Web Host with ASP/PHP/MySQL w/ external access?

[gstelmack]

So after several years of impeccable service where minor interruptions were restored fairly quickly and just the occasional random FTP outage for no good reason, EasyCGI has decided to really screw with me this time. They've upgraded to a new hosting scheme with a pool of servers for the sites. On the face of it, this looks like a really nice upgrade, with a robust control panel with lots more things I can control, an improved support system, and promised improved reliability down the road. All of this of course prompted by a "new management team".

Except that they've pretty much completely botched the transition. Didn't bother to transfer what directories had applications in them (so I had to manually reactivate the WOOF ASP pages), didn't bother to transfer that our forum was running PHP 5 with mysqli for access (and finally fixed it but changing our config to not want mysqli; I still have no idea if we're running PHP 4 or 5 on it), killed the forum once or twice for unknown reasons (seems to finally be running okay now), and of course the ASP pages are now generating "Server too busy" errors.

To top it off they're moving us to new MySQL servers which for "security reasons" won't allow external access. Isn't that what userids and passwords are for? Activating FTP accounts isn't a security risk, but access to my database is? I thought I wasn't going to lose functionality, and yet I've now lost two pieces. It doesn't help that twice now they claim they've migrated our databases, and twice now I've seen ZERO tables in the new ones.

It's screwing with WOOF, and I don't appreciate the way they are handling it at all. So I'm now willing to consider a new host. Maybe they'll straighten it all out here in a day or so, but honestly moving to a new host may be easier than me putting support in to upload interrogator files and fill the database and abandoning all that effort I put into DBUpdater.

So I'm looking for hosting recommendations to look at. Must provide:

• ASP.NET 2.0
• PHP, preferably version 5
• MySQL, preferably version 5
• External access to the MySQL databases
• Database size should be fairly robust (I think I have access to 50 databases at 500MB each or something. I don't actually have that many, but I can get that many)
• Multiple FTP accounts
• E-mail forwarding or other e-mail distribution list support

Anyone have some good recommendations that fit the bill?

[cartman]

Might take a look at 1&1. Not sure if MySQL is an option on their Microsoft hosting packages, but it should be doable to migrate the MySQL stuff to MSSQL. I can definitely help with that if it comes to it.

[Draft Dodger]

I use bluehost (note, that's a referral link, so I get a kickback if you sign up through it)

I don't know about the ASP, but I think everything else on the list is a match.

EDIT: nevermind, definitely doesn't support ASP.

[lordscarlet]

ASP.NET is going to limit your options, obviously. Unfortunately, it has been a while since I have had a hosted ASP.NET account. Dreamhost works well for the rest, though. (I can post a referral link if anyone wants it )

[cuervo72]

Contact Simms.

(though I don't know about ASP.NET)

[gstelmack]

Actually, as I think more and more about it, I went the ASP route to learn it and due to may familiarity with C#. Frankly the only part of the WOOF site that is in ASP that I like being in ASP is the league schedule / upload/download stuff, and I'm not THAT wedded to it. We may just find a decent host and switch everything to PHP if this fiasco continues (and based on other links out there, they new management team has screwed pretty much everybody and may not have ANY customers soon...)

External MySQL access is a MUST however. The MySQL QueryBrowser and DBUpdater are far too useful to give up.

And I'll take any referral links you guys want to give. I'll gladly use one when I finally settle on a host.

[lordscarlet]

Web Hosting by DreamHost Web Hosting: Web Sites, Domain Registration, WordPress, Ruby on Rails, all on Debian Linux!

[lordscarlet]

dola: I'm not sure if they have remote mysql access -- there is definitely phpmyadmin, but I haven't tried connected via any apps. You can ssh in and do stuff at the command line, though, so they're pretty open.

[gstelmack]

Hmmm, Cerberus Helpdesk :: Support Center sure seems to indicate bluehost has external MySQL access, even indicating that you have control over it. That's a plus. I'll ask over at DreamHost.

[PackerFanatic]

We have had pretty good service with Awardspace (we have been using them since March) It looks like they support everything you need, although I didn't dig too deep.

[gstelmack]

Yes, Dreamhost allows external MySQL:


Yes you can access the MySQL database server from non-Dreamhost servers.To do that you just need to add the IP of the other server to the AllowedHosts for your database. That is done through the Dreamhost panel(Goodies > Manage MySQL section). If you have any more questions thenplease let me know.

[Router Help]

I have a couple of servers at http://www.maximumasp.com/

Never had a problem, good support. I haven't tried their shared hosting but I imagine it is pretty good.

[Flasch186]

ROFLMAO

I thought it was just me!!! LOL So it just was a coincidence!! LOL

We were thinking about moving hosts but Im now thinking of staying so we have remote connection to the sql. anyways, good to see it wasn't just me. Are you all moving?

[Ben E Lou]

Either that, or your noob butt broke the whole thing.


{Gathers torches and pitchforks and prepares to head down I-95.}

[Flasch186]

the worst part is that I may have actually been doing things right and now I wont know since it started going all whacky in the middle of it. Geez, easycgi could you make this year any worse?

[Flasch186]

Is it even possible for one person to screw up EVERYONE's site? If so that's a horrible system they have set up.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by Flasch186

We were thinking about moving hosts but Im now thinking of staying so we have remote connection to the sql. anyways, good to see it wasn't just me. Are you all moving?

We have moved parts of the site (the forum, for example). EasyCGI is doing away with remote access to MySQL; we're only still functional because they have not actually moved the databases to the new host yet. That's probably a good thing given how many other things they screwed up in that move.

Unfortunately I didn't do quite enough digging on the new host, and they only offer remote MySQL for VPS plans. Since no one bit on the "share the VPS plan" discussed in GD, I'm starting work on a version of DBUpdater that relies on a pair of PHP pages: one to report some key database state info DBUpdater needs, and another that will take an FTP'ed file(s) from DBUpdater and actually modify the database. Stay tuned...

[Flasch186]

how much would it cost if the USFL chipped in on the VPS plan? Weve targeted Midphase to move to.

[marcmoustache]

If it helps I use compila for my hosting on their business plan

[Flasch186]

greg, is your site back up?

[Ben E Lou]

His site has never been down today. What's happening, though, is that the PHP and ASPX pages are not working. As he mentioned, though, the database is there. I can view it through the admin screen, and I can run queries on it just fine using MySQL Query Browser as well. (So any query that is not working on a php page works just fine when I send it to the database using a different method.) "We" (i.e. Greg said so, so I agree) think that it's something internal between their web server and the database. (Db is up, but web server can't access.) As for your problem, Conscriptor relies pretty much 100% on PHP, which would be why installing it right now wouldn't work at all.

[Flasch186]

please understand that one of the other issues overlaying on this is my ignorance when it comes to these things. dont underestimate that.

Unfortunately Ill have to try again later with shane's help as I think we're going to make the move to this utility for a bunch of different isolated reason that add up to needing to do this....in addition to having him move us to a new host as well. We have the worst luck with hosts.

[ShaneTheMaster]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

We have moved parts of the site (the forum, for example). EasyCGI is doing away with remote access to MySQL; we're only still functional because they have not actually moved the databases to the new host yet. That's probably a good thing given how many other things they screwed up in that move.

Unfortunately I didn't do quite enough digging on the new host, and they only offer remote MySQL for VPS plans. Since no one bit on the "share the VPS plan" discussed in GD, I'm starting work on a version of DBUpdater that relies on a pair of PHP pages: one to report some key database state info DBUpdater needs, and another that will take an FTP'ed file(s) from DBUpdater and actually modify the database. Stay tuned...

That would very helpful! Can't wait.

[jdavidbakr]

There's a reason I tell people to never, never use Windows server for their web host

Unless you are using ASP, I'll make a strong suggestion to look for a hosting provider that is running on Linux. I've even thought about making a FOF-based hosting solution on my server and offering it to FOF commishes - if someone ones to guinney-pig that one let me know ...

[marcmoustache]

Originally Posted by jdavidbakr

There's a reason I tell people to never, never use Windows server for their web host

Unless you are using ASP, I'll make a strong suggestion to look for a hosting provider that is running on Linux. I've even thought about making a FOF-based hosting solution on my server and offering it to FOF commishes - if someone ones to guinney-pig that one let me know ...

This sounds a bit like allsimbaseball do for OOTP. Worth a thought.

[Flasch186]

Originally Posted by jdavidbakr

There's a reason I tell people to never, never use Windows server for their web host

Unless you are using ASP, I'll make a strong suggestion to look for a hosting provider that is running on Linux. I've even thought about making a FOF-based hosting solution on my server and offering it to FOF commishes - if someone ones to guinney-pig that one let me know ...

I believe we use some ASP {shrug}

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by jdavidbakr

There's a reason I tell people to never, never use Windows server for their web host

Unless you are using ASP, I'll make a strong suggestion to look for a hosting provider that is running on Linux. I've even thought about making a FOF-based hosting solution on my server and offering it to FOF commishes - if someone ones to guinney-pig that one let me know ...

EasyCGI was fantastic as a windows-based host right up until they got new management. Now they can't do ANYTHING right. It has nothing to do with Windows hosting and everything to do with them moving to some revolving server scheme that they can't make work right.

And of course I used it to learn ASP.NET, and I still think I have one of the best calendar / upload pages out there

That said, Windows hosts are hard to find, so we've switched to a Linux / PHP host, and I need to convert DBUpdater as a result.

I do agree though that some sort of shared VPS or hosting plan where we host several sites and work together on player pages, utilities, etc would be very cool. The new host I've gone with (LiquidWeb) has $60/month and $100/month plans depending on needs (and I think the $60 one is fine for a few leagues).

[Flasch186]

so it would be about $100/yr for the USFL? if there were 6 leagues on it?

[gstelmack]

We'd have to see if it could handle 6 leagues. However, given that I have two other sites (inlcuding the utility suite) I keep under a single umbrella, I could do $30/month for my own stuff, and if we had two other leagues that wanted to contribute $15/month, or three other leagues that wanted to contribute $10/month, we could certainly do it.

[gstelmack]

We ought to take posts 429 on and move them to Web Host with ASP/PHP/MySQL w/ external access? - Front Office Football Central to get this discussion rolling again, and to avoid cluttering the Draft Utility thread.

[Flasch186]

that's fine...one problem we have in the interim, however, is that Shane, our web guru, is taking a step back from his devotion to the USFL and rightfully so since it has taken quite a bit of his time and work effort, and it was never intended to be so. Anyways, once Shane takes his leave, at the end of the current season, the USFL will be looking to bring in a GM with some web savvy to be able to make sure the site doesnt crash etc. but not necessarily do a ton of web developing. Unfortunately Shane has been crushed by the issues with the host this offseason and issues with his work in real life and just not having enough hours in the day. We've appreciated having him but how that applies to another move to another host farther down the line is a bridge that would need to be crossed. Anyways....take this post over to the other thread too.

again, at $10/month we could do that however that would mean another move and a need to recoup our paid in advance year of service at midphase PLUS help with another move down the line.

[gstelmack]

If we went with a VPS and had a couple of leagues on it, for the FOF leagues (no reason we couldn't have an OOTP league or other game sharing as well) we could easily share code / site sets. Between the draft utility and the pages Ben has been putting together, it wouldn't be hard to help kickstart other leagues that were sharing the same space and keep them all updated.

[Flasch186]

this may be a great option for us and Im very open to the idea if I can also get a commitment to help us get us moved and setup to at least work in the same vein as we have. To evolve and get better is a different step, I understand but we may need help with another move after the current one is completed.

[gstelmack]

If you guys have backed-up end-of-season files, the easy thing is to just run DBUpdater once for every season you have a backup for. Then it's just putting the web pages in and making sure they say "USFL" everywhere, and making sure we have the correct logo / helmet image sizes. Yes, that's something we should be able to handle.

[Flasch186]

everything is backed up. I havnt run dbupdater on the things. What are the correct logo sizes, and I made the .csv but as you saw yesterday was not the greatest day to be screwing around with things considering the host made me feel like I crashed the whole damned thing.

[lordscarlet]

I haven't always been able to back up my attempt to help out leagues, but I could try to lend a hand in building some sort of universal site/system for housing several leagues. You could probably modify the existing tools to make them work pretty easily for multi-year and multi-league.

[Subby]

I think you meant "ever" there.

[lordscarlet]

Originally Posted by Subby

I think you meant "ever" there.

Yes, quite.

[lordscarlet]

FYI: This was really mostly a throw-away comment (and maybe I'm perceiving a bigger deal her than it is). But for those that know me, know my faults, know what I have/have not been able to do for the FOF MP community, let me clarify what I meant.

I would be interested in attempting to find time to modify existing tools to work on a more global basis. I don't mean dealing with FOF data files or any of that. Merely if someone needs help, assist with taking the existing single-league tools and modifying them to work for a multi-league structure and perhaps extend their functionality if need-be.

This is probably a conversation that doesn't need to be had here, but I thought I would try to clarify, because I like to type stuff without thinking about it first (including right now).

[jdavidbakr]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

EasyCGI was fantastic as a windows-based host right up until they got new management. Now they can't do ANYTHING right. It has nothing to do with Windows hosting and everything to do with them moving to some revolving server scheme that they can't make work right.

In my professional experience, I've sat back and relaxed while managing my Linux servers, and watched the Windows server guys pull their hair out over problems they can't solve. It just seems like Windows servers seem to fail more frequently and are harder to troubleshoot when that happens. Even some of my Pro-Windows coworkers won't put a website on a Windows server. But I digress, I just like to get my anti-Windows jabs in as often as possible A poorly-managed Linux box would probably be just as bad.

[Ben E Lou]

Per Greg's suggestion, a bucnh of posts were moved here.

[Flasch186]

y'know this might be best if talked about on some sort of conference call or something so things can be explained, questions can be asked in real time etc. Then it can be fleshed out quickly as opposed to plodding along at a slower pace.

[lordscarlet]

Feel free to include or exclude me on any discussions that may or may not occur outside of the public eye.

[Draft Dodger]

looking around for a new host (my current host changed their port settings for webmail and my work proxy doesn't like this change).

just need a cheap, reliable host as I mostly just use for email. anyone have experience with greengeeks?