So over the last few days i learned more than i ever wanted to learn about A records, subdomains, parked domains, addon domains, CNAMES, and a few other acronyms that i dont care to discuss....
Also learned you dont get something for nothing. The free hosting sites that were recommended as the 'best' ALL had issues; major issues.
The first had forced adds. Not so bad in theory, but it broke the forums! The next didnt have any ads, but....it had several limitations on their sql server, some listed, some i didnt find out until it was too later. They told me no external connections; so sourcebans didnt work. Not the end of the world, but annoying. What they DIDNT tell me was that they limited sql queries to the point where the forums worked if only one of us was using them at a time! Their solution; remove the database intensive plugins and see what happens. My solution; get the hell out now. Oh, i almost forgot; they also limited ftp transfers to a single connection at a time @ about 25kb. That is unacceptable.
Anyway, we are now on a paid site, a professional site, with real computer parts. Pretty much back to the level of service we had originally, with a few enhancements to help me manage this thing, without interfering with my other hardware.
The sql database seems to work fine. The ftp site allows 10 connections (maybe more, but my ftp client is limited to 10!) and it uploads as fast as you hit the button (the only speed i could get was about 2.5MB/sec, but it was over so fast with the 10 connections that it may have been much higher than that). Oh, and another thing; its FAST!!. At least as fast as our original site i was hosting, maybe faster! The last few 'free' sites i tried were s l o w (when they were working).
in any event, this is it, im done for now. i may do a few tweaks here and there on plugins (now that the forums have been upgraded, the plugins work again; the old version puked on more than about 10) and i may change the theme etc., but thats about it for now.
Also learned you dont get something for nothing. The free hosting sites that were recommended as the 'best' ALL had issues; major issues.
The first had forced adds. Not so bad in theory, but it broke the forums! The next didnt have any ads, but....it had several limitations on their sql server, some listed, some i didnt find out until it was too later. They told me no external connections; so sourcebans didnt work. Not the end of the world, but annoying. What they DIDNT tell me was that they limited sql queries to the point where the forums worked if only one of us was using them at a time! Their solution; remove the database intensive plugins and see what happens. My solution; get the hell out now. Oh, i almost forgot; they also limited ftp transfers to a single connection at a time @ about 25kb. That is unacceptable.
Anyway, we are now on a paid site, a professional site, with real computer parts. Pretty much back to the level of service we had originally, with a few enhancements to help me manage this thing, without interfering with my other hardware.
The sql database seems to work fine. The ftp site allows 10 connections (maybe more, but my ftp client is limited to 10!) and it uploads as fast as you hit the button (the only speed i could get was about 2.5MB/sec, but it was over so fast with the 10 connections that it may have been much higher than that). Oh, and another thing; its FAST!!. At least as fast as our original site i was hosting, maybe faster! The last few 'free' sites i tried were s l o w (when they were working).
in any event, this is it, im done for now. i may do a few tweaks here and there on plugins (now that the forums have been upgraded, the plugins work again; the old version puked on more than about 10) and i may change the theme etc., but thats about it for now.