site overload problems advice

Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 5:49 pm

My current issue is my host which doesn't seem to handle a lot of users at one time, but is paid up for another 6 months so no need to change if can be avoided. When it comes to host, Its my new belief you get what you pay for. Laughing

My users are constantly getting server time-outs and temporarily unvailabe. Any advice?

Involved Joined: Dec 27, 2005 Posts: 296

I'm no techie guru, but common sense might suggest to temporarily turn down things that put a strain on the server, like games, downloads, music, etc. Another option is maybe make the majority of the site availble for registered users only. Interesting question.

registered · Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 11:10 pm

floppydrivez, I don't know if it will help you much, but you could look into Cache_Lite for your blocks and any other content that might be more "static" in nature (however, I will warn you to start with blocks, as caching module content would require output bufferring).

Cache_Lite is a PEAR extension.

Posted: Sat Sep 09, 2006 11:32 am

Thanks I will look into that.

Posted: Sat Sep 09, 2006 9:28 pm

Another suggestion I'd put out there is possibly to switch hosts at the end/close-to-the-end of your prepaid period. Raven provides hosting services. Or if you'd like to do more research on other hosting providers, I'd highly recommend checking out Only registered users can see links on this board! Get registered or login!. You'll get frank opinions on the quality (or lack thereof) of various web hosting providers.

Personally, I'm on a hosting provider (PM me for details if interested) that allows for month-to-month payments; no prepayments are necessary. So should the service degrade or I need more hosting than my current can provide, I can move out in a month -- without loss of any prepaid services. Just my $0.02.

Posted: Sat Sep 09, 2006 9:49 pm

Yes, I plan on moving host at the end of this 6th month period. (which wasn't required but I had the $ at the time). I have to find a reasonable solution that can support 20-40 users requesting many pages in a 10 minute interval.

I need to find out what causes server overload and what I can do to prevent it. Maybe my host knows the answer.

registered · Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2006 10:28 pm

Most servers are shared between 100, even 1000 or more users. If not maintained right, the server may not handle all the requests for web pages or database queries. Most hosting plans aren't expecting major PHP, database intensive scripts like phpBB or phpNuke.