January 27th,2006

New Server Company?

By Jeremy Wright

As many people have noted, we’re having server issues. To be honest, it’s no longer load issues. In fact, the several experts we’ve brought in to have a look are stumped. And the server center says there is “nothing wrong” with the box, even though it’s throwing scads of errors, MySQL keeps dying, one server refuses to talk to another, etc, etc, etc.

So, we are looking for another server company to go with. We’d likely be looking at 3 servers initially. We don’t need a lot of support, but we DO need the servers properly configured initially, and we DO need them to stay up. Ideally all 3 would also be on the same switch, or close to it, since they’ll be talking to each other pretty heavily.

If you know of anyone, or are a server provider who would like to talk, please email me or even call me (506 466 3855), as this is incredibly urgent.

The Conversation

SYNTAGMA » Blog Archive » b5media Has Major Server Issues on January 27th, 2006 at 06:11

[…] On the official website, Jeremy Wright once again announces drastic server issues for the burgeoning blog network. Regular readers of the Blog Herald or Problogger will have first-hand experience of these nagging outages which have been a feature of the network for some months. […]

Jason on January 27th, 2006 at 07:04

I don’t have any leads or input from who to choose, but I’m just thinking about more marketing opportunity. Obviously, having a large blog network like b5media choose you as their hosting provider could be great business for someone. I think we should definitely play up the fact that we can develop a lot of press and coverage for the company that chooses to partner with us.

Jonic on January 27th, 2006 at 07:09

Well as you know I’ve recommended Dreamhost in the past… They’re mad cheap for what you get, but you already said that they might not be up to speed for what we need… It might be worth discussing your requirements with them…

Other than that the only hosting company I can think of that could handle us that has a good reputation is Media Temple (http://www.mediatemple.net/)

Loads of sites are using them, and they’re usually spoken of favorably…

I can’t think of any others…

Hans Mast on January 27th, 2006 at 07:20

I’m sure your experts and you have done this, but have you checked the messages log? My server was crashing EXACTLY as you have described and I found from the messages log file (”Jan 22 13:00:48 u15183998 smartd[482]: Device: /dev/hda, FAILED SMART self-check. BACK UP DATA NOW!”) that my hard drive was going bad. I was up until 3 AM this morning backing up all my data and my host, 1&1, put a new hard drive in this morning.

I don’t know of anyone really to suggest. 1&1 has been less than stellar. I am going the co-location route. I bought a Dell PowerEdge ($2500 incl. UPS) and am co-locating it at a local government subsidized public access channel’s co-op for $52 a year.

Technosailor » b5media Needs New Servers on January 27th, 2006 at 07:56

[…] Jeremy posted an entry requesting proposals from service providers over at b5media’s blog. As many people have noted, we’re having server issues. To be honest, it’s no longer load issues. In fact, the several experts we’ve brought in to have a look are stumped. And the server center says there is “nothing wrong” with the box, even though it’s throwing scads of errors, MySQL keeps dying, one server refuses to talk to another, etc, etc, etc. […]

Abe on January 27th, 2006 at 22:42

I thought you were with ThePlanet? Is their Platinum Server Management Plan unable to provide the technical support you need? With 3 servers running for the whole network, it might be best to hire a full-time SysAd to watch out for them. Check out WebHostingTalk for talents.

Cowboy on January 27th, 2006 at 23:48

Truthfully because I used to run porn sites that would get about 400 billion hits a day I used http://www.he.net simply the best in the industry for dealing with traffic. Currently however we use Layered Technologes and its damn good too good reboot times for high server load. I also have about 3 dedicated servers sitting around if you need them.

Dean on January 28th, 2006 at 08:55

Several widely read political blogs use hostingmatters.com. I believe Instapundit, Captain’s Quarters, Power Line, and Little Green Footballs - among others - host there. Or at least they used to. Should be worth a look.

Carl on January 28th, 2006 at 12:43

There is also the option of going to a hosting company for hosting companies. I don’t know what the budget is, and this site is not cheap, but http://www.alabanza.com has extremely reliable servers on an awesome backbone. It might be worth checking out.

Marti on January 28th, 2006 at 15:20

I am NOT the one to ask - LOL
I don’t know nuthin’ ’bout birthin’ no blogs! (snicker)

I also don’t know why, but Blogger has locked me out of my old blog. It still accepts comments, but I can’t get it to publish anything new, or make any changes to the template. I even attempted to use FTP to upload it to my domain, but that also failed.

I struggled with it for days, writing letters to Blogger Help and Support, all for naught, so I’m starting over at:
http://enterthelaughter.blogspot.com/

Trying to notify all of my previous links. Trying not to think evil thoughts - LOL

Carl on January 29th, 2006 at 21:12

Hi,

I’ve used ServInt.net for quite some time and find them to be exception.

They have a Duece & Solo VPS product which will suit you quite well. Not sure if it’s avail. publically yet, if not, give us a yell and I’ll refer you in.

Their technical staff are first rate and go the extra mile to help solve any issues you might have.

Enjoy.
C.

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