What happens if your traffic skyrockets?

[frankiethepet]

If i buy shared hosting for say 4.95 a month, and suddenly my traffic skyrockets, what happens then?

Of course upgrade to larger hosting package, but inbetween that, what happens?

Does the site just go really slow,??
Do they turn off your site?
Do they charge you for the extra traffic and send a bill?
Do they kick you out??


Maybe really newbie questions here lol

 

[dotker]

depends how much CPU resource it will consume. That is very hard to tell because it is mostly dependent on the script you are using..

But i think a host should give you a warning before shutting down your site but most host don't they simply put down the site and wait for you to complain at them.

 

[dombastic]

they can charge you
but it would be better for you if they shut down your site (when the traffic is really huge)
because it can be very expensive

if it is just 100% or 500% increase, it is still ok (so they usually only charge you)
but it can be also 10,000% or 100,000% increase
(e.g. somebody mentions your domain on national tv by mistake)

 

[.Andy]

As mentioned above it really depends.

Of course what I said is what we would do although it verys from host to host.


If its a few mb over (say 20mb and its the end of the month) I'd cut you some slack

If its 10000% of what you should be consuming I would susspend the account and call/email/im/however else I can contact you immediately to see if you want to continue at X price. Some hosts wouldn't susspend you it just depends.

 

[dotker]

also if that worries you a lot look for a host that doesnt oversell, well MOST host do so if traffic becomes huge and budget permits get a dedicated server and someone to run that instead.

 

[ldcdc]

Does the site just go really slow,??

Unlikely to happen unless we're talking about a bad host. A shared hosting provider will act once the server starts getting overloaded, as it means hundreds of customers' sites being affected. It may be that you'll be reaching some protective limits that the host has in place (simultaneous processes/database connections, CPU usage etc.) which will result in your site's pages issuing errors, some of which may render the site useless.

Do they turn off your site?

That is a possibility, especially if the usage increase has been abrupt and the server's performance is significantly affected.

Do they charge you for the extra traffic and send a bill?

It depends on how the provider has things setup, or how you asked them to be setup. Some hosts will suspend the account when the data transfer limit is reached, while others will let the usage continue and bill you for it (keep in mind that the charges are often punitive, with $1+ per gigabyte not uncommon at all). Usually you're also notified when you reach say 80% of your monthly data transfer allocation.

Do they kick you out??

Not necessarily, but they may only give you the option of upgrading, which you may or may not be willing to do.

 

[alemcherry]

Depends on the host. Most probably they will warn you an then block your site. You may have to upgrade(if they have an option) or go for a VPS or dedicated server.

 

[CrazyTech]

Well, when it happens we usually work with the customer, so I'm most used to this route. Oftentimes, we're blessed to know a little something about the spike before it comes. We have folks all of the time drop us a line about it, and usually it's easy to pick up. It should be common to handle this scenario this way, but I am afraid that it is not common enough. (On top of that, you don't always know when you'll be slashdotted, for example.)

I've often come across complaints in the past of companies that just shut everything off and wait for the site owner to come to them. So believe me, it does happen. Honestly this is where overselling can really come back to bite the victim, because many of these oversold servers simply cannot handle a spike in traffic. Overselling hosts operate by volume, so they frankly don't care about the ramifications of losing a $4.95/month customer when there are hundreds of $4.95 accounts on the server.

Ideally, the host should have some excess capacity to handle a more moderate spike and maybe buy some time to get everything to a dedicated server. With this in mind, though, it's really a case of you get what you pay for.

 

[tristanperry]

If you are expecting traffic spikes, then cloud hosting could be for you - certainly better than risking being suspending from a shared hosting.

Of course, if it's just *one* spike and you go with a quality, non-over-the-top-overselling host, chances are you wouldn't get suspended.