Beware BlueHost CPU limit policy (and IP crowding)
Ok, so I left StartLogic which really sucked and signed up with Bluehost for Linux shared hosting. They told me no problem serving php/mysql Drupal sites.
One thing I like about BH is it was the only shared hosting (I have, uh, 4 accounts with various hosts right now) allowing me SSH access to set up Subversion (but not supported, officially, totally DIY)
Recently I observed that there were 845 domains sharing my IP - BH response, predictably, was to offer to "sell me up" - FOO ON YOU!
Then, during an intensive tshoot session with Drupal mysite open in 3 browsers (the developer/maintainer for the mysite module doesn't even have IE, and it doesn't work in IE without hacks), I got "CPU Limit Exceeded" - and BH also offered to sell me up for almost $20/mo (no thanks, I can take it elsewhere...)
Dear Customer,
This is our policy with cpu usage, if you choose not to update, you are welcome to cancel the account and receive the refund available to you.
This error means that you have gone over the CPU limit with us. The site is always calculating how much CPU usage you are using in an average 60 second time frame. If you go above the limit, you will get this message no matter where on your site you go. Our system keeps taking averages and as soon as the average goes below the limit, your site automatically comes back. It usually only take less than 5 minutes to come back.
You can use half of the processing power of your server box over a running 60 second time period. So for example, on your 8x core server you can use 240 CPU seconds over 60 real seconds (Looking at it another way you can use 8-10 GHz at all times).
To see how much your usage was, there are logs in your account in the File Manager in the cPanel. Open to the Home folder and then go to /tmp/cpu_exceeded_logs/ then you can see your usage. Check what was your cause first, but usually this happens from MySQL queries and you can try to optimize your database in PHPMyAdmin in the cPanel, or empty out some of your tables if it has large amounts of old data.
Other than changing how your site works to be more efficient, you can have this limit increased. We can move your account to a High CPU server for an extra $19.95 per month. That would allow you to use 75% of the processor, which would be a limit of 360 CPU seconds per minute or like using a 12-15 GHz processor.
More information About how to deal with CPU exceeded errors can be found at the following URL.
http://helpdesk.bluehost.com/kb/index.php?x=&mod_id=2&id=498
Please let me know if you have further questions.
Thank you,
Austin Hodgson
Sales Team
BlueHost.com
1.888.401.4678
pr0gr4mm3r posted this at 17:56 — 20th August 2008.
He has: 1,502 posts
Joined: Sep 2006
That's what you need to be aware of when hosting providers offer hosting for like $1 a month. That's the only way they can do it and still make a profit.
Me latest dedicated server costs me $200 /mo. If I wanted to offer hosting for $5 /mo, then I would need 40 clients just to break even on the server rental fee. Add on to that customer service overhead, etc, etc, and it becomes clear that low cost hosting and overly crowded servers is just a packaged deal.
decibel.places posted this at 19:24 — 20th August 2008.
He has: 1,494 posts
Joined: Jun 2008
I only use BlueHost for my personal site and to host projects in development in subdomains...
And as I said, I was able to install subversion there...
I just don't need dedicated or VPS - just reasonable service - and BH is still in the "ok" column in my book
I also can provide very reliable and fast hosting starting at $4/mo (the storefront is hosted there) but I already made a move from StartLogic to BH and I'm currently working on getting Subversion working there (I have 3 sets of keys, got to figure it out)
But I was surprised by the cpu limit policy - is that common? I've never encountered it before, aside from GeoCities Free Hosting, where it is understandable...
pr0gr4mm3r posted this at 19:37 — 20th August 2008.
He has: 1,502 posts
Joined: Sep 2006
What infrastructure do you have for your hosting services? (Reseller account / VPS / Dedicated / Your Own Facilities)
CPU limit policies are common. I think it's actually kinda nice that BH has that automated which means that your site goes offline and automatically comes back when the CPU cools down
. Most other hosts will just suspend the site that's loading down the server, and then do nothing else until the site owner complains that their site is down.
Michael James Swan posted this at 18:24 — 20th August 2008.
He has: 400 posts
Joined: May 2008
Yeah i can see where you are coming from there, i am looking into other hosting services to see what they offer and to see if i can offer the same or similiar for a good price without comprimizing the quality of the service.
pr0gr4mm3r posted this at 19:30 — 20th August 2008.
He has: 1,502 posts
Joined: Sep 2006
Just to drive my point home, I am working on a website for a client, and this was a case where they wanted to host it themselves instead of paying a little extra to keep it on my server. Anyways, I am doing some testing, and the pages are loading slower than molasses. I always print debugging information at the footer of website in development...and...well, it says it all.
The simple page took almost a second ans a half to parse while the server is at a load average of 27.53 (2 cpus). Nuff said.
ms2134, I sometimes find it hard to compete with these low cost ones, too. I match the competition as best as I can, but I am still more expensive. I will have clients that point that out, too. I just say that I have more server power available per account, but they are still stuck on the price.
Michael James Swan posted this at 19:49 — 20th August 2008.
He has: 400 posts
Joined: May 2008
yeah, i see waht you mean. I do my best to compete but to keep the prices fair.
On my site. I am offering FREE upgrades to a business account from a basic account and taking 75% of the profit to do this. I find this a fair offer.
Your view?
pr0gr4mm3r posted this at 21:11 — 20th August 2008.
He has: 1,502 posts
Joined: Sep 2006
Where do you get the 75%? Your ability to make fair discounts depends on how you are hosting your sites. Are you on a reseller account or do you have your own servers?
Michael James Swan posted this at 21:36 — 20th August 2008.
He has: 400 posts
Joined: May 2008
I am a reseller account which means i can give good offers without worrying.
I get very little profit per sale because i like to keep it cheaper for clients...
So i can make good discounts without worrying about messing over the business because they take there small cut and also what is needed for the severs..
Views?
pr0gr4mm3r posted this at 01:55 — 21st August 2008.
He has: 1,502 posts
Joined: Sep 2006
Your server is just as overloaded as the one decibel.places is talking about. A couple sources showed 720+ websites on your IP alone. I would avoid a company like that because the number of websites stored at that location is insane. Plus, that's just one IP. I saw in another thread that you offered dedicated IPs, so then there are even more sites hosted there in addition to your site's IP address.
And decibel.places, I was going to do a lookup on his website, but I then noticed that it's the same IP. Kind of ironic...
*ahem*
Am I the only one that sees something wrong here?
demonhale posted this at 04:52 — 21st August 2008.
He has: 3,278 posts
Joined: May 2005
The grammar on "Check how many sites [b]is[/b] existed on a given IP address" ? And then the "Serach sites" on the button... Really unprofessional... lol!
dbbrock1 posted this at 23:13 — 20th August 2008.
They have: 5 posts
Joined: Aug 2008
Well what do you expect form an unlimited web space/bandwidth provider. You should do your homework on unlimited web hosting before you signup with one. Here is a blog post that explains the dirty tactics of unlimited web hosting
http://blog.readysetconnect.com/2008/07/the-dirt-on-unlimited-disk-space-and-unlimited-bandwidth/
Reliable domain name hosting
Top web hosting providers of 2008
Cheap but reliable web hosting by ReadySetConnect
Michael James Swan posted this at 06:11 — 21st August 2008.
He has: 400 posts
Joined: May 2008
Both myself and netsperience are using a reseller panel for our website hosting. That would explain why there are so many other sites linked to our ips and that our ips match.
greg posted this at 06:25 — 21st August 2008.
He has: 1,581 posts
Joined: Nov 2005
It is common practice with most hosting providers to have hundreds of websites on one IP. This brings the need to limit bandwidth usage/allowance, CPU limits and certain software usage limits. I know of one decent web hosting that doesn't allow cron jobs.
All that allows them to be competitively priced, which is one of the main concerns in most businesses with sales/services offered.
The fact they are very cheap usually means that the sites hosted on them are not very busy. By that I mean people with a very busy and lucrative website will have it on a dedicated server.
So the cheap hosting is ok for a small website with little visitors, generally. But it only takes one or two of the hundreds of sites on there to become very busy and all the other sites become slow.
If you are starting out, a cheap shared hosting is often the way forward, but once profit comes in, or the site has thousands of hits, dedicated or a decent shared hosting provider that doesn't overload IP's is required for the site to run smoothly.
As with most things in life, if you stick with known brand names you tend to get a decent service, of course with the usual exceptions to the rule.
decibel.places posted this at 16:05 — 21st August 2008.
He has: 1,494 posts
Joined: Jun 2008
ugh - today none of my sites are working at BH - I don't even get any error page, just a page load error - and the mail server is quirky too
ms2134 and I are both resellers for a reputable hosting company with data centers in the UK and the US - I have not experienced any problems or complaints about the service
I started reselling because my clients sometimes ask about hosting, and I have not found a shared hosting co I really can recommend, until I tried out this one. They don't support Subversion in shared hosting, but few do.
On d.o. I read about http://www.hotdrupal.com/ with "hybrid vps" hosting starting at around $6/month but a realistic plan is about $10/month...
They responded to my inquiry that they do support Subversion, but they recommend the "Plus" plan ($15/mo) for anything beyond the basic setup.
They're not on webhostingunleashed - anybody have any feedback on Hot Drupal hosting?
I suppose eventually I shall purchase my own server - until then it is hit and miss in the hosting arena
.
.
.
For a good laugh, one of my more "out there" clients suggested using Qbit's Reality Bender hosting featuring "Quantum Controlled Web Site Hosting" (a technology that is only theoretical!)!
teammatt3 posted this at 15:56 — 21st August 2008.
He has: 2,102 posts
Joined: Sep 2003
I still have a shared/reseller account that I use to create my small sites, but with my big projects, I have a lightning fast dedicated server in a super fast datacenter
. I can't believe I thought I could get quality hosting for <$10 a month. But like pr0g said, web hosts have to jam pack people on the server to make a profit.
Finntroll posted this at 09:00 — 22nd August 2008.
They have: 135 posts
Joined: Sep 2006
This thread has finally killed my desire to deal with BH whenever. I have lots of skepticism about that provider, but now I am completely against using their service..
By the way, Is that true that BH and Hostmonster are owned by the same people?
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Med vargbroder ut pе jakt
decibel.places posted this at 14:26 — 22nd August 2008.
He has: 1,494 posts
Joined: Jun 2008
yes, I think I have heard that too
interestingly [I guess] often when BlueHost goes down, so do my client's sites at RackSpace --- not sure why, maybe they are related somehow, in same location, or perhaps just big hosting cos that are targets of the same attacks
Michael James Swan posted this at 21:21 — 22nd August 2008.
He has: 400 posts
Joined: May 2008
I believe that is correct. I believe that i made a post about it somewhere here on the forums and yes, i would also believe that you may be correct in your suspicion that they both seem to go down at the same time or near enough.
One thing that strikes me odd is that should website hosting companies, I mean estalished ones and not resellers. Should they not have protection against DDOS attacks; thus there should be no excuse.
May i have some more views on this matter please?
Best Regards,
Mike
greg posted this at 14:23 — 23rd August 2008.
He has: 1,581 posts
Joined: Nov 2005
They should, yes, but how far they go I don't know as there are different levels and techniques that can be used. Some companies use the basics, firewalls etc and some have extensive protection systems to detect potential attacks.
That said even the worlds best protected servers can only do so much, and have to be careful as it's hard to determine and distinguish between what could be a ddos attack and "intentional" server overload, or just simply a busy website that is getting too many hits/data transfer for the services it provides and not enough resource allowance.
Like a house, you can put many locks/bolts etc on it, if YOU can get into your own house, so can an intruder, even if it is by different means. If your house had no doors/windows at all then no-one could get in and would defeat the purpose of the house. As like a server, they have to allow data to be transferred, that is of course their main purpose.
Michael James Swan posted this at 21:24 — 22nd August 2008.
He has: 400 posts
Joined: May 2008
I am not sure exactly how they may be linked but i believe that they may be, as i said above.
The website hosting companies seem to be splitting up with different names just in case they get some bad reviews but then another company can just appear and suddenly have some good ratings. Seems a little "strange" to me...
Best Regards,
Mike
leewells posted this at 07:30 — 22nd January 2011.
They have: 1 posts
Joined: Jan 2011
Let me tell you about my experience with Bluehost; first of all, let me explain my "wants". I guess I'm like any one else, I want to upload mywebsites, get everything up and running and not have to worry about it until I have to pay the bill again. Simple, not to much to ask for right?
On Bluehost, my first 8 months was hassle free, a webmasters web dream. However after you have to pre-pay them for a year that 8th month was the difference between night and day. It started with random downtime, DNS errors, DNS entry deletions, server outages, (all within a month's time), and then an "upgrade" to the server (which was welcomed). Month 10, the downtime stopped but this month revealed why - As nearing the end of Month 10, my site becomes "temporarily unavailable". Ok so I call and they say I have too many tables (more than 1,000 tables in 23 databases). So I go through and delete the old tables I don't need any more. Two days later, shut down again. I call and this time the "new limit" is 800 tables.
You now get the idea, once they had my account pinned down to the point I couldn't even run WordPress I called them on their advertising saying that they state you can run multiple websites and they support wordpress. They then turned the site back on, and three days later, its off again, "File Count Limit". And the dance starts again.
After I finally stripped all my sites off their server but ONE, (my firm's website), a month later (today and you can verify www.mlwassociates.com), guess what? BANNED, "TOS VIOLATION - PHISHING". For the record, I was allowed to download my files through FTP while it was banned. And I have checked all the files, there are nothing that even looks like another website (besides our firm's website lol) but I guess this is their scheme - they take your money and then start grasping for straws in the TOS to find any reason to shut you down and keep your money.
Host.co.in posted this at 18:26 — 25th January 2011.
They have: 34 posts
Joined: Dec 2010
If one goes for shared hosting at such a cheap rate, then he should be ready for such disasters. Its common sense, why one would provide quality service without having profit.
Host.co.in - Web Hosting India | Reseller Hosting India | Dedicated Server India
graemewatson posted this at 07:03 — 28th January 2011.
They have: 1 posts
Joined: Jan 2011
Just to drive me home, I'm working on a website for the client, and it was a case where they host themselves instead in a way that I want to pay a little extra to keep on the server was. Anyway, I'm testing, and pages are loading slower than molasses. I always print debugging information in the footer of the website development
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