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Where is VAF Hosted?

s10sakota

Well Known Member
Perhaps a moderator can answer this question so I don't have pester Doug :)

Where is the VAF hosted? I run a similar website at www.ransclan.com for RANS airplanes and have started having issues with the server. I'd like to switch to a professional server like this one.

Thank you,

Mark


[ed. Here you go Mark: http://www.fpweb.net/ Not sure if they still do dedicated single servers for folks, as they talk about SharePoint a lot now. If not I'm sure they could recommend someone. BTW, the building is in St. Louis.....never seen it. More on their data centers: http://www.fpweb.net/data-centers/ dr]
 
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Update...

UPDATE: I contacted fpweb and they no longer offer web hosting. If they are still hosting VAF, they must have you grandfathered in or something. I guess they are taking no new hosting accounts.

I did ask if they could recommend a company-just waiting to hear back on that one...


Yeah Mark I think you're right, I'm grandfathered in. Sorry couldn't help you. I know there's a big hosting outfit here in Dallas. I'll try to research that. Dr
 
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I am personally a big fan and user of Rackspace. Excellent products and customer service. I run a Cloud instance for my blog and other personal stuff, it costs me about $12/month. (of course, this is for very low-traffic stuff)

What kind of traffic are you seeing on your site? That's a definite factor in what kind of host you want to go with.

I do this stuff for a living, so I'll try and help out if I can. :)
 
Phillip,

Google Analytics indicates that the RANS CLAN receives about 11,000 visits and 51,000 pageviews per month by about 2,400 people. Not sure how that compares to your site. But $12 a month is very reasonable-that's about what I pay now.

Here's a quick background just so you know where I'm at. I started the RANS CLAN in 2008 for the same reason Doug started VAF. I was building my second RANS kit and absolutely hated the Yahoo Groups type forum. I saw what Doug did for the RV community and I wanted the same thing for the RANS community. Plus, I thought I too can make millions just like Doug while hardly working at all :D

(I'm still mad at Doug for not telling me just how much work it is to maintain a website and forums!)

Anyway, before I started the CLAN, Doug was nice enough to talk to me on the phone and answer some questions. At the time he was using Frontpage 2003 so that's what I bought. I also purchased a DVD on how to use it. I studied the DVD and with many hours behind the computer, taught myself how to make a website.

After going through a few different forums software, I revamped the site with vBulletin and have been using it ever since with no problems.

My original server could not handle vBulletin so I paid an expert to move the website to the new server. I didn't feel confident doing this myself and I really didn't want to accidentally lose any info.

Making websites is something that I really enjoy doing. It's a hobby for me and I'm learning more and more all the time.

Now that my server has my website back online, the panic mode has faded and I've thought about what I need to do going forward.

I've decided to move away from FrontPage and currently I'm teaching myself Microsoft Expressions Web 4. My plan is to learn Expression, build a new updated website, and then publish it to a new server.

I will also need to move the current forums to the new server. Again, I will pay an expert to do this. If you do this kind of stuff for a living, you know lightyears more than me!

I will keep you info and perhaps when I'm ready you can assist me in setting me up on a new server. Thank you for the offer! I certainly don't mind paying for professional help when I need it.
 
[ed. Here you go Mark: http://www.fpweb.net/ Not sure if they still do dedicated single servers for folks, as they talk about SharePoint a lot now. If not I'm sure they could recommend someone. BTW, the building is in St. Louis.....never seen it. More on their data centers: http://www.fpweb.net/data-centers/ dr][/QUOTE]

Been by it and no big deal.
Aviation note: Headquarter building for fpweb.com is in Fenton about where Weiss airport was 15 years ago before closed after being over run by the surrounding office park.
 
I've heard....

It is often murmured that VAF runs on nuclear fission in an unknown military base somewhere deep in the Nevada desert.

If anything, these are only rumors heard from a friend of a friend..
 
It is often murmured that VAF runs on nuclear fission in an unknown military base somewhere deep in the Nevada desert.

That rumor has been discussed endlessly and really needs its own forum now. Obviously, it's silly. The exit cooling alone would swamp any theoretical gain you might expect, and DR has emphatically stated he will not fly his site behind alternative engines.

The truth is much more mundane. VAF servers run behind reliable Lycomings, just as you'd expect. The only nod to performance improvements was made a few years ago when one server was moved from an O-360 to an IO-540 to handle temporary demand whenever the primer wars would reignite. Jay Pratt did the motor mount, and I helped a little on the stretched cowling. You can trust the veracity of this story over your "rumors" as I have some old pictures around somewhere that I'll post when I can.

This "Super" server is a dream, and as long as you throttle back when demand is low (roughly 0200 to 0430, nightly), then the fuel burn is quite reasonable. Van himself has weighed in though, and has said in no uncertain terms that the factory can not and will not endorse such reckless mods over his proven server design. With over 8,000 machines in the man's data center, who am I to argue?

--
Stephen
 
Thank you all for the recommendations on hosting companies. I called and talked to each one, plus a few others. I was most impressed with BlueHost and that is who I am with now. I paid the pros there to move my website and forums to their servers. All is good :D
 
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