Mar
2010
I swear this is becoming like an annual post.
Last year on March 19th I wrote about Why I Left DreamHost, and here we are a year later discussing why I left BlueHost. Unlike the DreamHost debacle where I was angry enough to spit fire, the BlueHost split has been a bit more amicable. There were some definite rough moments this year, but overall it wasn’t that ugly.
Over this past year I discovered that I just simply no longer fit in a shared hosting environment. While they promise you the world in unlimited storage and bandwidth, they really can’t deliver. At least once over the past year all my sites were shut down and threatened with deletion as I had too many files on the server. It seems they don’t want you to have more than 50,000 files, and due to a script I was running with Mark Hopkins to test a new site, it had auto generated over 250,000 files. No problem, we deleted them, but BlueHost gave us no warning we were in violation, they simply shut down the sites and told us to get out. After begging with them, I got them to turn the sites back on, and we got the files cleaned up.
In general shared hosting accounts simply aren’t going to work any more except for the smallest of sites. These companies work on an idea of volume, and while departing BlueHost, I did some checking and discovered that somewhere around 1,000 sites were hosted on just my one server. While servers can take a pounding, that is just way too many sites on any one unit.
So, I have moved over to HostGator … hold on, don’t scream, “But they’re a shared host, too!” Yes, they are, but they also offer dedicated servers, and that’s what I’m renting now. Yes folks, I’ve gone crazy and just said “I’m done with this!” and gone for my own server. HostGator leases their servers from The Planet, and while I could have gotten it slightly cheaper by going direct, HG offered better phone support, and considering how many times I’ve had to call them, it’s been worth the extra money.
While I do feel like I’m paying through the nose, and I don’t make anywhere close to how much this costs me back in advertising, I’m a lot happier. All of my sites are on this server now (which is nine), plus I am hosting two sites for friends. One is paying me a small hosting fee each month, while the other gets like six hits a year, so I’m not charging them. So, I am much deeper in the hole financially, but if I really want to keep my sites going, this was the only option, and I have to say I love having complete control over the server. I am nowhere near it physically, but I can reboot it, run diagnostics, the whole bit from the comfort of my desk.
I have no clue how HostGator is as a shared host, but as a dedicated server host, I’m loving them. All of my technical problems have been handled quickly, my server was set up in no time and I feel you can tell how much faster the site is. (SeanPAune.com has been on the server now for a few months) Expensive? Yes. Worth it? I think so.
I know most blogs just starting out have to go with shared hosting so as not to break themselves, and I wish you all luck because all the shared hosts I have been with have ended up driving me insane. Here’s to (hopefully) never moving again.



The Addams Family is headed back to the big screen … but in a way it’s for the first time.
Scattercast is 87 … and I wanna go to the prom … in a dress.
If all of the rumors are to be believed, things could be definitely looking up for Conan O’Brien.
Michael David Barrett, the man arrested in the Erin Andrews peephole video case, has been sentenced to 30 months in prison as the results of a plea bargain.
Okay, it’s official, I’m turning into a crazy old dog person.
