[Lovelock]

Hello, im looking to start hosting a forum.

I have no idea what sort of interest it will get or to the extent it will go, but im wondering if theres anything i should be looking for from a host.

If i say went for the basic:

5kmb space

50k bandwidth monthly

Would that be sufficient, and then only upgrade if needs be?

[wesh.co.uk]

Hiya again Lovelock

The thing to keep in mind, no matter where you choose shared hosting is:
The more you can buy, for less, the less you will be able to utilise what you have bought.

Running a forum, needs resources. Next to nothing while getting started.. A forum install from fresh will cost you less than 50mb of disk space, and whilst gaining interest, will use less than a 1GB of traffic a month...

Even a highly customised forum with 10,000 members, some galleries etc, can still use under 1GB of space, but may hit up to 50 or 60GB of traffic with an average of 200 users online all the time...

Its the server resources you would then need, and thats where a lot of shared hosts would start pushing you towards your own server...

Dont be bamboozled by big numbers for small change... Check what a host defines as "Using too much resources" or "Server abuse" as a lot of the big guys limit this to as low as 1% or 2%..

If you want examples, take a look at VBseo.com, its an SEO mod for vbulletin, and see the amount of people complaining about getting shut down for using tiny amounts of resources with low membership numbers..

Your 5GB space and 50GB bandwidth are just totally not needed, and somewhat unrealistic if being sold for a few quid, as it will be back by really low resource limits.

Perfectly fine if you have a static bed and breakfast website, few pages and a contact form, but those types of websites dont get 50GB a month of traffic anyway.

Check before purchase. Ask whichever host you want to go with, what their REAL limits are, and tell them what you want to host.
You be amazed at how many will push you towards a VPS or dedicated server, both totally unnecessary.

[Lovelock]

Hello again

Thanks very much for that post!

So i COULD run it on those specs for now, but wouldn't suffice in the long run?

I really dont fancy going for a VPS or DEDI yet tbh and success cant be pre measured.

If i was going for shared hosting, how much would be predicted to be needed for an average of 200 on at 1 time monthly?

[Lovelock]

Just read that even large forums with 1000's logging on each day only use about 20gb a month.

So this 50gb offered will be more than needed, but is also the lowest they do.

Just emailed them about their REAL limits.

Also, i was looking at yours prices, the only reason im considering www.tech-hosts.co.uk is because they are hosted in the UK, and they also offer the specs i said at £12 a year, with a free.com domain.

[wesh.co.uk]

like I said, the more you get, for less, the less chance you have of using it. It nothing horrible, just simple maths and resource sharing.
Given that the cheapest possible price to buy a .com name for as a wholesaler is somewhere around £7.50, so you have to wonder, what will you really get, for £4.50 a year...?

If you had to buy a server, pay the datacentre, pay your staff and other business costs, how many £4.50's would you need to shove on a server to make it worth your while?

I can tell you now, with thousands logging on per-day, its not the bandwidth you need to worry about, its the CPU/Memory and Disk input/output that will be getting chomped up because forums are database driven, so resource usage will be high, but bandwidth usage is dependant totally on your site, and its contents...

Some forums are very heavy on graphics, galleries and so on...

If your domain name is "free", who exactly do you think is paying for it?
Its not the host, its you... The cost of the domain name is taken from the money used for hosting.

Good luck with it

[MikeChipshop]

Problem is the more people that join your forum the less stable it'll become and the less people will use your forum.
Vicious circle.

This post has been edited by MikeChipshop: 08 November 2011 - 08:41 AM

[wesh.co.uk]

MikeChipshop, on 08 November 2011 - 08:40 AM, said:

Problem is the more people that join your forum the less stable it'll become and the less people will use your forum.
Vicious circle.

Hey Mike

I think "Stable" might not be the right phrase for it... Possibly "Less usable"... The forum software itself wont become the problem, just the hosting resources it needs and wont get from those oversold hosting guys who flog other companies reseller accounts to death...

[rallport]

Lovelock, on 08 November 2011 - 01:33 AM, said:

So i COULD run it on those specs for now, but wouldn't suffice in the long run?

Yes, you could, assuming your forum never got busier as time went on. Hell, you could even host it on a crappy 1&1 package whilse it was new.

However, as others have mentioned, as the site gets busier and you have lots simultaneous users (which is the killer for cheap hosts) you'll soon see your site running slow or not at all. Cheaper hosts may even simply disable your site.

Like anything, you really do get for what you pay for.

[rallport]

Would be interested to see what the usage figures for this are tbh

[BlueDreamer]

wesh.co.uk, on 08 November 2011 - 01:14 AM, said:

The more you can buy, for less, the less you will be able to utilise what you have bought.

That's a great quote