[OT] Domain & Hosting Service Advice

[Richard Gaskin]

stephen barncard wrote:

> I'm not saying they are perfect, or there never are problems, but they have
> a really good up-time record and I am very happy with their speed and tech
> support.
>
> On Wed, Mar 27, 2013 at 10:53 PM, Ender Nafi Elekçioğlu wrote:
>
>> Thanks, all of you...
>>
>> On-rev is a bit expensive to me and I don't need livecode server right now.
>> I'll think Dreamhost for hosting & Name'com for dns is what I need.
>> Working with funny people is important to me, too :)
>> And 10 years without a problem?
>> Man, that's promising…

I've used Dreamhost since 2007 and for most of these years I've been 
very happy.  There is one issue that has cropped up recently, however, 
and one would need to keep this in mind when choosing DH (as well as 
some other hosting companies with similar configurations):

Like most hosting companies, from time to time DH will update their 
infrastructure.   Last year they began updating their servers to systems 
that use an XFS file system with 64-bit inodes.

Without getting into what inodes are and how they work, the short form 
is that some file I/O routines, like getting a list of files or reading 
a file using "put url...", rely on inode information.

With LiveCode being 32-bit, the structure returned from calls to the 
system to obtain such info includes 64-bit values, which are too large 
for the current version of liveocde-server to handle, resulting in an error.

Please note that this issue isn't limited to Dreamhost.  XFS is 
measurably more efficient than EXT3, so many hosting companies are 
migrating to it.  When they do, they usually use 64-bit inodes for 
better support on large drives, so we can expect more systems to be 
affected by this going forward.

This issue was reported here:

LiveCode Server incompatible with file systems using 64-bit inodes
<http://quality.runrev.com/show_bug.cgi?id=10673>

It's marked as "fixed", and indeed I was able to verify the fix with a 
test build of the new engine on my DH account.

But that version of the livecode-server engine isn't yet shipping, and 
the version currently available isn't compatible with DH's new 
configuration.

Some accounts, like apparently Stephen's, are still on the older system 
and have not yet been migrated.  But the DH newsletter makes it clear 
that they intend to complete their migration within the coming months, 
and new accounts will likely go on the newer systems.

It may well be that the new version of livecode-server with this fix 
will be available before DH completes their migration process.

Just the same, with so many of my domains there dependent on 
livecode-server, I've had to start shopping for alternatives.

After much evaluation I've begun using InterServer.com, and have moved 
about half my domains there, with most of the rest slated for migration 
over the coming months.

In addition to shared hosting options roughly on par with Dreamhost's, 
InterServer also offers the cheapest flexible VPS systems I've seen, 
starting at just $6/mo, which I've been enjoying as a test bed for more 
complex apps where I need full control over the system.

Moreover, both pre-sale and post-sale technical support questions have 
all been answered by InterServer staff in under an hour, even on weekends.

Suffice to say, I'm impressed.  They're not as large as DH, but for me 
that's been an advantage, being able to submit requests that get acted 
on very quickly.

I'm still keeping my DH account, and will continue to use it for some of 
my less time-sensitive domains where I can afford to wait for the new 
livecode-server build.

But InterServer has been a very good Plan B for me, with livecode-server 
working well on both its shared hosting and VPS systems.

--
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World
  LiveCode training and consulting: http://www.fourthworld.com
  Webzine for LiveCode developers: http://www.LiveCodeJournal.com
  Follow me on Twitter:  http://twitter.com/FourthWorldSys