To move or not to move

[LiNuX]

Gamers Forum is growing bigger and bigger every day. Compared to 3 years ago, our database is huge and it calls for upgrades from time to time. We have been with our current server provider for about 6 months now and we have started to outgrow the server in terms of resources already. I suspect the site to be getting slower and slower over time so I have to take proactive actions to upgrade.

As much as I'd love to stay with the current host, they have been giving me some problems that has made it hard to manage the server since early December. I've just been very careful with the server.

I've already scouted and spoken to another provider and they seem perfect for now. The only reason I'm asking here is because I have less than a week to decide to move OR to stay for another month with the current host and take it slow. And the idea came to be in a sudden.

Any comments/advice would be appreciated.

~LiNuX

[joshr]

It's always good to plan ahead, lest a problem such as this becomes fatal at a poor time. This is my advice, I assume that switching to a new provider is going to increase the the month to month cost of maintaining the site. Is the price jump going to be worth the current speed boost, as well as the future space needs? Your really going to tackle two problems in one play by switching providers, but is it worth the cost? If it's a small jump in price, definitely switch, if it's a large price jump, it's probably not worth the switch. If your going to need to switch some day, it may not cost that much more in the long run to simply switch a bit ahead of schedule. I would also like to put it into black and white that the site can be dreadfully slow at times and considerably frustrating when it is as such...

[LiNuX]

Upgrades always increase costs. And the network speeds would be the same, we necessarily won't get a speed boost but we would get better hardware that speeds up the future growth. And space currently isn't an issue - that part is easy to upgrade and cheaper than RAM and going with a good company.

And the price increase wouldn't be too much, and without going into numbers, it would only be around a 15% increase.

Right now I'm pulling towards moving. The current server expires in a week and if I do choose to move, I'll be purchasing new server tomorrow and schedule a move on Sunday (after doing some work). Most likely I'll have the new provider move for me since my schedule is pretty dynamic. I'd have to turn the forum off for a couple hours but it would be worth it.

Thanks for your comments Josh, appreciate it.

[KittyCat72]

Put simply (to save time while typing on the Wii), I think we should move. We're going to need to eventually, better sooner than later. :) If you found a better server, let's go for it!

[LiNuX]

Put simply (to save time while typing on the Wii), I think we should move. We're going to need to eventually, better sooner than later. :) If you found a better server, let's go for it!

Thanks. And yeah, I'm actually speaking to the new host as we speak. May purchase the server tomorrow night, set up for a day or so and then transfer over the weekend.

But I have to see if they'll move everything for me. Would be great for me as I'd save time but the site may be turned off a bit longer than usual - at most 12 hours.

[Morticia]

I think it's a good idea all around. Like Kitty said, You'll have to do it anyway so why not switch before you really have to.
Plus I won't mind if the site is down over the weekend, I'll be out of town so I won't go crazy over not being able to logon :P

[jango]

i would say move, esp if it's more cost effective and the support is better

other than that i would also advise eating at least one piece of fruit a day, oh and whistling ..

[Jaykub]

Linux!

We got to move man and get the people active.

[LemonRising]

I think a move sounds great <:

Thanks Linux for always taking such good care of us <:

[LiNuX]

Thanks for the comments.

I've actually had something come up today and if it works out, I'll have a busier schedule next week so I've decided to stay with the current provider for one more month. However, 2 weeks from now, I'll be preparing the move - that way, if the new host doesn't work out, we will have at least a week or so to revert back to the current host without any losses.

With that said, I'll also be attempting an upgrade to vb 4.0 during the whole thing. I figure, I'll do everything in one go. Some of the current features may not work - if some of the major products don't work (e.g. arcade, gfp, portal), I will stay on the current version until those mods are upgraded to fit 4.0.

Thanks for all the support, if there are any updates, I'll post them in this thread. If you guys have any more questions or comments to add, post it here as well.

Regards

[Kenoi]

yeah a move would be great, can we donate if we wanted to? or donate GFP? (on a serious note, not joking)

[LiNuX]

yeah a move would be great, can we donate if we wanted to? or donate GFP? (on a serious note, not joking)

There is a donate link on the right side but I'm not sure how donating gfp would help with the move. I'd be handling everything from my end.

[Kenoi]

well, what I probably meant is that GFP would be used in some helpful way instead of using it in the arcades and uh.... somethin else, I forgot...