Hosting Wednesday, Sep 26 2007
This site has proved to be a little more popular than expected. Late last year I took up a $35 per month plan that gave me 10gb bandwidth per month which I thought would be adequate at least for a while. Turns out the site has been chomping through about 30 to 40gb per month, shows no sign of going on a diet, and as a result I have been pinged with additional hosting fees of around $130 per month which will only increase. I would like to keep the site hosted locally because 85% of the traffic is from ANZ and would consider going overseas but reliability and uptime is of very high importance. Shaggy of the excellent Tinto y Blanco has already given me a hot tip for a new host but if anyone out there has a positive experience or suggestion then feel free to comment below or send me an email via the contacts page.
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37 Responses to “Hosting”
September 26th, 2007 at 11:06 am
I use Jumba.com.au for my wifes hosting needs (vitibit.com.au), have not noticed any downtime etc. But it is only a minor site and not used regularly so may have missed it.
Jezza
September 26th, 2007 at 11:15 am
This is currently on www.aussiehosts.com.au which I think is owned by Jumba but their fees look great! Cheers
GW
September 26th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
GW,
I have been using MelbourneIT for the last year (after churning from a hopeless local provider) and cannot recommend them too highly for both service and price. I’d suggest their “business plan” for $35/month. See http://www.melbourneit.com.au/cc/web-hosting/business-hosting-unix?lid=rm
400GB transfers, 10GB webspace, 200 email accounts, etc.
Cheers,
CR
September 26th, 2007 at 12:51 pm
Splendid! Clearly I am being fleeced at the moment..
Thanks Ratty.
GW
September 26th, 2007 at 12:55 pm
Looks good Cellar Rat. I have used them in the past, the only problem was the lack of a lower end plan (which still seems to be the case).
Looks good for Gary’s needs tho.
September 26th, 2007 at 1:43 pm
I think the key issue being missed here is that GW is forking out big $$$ to spruke lots of local wine. I know he gets lotsa stuff for nicks but in my humble opinion GW runs one of the worlds most useful sites wsithout gazillions of pop ups or on selling. I don’t know how to resolve that issue but I pay to a coupla sites and regard them as no where as useful. We need to collectively put our heads together to keep this site prostidigiously renowned.
September 26th, 2007 at 1:50 pm
Thanks David. The key issue was actually the hosting costs and I have just signed up with Melbourne IT to do a controlled move of the site so I already have a result from this post - which is all I really wanted. I will also take the opportunity to implement new features that I have been meaning to do but require significant upgrades and testing. Onwards and Upwards.
GW
September 26th, 2007 at 4:36 pm
We use MelbourneIT too and have been very happy and easy to deal with. Perhaps a minimal $10 a year membership fee would also help you keep this very popular site running smoothly?
September 26th, 2007 at 5:46 pm
I’d pay. And I don’t think $10 is enough.
September 26th, 2007 at 7:57 pm
It is not just individuals who could help out but the wineries and retailers that receive spin-off business from GW’s reviews. I won’t be renewing my subscription to JO, whilst his reviews are a handy benchmark they don’t have much personality infused - depends what you are after tho.
September 26th, 2007 at 9:04 pm
I always assumed Meerea Park sponsored this website. Go figure…..
September 26th, 2007 at 10:41 pm
I’d pay $10.00 or more as well. Also, from what I have tasted, GW’s like of Meerea Park is justified!
September 27th, 2007 at 7:47 am
Trav said :
Unlike many magazines and websites there will never be any advertising nor sponsorship accepted from any winery on Winorama. It is independent. We review a lot of Meerea Park wines because they make some of the best coming out of the Hunter…and I love the Hunter. They also have been supporters of the site right from the start sending in plenty of wines for review..as have some of the other smarter (or at least more ‘new media’ savvy wineries) such as De Bortoli, d’Arenberg, Wirra (via the excellent Liquid Ideas) etc. Lincoln has been quietly working on a sponsorship from Rousseau but nothing has happened as yet.
This post has taken on a direction which I did not really intend but thanks very much for all the support.
GW
September 27th, 2007 at 9:01 am
I would 2nd (3rd or whatever
) the $10/yr or more idea … cracking site
September 27th, 2007 at 9:17 am
I’m more than happy for gw to pay me $10 to read the reviews
September 27th, 2007 at 10:25 am
I’d be happier if GW said he was sorry for global warming and that here is the solution for the problem …
September 27th, 2007 at 4:26 pm
GW - are your notes (c)? If so, then if all the “wine shops” pulling them and using them in their own spruiking (to make profit) paid $1 for each one used then you’d be comfortably square I’d reckon.
While Melbourne IT sounds good, Malcolm Turnbull causes my skin to itch, so I’ll fire off a separate email regarding off-shore hosting used in some of the businesses I’m associated with.
Cheers
September 27th, 2007 at 4:43 pm
| © 2005 Winorama - All Rights Reserved |
I am happy for all the support retailers have given the site. They could conversely say it is free advertising for Winorama I suppose.
GW
October 16th, 2007 at 1:25 am
Australian hosting prices were ridiculous last time I checked.
I am using Midphase, Lunarpages and even Yahoo hosting, with a few GB chewing sites on all of them and never get anywhere near $130 for a month. Uptime is good too.
October 22nd, 2007 at 9:38 am
So now we are live on MelbourneIT and I can’t say I am exactly thrilled. Phone support has you on hold for an hour, email support goes unanswered or takes over week..the back end DB is much slower and the physical hosting is in the US! This site uses very heavy DB function (relative to most websites) because of it’s size…and the list all wines by producer now has a wobbler as a result (I think). I think I will be moving back to a local host shortly (I have one I am looking at now), meanwhile just be a little more patient with the response times. Ta
GW
October 22nd, 2007 at 11:38 am
Soory to hear things didn’t go so well. You would expect a company called Melbourne IT to be hosted locally…
October 22nd, 2007 at 12:53 pm
Winorama is too big for the $30 per month plan. Too much traffic, too much DB, it is flogging the server to death. It involves more $$…
GW
October 22nd, 2007 at 1:37 pm
Thank god. I thought the lag was my issue.
October 22nd, 2007 at 3:14 pm
No…sadly it is mine. You get what you pay for as always
GW
October 22nd, 2007 at 4:09 pm
Melbourne IT will be getting the arse this week and we will be moving (again) to another local (Australian) host. What a fiasco!
GW
October 23rd, 2007 at 3:38 pm
So who did you end up going with??
October 23rd, 2007 at 6:29 pm
comcen.com.au and it is looking good!
GW
October 24th, 2007 at 8:48 pm
I’m pretty sure that Comcen resells Optus adsl2+ which presumably is the type of connection the site uses.
October 25th, 2007 at 12:07 am
Still a tad glacial over here in SA
October 25th, 2007 at 8:02 am
Yes. Still not as fast as the original is it. In many ways better for me (back end management and cost) but I am going to try and improve it again. I suspect the big (and getting bigger) back end database is the problem.
GW
October 25th, 2007 at 9:31 am
Big back end eh ? - you’d see that in the mirror every day
and yes it is a bit slower connecting.
October 25th, 2007 at 12:17 pm
OK. Now it should be much faster. They have tweaked my backend DB and we are running much faster. I like the cut of comcens jib I must say.
GW
October 25th, 2007 at 12:22 pm
Are you using the wp-cache plugin? This speeds things up a lot with a lot less DB usage.
October 25th, 2007 at 12:24 pm
No. I will look but it is running fast now.
GW
October 25th, 2007 at 2:10 pm
It is indeed, oh clever one. Nothing like a bit of a fiddle with your back end to get you moving quickly.
October 25th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
Noticeably faster today, excellent.
October 25th, 2007 at 7:20 pm
Huge improvement in the speed at which it loaded. Well done GW and Comcen!