High bandwidth demands, need advice

[Morrowind]

Hi guys, I'm going through a nightmare right now and really would appreciate if somebody could help me out.


I have a website that's all about streaming video. We hit our bandwidth limit last month of 100GB and then upgraded. I'm hostless as of right now; apparently our host doesn't allow streaming video and just now noticed after us being there over a year. Account got suspended and I haven't heard anything yet. First of all, if the host deletes this account and all files, what kind of legal options do I have? Is it possible to contact his hosting company and request backups? He's obviously a reseller.

Secondly, I do have backups of some of the things, which we'll be moving forward with. The host we were just on was offering ridiculous hdd and bandwidth resources at dirt prices. We went with that originally (a year ago) because I didn't know better, and because we never imagined the site would get this big. I was afraid to migrate everything before now because I didn't know how. I figured I'd wait until I was forced to move. Well, that time's come.

We have right now about 40-50 video files. We did hit the 100gb limit and I think that was a little higher than usual, but if it COULD happen, I want to be prepared. Regardless, we're finishing up a new version of the site which will have more in the range of 500-600 videos and a community foundation, so not only will we be streaming more videos, we'll also be attracting more visitors who will be browsing more pages at a time. Clearly the bandwidth is paramount.

I'm really a webdesigner first and an administrator second. I've never used anything other than shared hosting, which I guess is now completely out of the question. Where do I go now? Dedicated server? Co-location? I'd prefer something that had high bandwidth to start but could be upgraded quickly, so anything that requires more than a 1-month commitment isn't a good idea (because the jump from old site to new is going to be so drastic, the audience is probably going to skyrocket in between the beginning of the month and the end, as word gets around). But we really can't give any kind of projection of just how much bandwidth will be used.

And when you rent or buy a server, do you have to install all the Cpanel/PHP/Mysql and everything yourself?

[monaghan]

I guess you're looking for a managed server then ?

If you were my customer, I'd suggest having a dedicated server and create you a single reseller account with 95% of the resources allocated to the reseller account (need to save a bit of overhead for management activities). You could then add / remove accounts & do as you wish, but leave the system admin to us.

You also want to routinely monitor how much bandwidth is being used, paying per Gb for an overage at the end of the month is an expensive way of doing things.

As for the old files, if the host was overselling to a high degree, you can more or less guarantee that the files were not being backed up anywhere I guess you've probably got no legal come back against this sort of host anyway as most TOS's put the responsibility for backup onto the customer.

When you rent a server, then generally the host will apply a standard build with the OS & panel in a generic state ready for you to take on & configure to your liking.

[JewlzK]

You could look at a semi-dedicated package as well. Then upgrade to a full managed dedicated server.

Normally all dedicated server providers pre install cPanel for you. If you do go the dedicated server route your best bet is to go with a fully managed solution.

[Duport]

First of all, if the host deletes this account and all files, what kind of legal options do I have? Is it possible to contact his hosting company and request backups? He's obviously a reseller.

It really depends on whether you have the time and funds available to finance legal action although it sounds a good case from your point of view and I doubt that the host was right in deleting your files without confirming the deletion and providing you the backup of your data.

You must place the perspective the costs of legal action, depending on the time you are looking at around $120-300 per hour for fees, lawyers and barristers are much more expensive and you will be looking at somewhere in the range of over $5000-10000 before you will begin to see a positive case. Remember cases can last weeks if not months to complete.

If you have the old web hosts name we may be able to find out who he was reselling for. The provider will hopefully have a backup which is later than that you have at this time. As long as you can prove you owned the account and provide a number of requested details they may release the backup.

[stuffradio]

I also suggest getting an unlimited bandwidth server. The cheapest I've seen is like $800 something / month.... you need to be able to have the money to pay for that but it's probably worth it in the end for you

[ingfina]

Get an unmetered server and a competent admin. There is no need for a ressource eating control panel (that's why you need a competent admin). Choose a quality Datacenter - which may be hard to find for bargain unmetered servers. For 10MB unmetered you should expect to spend ~$150 for a good server and about $50-80 for an admin. (That is for decent uptime, you could save 33% but your uptime will clearly show that).

For the current situation: you violated the current hosts TOS, there is very little
you can do. Be nice and friendly, pay the overage fee and -if they request it- pay for the backup they make/provide for/to you (if it is not outrageous). Take it as a learning experience and move on.

[Infrenion]

An unmetered server would be a good solution for you Morrowind--- though expensive but the end result is more advantageous.