t really know which way I’ll go. At this stage, one of the most compelling arguments for any of these hosts is “Well, Merlin Mann uses A2 for 43 Folders…I mean, if it’s good enough for him…“
I’m in sort of a funny niche as a consumer. Ihnatko.com was just building up when the server melted down, but even so, it was getting way too many hits to entrust it to a basic, consumer-level webhost. And while I’ve no (concrete) plans to create the next HotButteredNurses.com, I could be quite happy with a couple hundred thousand unique visitors per month…and I’m optimistic enough to be choosing a host that can support that kind of traffic.
So at some point in the next couple of weeks, Ihnatko.com will be at a new host and we can put any previous ugliness behind us.
Entries (RSS)
May 2nd, 2008 at 2:26 am
Don’t go with A2 Hosting. We did and we are really sorry we did. I too thought “if Merlin is hosted by them, then …” Hmm, wrong choice. Our site was down for a week during one of their maintenance/upgrade periods. They could have cared less. It seems like they only have one engineer there who knows what she’s doing. Not so great service.
May 2nd, 2008 at 4:30 am
Who or what is your current host provider? How do I find this information when I go to websites, view the source code?
May 2nd, 2008 at 5:24 am
Hi Andy,
you should really check out WP Super Cache @ http://ocaoimh.ie/wp-super-cache/
No matter how much bandwidth and CPU your server has, Word Press will make it kneel under minuscule load. WP Super Cache generates plain html of your site at timed intervals so that the PHP does have to run for every person visiting your site.
Best of luck!
- Stian
May 2nd, 2008 at 10:24 am
You should really consider a VPS like Slicehost, Linode, or Joyent Accelerator. And yes, caching is your very good friend.
May 2nd, 2008 at 10:30 am
I was going to suggest WP-Super Cache (or the older WP-Cache), but Stain already has. So consider this a second of that recommendation. Whether or not you get a new host, it’s good way to reduce your number of database queries, which is generally the reason that WordPress is slow.
May 2nd, 2008 at 11:15 am
Yeah! CWOB is still alive! Would have thought you’d gone dormant if not for the twitter updates.
May 2nd, 2008 at 11:49 am
Andy, you’re supposed to set up a linkfarm page before you drop a googlebomb like that. Not that I actually was looking for nurses, but just in case someone does, you know…
May 2nd, 2008 at 2:08 pm
One more vote for WP requiring cacheing. And a bonus blog post that supports the point. http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001105.html
May 3rd, 2008 at 10:23 pm
Yes, part of the problem is probably WordPress itself. Much like Windows, WordPress’s popularity is undeserved given the quality of its code. Why the heck does it not have caching built in?
You can’t say we didn’t try to warn you…
May 4th, 2008 at 8:42 am
Allow me to contradict what CB has said. I have been using A2 Hosting for almost 2 years and have never had an issue. They have always been very responsive and any problems I had were quickly found to be my own doing. I found the site from 43folders and have since recommended them to several friends, even moving the website for my daughters school to them.
Good luck in your search, I hope that your migration is painless and your caching expeditious.
May 4th, 2008 at 10:35 pm
Just for a note of comparison, I’ve been using Pair for the last 8 years or so, never had a problem. Their customer support is good — not in the, “I’m polite” good way, but in the “No, you’re doing that wrong. That perl script is about 3 lines too long and you missed a variable.” good way.
May 6th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
Vhat?!?! You are too good for Dreamhost?!? I loves me some Dreamhost.
May 7th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Dreamhost is okay for the price, but you may as well host your blog on Twitter for the amount of downtime you’ll experience. Best host I’ve used in the past was The Planet (probably overkill for Inhatko.com alone).
I only clicked through from Google Reader to drop you a note about WP-Cache, which you may have heard about by now…
May 11th, 2008 at 11:16 pm
dreamhost works for my multiple-site environment, great tech support as well