I had a similar problem on Servage (when I was on shared hosting), after my site topped 100 members, my site was processing too many queries for shared hosting to handle and they cut you off (as you are limited to a certain amount of queries an hour on shared hosting). Your best bet would be to go the VPS route. HostICan - Web Hosting - FREE Domain, PHP, 2,500GB of bandwidth, and more... from $50

It could be, because shoutbox mods normally consume quite a bit of processing. It looks like your host is a reseller of hostdime and offers a bit outrageous packages i.e. oversells extensively. Normally it is better to stay away from hosts which offer tons of hosting space for few bucks a month!

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Why most forums fail within 1 year!

India Travel Forum | India Travel Directory | Free Travel Directory

If I can find a package like I currently have (500 gig storage, unlimited bandwidth..emails..sql..) for about $8 a month (thats what I am paying - paid) I need the unlimited bandwidth...


great...thanks. I will be removing shoutbox and see how that affects the server.

If I do end up switching hosts..wont i lose everything I currently have? Or can I save my SQL database and reimport it to a new host?

Sorry to say this but for $8 your not going to get a reliable host for a vBulletin forum. Your best bet is to remove any mods that put strain on your Database and just put up with the unable to connect messages you will get.

Do you really need 500 gig storage and unlimited bandwidth?

Are you actually using even 1% of this?

Try to get a host which has more realistic packages, check out knownhost's shared hosting and reseller plans and like BBI-Ross said, remove mods which put extra strain on your database while you are hosted on a shared server.

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Why most forums fail within 1 year!

India Travel Forum | India Travel Directory | Free Travel Directory

well of course paying $8 is unrealistic..I'm paying $88 per year at once, not $8 a month.

And no..I am not currently using that much space, maybe 2 gig. When I switched my package over, I had the intention of hosting video, music and other large sized files. That has since changed. I think 10-20 gig would suffice.

I have disabled shoutbox. Lets see how that affects the server load. I really hate the idea of switching to another host..with fear that I'd lose my content that is already up there.

Yes you can.

Your host is garbage. There is no such thing as unlimited anything.

A $50.00 VPS is not enough for a busy forum. Been there done that. vBulletin has, in many cases, a 10MB or more footprint per view. Do the math on 256MB of ram. Ignore burst, it's crap to use because at that point the paging is overwhelming.

The days of hobby forums are going by the wayside. It's becoming more of a necessity to monetize a forum all the time just to keep the hardware running let alone the admin costs.

Shared hosting and good running vBulletin forums are a myth.

To those that would disagree: I know, you have a 5$ shared account for your vBulletin and can't wait to tell me how wonderful it is. But please, spare me.

As for the shout box. The new posts query on vB can be a huge resource hog. It often looks at way too many table entries due to a complicated WHERE. I would think it's on the to do list for optimization. Point is, a shout box on forum wide, as many people do and think is cool, with a 10 second refresh times the number of visitors is a lot of hits. Do the math.

Lesson, ajax shout boxes sound cool, but are resource hogs. PERIOD.

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vBPicGallery - The photo gallery for vBulletin forums.
Talk to bikers around the world about motorcycles.

You are correct.

What would you suggest for a host?

And I did start out with this forum as a hobby. Its turned into a second job sometimes.

Again..thanks for all the input.

Steve

Amen to that! I had one and learn't the lesson.