View previous topic :: View next topic |
Author |
Message |
biobee Site Admin

Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 1059 Location: UK, England, S. Devon
|
Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2014 11:08 am Post subject: Apology for the downtime... |
|
|
...over the weekend.
This was caused by exceeding our allotted bandwidth of 75Gb, which shows how popular natural beekeeping has become.
I was away from home teaching all weekend and could not contact my server tech support. I am currently looking at other hosting options, but I will need to lay out more money to improve on what we have.
If you have found this place helpful, PLEASE CONSIDER MAKING A DONATION to Friends of the Bees to help defray our costs. If we cannot raise money this way, I will have no option but to deploy more advertising, and I really don't want to go further in that direction. |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
Trip Foraging Bee

Joined: 19 Mar 2010 Posts: 128 Location: USA, New York, Westchester
|
Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2014 11:40 am Post subject: |
|
|
Phil,
Thanks for the reminder, it's been too long since I last made a donation and have rectified the situation. I find the site and the community invaluable and appreciate your efforts holding the electronic bits together so we can support each other.
Trip |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
stevecook172001 Moderator Bee

Joined: 19 Jul 2013 Posts: 443 Location: Loftus, Cleveland
|
Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2014 12:25 pm Post subject: |
|
|
No problem Phil. I bought the book, but must admit to feeling little guilty about not making a donation to this great site, given the amount of info I have got from it.
Will rectify that. Gotta admit, when the site when down I was beginning to panic a bit! I'd be knackered without it. |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
biobee Site Admin

Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 1059 Location: UK, England, S. Devon
|
Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2014 3:18 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Thanks, guys.
Just for clarity, book sales help to keep me afloat, but donations to Friends of the Bees go towards running our projects and not to me.
Currently, we need funds to establish our Black Bee Project on a permaculture farm in South Devon - more about this later. |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
Jt Nurse Bee
Joined: 12 May 2013 Posts: 29 Location: Warwick, Warwickshire, United Kingdom
|
Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2014 4:48 pm Post subject: |
|
|
I came in from checking the bees on Sunday and wanted some advice. Obviously shocked to see the site down. Perhaps you could give us an idea of running costs for such a forum? I think an open approach to how donated monies are used will give confidence to contributors. I have taken the insurance from FOTBs but have no idea how much covers the liability insurance or goes towards other projects and running costs?
Keep up the good work! |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
Amber Nurse Bee
Joined: 09 Oct 2011 Posts: 47 Location: Chorley, Lancashire, UK
|
Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2014 4:57 pm Post subject: Apology for the Downtime |
|
|
A good reminder, it's easy to take the forum for granted.
But it's greatly appreciated by a huge number of enthusiastic and caring beekeepers. |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
CeeBee Foraging Bee
Joined: 16 Jun 2013 Posts: 107 Location: UK, Cambridge, Milton
|
Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2014 11:01 pm Post subject: Re: Apology for the downtime... |
|
|
biobee wrote: |
This was caused by exceeding our allotted bandwidth of 75Gb... |
I certainly noticed the absence of the forum - figured maybe it was getting towards the 'end-of-month' and perhaps the quota is based on months?
Need care as to whether it's 'Gb' (normally giga-bits, assumed per-month in this case), or 'GB' (giga-bytes, i.e. 8 times as much).
For what it's worth, my own site/email/etc. are with Bytemark http://www.bytemark.co.uk/ in the UK. £15/month (with a discount for a whole year), for a Linux virtual machine including 200GB/month (that's definitely _bytes_). Beyond that, each extra GB (again _byte_) costs £0.25. I probably don't usually get anywhere near this limit - though I offered live-video of nesting swifts last year (and about to do so again this year - they should arrive in a week or so), which needs care over the bandwidth used (I cut people off if they start viewing and just leave it running). Not for everyone - you manage the server yourself - so if your email / web-site / etc. doesn't work, then you fix it yourself, but then you can install whatever you like on it. Perhaps gives a ballpark figure as to expected costs of bandwidth, and whether costs are a rip-off. |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
Cie Foraging Bee

Joined: 16 Aug 2009 Posts: 242 Location: UK, Wiltshire, Amesbury
|
Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2014 5:20 am Post subject: |
|
|
I'll wave the flag for Bitfolk who have provided hosting and support that are second to none. _________________ Ciemon
Just another Warréor
[url=http://simplebees.wordpress.com] Simple Bees [/url] & [url=http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/warrebeekeeping/] Warré beekeeping [/url] |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
biobee Site Admin

Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 1059 Location: UK, England, S. Devon
|
Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2014 8:17 am Post subject: |
|
|
Bitfolk say "We're currently out of capacity and cannot accept new customers at this time. We're expecting to be able to take on more customers towards the end of April, but capacity will likely become available sooner due to cancellations."
I currently favour Fasthosts, as their rates are competitive and they don't seem to limit bandwidth on their business accounts. Anyone have an opinion on them? |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
zaunreiter Moderator Bee

Joined: 26 Nov 2007 Posts: 3097 Location: Germany, NorthWest
|
Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2014 8:41 am Post subject: |
|
|
My two cents: Most traffic is generated by spam and spambots. You can cut down spammers by using a very small company that is hosting. A small provider also has very short communication routes, so if there is a problem, you simply ring them up and the problem is done.
I tried a lot of the bigger companies here in Germany, they all lack service and they certainly do attract spammers and hackers. Those spammers are not interested in smaller hosts.
So I just can recommend a small provider, best is near you. There are many and it is worth to search for them and pay them some money. Localize! |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
WileyHunter Moderator Bee
Joined: 13 Jan 2014 Posts: 125 Location: Batesville, IN USA
|
Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2014 7:28 pm Post subject: |
|
|
I actually used to use, and resell Fasthost about 5 years ago here in the US. There were very minimal downtime issues ever complained about to me by my customer base, and they provided excellent services to both myself and my end users. Unless they've completely fallen into the toilet since then, I'd highly recommend them. In fact, now that you've prompted that memory, maybe I need to re-look at the resell options again. |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
ourMikeGeorge House Bee

Joined: 29 Apr 2014 Posts: 17 Location: UK, Leics, Burbage
|
Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2014 3:30 pm Post subject: Re: Apology for the downtime... |
|
|
CeeBee wrote: | biobee wrote: |
This was caused by exceeding our allotted bandwidth of 75Gb... |
I certainly noticed the absence of the forum - figured maybe it was getting towards the 'end-of-month' and perhaps the quota is based on months?
Need care as to whether it's 'Gb' (normally giga-bits, assumed per-month in this case), or 'GB' (giga-bytes, i.e. 8 times as much).
For what it's worth, my own site/email/etc. are with Bytemark in the UK. £15/month (with a discount for a whole year), for a Linux virtual machine including 200GB/month |
I've had VMs from Bytemark for a few years and I'm very happy with the service, the value and the reliability. I don't think I've ever gone over bandwidth limits but I think they have a 'soft' limit and don't just cut you off if you go over it.
And as zaunreiter says a lot of bandwidth can be wasted by spam bots, not mention hacking attempts. I don't think you can reduce that by using a smaller hosting company but you can do a bit of active management to block the worst offenders. |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
H1veHead Nurse Bee
Joined: 19 May 2013 Posts: 28 Location: Child Okeford, Dorset, UK.
|
Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2014 5:39 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Hi Phil
Just to put my two-penny-worth in, I've been using UK2.NET for my hosting for about five years and never had anything but good service and no downtime. Not sure exactly without looking what their costs are but maybe worth you having a look?
Cheers!
H1veHead |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
ourMikeGeorge House Bee

Joined: 29 Apr 2014 Posts: 17 Location: UK, Leics, Burbage
|
Posted: Thu May 01, 2014 5:10 am Post subject: |
|
|
Another thought - if you're moving to another host you could use it as an opportunity to upgrade to the v3 forum software and enforce the 'location' rule  |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
SPECIAL OFFER FOR UK FORUM MEMBERS - Buy your protective clothing here and get a special 15% discount! (use the code BAREFOOTBEEKEEPER at checkout and be sure to 'update basket')
Are the big energy companies bleeding you dry?
Is way too much of your hard-earned family income going up in smoke?
Are you worried about what could happen if the ageing grid system fails?
You need to watch this short video NOW to find out how YOU can cut your energy bills TO THE BONE within 30 days!
WATCH THE VIDEO NOW
|
Conserving wild bees
Research suggests that bumble bee boxes have a very low success rate in actually attracting bees into them. We find that if you create an environment where first of all you can attract mice inside, such as a pile of stones, a drystone wall, paving slabs with intentionally made cavities underneath, this will increase the success rate.
Most bumble bee species need a dry space about the size a football, with a narrow entrance tunnel approximately 2cm in diameter and 20 cm long. Most species nest underground along the base of a linear feature such as a hedge or wall. Sites need to be sheltered and out of direct sunlight.
There is a spectacular display of wild bee hotels here
More about bumblebees and solitary bees here
Information about the Tree Bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum)
|
|
|
Barefoot Beekeeper Podcast
|
|
|
|
4th Edition paperback now available from Lulu.com
|
site map
php. BB © 2001, 2005 php. BB Group
View topic - Apology for the downtime... - Natural Beekeeping Network Forum
|
|