Thniking of Signing up

[ddpmacho]

I just found out about bluehost and am thinking of signing up. The main purpose of my web site would be a photo gallery for friends and family. I will be using Gallery 2 and would like to know if anyone else is using it on bluehost and if so how is it working, any problems, issues etc. Also what is the PHP memory limit set to?

Thanks
Kenny

[Peterpp]

I just found out about bluehost and am thinking of signing up. The main purpose of my web site would be a photo gallery for friends and family. I will be using Gallery 2 and would like to know if anyone else is using it on bluehost and if so how is it working, any problems, issues etc. Also what is the PHP memory limit set to?

Thanks
Kenny

Since nobody answered your post, here is my feedback. My site gets the annoying CPU quota every single day frequently and it is getting on my nerves. I think there are better hosting companies out there.

[rando]

Since nobody answered your post, here is my feedback. My site gets the annoying CPU quota every single day frequently and it is getting on my nerves. I think there are better hosting companies out there.

This happens for 1-2 people per server on average, usually sites with poorly-written code. It's not something that happens to everyone, just people who use really intensive software. Under the current rules, you have to use up an entire CPU's worth of system resources for over 30 seconds to get banned. This is quite a lot of CPU time, and using that much cpu time slows down the websites of the other customers on your machine. Edit: Actually, we just increased the limit last week; you're now allowed to use twice as much as I said. This means you have to be responsible for more than 2.00 cpu load over a 30-second period with only your web code before we put the temporary ban on your account. That is very very lenient.

Have you looked in your ~/tmp/cpu_exceeded_logs/ directory to find out which scripts you're running that are causing you to go over limit?

[rando]

I just found out about bluehost and am thinking of signing up. The main purpose of my web site would be a photo gallery for friends and family. I will be using Gallery 2 and would like to know if anyone else is using it on bluehost and if so how is it working, any problems, issues etc. Also what is the PHP memory limit set to?

Thanks
Kenny

To answer the original question of the thread, make sure that you don't have gallery2 set to re-generate all thumbnails when you upload them. It has a setting which allows the thumbnails to be generated when they need to be viewed instead, which is much easier on the server.

Apart from that, bluehost can handle everything you need it for.

[Peterpp]

This happens for 1-2 people per server on average, usually sites with poorly-written code. It's not something that happens to everyone, just people who use really intensive software. Under the current rules, you have to use up an entire CPU's worth of system resources for over 30 seconds to get banned. This is quite a lot of CPU time, and using that much cpu time slows down the websites of the other customers on your machine. Edit: Actually, we just increased the limit last week; you're now allowed to use twice as much as I said. This means you have to be responsible for more than 2.00 cpu load over a 30-second period with only your web code before we put the temporary ban on your account. That is very very lenient.

Have you looked in your ~/tmp/cpu_exceeded_logs/ directory to find out which scripts you're running that are causing you to go over limit?

I know of other customers of yours are also experiencing the same annoying CPU quota messages everyday. My site was running fine when I first moved to Bluehost and then suddenly one day, those messages started popping up for no reason!

[rando]

I know of other customers of yours are also experiencing the same annoying CPU quota messages everyday. My site was running fine when I first moved to Bluehost and then suddenly one day, those messages started popping up for no reason!

Again, this happens to less than 0.5% of customers on our machines. Have you looked to find out which of your programs is causing the problem?

[John]

My sites have been EXTREMLY slow lately, and no it's not poorly written code either, I have a test HTML page that goes something like this:



<html>
<title>Test Page</title>
<body>
<br>
<center>This is a test page
<br>
<img src=http://www.MyDomainName.com/300kbImage.gif>
</center>
</body>
</html>


At times it's loads slower than dial-up for several people around the country, don't make excuses, server perfomance is on the decline lately around here.

Fix it, or you'll loose customers, plain and simple. And yes I've sent several support tickets in and this is the only responce I've got:

"Hi,

I am sorry you are experiencing delays and difficulties. We are
working hard to continue to provide quality service to our customers.

If you have any other questions, please don't hesitate to ask. Also,
you can find the answers to most of your questions at
http://helpdesk.bluehost.com/kb/ or our new forum located at
http://www.bluehostforum.com/

Thanks,

Benjamin
Support Team
Hosting Solutions
888.401.4678
"

Almost fed up customer.
John

[rando]

Have you looked to find out which of your programs is causing the problem?

I assume the answer is no, so I looked it up for you. You've got some pretty badly unoptimized mysql queries running in your forum. You may want to consider adding better indexing to your tables.

[Peterpp]

My site has been loading very slow also and it has nothing to do with "scripts"! I found out that Bluehost loads php as CGI and THAT IS THE REASON!!! Here is the message I got from Blue host:


Peter,

It is an untrue statement that we do this to force people into upgrading their accounts, we only have one account type and its not possible to upgrade CPU. It is true however we run our files as phpsuexec and we don't run mod_php which does cause php files to be loaded "as" CGI files. This is a security precaution on our servers, and this does cause the process to use extra CPU sometimes. This is a restriction that can not be removed from our servers however, as it is a security issue. Alot of times mods will cause the server CPU time to spike since it may change the way the forums load certain things.

If you have futher questions let me know.

Thanks,

Dustin
Bluehost.com
Support Team
support@bluehost.com
Telephone:
Main Line: 888-401-4678
Outside the U.S: 801-765-9400
You can find the answers to most of your questions at http://helpdesk.bluehost.com/kb

I'm also not very happy with all of the slow loading and annoying CPU quota BS every single day. I know there are other host servers who do not practise the so called "security precaution". I have already warned people who wanted to or thinking of signing up with Bluehost.

[Peterpp]

I assume the answer is no, so I looked it up for you. You've got some pretty badly unoptimized mysql queries running in your forum. You may want to consider adding better indexing to your tables.

I have not changed anything before the annoying messages started popping up, so please don't put the blame on me! Read my last message.

[Peterpp]

I posted the problem on the phpbb forum last month and that is how I found out that it has nothing to do with my scripts and mysql database, here is the link:
http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=363888&highlight=cpu+quota

I also found out that many people have complained about the same thing on bluehost. I'm not surprised! Fix it or you're going to lose members and business!

[John]

Well, I demand something be done, and right away!

I've been with Bluehost since March 2004 with almost zero problems up until the last 2 months, I NEVER even heard of CPU limit message until I started getting them a couple of months ago.

I'm not going to shut up about this, and I'm not going stop sending support tickets until this is fixed, and starting tomorrow, I'm going to be calling support, and something better happen!

I don't usually get angry over things like this, but I just renewed my account for another 12 months @ $196.80 (Static IP & Several Domains) and my service Sucks to put it lightly, all of my sites are loading Slow, for lots of different people all over the country.

And it's NOT poor scripting either, 20 minutes ago this very forum went off line, and the main Bluehost.com site went down, somethings up, at least tell us so we have some hope.

Please, I'll kill myself if I have to move to another host, the thought of it makes me want to run around in the middle of I-95... just kidding, but it is depressing.

[rando]

I have not changed anything before the annoying messages started popping up,

Yes, your site likely was able to use that many resourcces before we implemented the CPU restrictions which stop people from using more than half of the server's total resources.


My site has been loading very slow also and it has nothing to do with "scripts"! I found out that Bluehost loads php as CGI and THAT IS THE REASON!!! Here is the message I got from Blue host:

When I said "scripts" i was referring to the "php scripts" that are running as cgi files. While dustin is correct that sometimes running php as a .cgi will cause php to use more cpu overhead, but he's really making it sound a lot worse than it is. I can guarantee you as the author of the program that puts the CPU restrictions into place that this is not happening because php runs under CGI.

Trust me on this one, I know this issue better than probably anyone else at bluehost.

Of the 40 times that anyone has been restricted on your server for excessive CPU utilization in the last week, 15 of them are you, and none of the other customers have had that many. Most people have been restricted less than 3 times, and most people are restricted for less than 30 seconds. This is not widespread, this is an issue with programs you are running on this server.


I'm also not very happy with all of the slow loading and annoying CPU quota BS every single day. I know there are other host servers who do not practise the so called "security precaution". I have already warned people who wanted to or thinking of signing up with Bluehost.

Since you seem skeptical about how much this actually helps you, let me explain what these security precautions are. There are two ways to run php: As an apache module and as a cgi wrapper.

When it's running as an apache module, all php processes run as a specific user. This user is usually called "nobody". All files that need to be read need to be readable by the nobody user for this to happen. This is a really big security hole on any webhost where you are not the only customer on the machine.

When it's running as a CGI with the help of suexec, the php files run as your user. You have access to your own files, but nobody else's. This also means that nobody else can read your files.

Any host that does not implement php as suexec under cgi allows customers to read other customer data freely. No webhosting company worth their salt is going to run php in its mod_php mode.

[Peterpp]

I was very happy with Blue host at first when I moved from another host last year until the annoying CPU messages started a couple of months ago and now the slow loading. Fix it or lose your business, Bluehost!!! I don't want to move again!!!

[Peterpp]

Yes, your site likely was able to use that many resourcces before we implemented the CPU restrictions which stop people from using more than half of the server's total resources.



When I said "scripts" i was referring to the "php scripts" that are running as cgi files. While dustin is correct that sometimes running php as a .cgi will cause php to use more cpu overhead, but he's really making it sound a lot worse than it is. I can guarantee you as the author of the program that puts the CPU restrictions into place that this is not happening because php runs under CGI.

Trust me on this one, I know this issue better than probably anyone else at bluehost.

Of the 40 times that anyone has been restricted on your server for excessive CPU utilization in the last week, 15 of them are you, and none of the other customers have had that many. Most people have been restricted less than 3 times, and most people are restricted for less than 30 seconds. This is not widespread, this is an issue with programs you are running on this server.



Since you seem skeptical about how much this actually helps you, let me explain what these security precautions are. There are two ways to run php: As an apache module and as a cgi wrapper.

When it's running as an apache module, all php processes run as a specific user. This user is usually called "nobody". All files that need to be read need to be readable by the nobody user for this to happen. This is a really big security hole on any webhost where you are not the only customer on the machine.

When it's running as a CGI with the help of suexec, the php files run as your user. You have access to your own files, but nobody else's. This also means that nobody else can read your files.

Any host that does not implement php as suexec under cgi allows customers to read other customer data freely. No webhosting company worth their salt is going to run php in its mod_php mode.

Stop making excuses and fix the **** problem! I'm not the only one experiencing the same BS! It is now quite obvious why Bluehost is getting a bad reputation.

[Dave]

I just found out about bluehost and am thinking of signing up. The main purpose of my web site would be a photo gallery for friends and family. I will be using Gallery 2 and would like to know if anyone else is using it on bluehost and if so how is it working, any problems, issues etc. Also what is the PHP memory limit set to?

Thanks
Kenny

As far as the gallery is concerned, I am very satisfied.

http://www.edenite.us/jeddi/main.php

Dave

. .

[atomicnuke]

Have you looked in your ~/tmp/cpu_exceeded_logs/ directory to find out which scripts you're running that are causing you to go over limit?

If it isn't there, that mean I haven't had any yet?

[Dave]

Yes, your site likely was able to use that many resourcces before we implemented the CPU restrictions which stop people from using more than half of the server's total resources.



When I said "scripts" i was referring to the "php scripts" that are running as cgi files. While dustin is correct that sometimes running php as a .cgi will cause php to use more cpu overhead, but he's really making it sound a lot worse than it is. I can guarantee you as the author of the program that puts the CPU restrictions into place that this is not happening because php runs under CGI.

Trust me on this one, I know this issue better than probably anyone else at bluehost.

Of the 40 times that anyone has been restricted on your server for excessive CPU utilization in the last week, 15 of them are you, and none of the other customers have had that many. Most people have been restricted less than 3 times, and most people are restricted for less than 30 seconds. This is not widespread, this is an issue with programs you are running on this server.



Since you seem skeptical about how much this actually helps you, let me explain what these security precautions are. There are two ways to run php: As an apache module and as a cgi wrapper.

When it's running as an apache module, all php processes run as a specific user. This user is usually called "nobody". All files that need to be read need to be readable by the nobody user for this to happen. This is a really big security hole on any webhost where you are not the only customer on the machine.

When it's running as a CGI with the help of suexec, the php files run as your user. You have access to your own files, but nobody else's. This also means that nobody else can read your files.

Any host that does not implement php as suexec under cgi allows customers to read other customer data freely. No webhosting company worth their salt is going to run php in its mod_php mode.


Rando, What does any of this have to do with the subject of this thread? you guys are arguing about something totaly off topic. Whats wrong with you people? START A NEW THREAD AND DISCUSS IT THERE!

[areidmtm]

For everything that you get with bluehost, it's great...despite some of the problems that other have had. I havn't really had any major problems. A site and the FTP server went down for a couple of hours. Tech support could be a little faster at getting to the emails. They say that they are open until 10pm MST, and soon 24 hours, i think that I should get a little faster responce. All in all, best I've seen so far.

[rando]

If it isn't there, that mean I haven't had any yet?

This is correct. As I said earlier in this thread, the CPU restrictions really affect very very few people.

[Peterpp]

This is correct. As I said earlier in this thread, the CPU restrictions really affect very very few people.

What BS! As proof, I can post links to many webhosting forums where people have complained (and still complaining about the same exact problems) about BLUEHOST's tactics. Better start making some changes or your company will go down the drain!

[areidmtm]

after reading the blog of the president of blue host, and seeing all of the other hosting companies he has set up and run, I think that he knows what he is doing. Regardless of what hoster your with, you're going to run into problems. Blue host is the first hosting company to set up forms where users can come and bitch and tell them how much they suck and what their doing wrong. I think that blue host is doing everything right. You're doing to have problmes here and there, but I feel blue host is working through them just fine.

[atomicnuke]

What BS! As proof, I can post links to many webhosting forums where people have complained (and still complaining about the same exact problems) about BLUEHOST's tactics. Better start making some changes or your company will go down the drain!

Of course you can, just like you can find links to all the compliments. It goes hand and hand, plus people are more likely to post about suff that is bad, then post about the good things.

[bob_ib]

I'm concerned I may jinx things and as soon as I post this, kaboom, I'll experience problems. :eek: I am quite new here compared to everyone else, just a few weeks now. I did walk into the DNS issue but that was resolved I believe and the other night I received "not available" errors when trying to FTP some files but the File Manager in cPanel was working and I was able to upload that way.

Thus far, all I can say is my connectivity (from home via DSL) has been screaming fast and it has taken me aback to see how fast some of my stuff happens as compared not only to other shared hosting services I've used, but even compared to our own colo servers at work via T1 connection that is only 3 hops away. I installed in my Bluehost account a mirror copy of my live phpBB board that resides on our company servers. The db is some 50 megs and I run a program called bigdump.php that uploads the db in increments. On two previous hosts it simply bombed out and when I finally did get it together (over an hour's effort), I had plenty of mySQL errors. I did the same db transfer this evening to my Bluehost account using bigdump.php and the 50 meg .sql file. It went so fast that I could barely read the status screens that display after each increment is successfully uploaded into the db. I said, "Nah, that was too fast, something went wrong." :)

But nothing went wrong. I had my mirrored phpBB online in minutes, all few thousand posts, logins, mod'ed tables and files, etc. It's never been that fast and smooth and I've done this numerous times as I've walked through the shadow of death looking for a decent host.

I have some good-sized .flv files that play via a free Flash Video player and they usually take a second or two before they start streaming (for a blink or two I see the player's splash screen) but via my Bluehost, they started playing instantly.

I have a little phpBB mod that reports page generation time and for some of my more involved pages (graphics, Flash banners, etc.), via the company server it tends to report around .0500s or a little less to generate the page whereas my Bluehost mirrored copy is reporting around .0700s.

My FTP transfers, both up and down, have been impressively fast and shell access activity is almost faster than I can finish typing the command.

So again, I'm new here, I don't have a whole lot going on and the site is more of a personal site for testing things than will be a heavily trafficked site, but from what I have seen thus far, if this holds up, I'm very happy with it as well as impressed by the speed. This isn't to diminish what others report who have been experiencing problems, it's only to comment on what my experience has been thus far.

Bob
Los Angeles

[Peterpp]

I'm concerned I may jinx things and as soon as I post this, kaboom, I'll experience problems. :eek: I am quite new here compared to everyone else, just a few weeks now. I did walk into the DNS issue but that was resolved I believe and the other night I received "not available" errors when trying to FTP some files but the File Manager in cPanel was working and I was able to upload that way.

Thus far, all I can say is my connectivity (from home via DSL) has been screaming fast and it has taken me aback to see how fast some of my stuff happens as compared not only to other shared hosting services I've used, but even compared to our own colo servers at work via T1 connection that is only 3 hops away. I installed in my Bluehost account a mirror copy of my live phpBB board that resides on our company servers. The db is some 50 megs and I run a program called bigdump.php that uploads the db in increments. On two previous hosts it simply bombed out and when I finally did get it together (over an hour's effort), I had plenty of mySQL errors. I did the same db transfer this evening to my Bluehost account using bigdump.php and the 50 meg .sql file. It went so fast that I could barely read the status screens that display after each increment is successfully uploaded into the db. I said, "Nah, that was too fast, something went wrong." :)

But nothing went wrong. I had my mirrored phpBB online in minutes, all few thousand posts, logins, mod'ed tables and files, etc. It's never been that fast and smooth and I've done this numerous times as I've walked through the shadow of death looking for a decent host.

I have some good-sized .flv files that play via a free Flash Video player and they usually take a second or two before they start streaming (for a blink or two I see the player's splash screen) but via my Bluehost, they started playing instantly.

I have a little phpBB mod that reports page generation time and for some of my more involved pages (graphics, Flash banners, etc.), via the company server it tends to report around .0500s or a little less to generate the page whereas my Bluehost mirrored copy is reporting around .0700s.

My FTP transfers, both up and down, have been impressively fast and shell access activity is almost faster than I can finish typing the command.

So again, I'm new here, I don't have a whole lot going on and the site is more of a personal site for testing things than will be a heavily trafficked site, but from what I have seen thus far, if this holds up, I'm very happy with it as well as impressed by the speed. This isn't to diminish what others report who have been experiencing problems, it's only to comment on what my experience has been thus far.

Bob
Los Angeles

Bob, I felt exactly the same way when I first moved to Bluehost sometime last year, everything went smoothly and my forum went screamingly fast for a few months but now everything has changed from fast loading to slow loading to getting those annoying CPU messages every day and now I'm very disappointed. I do not like complaining but as a paying customer I have every right to and I'm not asking anything for free, just fix the problem!

[routed]

Can't agree more with Peterpp and other's that have posted with the same views.

In my point of view, the service that I have recieved with bluehost has degraded from when I signed up. The CPU usage on the box has been an issue, I have had the messages in the past. I think that bluehost has way oversold the number of site's per box, it is not uncommon to view server status and see it at 11+ up to 19.

I have also experienced frequent outages in the past aside from any server side issues. I don't understand how a big player in the hosting industry does not multi peer to at 2 seperate provider's of connectivity?

The price...is it competetive?...yes, would I choose bluehost again if I had the same choice to make? Probably not. I have seen several companies that offer VPS solutions at a extremely competetive price. That route seems much more attractive that staying at BH.

[hofmax]

Hey Rando,

I was wondering wether you could provide some more detail on what sites are affected by the CPU problem. Are they gallery sites, big forums or just ordinary sites with a lot of traffic??

I´ve heard that www.phpaccelerator.co.uk does a good job of speeding things up by caching scripts. Will this actually work in the cgi wrapped mode?

Cheers,

Max

P.S. Given that Matt Heaton seems to be a pretty smart business man, setting up a forum such as this serves SEO in a major way while staying in touch with his customers.

[macgyver2]

Bob, I felt exactly the same way when I first moved to Bluehost sometime last year, everything went smoothly and my forum went screamingly fast for a few months but now everything has changed from fast loading to slow loading to getting those annoying CPU messages every day and now I'm very disappointed. I do not like complaining but as a paying customer I have every right to and I'm not asking anything for free, just fix the problem!
Rando explained the reason you're seeing the cpu exceeded messages and also presented a solution:

I assume the answer is no, so I looked it up for you. You've got some pretty badly unoptimized mysql queries running in your forum. You may want to consider adding better indexing to your tables.
Here's a link (http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/4.1/en/optimization.html) to the MySQL documentation, specifically the chapter on optimization. Have a look.

[Peterpp]

Rando explained the reason you're seeing the cpu exceeded messages and also presented a solution:

Here's a link (http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/4.1/en/optimization.html) to the MySQL documentation, specifically the chapter on optimization. Have a look.

Eric, it has nothing to do with optimizing my sql and YES, I have already done it. I have also setup a couple of different databases and lo behold did the same thing. Like I said I'm not the only one with the problem and people are complaining! Just google it and you will see tons of complaints!

BTW, other host servers also have forums setup for their customers and it is just not bluehost, nothing new about that!

[admin]

I feel like I have to jump in and explain. This is Matt Heaton with Bluehost.com. The CPU overages are something we put in to PROTECT everyone else on a box when a single user consumes WAY MORE than their fair share of resources. The vast majority of our servers are quad processor
opterons. They are VERY fast and expensive machines. We put between 500-600 users on a "box". For a user to get CPU overages they would have to consume 40% of the CPU resources FOR THE ENTIRE BOX for 30 seconds or more on a SINGLE PROCESS. So if we turned off the CPU quota their site wouldn't get the messages, but not only would their own site go slow and grind while their slow code ran, but so would everyone elses. So instead of a single person being made, EVERYONE would be mad. That is unacceptable.

Now, 99% of ALL the cpu quota exceed issues are MySQL related. Often this isn't the fault of the user and they have simply installed a script via fantastico or similiar. But unless you understand and have a INDEXED your queries you have nothing to complain about. Often people don't know what indexing queries mean. There is an actual MySQL command to index that literally can make a 30 second query take .01 seconds to do instead of 30 seconds.

This isn't something we are going to "fix". If you keep getting this message, you have only 2 options. Get a prorated refund and get a VPS system where you have guaranteed CPU. You can then run your slow code and bump up against the CPU, but it won't stop the process, OR you can index your queries. Thats about it. I have increased the CPU limit as high as I am willing to go to guarantee speed for our other users.

Matt Heaton / President Bluehost.com

[Peterpp]

I feel like I have to jump in and explain. This is Matt Heaton with Bluehost.com. The CPU overages are something we put in to PROTECT everyone else on a box when a single user consumes WAY MORE than their fair share of resources. The vast majority of our servers are quad processor
opterons. They are VERY fast and expensive machines. We put between 500-600 users on a "box". For a user to get CPU overages they would have to consume 40% of the CPU resources FOR THE ENTIRE BOX for 30 seconds or more on a SINGLE PROCESS. So if we turned off the CPU quota their site wouldn't get the messages, but not only would their own site go slow and grind while their slow code ran, but so would everyone elses. So instead of a single person being made, EVERYONE would be mad. That is unacceptable.

Now, 99% of ALL the cpu quota exceed issues are MySQL related. Often this isn't the fault of the user and they have simply installed a script via fantastico or similiar. But unless you understand and have a INDEXED your queries you have nothing to complain about. Often people don't know what indexing queries mean. There is an actual MySQL command to index that literally can make a 30 second query take .01 seconds to do instead of 30 seconds.

This isn't something we are going to "fix". If you keep getting this message, you have only 2 options. Get a prorated refund and get a VPS system where you have guaranteed CPU. You can then run your slow code and bump up against the CPU, but it won't stop the process, OR you can index your queries. Thats about it. I have increased the CPU limit as high as I am willing to go to guarantee speed for our other users.

Matt Heaton / President Bluehost.com

I have never installed anything from Fantasico and my site was running just fine until 2 months ago without me changing anything. Why don't you just come out say that your company is overselling as much as possible and your paying customers are suffering, not your pocketbook! I will definitely look into finding another more reliable host and I will definitely warn others to stay away from bluehost! And one more thing, Matt please don't send me more of your spam, I'm not interested! I don't need more.

Peter

[rando]

Hey Rando,

I was wondering wether you could provide some more detail on what sites are affected by the CPU problem. Are they gallery sites, big forums or just ordinary sites with a lot of traffic??

I´ve heard that www.phpaccelerator.co.uk does a good job of speeding things up by caching scripts. Will this actually work in the cgi wrapped mode?


I would disagree with matt's estimation of it being 90% mysql. From what I've seen by reading the logs, that's actually not as common as the biggest problem: Most of the time, it's custom scripts that people have written or gotten from a third party source which just don't run well. Not forums, not gallery, but some other software.

There are, however, circumstances like the one in question where phpbb cannot handle the user's databases once they get bigger; phpbb is written by people who use it on a dedicated server where spending 5 seconds on a search through 50,000 rows is acceptible. In a well-indexed table, there's no way that should ever take that long. When you have a lot of people doing a lot of searches, that adds up.

However, like I said, this really doesn't affect many people at all. On most servers, there's 2-3 people who get hit less than 10 times in a week, and the maximum ban time is 3 minutes. The minimum ban time is as low as 15 seconds, and many people only get hit for 15-30 seconds.

[redsox9]

...Now, 99% of ALL the cpu quota exceed issues are MySQL related. Often this isn't the fault of the user and they have simply installed a script via fantastico or similiar. But unless you understand and have INDEXED your queries you have nothing to complain about. Often people don't know what indexing queries mean. There is an actual MySQL command to index that literally can make a 30 second query take .01 seconds to do instead of 30 seconds...

My queries are relatively small but, still being new to the world of PHP, I'm going to look deeper into this solution. FYI, I did a quick Google search and found this site:

http://hackmysql.com/case1

I've read it a couple of times and I'm still a little puzzled but the message is pretty clear that there are simple ways to make your queries more efficient and thus alleviate the burden on the servers.

Peterp, I really have to agree with macgyver2 and others who feel that you are being a little unreasonable. It seems to me that there are some solutions out there that are being offered but your only objective seems to be to dump on BlueHost. I'm not saying that you don't have the right and you are free to tell me to cram my opinion with walnuts, but if you are really that unhappy, then you should call BlueHost right away, get that pro-rated refund, and take your business elsewhere so that you can be a happier person.

Otherwise, you are just behaving like my two-year-old when he throws a tantrum (and the solution, as any parent will tell you, is to ignore it and just walk away, as I will do so now).

[admin]

The server you are on hasn't had ANYONE added in the last month or so. Nothing has changed except the SIZE of your database. We host over 105,000 domains. We have less than 150 of those that report CPU overages.
You simply won't accept that your queries are slow. If your database grows your queries will slow down even still. Non indexed queries have to parse EVERY ROW for every query. The more rows the slower it gets. Obviously you can't/won't accept that so I think it best you move on as soon as possible.

If you want, I will ask Rando to look at your databases and index them FOR YOU. It should make most of your problems go away. This is NOT something that we normally do, as it is far outside the scope of normal support. If that is something you want you can email me at matt@bluehost.com with your primary domain and the script you are running as it is FOR SURE a script that is causing this problem.

If you don't want us to do that then feel free to try godaddy or Ipowerweb VPS product. We won't have ours ready for probably 6 months.

Thanks,
Matt Heaton / CEO Bluehost.com

[Peterpp]

My queries are relatively small but, still being new to the world of PHP, I'm going to look deeper into this solution. FYI, I did a quick Google search and found this site:

http://hackmysql.com/case1

I've read it a couple of times and I'm still a little puzzled but the message is pretty clear that there are simple ways to make your queries more efficient and thus alleviate the burden on the servers.

Peterp, I really have to agree with macgyver2 and others who feel that you are being a little unreasonable. It seems to me that there are some solutions out there that are being offered but your only objective seems to be to dump on BlueHost. I'm not saying that you don't have the right and you are free to tell me to cram my opinion with walnuts, but if you are really that unhappy, then you should call BlueHost right away, get that pro-rated refund, and take your business elsewhere so that you can be a happier person.

Otherwise, you are just behaving like my two-year-old when he throws a tantrum (and the solution, as any parent will tell you, is to ignore it and just walk away, as I will do so now).

Yes, please walk away. I didn't ask for your help! I have already paid for a full year, my site has slowed down considerably with all those annoying messages and you expect me to just shut up and do nothing about it? Just wait til your site has the same problems! Matt, I'll email you and I'm willing to work with you, all I want is my site be working normally without any more of this BS!

[macgyver2]

I have already paid for a full year, my site has slowed down considerably with all those annoying messages and you expect me to just shut up and do nothing about it?
Peterpp, do you even read (and understand) the replies to your posts?


This isn't something we are going to "fix". If you keep getting this message, you have only 2 options. Get a prorated refund and get a VPS system where you have guaranteed CPU.
You were given two options, one of them being a prorated refund.

Furthermore...

Yes, please walk away. I didn't ask for your help!
Yes, you did ask for his help. From my understanding, these forums are primarily meant to be used to ask other customers questions. See the forums description? Use these forums to help each other out with your questions about BlueHost.com. That the BH staff--including the president/CEO(!)--is helping you on these forums is, in my opinion, an added bonus.

[Peterpp]

Peterpp, do you even read (and understand) the replies to your posts?


You were given two options, one of them being a prorated refund.

Furthermore...

Yes, you did ask for his help. From my understanding, these forums are primarily meant to be used to ask other customers questions. See the forums description? Use these forums to help each other out with your questions about BlueHost.com. That the BH staff--including the president/CEO(!)--is helping you on these forums is, in my opinion, an added bonus.

I don't really care if the president is helping me or not, I just want HELP, so I can move on! Trust me I have better things to worry about than to complain. Others are also having the same problem buddy, not just me!

[Peterpp]

The server you are on hasn't had ANYONE added in the last month or so. Nothing has changed except the SIZE of your database. We host over 105,000 domains. We have less than 150 of those that report CPU overages.
You simply won't accept that your queries are slow. If your database grows your queries will slow down even still. Non indexed queries have to parse EVERY ROW for every query. The more rows the slower it gets. Obviously you can't/won't accept that so I think it best you move on as soon as possible.

If you want, I will ask Rando to look at your databases and index them FOR YOU. It should make most of your problems go away. This is NOT something that we normally do, as it is far outside the scope of normal support. If that is something you want you can email me at matt@bluehost.com with your primary domain and the script you are running as it is FOR SURE a script that is causing this problem.

If you don't want us to do that then feel free to try godaddy or Ipowerweb VPS product. We won't have ours ready for probably 6 months.

Thanks,
Matt Heaton / CEO Bluehost.com

Ok, Matt I just emailed you and if that doesn't work, then I'll look for another host, thanks for your help!

Peter

[routed]

My main concerns are not hitting the CPU barrier message, but overall slowness of the site in general. I have days where the speed is great, but for instance this AM visiting my own site we are talking about a 30 sec load time. I understand the CPU limitiations and find that to be a positive rule and absolutely neccesary.

What I don't understand and yet I don't hear an answer for is the outages. Why doesn't Bluehost multipeer????

Can you also provide some details on your VPS solution?

[rando]

Eric, it has nothing to do with optimizing my sql and YES, I have already done it.

Since you've emailed matt to ask for my help on this, would you mind letting me know which tables you've added indexes on already? I don't want to duplicate any of your efforts.

[Peterpp]

Since you've emailed matt to ask for my help on this, would you mind letting me know which tables you've added indexes on already? I don't want to duplicate any of your efforts.

Rando, I have only optimized the tables, never added indexes as far as I know. I have been running the forum for a year, learned everything from scratch all on my own, so I'm still learning but this is the first time I'm experiencing such annoying problems. Will indexing mess up my forum?

Thanks!

[rando]

Rando, I have only optimized the tables, never added indexes as far as I know. I have been running the forum for a year, learned everything from scratch all on my own, so I'm still learning but this is the first time I'm experiencing such annoying problems. Will indexing mess up my forum?

Thanks!

Nope. Adding indexes makes mysql faster. The "optimize table" command that you're talking about only rebuilds existing indexes and cleans up the actual database structure on disk. It helps, but without proper indexing already in place it's not going to do you much good.

To illustrate what's happening, look at this mysql explain command:



mysql> EXPLAIN SELECT p.post_id, p.post_username, pt.post_subject, p.post_time, u.user_id, u.user_level, u.username, t.topic_title
FROM posts p, users u, posts_text pt, topics t
WHERE p.forum_id IN (9, 23, 1, 2, 12, 11, 19, 20, 22, 3, 4, 26, 28, 21, 5, 16, 18, 10, 17, 27, 6, 7, 13, 8, 24) AND p.poster_id = u.user_id
AND pt.post_id = p.post_id AND t.topic_id = p.topic_id
ORDER BY p.post_time DESC LIMIT 1;
+----+-------------+-------+--------+-------------------------------------+----------+---------+-------------------------------+------+---------------------------------+
| id | select_type | table | type | possible_keys | key | key_len | ref | rows | Extra |
+----+-------------+-------+--------+-------------------------------------+----------+---------+-------------------------------+------+---------------------------------+
| 1 | SIMPLE | t | ALL | PRIMARY | NULL | NULL | NULL | 4542 | Using temporary; Using filesort |
| 1 | SIMPLE | p | ref | PRIMARY,forum_id,topic_id,poster_id | topic_id | 3 | slippero_slippers.t.topic_id | 12 | Using where |
| 1 | SIMPLE | pt | eq_ref | PRIMARY | PRIMARY | 3 | slippero_slippers.p.post_id | 1 | |
| 1 | SIMPLE | u | eq_ref | PRIMARY | PRIMARY | 3 | slippero_slippers.p.poster_id | 1 | |
+----+-------------+-------+--------+-------------------------------------+----------+---------+-------------------------------+------+---------------------------------+
4 rows in set (0.00 sec)


The important bits here are twofold: you see that for the "topics" table, the 'key' being used is "NULL". This means that the query above is not using any indexes. Also under 'type' for that table, it says "ALL". Referencing they mysql documentation, we see this:



ALL

A full table scan is done for each combination of rows from the previous tables. This is normally not good if the table is the first table not marked const, and usually very bad in all other cases. Normally, you can avoid ALL by adding indexes that allow row retrieval from the table based on constant values or column values from earlier tables.


According to mysql, this query is either "not good" or "usually very bad". This one query alone, which only looks up against ~4500 rows in the topics table, regularly takes between 2-5 seconds to run because it has to scan those rows so many times.

This is the fault of the phpbb developers not using well-indexed tables and queries. They'll never admit to this, though, as they're more keen to claim that bluehost is just trying to get you to pay more money to run their inefficient software. (Believe me, it would be the greatest thing in the world if they would just fix this themselves. If we can get this fixed I'll try to get them to fix it in their actual real version.)

That's okay, though, they're not alone. Most forum software isn't written very well and starts to crumble once you get larger data sets. I'll try to figure out where we can index to fix that statement.

[Peterpp]

Thanks for the explanation, Rando! All this Mysql stuff is still new to me. Does it have to be indexed regularly? If it does, then do you mind telling me how to do it so I can do it myself in the future? ANd please let me know if it has been indexed.

Thanks for the help!

[rando]

Thanks for the explanation, Rando! All this Mysql stuff is still new to me. Does it have to be indexed regularly? If it does, then do you mind telling me how to do it so I can do it myself in the future? ANd please let me know if it has been indexed.

Thanks for the help!

No, the index is just a way that when new data is added to the database, it's also written to the index. Indexing is basically just a way of making the search easier to do. For example, if you index an 8 character text field on 3 characters, then mysql is able to look up the string 'hamburgers' by first checking against 'ham', leaving a lot less fields that need to be checked.

The index creation is a one-time thing, and your database should be speedy after that.

[Lanfiir]

I just joined BlueHost a few days ago and have been nothing but pleased. The box seems very speedy and I love having SSH access.

I run a variant of phpBB called PNphpBB and I just checked all the tables and they all have indexes already. Apparently the PNphpBB folks were smarter than the pure phpBB guys and put indexes on all their tables. :)

[rando]

I just joined BlueHost a few days ago and have been nothing but pleased. The box seems very speedy and I love having SSH access.

I run a variant of phpBB called PNphpBB and I just checked all the tables and they all have indexes already. Apparently the PNphpBB folks were smarter than the pure phpBB guys and put indexes on all their tables. :)

There are some indexes on phpbb's tables, it's just this one stupid query that runs all the time. I doubt it's fixed on this pnphpbb, but if you'd be kind enough to do a 'describe databasename.topics' and 'show create table databasename.topics' and post it here, I can look over it to see if it actually does have the query fixed.

[Peterpp]

There are some indexes on phpbb's tables, it's just this one stupid query that runs all the time. I doubt it's fixed on this pnphpbb, but if you'd be kind enough to do a 'describe databasename.topics' and 'show create table databasename.topics' and post it here, I can look over it to see if it actually does have the query fixed.

Rando, have you indexed my queries? My forum is still loading very slowly. I tried learning how to but a little too confusing to me still, sorry! I appreciate your help!

[rando]

Rando, have you indexed my queries? My forum is still loading very slowly. I tried learning how to but a little too confusing to me still, sorry! I appreciate your help!

I'm trying to find it, but it'll take some time. I can't tell exactly what indexes I need to add to make this query not go slowly.

[Lanfiir]

There are some indexes on phpbb's tables, it's just this one stupid query that runs all the time. I doubt it's fixed on this pnphpbb, but if you'd be kind enough to do a 'describe databasename.topics' and 'show create table databasename.topics' and post it here, I can look over it to see if it actually does have the query fixed.

Here is the info you requested:


mysql> describe nuke_phpbb_topics;
+---------------------+-----------------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
+---------------------+-----------------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| topic_id | mediumint(8) unsigned | | PRI | NULL | auto_increment |
| forum_id | smallint(8) unsigned | | MUL | 0 | |
| topic_title | char(60) | | | | |
| topic_poster | mediumint(8) | | | 0 | |
| topic_time | int(11) | | | 0 | |
| topic_views | mediumint(8) unsigned | | | 0 | |
| topic_replies | mediumint(8) unsigned | | | 0 | |
| topic_status | tinyint(3) | | MUL | 0 | |
| topic_vote | tinyint(1) | | | 0 | |
| topic_type | tinyint(3) | | MUL | 0 | |
| topic_first_post_id | mediumint(8) unsigned | | | 0 | |
| topic_last_post_id | mediumint(8) unsigned | | | 0 | |
| topic_moved_id | mediumint(8) unsigned | | MUL | 0 | |
| topic_attachment | tinyint(1) | | | 0 | |
| topic_icon | tinyint(2) unsigned | | | 0 | |
| support_status | tinyint(3) | | | 0 | |
+---------------------+-----------------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
16 rows in set (0.00 sec)


mysql> show create table nuke_phpbb_topics;
| nuke_phpbb_topics |CREATE TABLE `nuke_phpbb_topics` (
`topic_id` mediumint(8) unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment,
`forum_id` smallint(8) unsigned NOT NULL default '0',
`topic_title` char(60) NOT NULL default '',
`topic_poster` mediumint(8) NOT NULL default '0',
`topic_time` int(11) NOT NULL default '0',
`topic_views` mediumint(8) unsigned NOT NULL default '0',
`topic_replies` mediumint(8) unsigned NOT NULL default '0',
`topic_status` tinyint(3) NOT NULL default '0',
`topic_vote` tinyint(1) NOT NULL default '0',
`topic_type` tinyint(3) NOT NULL default '0',
`topic_first_post_id` mediumint(8) unsigned NOT NULL default '0',
`topic_last_post_id` mediumint(8) unsigned NOT NULL default '0',
`topic_moved_id` mediumint(8) unsigned NOT NULL default '0',
`topic_attachment` tinyint(1) NOT NULL default '0',
`topic_icon` tinyint(2) unsigned NOT NULL default '0',
`support_status` tinyint(3) NOT NULL default '0',
PRIMARY KEY (`topic_id`),
KEY `forum_id` (`forum_id`),
KEY `topic_moved_id` (`topic_moved_id`),
KEY `topic_status` (`topic_status`),
KEY `topic_type` (`topic_type`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1 |

[rando]

Yeah, so that doesn't actually fix the problem either, you'll probably experience something similar as your forum gets a lot of posts.

[rando]

Peterpp, are you running the latest version of phpbb? I can't tell by looking at your site.

[Peterpp]

Peterpp, are you running the latest version of phpbb? I can't tell by looking at your site.

Yes, I'm and I always update as soon as newer ones are released.

[rando]

Yes, I'm and I always update as soon as newer ones are released.

Alright, well for the time being I'm just posting an actual real problem report to their forums to see if they can figure out why the query's acting so slowly. I'd really rather not have to do their jobs for them, after all.

[Peterpp]

Alright, well for the time being I'm just posting an actual real problem report to their forums to see if they can figure out why the query's acting so slowly. I'd really rather not have to do their jobs for them, after all.

Ok, please keep me posted. So, if the query doesn't get indexed it will get even worse as more posts accumulate?

[rando]

They're telling me that the query that's having problems isn't in the phpbb codebase and that it's probably a mod you've installed.

This seems to be correct. Here's index.php grepped on your site vs a pristine copy of phpbb 2.0.19 that i installed:

Yours:


root@box39 [/home/slippero/public_html/forum]# grep pt.post_id index.php
AND pt.post_id = p.post_id AND t.topic_id = p.topic_id
root@box39 [/home/slippero/public_html/forum]#




milliways ~dl/phpBB2 % grep pt.post_id index.php
milliways ~dl/phpBB2 %


Further inspection reveals:


//BEGIN-MOD:Last post info
// Get Viewable Forums - made by zparta


In your source shortly before this query is run. This query is part of this mod. I suggest you uninstall the mod or complain to this zparta guy, because that mod's the cause of all of your big mysql queries that I've seen.

(And, like I was saying: most of the big problems people have with the CPU exceeded stuff is some small program they either wrote themselves or got from a third party. This mod seems to be no exception to that. I do admit to being wrong about it being the main phpbb, though. You win a few, you lose a few. ;) )

[Peterpp]

They're telling me that the query that's having problems isn't in the phpbb codebase and that it's probably a mod you've installed.

This seems to be correct. Here's index.php grepped on your site vs a pristine copy of phpbb 2.0.19 that i installed:

Yours:


root@box39 [/home/slippero/public_html/forum]# grep pt.post_id index.php
AND pt.post_id = p.post_id AND t.topic_id = p.topic_id
root@box39 [/home/slippero/public_html/forum]#




milliways ~dl/phpBB2 % grep pt.post_id index.php
milliways ~dl/phpBB2 %


Further inspection reveals:


//BEGIN-MOD:Last post info
// Get Viewable Forums - made by zparta


In your source shortly before this query is run. This query is part of this mod. I suggest you uninstall the mod or complain to this zparta guy, because that mod's the cause of all of your big mysql queries that I've seen.

(And, like I was saying: most of the big problems people have with the CPU exceeded stuff is some small program they either wrote themselves or got from a third party. This mod seems to be no exception to that. I do admit to being wrong about it being the main phpbb, though. You win a few, you lose a few. ;) )

Thanks for the info and I'll see if i can remove the mod. I have had that mod installed a long time ago and had no problem until recently. Hope that fixes the problem.

[rando]

Thanks for the info and I'll see if i can remove the mod. I have had that mod installed a long time ago and had no problem until recently. Hope that fixes the problem.

That's still understandable. This problem would only start to happen as your forum got bigger and more popular.

[Peterpp]

That's still understandable. This problem would only start to happen as your forum got bigger and more popular.

Yes, that is true. My forum got busier and more popular the last few months. I still haven't removed that mod yet but made a few changes to it so it is not wasting time searching the whole topics table for nothing. It seems to be loading a little quicker. I'll leave it as is now and see how it runs during the day when more members log in. If it still loads slow, then I'll remove that mod.

[JRitze]

Almost everything about bluehost is great.

Except, the fact that a few mave brought up about not using multiple connections from multiple places. Usually the only problems i have in loading is the connection not the cpu.

If some of you havent noticed, bluehost is expanding very quickly and is offering alot to everyone, they just need time to expand in hardware.


Great host ;)

[ddpmacho]

For those who actually took the time to answer my questions Thank you. For the others who decided to hijack this thread with all your speed complaints, Thank you also, for making me WASTE my time reading thru your problems which should have been stated in a thread all by itself. The rambling BS about speed in this thread should have been STOPPED immediately by an admin and put in a new thread and not continued by them.

[John]

For those who actually took the time to answer my questions Thank you. For the others who decided to hijack this thread with all your speed complaints, Thank you also, for making me WASTE my time reading thru your problems which should have been stated in a thread all by itself. The rambling BS about speed in this thread should have been STOPPED immediately by an admin and put in a new thread and not continued by them.LOL!

Owned in the Face.

Bottom line, Bluehost is good for the price.

:D

[redsox9]

For those who actually took the time to answer my questions Thank you. For the others who decided to hijack this thread with all your speed complaints, Thank you also, for making me WASTE my time reading thru your problems which should have been stated in a thread all by itself. The rambling BS about speed in this thread should have been STOPPED immediately by an admin and put in a new thread and not continued by them.

Yeah, the thread seemed to deviate quickly from your original response! ;)

Just to add my own 2¢, I've had a very good experience with BlueHost. I was referred here by a friend who had a high-traffic site and he remains a satisfied customer to this day. Other than the occasional burp that I've also experienced with other hosts, I have no complaints (pobody's nerfect).

I will add that my needs at the moment are probably simpler than most; I can't answer for those who have higher demands.

So, out of curiosity, have you decided to join the legions? :)

[ddpmacho]

Yeah, the thread seemed to deviate quickly from your original response! ;)

Just to add my own 2¢, I've had a very good experience with BlueHost. I was referred here by a friend who had a high-traffic site and he remains a satisfied customer to this day. Other than the occasional burp that I've also experienced with other hosts, I have no complaints (pobody's nerfect).

I will add that my needs at the moment are probably simpler than most; I can't answer for those who have higher demands.

So, out of curiosity, have you decided to join the legions? :)

Thanks for the response. I haven't made a decision yet. I'm still checking out another host as well.

[Dave]

For those who actually took the time to answer my questions Thank you. For the others who decided to hijack this thread with all your speed complaints, Thank you also, for making me WASTE my time reading thru your problems which should have been stated in a thread all by itself. The rambling BS about speed in this thread should have been STOPPED immediately by an admin and put in a new thread and not continued by them.


My sentiments exactly!

[Rob]

Check out

http://www.monsterhosting.ca/

My new providor. Fast, stable and has backbones in the states. ($70 a year for a ton of stuff including fast response. I was up and ready in an hour and..a good perk it includes mailman!

and at 3 am the tech team responded instantly (within 30 minutes or so)

It took bluehost 3 days for a reply. Not good.

Rob

[chitownjts]

Check out

http://www.monsterhosting.ca/

My new providor. Fast, stable and has backbones in the states. ($70 a year for a ton of stuff including fast response. I was up and ready in an hour and..a good perk it includes mailman!

and at 3 am the tech team responded instantly (within 30 minutes or so)

It took bluehost 3 days for a reply. Not good.

Rob

LOL....

They don't offer nearly as much storage and bandwith as BH for the price of their basic package.........

I have had my site for well over a year with BH. Never any slowness, site has never been down and I asked to have my server switched to one that had PHP 5 and it was done within that hour.

Good luck with other hosts....

BH rockerz my boxerz :D

[ddpmacho]

Check out

http://www.monsterhosting.ca/

My new providor. Fast, stable and has backbones in the states. ($70 a year for a ton of stuff including fast response. I was up and ready in an hour and..a good perk it includes mailman!

and at 3 am the tech team responded instantly (within 30 minutes or so)

It took bluehost 3 days for a reply. Not good.

Rob

How did this answer my questions????

[walker]

Otherwise, you are just behaving like my two-year-old when he throws a tantrum (and the solution, as any parent will tell you, is to ignore it and just walk away, as I will do so now).

That's when my two-year-old nephew starts throwing poo from his potty. :rolleyes:

Agree with all of the above btw. I got well nigh irritated with Bluehost a few weeks ago (when I first joined), but have been very happy with the service ever since. So er, I stopped posting. People are more likely to get vocal when things are going bad...and that's fine...but when the remarks move beyond the problem and get personal...well, it makes for uncomfortable reading. :)

[hofmax]

Let me summarize - you should sign up!

[routed]

How did this answer my questions????

Ok, you originally were asking for feedback on BH and you got it. Your post's about "how did this answer my question" and "thanking everyone for wasting your time" are just that a waste of everyone's time.

My .02

[tony]

My new providor. Fast, stable and has backbones in the states. ($70 a year for a ton of stuff including fast response.
Rob
Lets see....Bluehost vs. their minimum plan:

Here: $6.95/ mo 10 Gig space 250 Gig transfer

There: $4.95/ mo 250 MB space 25 Gig transfer

The package most equal to BlueHost would cost you $44.95/ mo.

Doesn't really seem to be any contest.

[M()()SE]

ddpmacho

I've been very happy with blue host and have been hosting sites here for about a year now, about 8 of them so far. I did try gallery 2 for this site

www.corridormasonry.com

But found it wasn’t as stable as I would like so I'm currently using coppermine (and looking at others with fewer options)

Not sure about the php limit but I'm sure someone else must know that.

This thread has been a rather interesting read. I'm impressed with the way blue host handled themselves and feel thanks should be given to the members who tried to help.

M()()SE

[California]

I just wanted to add my experience after reading much of the thread. I have a lot of sites and Blue Host ranks high in my book for service and product so I would recommend giving them a try if you are looking for a new hosting company.

[Gus_Johnson]

I have experienced 3 other hosts, and so far Bluehost is the best bang for the buck. I host 4 domains on my account, along with several php boards. I haven't had one problem. The fact that Mr. Heaton not only reads the boards, but also responds personally speaks volumes. Thank You Matt and Rando for putting failsafes in place so other customers poorly designed/maintained code doesn't interfere with my service. If you guys were here I'd make you a fruit smoothie and give you a hug. By the way, I have turned several of my customers and peers onto your service and will continue to do so. Is your company publicly traded?

Peace,

Gus_J

[skank]

Im across the pond from Ireland .. was a bit sceptical of bluehost at first as you would.. but decided i would host my site with them as the package looked a lot better than what other hosts had to offer!
I also found there help center excellent and the response time was only minutes well pleased i was, as i really didnt expect a response on a sunday afternoon.. :cool:

[routed]

Wow, nice string of new signup's <sarcasm> I wonder if we'll see these user's around? :rolleyes:

[bastardly]

I know of other customers of yours are also experiencing the same annoying CPU quota messages everyday. My site was running fine when I first moved to Bluehost and then suddenly one day, those messages started popping up for no reason!


I second this. This happens everyday when traffic peaks, but the service is cheap, so I'm not really expecting world class service.

Also will Bluehost increase their 250GB bandwidth to match industry standards? 350-500 range is acceptable.

[rando]

I second this. This happens everyday when traffic peaks, but the service is cheap, so I'm not really expecting world class service.

You should look in the tmp/cpu_exceeded_logs/ directory in your home directory. CPU Exceeded messages do not happen because of a misconfiguration on our end, they happen when software you are running is not well-written or well-optimized, and would be a problem on any shared host.

Many other hosts do not do anything to stop this from happening. On these hosts, you may receive what you perceive to be better service than you would get at bluehost, but only at the cost of degrading service for all of the other customers on the machine.

This is also not an issue of how many customers we have per machine; if you use enough cpu to have your cpu limited, you'd be using too much for a machine with 10 users or a machine with 1000 users. If you're getting cpu exceeded messages, you're using enough CPU to warrant having your own dedicated machine. Either your code is really really unoptimized (99% of the time) or you just have to realize that there's a point where you outgrow $7/month hosting due to the needs of your site (1% of the time).

[nhgpga.org]

I know I am getting in here a bit late... But BH is great. I moved to them from another one of Matt's other services when they started. Matt actually called me from his home to confirm the account and make sure it was all setup ect... Great service and support!

I have never run into the cpu problems but my forum is not "hot" as some are...