When is it time for a dedicated server?

When you are a server junky like me is when it is time for a dedicated server

(FreeBSD administrator)

You should get a VPS account first, from good providers like ServInt, LiquidWeb or PowerVPS. Cheaper then a dedicated server and they guarantee a minimum of resources like RAM or even CPU power. Also you don't need to worry about OS and cPanel updates.

Originally Posted by Robson The reason the adrotator is large was because it was logging every impression served in a table, this was 470mbs. I have emptied that table now and it's only about 270kb

i right, i stand corrected then, just i looked at the img url and it ended up at a php doc and put 2 + 2 together but got 10

I webmaster 2 sites on dedicated servers (they're not mine, I just take care of them). We are switching to a web farm for performance (RackSpace). The time to change is when your site becomes unacceptably slower.. vBulletin is a resource hog. Our servers are constantly running at a maxed out load (that's why we are going to the server farm).

One option to consider before switching to a dedicated server (it can be expensive) is to start caching the pages. a good 'quick and dirty' cache script is at http://www.ilovejackdaniels.com/php/...output-in-php/

Caching allows you to reduce your server load. Instead of creating a page EVERYTIME someone views it, you create the page every 10 seconds (you can set your own length of time).. So, pages that receive lots of views (50 per minute) only are recreated 5 times instead of 50..

Forums tend NOT to be cached.. You want to make sure the users are able to see their post after taking the time to write one. But, it is an option for webmasters short on cash.

Brett

Originally Posted by Adam i right, i stand corrected then, just i looked at the img url and it ended up at a php doc and put 2 + 2 together but got 10

10 in binary is 4 in decimal...

Brett