Cumulus Support

For the last 5 years Davis Jamieson - formerly a frequent member of this forum - has been hosting my web pages. I've received an email from him today announcing the service is being withdrawn. That's fair enough. David doesn't use the service himself so there's no reason he would continue it for us.

There are 6 of us who are currently being hosted. I had a quick search of top UK web-hosters but David put me off the no 1 - GoDaddy - due to bad customer experience.

He has recommended swbroadband.co.uk to me and their prices look pretty good. He's asked them about weather updates and is awaiting their reply.

Steve, I read the FAQ and the update uses around 500Kb each time. For options like NOAA which I guess only need to be refreshed once a day is there any way I can restrict the upload to once each 24 hours? I'm guessing the answer is no otherwise you would have already announced it.

The NOAA updates do only get uploaded once a day, unless you've actually listed them on the 'files' page. For any other files, one way to get them uploaded only once a day would be to get Cumulus to process them at the normal interval, but not ftp them, and then use the 'daily command' option to run a file to do the ftp.

I've been thinking about offering web space again, as I am no longer restricted by Microsoft from doing that. I actually have a VPS which isn't doing much at the moment, so I could set up something on there. I have a few people that I'm hosting Cumulus sites for on my Dreamhost space (the same server that this forum runs on) on an informal basis. Some of them send me a donation once a year, some don't bother, and some of them may not even be using it any more.

Bandwidth on the VPS wouldn't be an issue, I have 2TB/month total. There would have to be some kind of limit on disk space (I have 40GB), and the VPS has a fairly low RAM allocation, so there couldn't be too much fancy processing going on.

Ray, I can't really help you on a recommendation for a host, but I will definitely warn you off of Godaddy. Weather folks on this side of the west side of the Atlantic have recently run into some serious problems...websites inaccessible (for days in some instances...one guy was close to a week). Other problems have been ftp down...so the website is there but the data is stale. GD advertises a 99% uptime...take that with a box of salt.

Ed

PS...to be fair and balanced, I'm locked into GD for a couple of more years.<sigh> I did have problems but my website is up and running fine now, though I heard yesterday where some others were having problems again. Here's a link to some conversation about the problems: http://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=22145.0 Until they quit packing accounts on servers like rice in a bag I don't see an end to their problems. FWIW.

steve wrote:The NOAA updates do only get uploaded once a day, unless you've actually listed them on the 'files' page. For any other files, one way to get them uploaded only once a day would be to get Cumulus to process them at the normal interval, but not ftp them, and then use the 'daily command' option to run a file to do the ftp.

That's handy to know. I don't suppose there's an idiot's guide to that is there Steve? It's just the final 'daily command' bit I'm unclear about.

I've been thinking about offering web space again, as I am no longer restricted by Microsoft from doing that. I actually have a VPS which isn't doing much at the moment, so I could set up something on there. I have a few people that I'm hosting Cumulus sites for on my Dreamhost space (the same server that this forum runs on) on an informal basis. Some of them send me a donation once a year, some don't bother, and some of them may not even be using it any more.

Bandwidth on the VPS wouldn't be an issue, I have 2TB/month total. There would have to be some kind of limit on disk space (I have 40GB), and the VPS has a fairly low RAM allocation, so there couldn't be too much fancy processing going on.

That's good of you. Checking my Cumulus size on the web server shows it's 2Mb for nearly 5 years data. David gave me a monthly bandwidth of around 3Gb. I take it that wouldn't be an issue. I'd certainly make a regular donation.

I don't think I do any fancy stuff. Certainly nothing like Mark does down the road from me. One possibility is a webcam. I keep blowing hot and cold on it but should I ever get one I assume that would be beyond what you were comfortable with.

I'll bring this thread to David's attention as I notice he's still shown as a forum moderator. He doesn't have an active weather station any more as he moved a few years ago and maintenance from a few hundred miles away was proving challenging!

RayProudfoot wrote:That's handy to know. I don't suppose there's an idiot's guide to that is there Steve? It's just the final 'daily command' bit I'm unclear about.

It would be just the same as in the example in the wiki, but you would put the command in the 'daily' box - http://wiki.sandaysoft.com/a/SFTP

I'd certainly make a regular donation.

If I was going to do it, I would do it on a more formal 'fixed price' basis, rather than donations. I've become more and more disappointed with the level of donations I get for Cumulus, considering the amount of work I put in. I have to admit that I do sometimes feel aggrieved when there are people on the forum who have been using Cumulus for quite some time, and who have had a lot of help from me (and others), and who have never donated (while others like yourself have made multiple and/or substantial donations). But I only have myself to blame for that, I guess. I'm seriously considering that the next version of Cumulus will be fully 'commercial' (including support) and that I will stop doing support for this version of Cumulus. But this is going off-topic...

I would have to work out what a reasonable price would be to make it worthwhile me doing hosting. It's unlikely that I would do it for less that the £15 per year that the place you linked to are offering. How soon do you need to have something set up?

I personally would recommend Vidahost, have my weather site on their servers and never had any problem with bandwidth down time, or silly rules about what you can and cannot FTP etc.

I also run a car Forum with 29,000 members on their servers as well as a Shooting Ground website and various other sites that I manage.

All their personnel are UK based and Support if you have a problem is almost instantaneous and you can either place a support ticket via email or speak to their people on an 0800 number. They are real techies not people following scripts and they usually sort problems (they will be rare!!) very quickly.

They have variety of server packages but one excellent thing they do is give you three years of server for the price of two years, makes it a very cheap way of buying computer power.

See https://www.vidahost.com/

steve wrote:I would have to work out what a reasonable price would be to make it worthwhile me doing hosting. It's unlikely that I would do it for less that the £15 per year that the place you linked to are offering. How soon do you need to have something set up?

Hi Steve,

That sounds more than reasonable. I'd be quite happy to contribute more. David wants to close things down within 14 days if possible.

I'll answer your other points in slower time. Same goes to others who have contributed to this thread.

Do I hear my name being used?! LOL

Hi guys, yes I am alive. Sadly no longer in the weather circles. I moved house a few years ago but a neighbour kindly agreed to keep an eye on the station. It became temperamental and difficult for me to maintain a few hundred miles away so it had to end.

As Ray has mentioned I am looking to terminate my hosting. At one point i was hosting almost 100 Cumulus sites but it has been down to 6 for the last few years and I guess it is time to help them move to something else.

Great if you could help them select a provider.

Hello, stranger. Hope all is well. Thornhill, eh? Know it well, we lived in Wanlockhead for a couple of years, and we used the vets there. I seem to remember some good ice cream, and perhaps also some good pies from somewhere there...

Ed,

Thanks for the link to the GoDaddy discussion. They're off my shortlist now.

David, thanks for the recommend. It's an alternative should one be required.

Steve, it's disappointing that donations have dropped so much. I agree that any future version should be a paid for application. Maybe a trial version that runs for 24-48 hours could be offered too.

I don't know how much work would be involved in this but how about a Donor logo in user's info area to the left. Only you would be able to implant that. It would identify those who haven't paid and perhaps shame them into making one. Maybe forum posting restrictions too for non-donors in the Cumulus support section? Max 10 posts before you're locked out?

Bit draconian maybe but why should those who don't make a contribution enjoy the same privileges as those who do? Food for thought.

Ray
I have used http://www.qiq.co.uk for hosting for 3 years or so and would recommend them.

They charge £26.99/year for the basic hosting but I have my weather website and two other small ones on that and there has never been a problem.

The support is very prompt and because they are based in UK and Australia there is good 24/7 support coverage.

I host a few domains with an Australian hosting company, VentraIP. 20GB storage, unlimited bandwidth for $12 per month.
Their sister company Zuver has even cheaper hosting, 5GB of storage and 10GB of bandwidth for $2 per month. I actually have a multihosting account with Zuver, 10 cPanel accounts for $8 per month. This allows for multiple independent domains all separately managed. 10GB storage and 250GB bandwidth. No connection with either company except as a satisfied customer.

steve wrote:Hello, stranger. Hope all is well. Thornhill, eh? Know it well, we lived in Wanlockhead for a couple of years, and we used the vets there. I seem to remember some good ice cream, and perhaps also some good pies from somewhere there...

Hi Steve. I'm about a mile outside Thornhill in the hills; lovely area. I've yet to make it to Wanlockhead but will visit in the summer.

It would be great if you could host the six sites I have left. Ray uses about 3GB a month of data transfer but the others are much less. I can give exact details if needed.

For now I am pointing each of them at this thread when (if) they get back to me.

thanks

There's a free hosting service at this site http://www.jabry.net/
I've no idea what it's like though. It was pointed out to me by fellow member Buford T. Justice.
Just throwing it out there as an option.

Steve, please feel free to delete this post if it's stepping on your plans for paid hosting.

Thank you to those who have suggested alternative sites. For now I'm sticking with Steve. Should the time come when I need to look at alternatives your suggestions will be helpful.

Of course there are 5 others who also need to move so this thread may be helpful to them.