WordPress MU

hi,
my current hosting firm does not set wildcard DNS on.
so i cant use wpmu with subdomains.

wich firm do you use to host wpmu with subdomains?

I use my own service to host them. Is it ok to put my contact info here? Another option is to just have someone else do your DNS. I could do that, too.

A lot of people use site5.com

http://asmallorange.com

Not as cheap as site5, but their service is excellent.

How is site5.com ? There prices seem pretty good and love the idea of SSH access.

Are they a reliable host, anybody know ?

Yikes just read a whole bunch of not too favourable reviews on them, i'll stick with where i'm at :)

I'm on 'em, but I'm outgrowing them for my MU setup. Perfectly fine for everything else I have there.

I've had experiences with a small orange, media temple, and jumpline.

The last one has VPS' for pretty a reasonable price.

I'm with wiredhub.net and they are pretty good but no ssh access can be a bind at times :(

I'd love VPS but can't afford to front the monthly cost so i'm seriously looking for alternatives.

well, I am on my own server as well, so depending on what you want to do (in terms of volume/visitors/whatever) and having the advantage that I run wp and wpmu sites off my server you can be sure it will run and support would not be too far away :-)

besides that it is not a crowded server as I only host some friends sites, my own sites and 2-3 small clients sites. If you're interested contact me at ovizii at zice.ro

how about dreamhost? it is listed on the wp's hosting pages and they let Wildcard DNS, written at their wiki.

Um... right... Screamhost?

Diz... check jumpline's vps. I think they still call it vds.
It's right up your alley, and like $10 or $15 a month.

Not that I'm promoting, or recommending, just pointing.

//

(If I were promoting, it would be "get a dedicated box". ;) )

I would love a dedicated :) But unfortunately i'm now in the none profit sector and that brings with it, erm, no funding :) God i wish i had my dual xeon back, that thing rocked :)

I've looked at VDS and they look pretty good for VPS. How do you rate them ?

I like they have chroot access and its basically a VPS of sorts but with an uncertain control panel (uncertain for me as its new i guess lol).

A couple of flys in the ointment are low diskspace and bandwidth (compared to other hosts), php 5 (i hope to hell they offer 4 as i wouldn't touch 5) and based in the US (meaning i have to comply with DMCA even though all my members are in the UK)

(i hope to hell they offer 4 as i wouldn't touch 5)

why not?

(meaning i have to comply with DMCA even though all my members are in the UK)

Why?

Curious as ever. :)

PHP 5 is an issue all to its own forum, i prefer to stop put with PHP 4. Many developers have and are updating code to be PHP5 compliant but its not something they enjoy. PHP4 is far more stable for the website admin. A choice of both however is always a good deal.

If you host in the US you have to comply with their DMCA laws. I have had a run in with those laws in the past and frankly can't be doing with the hassle factor now. DMCA sets the onus on potential copyright violations on the webmaster and you have to prove otherwise. If your not from the states and worry about the potential of any copyright incursion, never host there.

As my demographics and indeed clients will be in the UK its safer for me NOT to host within the US. If they, for instance, use an image on one of their blogs under US copyright law, I could be sued (the states is a sue me, sue you culture that i just can't understand). It would, ultimately come down to me to be responsible for every site i host and i'd have to check on every single one. As i plan on hosting around 100 separate websites, something could potentially trigger an event.

Until you've had a run in with DMCA you really won't understand how dangerous a legislation it is. Me, i'll try and keep clear of it as much as humanly possible :)

Ahhhh.. well, I'm in frigidly cold Canada and usually host in the US, but I don't normally worry about the copyright laws (which are probably similar). Then again, I haven't had a run-in over it either.

Good to keep at the back of my mind though.

Canadian copyright law is totally different to US laws so bare that in mind :) I host in Canada too currently and never had an issue. However i had several servers for years in the US and i'm very reluctant to host there now.

Hmmm... isn't there something available in the UK maybe? Although I'm sure you've looked at that route.

god i wish Lunabyte. UK hosting is well overpriced and underspecification :( For instance most of the packages start at 400 megs (i've seen them start at 100), offering around 5 gig of monthly transfer and 1 sql database for the same price i'm paying in Canada for 12 gig of webspace, unlimited sql databases and 400 gig of bandwidth.

I'd love a UK host but its just not a practical solution :(

I'll likely be forced to host in the US, but its not something i'm entirely happy about.

My present host has been brilliant until recently where i'm seeing 50 second page generation times that they are blaming on routing issues from me to them :) Don't they know about sql timing :) My routing is getting to them in less than a second and only when i access the database does it go slow. But these are techs and with the job seems to come the ability not to be able to read properly :)

LOL

What about media temple's grid server package? I haven't used it, but it seems like a fair shake.

Guess it depends on how big your site is, might get...

Wow they ain't bad at all.

Guess it depends on how big your site is, might get...

Was that a tongue in cheek comment ? :)

I just looked at their grid server package

# 100 GBs of premium storage
# 1 TB of short-path bandwidth

If i surpass that, i'm microsoft :)

Still hosted in the US but i may just have to seriously consider a very robust DMCA policy.

I'll look into that further as it seems an awesome plan. Have you any experience of them ?

Thanks for passing that on.

Mmm i don't like the sound of that now actually, after reading further. They can bill you further if your website spikes passed a certain threshold and although they say its fine for 97% of the websites i bet your bottom dollar i would fall within that 3% and get a hefty bill.

I'll avoid that one as i prefer to know exactly what i'm paying at any given time. Too risky :)

True, that could be an issue. The odds might not be worth it.

I guess you could try one of those VDS packages maybe. Although I don't know exactly what you can get away with on there for memory configs and whatnot.

I know you can install whatever you want, within legal parameters of course, but you have access to all the files you need for MU.

Or, maybe look at what Andrew was offering in another thread. Might be a reasonable compromise.

Yes agreed its something to consider.

God i hate moving hosts, its as stressful as moving house.

i dont like either to move hosts.
my current host is lunarpages. they said that wildcard dns is avaible only in dedicated plan, $99 (plus extra $) per month :(

i tried two or three times to install wpmu with subdirectories, and link my subdomains to these directories. but i didnt succeed and gave up...

I use a liquidweb vps. They are great! They set up the wildcard dns for wpmu and have been the best place I have ever hosted. Tech people are smart and helpful. vps is 100% managed. i could go on :) I moved my wpmu site (and most other sites) over from the nightmare that is dreamhost.

Ah i'm glad you said about Dreamhost as if i ever did decide to get an American host there were right at the top of my list of possibly choices.

What experiences did you have ?

I've found a host in the UK but i'm not entirely happy about the deal. They come very highly recommended and have great reviews everywhere but at a price. £14.95 a month for just 3 gigs of webspace and 15 gig monthly bandwidth. Granted they allow up to 15 domains, but use a none standard control panel (not cpanel anyway), don't allow direct access to cron (you have to request) and no SVN in ssh access.

In honesty i think i'm going to be forced to go to American as i just can't afford UK hosting.

Its a darn shame as i would prefer it, being less hops and a direct line on the telephone in issues but at £14.95, $29 US money, i'm pretty sure i can't swallow it.

OK to follow through with this i have found a very reasonable VPS system in the UK.

256MB RAM double to 512MB
OpenVZ based
10GB double to 20Gb HDD
200Gb transfer tripled to 600GB
2 IP's
cPanel/WHM or DA included
Fantastico/RVSkins

$30 or £15.00/mo + VAT where applicable

Maximum 20 accounts per server, Dual Core AMD x2 or Core2Duo with SATA RAID-1 on 100Mbit port. Burst RAM is twice the guarenteed RAM on all of our plans.

Now i'm not entirely savvy when it comes to VPS as i've had my own dedicated for many years but always employed a server team to care care of it.

First question is do you think this would be powerful enough to run around 100 blogs through wordpress MU with limited traffic. All the sites will be non profit and i doubt they'll have more than a couple of users on at any one time (likely only a few throughout the day) so load should be minimal.

I'll also be hosting my Drupal community website there but again this hopefully should be minimal traffic.

Also this is completely unmanaged and from what i'm hearing isn't even server hardened at all so i'll have to do that myself. Anyone any "how to " links on securing your server ?

It comes with WHM and cpanel so that may help.

What do you think guys ? any help appreciated .

depends on what os comes installed, or what you want to install, have a look here: http://www.howtoforge.com it has howtos for everything you might possibly want to do/install :-)

Thanks mate. I find that site confusing at times but i'll have a proper nose around.

I've been putting of learning linux for too long i guess.