Computer Science Canada

Dan needs a new server?

Author:  StarGateSG-1 [ Mon Jun 20, 2005 12:59 am ]
Post subject:  Dan needs a new server?

Ok dan I think you need a new server, please do I will help anyway I can and I hope everyone else will to, for the sake of compsci. Please help dan get a new server ( his own if possible)

Author:  Notoroge [ Mon Jun 20, 2005 7:13 am ]
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Wasn't the original CompSci.ca his own server, but was later-on outsourced due to maintenance nightmares?
Anyways, I think CompSci.ca is doing pretty well for the amount of traffic it gets, and has good uptime. It's only been down once since I got here, and that's been about a month. And I doubt it crashes this hard often. Eh

Author:  Tony [ Mon Jun 20, 2005 7:22 am ]
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not this hard and not this often, but this did happen before.

Originally compsci was hosted, but on Dan's personal computer, under Windows I belive. Something about that not supporting over 10 connections at a time.

Now a dedicated *nix machine in Dan's climate controlled (and by that I mean removed window frame with half a dozen fans) clothet is a better choice. Though a) that costs, and b) there's still an issue of connectivity. Could somebody let me know how broadband will stand up to compsci's demand?

Author:  Amailer [ Mon Jun 20, 2005 7:52 am ]
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Ah, no way compsci can be hosted off someones personal comp it wouldn't last for 2 hours Shocked
For some odd reason, only 15-20 people are allowed to connect to the server/site at a time, the rest of the 'extra' users get an error message asif the server isn't working... at least thats how it was for me and Dan used to use the same ISP as me (darn sympatico -.-).

Buying a new and slightly more expensive server is the only way out, or make daily backups which is a real pain -.-

Author:  Martin [ Mon Jun 20, 2005 7:54 am ]
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I could look into hosting it off of the university servers, but I think we get too much traffic for that.

This sounds like it was a hardware failure though...

Author:  [Gandalf] [ Mon Jun 20, 2005 11:13 am ]
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Can't you just have some macro or script or something that automatically backs up the database? I'm not sure about these forums, but that's what I did when I hosted a game server.

Author:  StarGateSG-1 [ Mon Jun 20, 2005 1:59 pm ]
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I can't help host but I could donate money, am I hope other people could to Very Happy

Author:  Notoroge [ Mon Jun 20, 2005 3:14 pm ]
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Everyone here probably has an old box their not using. What about setting up a server-farm of old boxes? Might take a lot of room, but it's the cheapest and most efficient way. Didn't Google run with a similar setup for a very good portion of its existance?

Author:  [Gandalf] [ Mon Jun 20, 2005 3:35 pm ]
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Hmm, ya, I have a overclocked P100 (used to be 75) stored here, but I can't say I would rely on it's dependance Neutral. Still, its an idea. There are quite a few possibilities, we just need Dan to come in here and tell us what he wants (if any change is needed at all Confused).

*EDIT* No, I don't think this would be the best solution.

Author:  Mazer [ Mon Jun 20, 2005 3:37 pm ]
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But then it's still an issue of bandwidth...

Author:  Cervantes [ Mon Jun 20, 2005 4:21 pm ]
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Notoroge wrote:
Everyone here probably has an old box their not using. What about setting up a server-farm of old boxes? Might take a lot of room, but it's the cheapest and most efficient way.

In terms of energy consumption, definately not.

Author:  Drakain Zeil [ Mon Jun 20, 2005 4:57 pm ]
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There's some good deals here, the service is good too...

http://www.futurepoint.com/hosting.php

But, while you're at it, why not just upgrade the forums to vB? vB is better, and about 160 to buy forever, or like 80 bucks a year.

If I had a job, I'd be more than happy to donate some money... but no one wants to hire me, lol.

Author:  Notoroge [ Mon Jun 20, 2005 5:28 pm ]
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Well, if you want bandwidth friendly forums, then you should get <a href="http://www.minibb.net/">miniBB</a> or <a href="http://punbb.org/">punBB</a>

Although I'm more than certain the latter gives better performance. Because I think there's one thing most of us could agree with here, PhpBB2 isn't exactly resource friendly. Confused

Author:  Amailer [ Mon Jun 20, 2005 5:44 pm ]
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It depends on the ISP your using also, maybe some of them don't want people to start hosting Rolling Eyes and I don't think changing the forum would help with the bandwidth especailly since compsci gets around 700 hits a week... well now 192 but still...

Author:  Notoroge [ Mon Jun 20, 2005 7:00 pm ]
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Amailer wrote:
It depends on the ISP your using also, maybe some of them don't want people to start hosting Rolling Eyes and I don't think changing the forum would help with the bandwidth especailly since compsci gets around 700 hits a week... well now 192 but still...
On the contrary. You'd probably see an even bigger increase in perfermance when having tons of users on the site because it really stress-tests the forum's capabilities. Whereas almost all forums would perform equally when only recieving 10 - 20 hits.

Author:  [Gandalf] [ Mon Jun 20, 2005 7:32 pm ]
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I don't know, the forums ran pretty fast before. They seem to have slowed down though. Is that something server related or is it just me?

Author:  StarGateSG-1 [ Mon Jun 20, 2005 7:43 pm ]
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I noticed that to, My guess is its becasue its so soon after the crash. I think it might speed up in a couple of days.

Author:  Notoroge [ Tue Jun 21, 2005 7:16 am ]
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If it was really a hard-drive failure, then it shouldn't matter. The faulty parts would have been replaced and everything setup. Shouldn't matter how long your computer's been running for, the speed shouldn't change. If it does, you have either a memory leak, or spyware.

Author:  Tony [ Tue Jun 21, 2005 9:52 am ]
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I talked to Dan last night and he doesn't want his own server.

Well the net connection will be our main issue. Household broadband might not do. ISPs don't exactly like having to host personal websites on our scale Laughing Perhaps we'll get more freedom with their business option express package or whatever, somebody needs to check the fine print.

Ether way that would require us to raise quite an ammount for the initial server, and then have continues monthly revenue to cover the connection costs. Considering the current revenue of zero that might be tough to pull off.

Bottom line is that dedicated hosting is way too expensive and we'll actually be giving up some of the support we have now -- such as having somebody in the room to kick the server box if it gets stuck. Both Dan and I attend Universities, we're quite busy during the day.

Perhaps if we do manage to raise some funds, we could switch over to a better (more reliable) host?

Author:  StarGateSG-1 [ Tue Jun 21, 2005 1:59 pm ]
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Finally The site is back up to speed, it is running much faster now. Whoo

Author:  atrain [ Tue Jun 21, 2005 7:16 pm ]
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A self hosted server is not the way to go...

I get 20kb/s up ( 1 mb = year) and 120kb/s down (aka: max upload for users)

im on sympatico, but im using old hardware...

I know the full speed sympatico aint much better with upload, and thats the most important part...

Author:  1of42 [ Tue Jun 21, 2005 7:27 pm ]
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atrain wrote:
A self hosted server is not the way to go...

I get 20kb/s up ( 1 mb = year) and 120kb/s down (aka: max upload for users)

im on sympatico, but im using old hardware...

I know the full speed sympatico aint much better with upload, and thats the most important part...


Wow, I get like 4 mb/s down and 2 mb/s up... Sympatico High-speed ULtra business package (or w/e) 4tw Very Happy

Author:  Amailer [ Tue Jun 21, 2005 8:19 pm ]
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High Speed Ultra is a total rip off (I think), the High Speed plan seems the best there. Anyhow, hosting compsci off a personal comptuer will never work so it should be just put aside, just look into buying a new host.

Author:  Dan [ Tue Jun 21, 2005 10:52 pm ]
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I think the best option if we could get the money whould be to rent a decicated server for our site in some server farm. That way we whould have it all (other then our money) incuding the litte guy they keep locked in there to poke the server with a broom stick every now and then.

Sorry i was not on during the server stuff to help out more or even give info as to what is happning but i was away for a week with out net conection in midland.

Author:  Hikaru79 [ Mon Aug 01, 2005 12:17 pm ]
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I have a friend at Massey whose family owns a virtual server farm and he's been known to give out free accounts to Massey students. Also, he's a good programmer (I believe second-highest mark in Massey in this year's Senior CCC, despite only being in grade 10). Seeing as a large part of the compsci.ca demographic is from Massey, I think I might sway him.

Dan or Tony, do you have any particular set of preqerequisites that you'd need, so I can ask for some specifics?

Author:  Tony [ Mon Aug 01, 2005 6:12 pm ]
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Hikaru79 wrote:
Dan or Tony, do you have any particular set of preqerequisites that you'd need, so I can ask for some specifics?

Ruby support would be something that's not quite standart.

Author:  Hikaru79 [ Mon Aug 01, 2005 6:40 pm ]
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Tony wrote:
Hikaru79 wrote:
Dan or Tony, do you have any particular set of preqerequisites that you'd need, so I can ask for some specifics?

Ruby support would be something that's not quite standart.

His family physically owns the server, so its certainly within his power to have it installed. But what I mean is, are there any particular versions of PHP, MySQL, Apache, etc, that you absolutely depend on because of a particular quirk? Do you even care if its Apache 1.3 or Apache 2? What is your average monthly bandwidth usage? How much space does compsci.ca take up? Things like that Smile

Author:  Tony [ Mon Aug 01, 2005 6:52 pm ]
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I don't think any of that matters much.

We're currently taking up 1.2 GB of space (though to be fair, a large chunk of that appears to be Dan's Laughing ) and the bandwidth counter was reset hours ago for a new month. You'd have to wait for Dan to show up to get that number.

Author:  Dan [ Tue Aug 02, 2005 6:19 pm ]
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Hey, i am away form the week and posting this from dail up. I think the bandwith is nomraly 20gb to 30gb a month. But with the plans invaled in v3 and such this could grow exptailay in space, bandwith and serverload.

Author:  Andy [ Wed Aug 03, 2005 3:24 am ]
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errr? 2nd was taotao and first was andy kong.. i dont know what other grade 10 recieved a high mark on the ccc....

Author:  Hikaru79 [ Wed Aug 03, 2005 5:50 am ]
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Andy wrote:
errr? 2nd was taotao and first was andy kong.. i dont know what other grade 10 recieved a high mark on the ccc....

Yes. And I'm talking about Andy Kong Smile


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