[quote name=‘tbirnseth’]Yep, so you need to know enough to know what to ask for. My comments are not specific to any hosting provider so there’s no hammering of any one. If you don’t know enough to ask for what you need then you will get what you get out of the box.[/QUOTE]
We just want our sites to run as fast as possible without a high chance of being continually suspended thanks to CS-Cart overloads. We’re welcome to any suggestions you may have? What reputable shared hosting companies would you suggest it’s hard to compete with HG IMHO? We’re not being facetious, we’d really like to hear your knowledgeable opinion considering your obvious experience and that we run 4 CS-Cart 2.1.4 resource hogs!
Paul, you are going to need to provide some details about these sites. You keep referring to CS-Cart as some resources monster, granted it is not some 5 page simple html page static site, but it ain’t no magento either! 
How many daily visitors do get on these sites you mention?
How many products & categories do you have?
What Hostgator hosted plan package are you currently running on?
[quote name=‘mayanetwork’]We just want our sites to run as fast as possible without a high chance of being continually suspended thanks to CS-Cart overloads. We’re welcome to any suggestions you may have? What reputable shared hosting companies would you suggest it’s hard to compete with HG IMHO? We’re not being facetious, we’d really like to hear your knowledgeable opinion considering your obvious experience and that we run 4 CS-Cart 2.1.4 resource hogs![/quote]
[quote name=‘Struck’]Paul, you are going to need to provide some details about these sites. You keep referring to CS-Cart as some resources monster, granted it is not some 5 page simple html page static site, but it ain’t no magento either!
How many daily visitors do get on these sites you mention?
How many products & categories do you have?
What Hostgator hosted plan package are you currently running on?[/quote]
The irony that anyone would even considering a hosting service that closes accounts because of high-usage? Not sure how I could float those boats (installations) of yours.
Tell me that you have the statistics addon installed?
I won’t recommend anyone. My point (again) is that a VPS is nothing more than a limited amount of resources, controlled by the hosting provider and enforced by the virtual controller (a shared virtual host is an unlimited amount of resources shared by the sites on a server). A VPS is the same as a dedicated server from the point of view of administration, security, configuration, optimization, etc. When you run a VPS, you are running your own uniuqe instance of an operating system. Hence, if you don’t know how to manage that environment, you’re going to incur many costs along the way (cash, downtime, confusion, etc.) as things happen which they always do.
These are just words of advice. You can do whatever you want to do. However, before getting into the cockpit of a 747 with engines fired up and sitting on the end of the runway, I’d suggest you get a couple of pilot lessons under your belt before you consider take-off. You might get it into the air, but landing it is a whole different story.
CS-cart is simply database and file intensive. It’s not really bloated, it just requires more resources to provide its functionality than you would require with a less functional cart.
If I had a host that shut down my site for any reason (other than it was hacked and a danger to others), I’d be out of there so fast that I wouldn’t even wait for the next backup. Just my two cents.
@ Paul
What I mentioned in the above post about ‘managed’ services also includes Hostgator and I am not discrediting their services at all. HG techs (level 2+) are very capable but they (as tony mentioned) will only give you what you ask for and 99% of their VPS clients have no idea ‘what’ to ask for… That is my point!.. They are not going to babysit anyone because it is not possible to turn a profit by doing so. That is just the way it is in the hosting business. Time is money and a host cannot have a tech spend 3 or more hours/day helping each client get their server perfect charging only $50/month. (level 2 & 3 Linux techs make 20+ $/hour in the US on top of equipment expenses).
I mean no insult to you but, you are typical of many clients who are new to VPS systems. As long your site is working, you think the server is fine and doing the best it can but, you are very wrong… In reality, it could be performing much better with a few tweaks but you don’t know what to expect or what is even possible. Tweaking MySQL and Apache configurations can give you much more performance than upgrading to additional memory/cpu but most hosts will not explain this because the higher plan will produce more profit/month and they must show that to the investors (it also costs them time doing that for you)…
This is a reason I dislike large companies… They must turn a larger profit each month to satisfy their investors otherwise they will lose them and, this must constantly improve for the same reason. This reduces their ability to provide you with dedicated support because they simply cannot afford to give it to you even if they want (numbers are everything in big business),
I’m willing to offer you some proof of this Paul if you reply again here with the results. I will harden and optimize your VPS at no cost and also provide one month of support to be sure everything is working properly ($65 value). I’m an old fart and have nearly 20 years experience in managing Linux, BSD and Unix systems so there is very little to worry about and I will provide references if wanted…
[quote]
I will harden and optimize your VPS at no cost and also provide one month of support to be sure everything is working properly ($65 value).
[/quote]
Only a fool would not take you up on that offer.
So from what those of you who provide hosting on shared packages are saying, the instructions that CS puts on their site at…
[url]https://www.cs-cart.com/requirements.html[/url]
…are not enough? I know there may be other “tweaks” but the list there isn’t enough at a minimum? Do we really have to have a college degree to be able to host on a VPS? Do we really have to believe that only the shared packages that you offer are the best?
Again, it sounds like opinions on how a server (VPS, etc) should be set up for CS-Cart differs even among those who posted in this thread, let alone other places on the forums. I have even seen some of you differ in opinion with CS-Cart admin themselves on settings (like on the mod_security module).
I would agree that knowing more about a VPS and how it works is helpful. Since we have started using one we have learned loads and we still have loads more to learn. To be honest with you, it was the exact same way when we first started using “shared” hosting. So no matter what, there is a learning curve and it really depends on the host and how much they help you…on shared or VPS.
Jim,
I think you missunderstand what I was saying. I have no interest in selling my own hosting services since I’m very selective about the clients I take on. I do not sell hosting to people just because they want a place to host.
I don’t know how many more ways to say it, but a VPS leaves the naive cs-cart merchant a lot more vulnerable than a shared environment that is managed by a competent system administrator. In a shared environment, the hosting provider is responsible for ensuring the safety and security of the system. In a VPS, you are.
Unfortunately, most folks here don’t even know what a VPS is and the point was to try and educate. I’m not trying to convince anyone to do one thing or another.
Done in this thread, time to move along.
@tbirnseth
Said well and comments are appreciated. I guess it just felt like there was more of a push in one direction and that was away from a VPS. We have done the “shared” package and have had much worse experiences there than with a VPS. Primarily on service levels, but we also had one shared package that was near to impossible to get “PCI Compliant”. I know the PCI thing brings up a whole new set of arguments, but I was being forced to move towards it because our bank insisted.
Anyway, there can be problems with a VPS, shared, dedicated or anything. Just be as diligent as possible and HAVE FUN! You’ve gotta love it.
[quote name=‘S-Combs’]@ Paul
What I mentioned in the above post about ‘managed’ services also includes Hostgator and I am not discrediting their services at all. HG techs (level 2+) are very capable but they (as tony mentioned) will only give you what you ask for and 99% of their VPS clients have no idea ‘what’ to ask for… That is my point!.. They are not going to babysit anyone because it is not possible to turn a profit by doing so. That is just the way it is in the hosting business. Time is money and a host cannot have a tech spend 3 or more hours/day helping each client get their server perfect charging only $50/month. (level 2 & 3 Linux techs make 20+ $/hour in the US on top of equipment expenses).
I mean no insult to you but, you are typical of many clients who are new to VPS systems. As long your site is working, you think the server is fine and doing the best it can but, you are very wrong… In reality, it could be performing much better with a few tweaks but you don’t know what to expect or what is even possible. Tweaking MySQL and Apache configurations can give you much more performance than upgrading to additional memory/cpu but most hosts will not explain this because the higher plan will produce more profit/month and they must show that to the investors (it also costs them time doing that for you)…
This is a reason I dislike large companies… They must turn a larger profit each month to satisfy their investors otherwise they will lose them and, this must constantly improve for the same reason. This reduces their ability to provide you with dedicated support because they simply cannot afford to give it to you even if they want (numbers are everything in big business),
I’m willing to offer you some proof of this Paul if you reply again here with the results. I will harden and optimize your VPS at no cost and also provide one month of support to be sure everything is working properly ($65 value). I’m an old fart and have nearly 20 years experience in managing Linux, BSD and Unix systems so there is very little to worry about and I will provide references if wanted…[/QUOTE]
Thank you for your generous offer. That’s very kind of you. However it would appear we have to do a lot more research before making this very important decision.
Still on the subject of hosting; does anyone have any recommendations for reputable, well established hosting companies with cost being unimportant.
We need 24/7/365 top notch support, CP/WHM, ext. Thank you in advance for any suggestions you can give, cheers 
[quote name=‘tbirnseth’]I won’t recommend anyone. My point (again) is that a VPS is nothing more than a limited amount of resources, controlled by the hosting provider and enforced by the virtual controller (a shared virtual host is an unlimited amount of resources shared by the sites on a server). A VPS is the same as a dedicated server from the point of view of administration, security, configuration, optimization, etc. When you run a VPS, you are running your own uniuqe instance of an operating system. Hence, if you don’t know how to manage that environment, you’re going to incur many costs along the way (cash, downtime, confusion, etc.) as things happen which they always do.
These are just words of advice. You can do whatever you want to do. However, before getting into the cockpit of a 747 with engines fired up and sitting on the end of the runway, I’d suggest you get a couple of pilot lessons under your belt before you consider take-off. You might get it into the air, but landing it is a whole different story.
CS-cart is simply database and file intensive. It’s not really bloated, it just requires more resources to provide its functionality than you would require with a less functional cart.
If I had a host that shut down my site for any reason (other than it was hacked and a danger to others), I’d be out of there so fast that I wouldn’t even wait for the next backup. Just my two cents.[/QUOTE]
I understand what you’re saying and I really appreciate all of your advice, thank you!
[quote name=‘mayanetwork’]Thank you for your generous offer. That’s very kind of you. However it would appear we have to do a lot more research before making this very important decision.
Still on the subject of hosting; does anyone have any recommendations for reputable, well established hosting companies with cost being unimportant.
We need 24/7/365 top notch support, CP/WHM, ext. Thank you in advance for any suggestions you can give, cheers :-)[/quote]
[quote name=‘mayanetwork’]I understand what you’re saying and I really appreciate all of your advice, thank you![/quote]
Personally I’m hosted on ServINT which provide the same service however considering your mention of resource-hogging I advise against it unless you can do a true load-balance and go from there.
If you are going with HostGator, don’t install cscart on the Reseller hosting accounts. You’ll regret it. It’s awful and I had nothing but problems. Luckily I was able to get a refund on the reseller account.
cscart runs pretty well on the shared hosting accounts. Just go with their Business Plan and get Free Private SSL and dedicated IP as well. Although VPS gives you more control, I found the Shared account to be less of a hassle.
I just switched to Future Hosting… using a 1 gig memory hybrid VPS. Great deal IMHO.
They moved my shop for me in a couple of minutes and things run smoothly ever since.
Support has been great too. They have servers in both US and UK.
Can recommend.
I’m personally hosted with ServINt, been there for the past couple of months.
Service is quick and they also assist with website migrations upon account creation (ask them, don’t quote me)
No comment Jesse…
[quote name=‘S-Combs’]@ Paul
I’m willing to offer you some proof of this Paul if you reply again here with the results. I will harden and optimize your VPS at no cost and also provide one month of support to be sure everything is working properly ($65 value). I’m an old fart and have nearly 20 years experience in managing Linux, BSD and Unix systems so there is very little to worry about and I will provide references if wanted…[/QUOTE]
Well we’ve moved to their VPS Level 4 server ([url]http://www.hostgator.com/vps-hosting/[/url]) and can’t say it was an easy.
However the owner assigned a Level 2 dedicated Admin to stay until everything was fine which he did and for which I’m grateful for.
However as you server pros all knew I’m a little disappointed with the performance. We’ve enabled Gzip, Smart Optimizer, ext yet with all our new resources our new VPS server is slower than our reseller server.
So “S-Combs” if your server optimization offer is still on-the-table I’ll thankfully accept. If not I’m more than willing to pay you for your services.
S-Combs do you think you can improve our CS-Cart 2.1.4 cart performance on the server we stated above and considering the changes we’ve stated?
[QUOTE]So “S-Combs” if your server optimization offer is still on-the-table I’ll thankfully accept. If not I’m more than willing to pay you for your services. [/QUOTE]
Uhm, Paul, you may want to hold off for just a tad bit longer until you have had a chance to read a few recent forum posts!
We are currently hosting 2 of our sites on VPS packages at Future Hosting and 1 site on a VPS at Servint. We have been pleased overall with both companies. Future hosting has been very, very helpful and we have been slowly switching over to them as their hosting packages have been more competitive for me to put each site on a VPS and not have them compete with each other for ram, etc. For us Future Hosting seems to answer questions much faster…even on Easter Sunday. Without a doubt I would not say that Servint did a bad job, it is just Future Hosting has done a much better job and the fact that they are more competitive makes it even better.
We do also host some smaller sites on shared packages at Lypha and Site 5. They have been very good and CS seems to work great on both of them until you get a little more traffic.
[quote name=‘Struck’]Uhm, Paul, you may want to hold off for just a tad bit longer until you have had a chance to read a few recent forum posts! :D[/QUOTE]
Thank you Struck, however we have no current plans on moving servers anytime in the near future. We just need to optimize our new VPS server for optimal performance and reliability. Any suggestions are always welcome and greatly appreciated