»

[scotty5150]

What types of forums does Surpass support? I would like to host either SMF or vBulletin, if I choose to sign up here (small community).

I've had bad experiences with other hosts in the past (primarily StartLogic) with keeping forum databases stable and functioning on a shared server. How often do the auto-installed Fantastico forums experience problems here?

Also, can someone comment on how customer service here compares to HostGator?

Thanks!

[Bigjohn]

Shared hosting of a busy site can always be problematic... but Surpass does a pretty darn good job of providing support.

SMF is supported, and I've even used it integrated to Joomla

Can't tell you about the "fantastico" install, because I install my stuff manually for the most part.

[H]

Surpass can run any forum software that I'm aware of... vBulletin, phpBB, Vanilla (my favourite), SMF, punBB, Invision Power Board, etc...

You shouldn't really experience problems explicitly because of a Fantastico install. It the database is 'unstable' it could be due to a number of things, one of which being too much traffic for a shared server (exceeding connection limits). Regardless, so long as no one is abusing the server, your database should not go down.

I'm not familiar with HostGator's customer service, so I can't make such comparison.

Hope this helps.

[scotty5150]

It wasn't that my old forum became temporarily available, it literally crashed beyond repair. I understand there will be pockets of inaccessibility, I'm just looking for reassurance it won't go bye-bye.

[markscns]

My site has been running a SMF forum for well over two years without any problems on a shared server. Now keep in mind, it's a rather small forum.

If your site is rather busy, support would work with you to help you move to a better solution once you outgrew a shared server by possibly suggesting you move to either a VPS or dedicated solution.

Just make sure you keep the security patches up to date, SMF makes this extremely easy (all done right through the SMF admin panel).

[H]

Originally Posted by scotty5150

It wasn't that my old forum became temporarily available, it literally crashed beyond repair. I understand there will be pockets of inaccessibility, I'm just looking for reassurance it won't go bye-bye.

There's never a guarentee of that. You could get hacked, exploited, etc... and have data loss. What you should do is work on an automated back-up for your database. I'm not sure if CPanel 11 does this yet (it wouldn't surprise me if it doesn't though), but you can make a cron automate a back-up.

[scotty5150]

Originally Posted by H

There's never a guarentee of that. You could get hacked, exploited, etc... and have data loss.

Sure, I understand that. But my previous bad experiences with a couple other hosts weren't due to those types of problems. It was all host-related (sometimes new forums would crash in less than a day).

Was hoping to hear some testimonials to the contrary with Surpass, and everything sounds satisfactory so far.

I'm also pleased with this forum and the interaction with staff. Thanks for the help!

[MarkRH]

I've been running my SMF forum on here for sometime without any issues. There was one time where something on the server did cause me to loose all my databases (not just the forums), but they were able to restore them from the previous day's backup. So, at least in a shared environment (on my server) backups were being performed.

Since then, I have been using SMF's database backup feature in forum maintenance to download nightly backups to my own PC. Also, that particular hiccup has not happened again in many months.

[Bigjohn]

Originally Posted by scotty5150

Sure, I understand that. But my previous bad experiences with a couple other hosts weren't due to those types of problems. It was all host-related (sometimes new forums would crash in less than a day).

Whoa, that could suck.

Was hoping to hear some testimonials to the contrary with Surpass, and everything sounds satisfactory so far.

This is a user to user forum, with a lot of Surpass "staff" around too. And it's not CENSORED, for the most part. So, you'll see bad and good comments here. But if you look, you'll see a lot of active participants who have been around / online with this company for YEARS - I think I just started my 3rd?

I'm also pleased with this forum and the interaction with staff. Thanks for the help!

Like I said, a user to user forum, but lots of staff around. Just be a good neigbor on your server, and everyone will get along just fine!

(Welcome! You'll probably like it here....)