Monthly Operating Expenses

Eugene Shubert · Posted: Mon Nov 25, 2002 1:10 pm Post subject:

Thanks for asking Nic.

This web site that I run is a ministry project of a religious, non-profit Texas corporation that I am a part of. At the present time donations can only be accepted by regular mail. Receipts for tax purposes for all donations can only be sent the same way.

Those wishing to support this ministry should contact me by email.

Our current monthly expense for bandwidth and storage for this forum is ten dollars a month. In the future, when the traffic exceeds our given bandwidth or all the posted data our storage limit, then the next plateau we’ll need to jump to costs $14 a month. As you’ve surmised, the real expense is the time it takes to manage the forum.

pgp_protector · is under review Joined: 18 Aug 2003 Posts: 4

It looks like your hosting with

http://venturesonline.com/hosting/v50.html

Correct me if I am wrong, but that is a bit high pricing for what you get now a days.
You only get 50Meg of storage , including your SQL storage.

You may want to check out lunar pages.
They will give you 500Meg of storage and 20Gig of transfer, though you only get 1 SQL database.

Though with 1 SQL Database you can still do a lot. Right now Im running 4 Msgboards and the Full bible on that 1 database.
_________________
Site 1 Under Total Rebuild www.computers-4-christ.com
Site 2 for my Church Tech Department http://ctech.gw4y.com

Eugene Shubert · Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2003 1:47 pm Post subject:

pgp,

Doesn't the package you're describing cost $25/month? Right now my disk usage is 30MB. I realize hosting is a lot cheaper elsewhere on high-end packages, but this board is still small potatoes. I do intend on moving when storage gets to 45MEG, if not before.

Does Lunar hosting do nightly backups? I think that's a nice feature. I get the impression that phpBBs are terrible when it comes to reinstalling backups. I worry about that.

pgp_protector · is under review Joined: 18 Aug 2003 Posts: 4

No, 7.95 Paid per year The 22 A month gives you 800 Megabytes Storage and 60 Gigabytes Data Transfer.

and as for backups, you dont need to backup your PHP files, just the database (MySQL).

I do my own backups once a week using MySQL-Front, it lets me copy the DataBase to a Local MySQL Server that I have running at home. No problems yet, been with them for a Year so far.
_________________
Site 1 Under Total Rebuild www.computers-4-christ.com
Site 2 for my Church Tech Department http://ctech.gw4y.com

Eugene Shubert · Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2003 4:26 pm Post subject:

pgp

By all means, post your host's URL and I will check it out.

I do regular backups also but it's the restore feature that I worry about. I tried to restore once and it didn't work. It seems to me that there has always been oodles of complaints on the phpBB board on the failure of the software to restore the database. I don't think it's going to be fixed until 2.2.

How difficult will my move be to another host?

Tell me about the Mods that you're developing.

pgp_protector · is under review Joined: 18 Aug 2003 Posts: 4

To Backup you site (It looks like it is all PHPBB),

1) FTP the PHPBB Directory & all Sub Directories. (You Will Also Do This For Moving The Forum)
a) This only will need to be done when you actually change the PHPBB files. I.E. You Upgrade from 2.0.4 to 2.0.6 or install mods and such

2) Back up the Database (This is where all your postings are stored)
a) I Use "MySQL-Front" and a Local copy of MySQL Server
b) Connect to your local SQL Server
c) Connect to your Hosting Providers SQL Server with second window
d)You will then use "Export Tables", export both the Structure & Data FROM your Host to Your Local Server to Backup
e) To Restore, Just Run the "Export Tables" From your Local Server to Your Hosting Provider.

3) When Moving your to a new host, you will need to cange a few files
a) Change Config.php
1) Change the $dbhost,$dbname,$dbuser,$dbpaswd to the new ones provided by the New Host

4) That should do it for moving the forum to a new host.

One Mod Im working on is the DB Bible

http://www.computers-4-christ.com/bible/Bible.php

You can configure it to work both Inside or Outside of the PHPBB system
The Above link is it working Outside the PHPBB System
the Following Link is it working Inside the PHPBB System

http://ctech.gw4y.com/CTMSG/Bible.php

If you do decide to move, first setup the account & transfer the msgboard & make shure it is working, then Move the DNS to point to the new host.

Also post on the Old forum the Temporary location of the New forum so the users can contune posting without missing a beat.
_________________
Site 1 Under Total Rebuild www.computers-4-christ.com
Site 2 for my Church Tech Department http://ctech.gw4y.com

Eugene Shubert · Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2003 10:31 pm Post subject:

PGP,

Did you post the URL for lunar pages? I'd like to check them out.

It would be nice to get re-hosted when phpBB 2.2 is finished. Do you have any idea when it will be ready? Also, did you ever get the missing email notification with the activation link for this forum?

Thanks for all your help.