Sorry for the Outages
If you think you don’t like it, trust me, I’m 1000 times unhappier.
The site has been melted several times in recent days, mostly by Hot Air links. Every blogger out there has noticed a significant spike in traffic since the Palin pick was announced, and Hot Air was already the most trafficked conservative site on the Internet. Hot Air is now getting over a million visits a day. A link in their “Headlines” can easily generate well over 3000 page views in a single hour.
The problem is getting worse and worse. This morning the site went down for hours, and I don’t even have a recent link to explain why.
I’m currently on a single server that I share with Winds of Change and no other site. Apparently the server can’t handle the load of traffic I’ve been getting with these Hot Air links. This has happened several times in recent days — basically, whenever the traffic is good.
I will obviously have to look into a different solution. Any suggestions?
P.S. Don’t recommend Hosting Matters. They put me at risk of losing my entire blog because they got pissy when I publicly complained that they didn’t give a crap about keeping my site up. I’ll never deal with those people again.
Buy a bigger server out of pocket or ask for donations for a bigger one.
You could ask not to be linked to HA but that defeats the purpose.
Don’t feel bad. Even HA has gotten knocked off line a couple of times when Drudge linked to them. They bought bigger servers but of course they have a bigger budget to work with.
voiceofreason2 (779bf8) — 9/7/2008 @ 2:15 pmMake sure you’re fixing the actual problem. A website can go down either because the bandwidth is overloaded or because the server itself is overloaded. Putting more horsepower into your server won’t help if it’s the bandwidth to the site that’s the chokepoint.
James (87581d) — 9/7/2008 @ 2:20 pmOur system in the OC was down all day. Maybe it’s some area outage…?
Patricia (ee5c9d) — 9/7/2008 @ 2:36 pmVOR2,
I’ve missed your voice of reason.
DRJ (7568a2) — 9/7/2008 @ 2:37 pmDRJ,
Thank you. I’ve been trolling but not commenting hardly at all. Commenting can be addictive at times and I put the time to good use toward some “honey do” projects.
Looks to be an exciting election doesn’t it?
voiceofreason2 (779bf8) — 9/7/2008 @ 2:44 pmToo much traffic? Not a bad problem for a blogger. But it does need to be addressed.
Cicero (2b960c) — 9/7/2008 @ 2:57 pmCongratulations! Such traffic-inspired outages means you are in the big leagues. It’s a nice problem to have.
You’ll need to dig into the technology a bit. Learn about how your current setup works, such as bandwidth, etc. Then you’ll have an idea how much capacity you need. Look for a Web host that gives a 99.9 percent uptime guarantee. There are several that specialize in WordPress. And put a Paypal link on your site. I and no doubt many others will be happy to contribute.
Bradley J. Fikes (0ea407) — 9/7/2008 @ 3:03 pmThe bigger servers is an option, another is to buy several and set them up to do load balancing. No matter what you do, it’s gonna cost major league moola.
You also need to speak with the hosting company as well. It’s possible that the bandwidth is insufficient.
Evilned (429c11) — 9/7/2008 @ 3:03 pmPat,
If you’re looking for a new provider, I recommend Hosting Matters. They host Instapundit and several other right-leaning blogs. Their prices are good, their service is excellent and their uptime is pretty much 100%.
[Not for me it wasn’t. My experience was that they care about the heavy hitters and don’t give a crap about the others. They almost caused me to lose my entire blog. I will never, ever do business with them. — P]
Paul S. (489eeb) — 9/7/2008 @ 3:10 pmPat, I think Capt. Ed went through this problem about two years ago, or less. You might drop him a line and see what advice he can offer.
Another Drew (b60e19) — 9/7/2008 @ 3:17 pmActually, I’m glad to find out that they’re not blocking you from here in Yongsan, South Korea.
Bruce Kelly (236c30) — 9/7/2008 @ 3:23 pmWhat does Ace use? He seems to have no trouble with large spikes in his traffic, regardless of the time of day.
Dmac (e639cc) — 9/7/2008 @ 3:27 pmI don’t think it’s the traffic – I think we’ve got some “issues” – evariste, our resident genius has been slammed and hasn’t been able to do any review – I’m bringing someone else online next week…
Marc
Armed Liberal (a8689f) — 9/7/2008 @ 3:31 pmGet a new host? Maybe you should ask Pixelgate why your site keeps going down.
Damn, I need to hurry up and finish my blog so I can make use of the Palin Whirlwind.
George (7e3bdc) — 9/7/2008 @ 3:34 pmDrudge receives free server capacity from some company in exchange for a small box advertisement on his site. Now, obviously Drudge gets many-fold more hits than you, but you still might be big enough to pull it off.
Or at least get a substantial discount.
Brian (f79442) — 9/7/2008 @ 3:34 pmHmmmmm.
Take a look at MediaTemple.net.
A friend was going to shift to them, but decided to continue on with his current host. MT uses an interesting grid approach that should allow them to handle severe spikes in traffic.
Otherwise HostingMatters.com is an outstanding choice. I host my very small sites with them and love their customer service. My stuff is mostly tech oriented and focused towards programming and not politics.
memomachine (6ab657) — 9/7/2008 @ 3:40 pmThe sweet pain of success.
Apogee (366e8b) — 9/7/2008 @ 3:41 pmI have used Blue Host for years, not just for blogging but for a few high traffic web sites as well (one of my sites is an interactive genealogy site of over 3300 pages). In 6 or 7 years, I have never had an outage, except when they announced in advance that they would be bringing new servers on line and we might have intermittent service somewhere around 2 or 3 in the morning for about an hour. And they have A+ tech service 24/7.
If you want to go with a commercial server, I recommend Blue Host. If you decide they are right for you, please go to Pal2Pal and click on their banner in my left side bar so I get the affiliate credit. BTW, the price is $6.95 a mo. for unlimited space, transfers and domains.
Sara (3337ed) — 9/7/2008 @ 4:13 pmI like Blue Host, too. My blog is tiny but they have been helpful (unlike WordPress) when I had to call them.
MIke K (155601) — 9/7/2008 @ 4:24 pmI suggest alternative energy 🙂
Oiram (ee061e) — 9/7/2008 @ 4:39 pmVOR2,
Home projects come first but I’m glad to know you’re still around.
DRJ (7568a2) — 9/7/2008 @ 4:59 pmI love my hosting company, but Xrlq had a run-in with them awhile back. YMMV. icdsoft.com
Anwyn (a130c1) — 9/7/2008 @ 8:07 pmAce uses Pixy Misa’s Mu/Mee.Nu servers. Pixy’s based out of Australia. Pixy also hosts AoSHQ and MyPetJawa on different servers, as compared to the other, smaller blogs on Mu.Nu.
I suppose he’s worth a shot, though.
Gregory (f7735e) — 9/7/2008 @ 8:08 pmI’d check with Pixy for sure.
Laddy (d9a241) — 9/7/2008 @ 8:11 pmDefinitely time to change hosts – going with one someone already knows is a winning plan
i like america (f4c1e0) — 9/7/2008 @ 8:16 pmI’ve been using Dreamhost for 6 years and have been happy. I have a dedicated server that originally cost $220/month, but is now running me around $150. They’ve upgraded me for free at various times. I have several other people I’ve set up with just webhosting account for $20/month. I like their interface, too.
Cal (c19cf4) — 9/7/2008 @ 11:00 pmThe site I have heard the best reviews about is Blue Host. I am on Dreamhost, which has been good for the last 4-5 months, after some massive outages. You can also get your own server at Dreamhost, as Cal points out. I almost changed from Dreamhost after the last massive outage, so, did a lot of looking.
Do you have any sort of Ajax plugins or script running? Those can really hose sites, particularly one linked to comments.
William Teach (85fde8) — 9/8/2008 @ 2:12 pmI’m sure Patterico will look further at these comments this evening. Today has not been a good day for the server, which means it hasn’t been a good day for his commenters or readers. Sorry for the problems.
DRJ (7568a2) — 9/8/2008 @ 2:16 pm[…] Original post by William Teach […]
DreamHost Web Hosting » Comment on Sorry for the Outages by William Teach (514334) — 9/8/2008 @ 2:36 pm