Well, your SySoP (system operator) has gone "off the hook"..
I am not sure this was the smartest move I have ever made, but I decided last night it was time to purchase a "dedicated" server for our community.

How many of you are now asking, "What the heck is a dedicated server!?"

If you are interested, I will explain...
A "dedicated server" is a computer that is completely ours on the internet. Every website has to have a "host" to store the website and all the information in it and make it available to visitors on the internet. Technically, you could do this from your own home, but it would be VERY slow unless you had a special high-speed data line that costs $800.00 and UP per month installed and the server & software to use. (Up to about $36,000 a month or more!)
Currently Prison Talk Online is being hosted along with quite a few other sites on the same physical server. This allows companies to offer space for relatively low amounts of money since each physical server/computer has up to 100 or more websites on it. (Up to 500 sites in some cases)
Problems start occurring when you add more and more websites to each server, and they become popular.
These web hosting plans are called "virtual hosting".
As PTO has been growing, I have been bumping up our plans to fit our size and activity level. Recently, I moved up to the largest plan they have available to cover our recent growth.. After looking over the logs, we will again go over our bandwidth limits this month and soon they will tell us to take a hike because we have been averaging more than 40 people online at times, which is the limit. The reasoning behind this is we are slowing down the server for other people that share it.. I can understand this because every time PTO has slowed down or given "Server Busy" notices, I call and yell at them..
So, what is a dedicated and what are the benefits? Basically, we have an entire server of our own, with NO OTHER websites on it to each up "bandwidth", and more importantly to us, processor power.. Instead of having a max of 500 MB's of space, we now will have 60 Gigabytes of storage space.. That is roughly 60,000 Megabytes.. Instead of having a maximum of 20 Gigabytes of transfer each month (which we are breaking! That is a lot of transfer by the way), we will have a max of 300 Gigabytes each month! So, if we want to put streaming video up on the site of events.. NO PROBLEM.. We will...

The only downside to this is that it is unmanaged by the company I am using.. That means a LOT more computer programming and updating, which I will be paying someone to do until I get in contact with an old friend that is a programmer for IBM and should have no problem with this..
It is also quite a bit more expensive but I am going to try and figure out ways to subsidize the costs.. For now I will let MasterCard take care of it..

At the moment, PTO is still being hosted by the same company that has hosted it for almost a year now, but I will hopefully have the new server ready for the transfer within the week.. Once we are completely ready for the move, it may take up to 1/2 a day to get everything transferred over. I will let everyone know ahead of time and then distribute an email to everyone prior to pulling the plug and transferring everything.

I'm sure some of you are now wondering if anything will be different here at our "house". The answer is NO. The only thing you will notice is a difference in the speed of the site. For some, it may be the same, but for those of you using higher speed connections, you should see a noticeable improvement in performance.

Within the month we should also see another update to the features here, but I will post that in another thread.

Hope everyone is as excited about PTO's expansion as I am!

David

PS. If any of you have a website that requires you to pay for hosting, I would be happy to host it for you for a bottom dollar price. We have PLENTY of space available, with performance you will not see at any discount or middle level host.

Wow David! This is very exciting!! My only worry is you paying for it on your Master Card. I was thinking of suggesting a monthly dues of say $5-$10. at least for those of us who can afford it. I know many can't, but many of us can and would love to contribute in any small way that we could. I think it's the least we can do to support PTO and all the great work you are doing here. We don't have to make them mandatory dues, but "suggested" dues. What do you think??

This is very exciting David! My only worry is you covering the cost on your Master card. I was thinking of maybe having "suggested" dues of $5 - $10 a month for those of us who can afford it. Not everyone can and that is why I don't say mandatory, but suggested. Most of us here would love to contribute in any small way that we can. What do you think??

So if I did understand well, we're moving to our own house now ? And it gonna be a big house, so we'll be able to rent rooms at low cost to less fortunate people than us. Is it correct ? Wow David you're a GREAT guy !!! I'm proud of being a PTO member !!! :)
hey David, we gonna have TV too in our new house ? Super !!
Yes, it's definitly very exciting !!! :D
All the best
Philippe

First thing....YAY!!!!!

Second thing...when you pull the plug, we won't be able to play for a while...is that right?

Third thing...YAY!!!!!

Yikes!!!

Teckie talk!!!

Didn't understand a word of it, David, but I suppose it's all good.

Menolly

David that is great! Just goes to show how important this site really is to so many people! I would love to help in any way that I can (money) How do I go about doing that? :)

I thought I posted on this earlier...but maybe not...

so YAY! about the server :D That's exciting and great news!

I do have a question though...when the server goes up (or down...whichever it is when you move it from one to the other)...we can't play here for a while. Is that right?

This is exciting though...it's like buying a bigger house with a bigger yard...more room for the kids to play! :)

The dedicated server is fully online and configured now and we are going to begin the transfer of PTO to our new location. IF all goes well, the site should be down only for about 10 minutes. If things don't go as smoothly as planned, the site may go down for a number of hours.
Just wanted to give everyone a heads up. I will be sending out a message to all members when we actually begin the process.
Thanks,
David

Dave,
I know exactly what you are doing. I was going to do it myself a few years ago. Here in Connecticut the line is 1,300 a month. The unit Server with a REAL firewall runs about 35,000 dollars. When you started PTO I hope you bought (copy right) the name instead of your server having it. If not, you will have a problem moving and keeping the PTO name.
Because you don't run ads/pop-ups etc., one can assume that you maybe selling the e-mail names to break even or make a buck.
You did do the right move. CONGRADULATIONS! I know the members will enjoy it a lot better even if they don't know what you are talking about. It's the high performance they will appreciate.
Good Luck with it!

The move of Prison Talk Online and all of our communities features is now complete. November 1, 2002. This is a few days shy of the day I originally turned PTO on and started working with. Lets consider this the date of conception. I'll list the official birth date soon. :)

I will be adjusting the forum attachment levels, photo image limits in the gallery, etc, to reflect the expanded options we now have.. :)

David

Hey David does that mean that we will have an actual date for the PTO anniversary???

(smile)

Pam

Yes, we will. :) You coming to the party??

Are you kidding?? I was getting so tired of seeing the most online at 88, that I was wondering how/when we could get new record. The PTO party it is! I bet this date will see a huge online get-together for our members!

Geez, a cyber-party...I guess it will also be a BRB party too!:D

Good idea, Pam! Let me find that date and we can plan the online birthday party. ;)
*Anyone else notice she is full of these... ((((Bright Ideas))))