Semi dedicated or dedicated server?

[Jamie]

My website’s bandwidth is over 200 GB per month and diskspace usage is 2700 MB

What determines one going from a semi dedicated to dedicated server?

My web host shut my site down without notice a few month ago because they said I was getting too much traffic and suggested I change to a semi dedicated server which I did and now they closed by site again, without notice, saying I am “running high IO constantly” whatever that is. My traffic is about the same over the last view months. Is this normal behavior one should expect from a web host shutting your site down without any notice and telling you to upgrade?
How much should one pay a month for a dedicated server? Any suggestions where I should go?

[advancedmerchant]

1) From your signature link, I think they may have closed your account due to their objection to your content (?) rather than your bandwidth usage. I have heard of "Russian Bride" sites being closed for the same reason...

2) Just don't use Hostway!

3) Dedicated servers can run $50 to $500 per month, depending on the company, but I don't think you need one, just a more honest and reputable hosting provider.

[craigmn3]

If they closed it because of traffic concerns , they are just trying to get more money out of you. Many big webhosters are offering unlimited traffic, but they do put restrictions on pornogrpahic sites.

[ronchalice]

If you're using a database I recommend you check your SQL logs before getting in too much of a panic. Could just be that you have some slow-running queries that need to be tuned.

Then again, I also agree with the comments that it could be your content making them nervous. You might carefully read the TOS to make sure you're within guidelines. If you're on the edge, they might be using IO as a simpler excuse than trying to enforce gray areas in the TOS.

[edhan]

I do not think hosting provider simply shutting down sites without valid reasons. So, you might have violated their Terms of use. I have several clients happened to crash the server with the wrong setting of autoresponder that keeps sending emails back and forth causing it to loop endlessly. Solution was to temporarily shutdown to remove the affected emails and later resume.

So, I think you will need to find out why your site is having the surge of traffic. Send them an email to find out if you can't figure out. I think they will be glad to explain.

[Jamie]

They didn’t shut me down due to content of the site. As I said they did this before at the beginning of the year and told be to upgrade to a more expensive plan. And then they did it again early this week saying the same thing. I am now back up but I was wondering is this typical hosting service shut you down without notice until you pay more money. It appears this is not suitable or standard behavior. When I asked questions to provide more details why this was happening they answered only with a link to make a payment. The company is webhost4life. When I read hosting review sites I would find a site that would give a good review of a hosting company and then when I go to another review site I would find the same company getting bad reviews. Does anyone have any comments about gatorhost? Looks like I can get a dedicated for around $200.

[edhan]

They didn’t shut me down due to content of the site. As I said they did this before at the beginning of the year and told be to upgrade to a more expensive plan. And then they did it again early this week saying the same thing. I am now back up but I was wondering is this typical hosting service shut you down without notice until you pay more money. It appears this is not suitable or standard behavior. When I asked questions to provide more details why this was happening they answered only with a link to make a payment. The company is webhost4life. When I read hosting review sites I would find a site that would give a good review of a hosting company and then when I go to another review site I would find the same company getting bad reviews. Does anyone have any comments about gatorhost? Looks like I can get a dedicated for around $200.

That is weird as I have yet to come across hosting provider doing that. Anyway, I have been hosting dedicated BSDRack Servers for my clients and do not encounter getting shut down for upgrade. So far for my own Server, my provider asked me to upgrade a higher plan as I am utilizing too high resources for the basic dedicated Server to handle. There are 3 different dedicated Servers - basic, medium, high. I always start with basic and when the Server needs more resources then I will upgrade it.

PM me if you are interested in hosting.

[JasonJersey]

My website’s bandwidth is over 200 GB per month and diskspace usage is 2700 MB

What determines one going from a semi dedicated to dedicated server?

My web host shut my site down without notice a few month ago because they said I was getting too much traffic and suggested I change to a semi dedicated server which I did and now they closed by site again, without notice, saying I am “running high IO constantly” whatever that is. My traffic is about the same over the last view months. Is this normal behavior one should expect from a web host shutting your site down without any notice and telling you to upgrade?
How much should one pay a month for a dedicated server? Any suggestions where I should go?

Have you ever considered cloud web hosting? A very powerful alternative to those expensive overloaded dedicated servers.