Recommendations For Dedicated / Co-located Hosting For GWJ
So, as you all have probably noticed, the speed of the GWJ site has been suffering a bit over the past few weeks. In an effort to make browsing GWJ a great experience for everyone, we're looking into getting on a fully dedicated server. As you'll know if you're familiar with the industry, there are a couple of options. We're currently investigating either managed dedicated hosting (where you basically rent a server) or co-located hosting (where we provide the hardware, but lease space and bandwidth).
There are a bajillion different companies that offer either service, and discerning the good from the bad is nearly impossible. So, I'm putting the call out to you all to see if you've got any advice or recommendations on what we look into. Got any helpful feedback? Post a reply here or send me a PM and let me know!
For those interested in the tech-y side of things:
We've been pushing the limits of the VPS we're currently on, especially in regards to hard disk i/o. This dramatically impacts the speed of database query response time, which is what has caused the speed issues you've been seeing. Unfortunately, on a VPS, just about everything can be parceled out socialistically, but you're still limited to everyone sharing the same disk.
XBOX Live: doogiemac
Check with XO. We have contacts in there that can help us out. If we need hardware we also have hookups in CDW which could help out.
XBox Live|Tshirts|My Music|GameFly|xfire
We need more gizzleflops for the nubenhagan.
Yeah, it's scary. I'm staring into the abyss right now, and it's staring into me, which I think is kind of a dick move on the abyss's part. - Nyles
Link
Sorry. I have absolutely nothing useful to contribute to this thread. But this is a good problem to have, yes? Have we made enough off of Puzzle Pirates to afford a dedicated server?
Steam Community ID: LastExile[gwj]
Ironclad Online: lastexile
Are you saying that you can't add anymore mice to the running wheel that powers this server?
I recommend a zombie upgrade. Chain Certis, Rabbit or Elysium in the basement against one wall. Put oh I dunno, 6 - 10 zombies in an extra large 'shambling' wheel near the far wall, where they can see the bait. Then, just leave a one hour candle down there so the zombie's have enough time to lock onto the fresh brains that will remain out of reach. They should be shambling and crawling within the wheel at a good clip towards the bait. Go upstairs. Mod the forums, ban people, play TF2 or Sins of a Solar Empire. The candle will burn out downstairs leaving the bait alone with the zombie power source, but at least this way you'll conserve all the power generated for running the servers.
I bet if you had it running on *Legion's 750 dollar pc* I could refresh the 'Recent Posts' even faster.
Oh and yes, it is obvious by now, I have nothing of value to add.... at all....
Xbox Live: Irongut | Playstation ID: Irongut_GWJ
Not being part of the industry, I have no idea what options like the ones Doogie present costs. I'm curious.
How much is the monthly cost?
Xbox Live: Kolbo21 /// PSN: KolboGWJ
Steam Community: Kolbo
WoW Blackhand Alliance: Klobben
I call sig on that.
Certis wrote:
XBL: elliottxW
Yup. Send me a PM if you need pricing on colo space or other services.
There is only an up or down--up to a man's age-old dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order--or down to the ant heap totalitarianism,... those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course.
Just find out where Google hosts their stuff and use the same company!
The man wears a bucket of KFC on his head. I wouldn't expect anything less. - Pred
They host a number of different places, including their own facillities. Their own private network includes a great deal of dark, dim, and lit fiber on the order of several multi gigabit wavelength circuits. They also diversify their infrastructure over almost all of the major carriers.
Though that may be the endpoint of GWJ, something tells me Certis is looking for a more cost effective solution in the short term.
There is only an up or down--up to a man's age-old dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order--or down to the ant heap totalitarianism,... those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course.
Rackspace. Best hosting provider out there. They charge an arm and a leg though.
"This is way, way more bad boy than you're gonna be able to handle." - Tommy Gavin on Rescue Me.
Xbox Live Blog
My home on the web
Are you suggesting cohabitation before you've even popped the question? What kind of poster do you think I am?
Mom always said, don't be the cow that give the posts for free.... well, something like that.
Your Quote Here!
I imagine it's not cheap then!
It was sort of a joke, but thanks for the info =)
The man wears a bucket of KFC on his head. I wouldn't expect anything less. - Pred
I heard good things about the planet, I think they host HARDOCP.com and other big, big sites.
Xfire: Pharacon
Feels like I just wrote this. Oh wait! I did.
Our company stuff is at CISP/YoColo here in Toledo. Not cheap, but they are very good at what they do. I admittedly don't know anyone using their "Virtual Servers" though. We're all co-lo.
They host some large financial institution servers there. Plus, they have biometric scanners and a man trap. How cool is that?
I have a box at Hostdime, down in Florida. Preatty reasonable prices for renting a box. EXTREMELY intelligent guys on the other end of the phone who answer in one ring and don't assume you're an idiot.
Gamertag: GWJ Rabbit | Last.fm
"Think of it as 'grinding SO rep in the Kitchen instance.' " - Montalban
Whatever you do, do not go with the planet. We were hosted there for a few months.
"This is way, way more bad boy than you're gonna be able to handle." - Tommy Gavin on Rescue Me.
Xbox Live Blog
My home on the web
I work for XO and though I'm probably not the most unbiased person, I'm pretty impressed with the product set. In a previous life, I set up the Tokyo sales office for an ISP called Digex.
If you're looking for straight colo space, I'm pretty sure I can get you a rack in any major metropolitan market. If you're looking for managed services, our sister company Concentric does smb solutions that might work out better than going dedicated hosting in an expensive Digex/Exodus style environment.
There is only an up or down--up to a man's age-old dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order--or down to the ant heap totalitarianism,... those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course.
Is that the hot secretary at the front desk?
The man wears a bucket of KFC on his head. I wouldn't expect anything less. - Pred
Damn.
"I'm absolutely retarded. Not 100% sure why." - atom
"Dhelor + intarwebs = Great ideas." - wordsmythe
"Do I what I do: hate everyone." - Quintin_Stone
Rackspace, XO, or ServerCentral, can't really go wrong with any of them.
Thanks, everyone, for the suggestions. I'll be contacting a few folks tomorrow to see what we can come up with. In the meantime, keep the suggestions coming, if you've got them.
It's really too bad we can't all just have T1 running to our houses. Zombie bait is such an attractive hosting solution and I've got a cousin with a dimly lit basement...
XBOX Live: doogiemac
Oh God I've been playing TF2 too much, I immediately thought "man trap"? What you need is a sentry gun, with an onsite soldier and engineer to guard it.
"Also, I have four legs and am covered in wool. Baa!" *Legion* reveals his inner furry.
T-circuits are so last year...
We just swapped two T1's for a 10M Ethernet for about the same money, and saved $30K in hardware.
Wish the telcoms would build more "last mile" fiber stuff. Screw you guys and your Fios!
I will never, ever, move out of FIOS range.
"This is way, way more bad boy than you're gonna be able to handle." - Tommy Gavin on Rescue Me.
Xbox Live Blog
My home on the web
Ah... the wonders of Hatteras gear. 10M Ethernet for $975/month with a straight ethernet handoff. Ain't it grand?
There is only an up or down--up to a man's age-old dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order--or down to the ant heap totalitarianism,... those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course.
Well, we sort of cheated. We're a TV station, so we had a fiber link to the local cable company long before they ever thought about becoming an ISP. Now that they're the biggest game in town, we could just tap into it.
But yes, getting the speed without a back hoe is indeed nifty! Just learned about the Hatteras stuff recently.
That's a good price too. AT&T is offering 10M Ethernet for around $1600 in most of our sister station markets.
Cheating is even better! Type 1 trumps type 2 every time.
We have Hatteras gear in pretty much every major metro market in the ConUs, so dropping 10 meg circuits to different regional offices is pretty easy. Combine that with MPLS over the backbone and you have a turnkey private WAN. We can even do CoS over it so your voice packets arrive clean and unmolested.
There is only an up or down--up to a man's age-old dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order--or down to the ant heap totalitarianism,... those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course.
Actually it seems to be $25 short of a grand...
There are 10 kinds of people in this world, those who know binary, those that don't, and...
That wouldn’t work, I am an idiot.
Pharacon wrote:
I've had very good luck with ServerMatrix... $130/ish a month will get you a very solid machine, on big, high-quality bandwidth. Their service response times have always been good, and the one time I really had a real issue (they'd moved a server to a new switch, which had its duplex misconfigured), they had it fixed within a couple of hours. The guy doing the troubleshooting was quite knowledgeable, much better than the first responders I've seen at many tech outfits.
Groves giveth, and Gates taketh away.