We are moving our websites to a dedicated server! This is a big step because it is more work for us (but so far Steve is doing all the work ) and is more expensive, but we now need things that we can only get on a dedicated server.

A dedicated server means that there is a computer (Pentium 4) sitting in the CrystalTech offices in Phoenix that is ours (we don't own it, but we rent it and pay them to manage it). Only the websites we put on it will use that server. We gain a lot of extra storage space and the ability to manage the websites more directly. Currently we are on "shared" hosting - many websites running on the same server.

We got the server last week.

- www.slowtraveltours.com (our April Fool JOKE site) has made the move - we used it for testing.

- www.slowphotos.com (our Photo Gallery) will move this week.

- www.slowtrav.com won't move until mid-October because I have to finish my current project before the move (changing all the navigation columns on the site).

- The message board www.slowtalk.com is not moving to the new server - it is hosted by Groupee - so nothing will happen here.

I have been pretty consumed by this project - reworking all the pages on slowtrav, deciding whether or not to move to a dedicated server, getting the new server setup. This is why I have not been on the message board as much as usual. And why I am behind on email (if I have not replied to you and you need to contact me, email me again please).

I wish I could blame this on why I am behind on posting travel notes - but I am ALWAYS behind!! I am almost caught up now and will be posting a bunch of travel notes today. All others submitted after today will be done after the "move".

This is a very exciting time for us - to have grown to the point of needing a dedicated server. We are learning a bunch of new stuff (like how to administer a name server) and that is always fun (okay, Steve is learning it, but I am sure he will explain it to me soon).

I will post when we come to the time to move SlowTrav. Our email may be down for a day, and we will have to turn off the reviews/trip reports system for a few days (you will still be able to read them, but will not be able to post new ones). If all goes well, you won't even notice the change over.

Once we get "moved" I have plans for doing some redesign work on SlowTrav. I will post later with what we are thinking about and ask for your feedback.

SlowPhotos will be closed for a day or two this week
Slowphotos is going to be down for a day or two this week. During this time people will be able to view photos, but not upload any.

Before the move, I will close SlowPhotos, so you will not be able to upload. Then we will copy 2gb of photos to the new server, test, then when all is working, I turn it on again and make the new site "live".

So, all this can run on one Pentium 4.

But then it's the disk speed that matters. What are they? 10,000 RPM SATA II in a RAID array with loads of Cache?

Can you tell us the H/w and S/w specs?

Currently slowtrav.com is on shared hosting at www.crystaltech.com . Our dedicated server is with them too. It is a Windows server (because our site uses ASP code)

This whole thing has been pretty interesting so far. We can logon to our server from our computer at home (although I am always a bit nervous when logged into it - what if the cat jumped on the keyboard and I erased slowtrav?).

HARDWARE: Intel® Pentium® 4 Hyper-Threaded, 3.0GHz speed, 120GB IDE hard drive, 1GB PC2100 DDR memory, 500GB bandwidth allowed

SOFTWARE: Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition,
Microsoft IIS 6.0, Microsoft DNS and Terminal Services, an FTP program, SmarterMail and SmarterStats. We installed PHP for PhotoPost and purchased some ASP modules that we use. Also security software. Plus we got a hardware firewall.

More info on the CrystalTech site

We got CrystalTech to install most of the software for us and their suport guys are helping us get everything configured. We bought managed services, so they look after the server somewhat.

Chris and Steve are both techies, but neither of them have done much on a Windows server. Steve runs one at home for his development system, so knows some stuff.

We have a schedule for moving slowtrav.com to the server, but the first step is that I have about 3 weeks of work to do - and have been doing it for a month - probably still 3 weeks to go. We are aiming for mid-October. If I am extra bitchy on the board between now and then, blame the server!!

We are so consumed with this - it is great to find out someone besides us, and Chris, is interested!!

Remember it is just slowtrav.com and slowphotos.com moving to the dedicated server. The message board, slowtalk.com, runs at Groupee in Seattle.

quote:

Originally posted by Pauline:
We are so consumed with this - it is great to find out someone besides us, and Chris, is interested!!

Not disinterested, Pauline. Just computer-stupid.
I do appreciate all that you all are doing; I just have a little trouble with some of the computer-ese language.

Should all that information about the specs be "out there", in today's world of hacks?

Don't want to belabor it, though. Just want you to know that if it's anything that will make your lives easier, or make this site function better (not that there's anything wrong with it!!), then I'm behind you 200%.

This is information anyone could figure out. I did not say which FTP program we installed or which security program - that is info we don't want public. But everything else anyone can find out.

There is a site - www.netcraft.com - where you can find out where any website is hosted, IP address, operating system.

We do not have any sensitive information on SlowTrav - all classifieds payments are done thru PayPal and message board memberships through Groupee. We do not have credit card information. We don't have member names and addresses - nothing to worry about being hacked.

Unless some clever hacker out there wants to know how to return his rental car at Rome airport!!! Oh wait, that is public info!!

Someone could hack us to bring us down - and we had an attempt once - but that was on another webhost and was only our photo gallery. If a hacker brought down the site, we could have the whole thing restored in a few minutes.

So no worries! (At this point, we are most worried about ourselves screwing things up on the site.)

Hola

quote:

HARDWARE: Intel® Pentium® 4 Hyper-Threaded, 3.0GHz speed, 120GB IDE hard drive, 1GB PC2100 DDR memory, 500GB bandwidth allowed

Oh my God! I want one. Please please please? (that bandwidth is breathtaking)

My website got hacked last week. They brute forced the cpanel and uploaded two folders full of links to porn sites and other rubbish. The folders were named in a similar way to my folders so that a brief glance you wouldn't notice anything amiss

I guess they were just stealing the processing power of my server.

Anyway I deleted them and changed passwords.

I have had 1000's unique visits to my web site this week for those files all generating 404 errors. hahahahahaha.

Take care Pauline and Steve and Chris. Try not to click on the delete instead of the backup icon.. Why do they always put those buttons so close together?

Good luck with the migration

Clive

Is that 500Gigabits? That is awesome.

The other specs are within my reach.

My main PC runs AMD Athlon 3500, 1 Gbyte DDR400 (PC3200) Dual Channel, 4 x 80Gb 8Mb buffer in a RAID 0+1 array, 200Gb backup drive.

I also use a DLink gateway as a firewall. So much easier than a software firewall.

Clive, what bandwidth do you have for your web server?. I was thinking of upgrading my internet connection to 512/512kb.

1000 MB web hosting space, 35 email accounts, webmail

10,000 MB data transfer, antivirus, antispam, preinstalled scripts such as forum, coppermine or gallery.

10 uk quid per month. I run 2 sites with them.(the second site is a work in progress.sshhh)

I use www.pickaweb.co.uk

I use them because their 24 hour support really means that. I have never known the live chat to be unmanned and they fix the stuff I break.

(hope this isn't advertising)

Clive

Is Slow Photos down?

SlowPhotos is up - we have not moved it yet. I am now thinking we might wait until after we move SlowTrav.

Pah. Lightweight. Do 'em all at once and buy a few extra monitors.

Thank Mat - so we should just forget this moving slow and testing nonsense? Copy everything over at once and just "go for it"? Hummm, no - I think we will be cautious.

For the last month (and more) I have been doing an extremely boring task to get ready for this move - converting the navigation columns on the site from ones automatically generated by FrontPage to SSI (server side includes) that we will use with DreamWeaver. I have been posting all over the Internet about this trying to find an easier solution. But no - I just have to go into each page and redo the navigation column.

I am going insane doing this - but I have to get it done before we can move to DreamWeaver and then to the server.

This is my penance for the design sins of my past.

I have had some good advice on all this - Mat (with the snarky post above) has been a great help and Gloria's boyfriend Marcel ( www.marcelgordon.it ), web designer extraordinare, has been a big help. Plus people on various message boards.

But, it is obvious that I am posting here to avoid the tedious work I must do.

I want to get it done this week - and then next week we convert to DW and put the site on the server. Chris (who does all the ASP programming) is out of town so it is perfect timing for me to be doing this (so she is not working on the site at the same time).

Back to work....