PS. Does anyone know how to determine what size of server one needs for a site such as this one?

I don't think so when it comes to the file uploads onto the forum -- however, I will check this out. It would be possible with the FTP files, however, I believe the URL would have to change... unless there is a way to host one website on two or more different servers using the same URL. I think that should be possible, but I don't know how to do it exactly. I'll look more into this when I have more energy. I have a flu and it has beaten me to another reality.

Is it possible to keep the text/html content where it is, and put the actually files that are uploaded/downloaded (pdf's etc) somewhere else? Like hosted on a different server or even multiple servers, possibly even your own server if that was possible

I don't think so when it comes to the file uploads onto the forum -- however, I will check this out. It would be possible with the FTP files, however, I believe the URL would have to change... unless there is a way to host one website on two or more different servers using the same URL. I think that should be possible, but I don't know how to do it exactly. I'll look more into this when I have more energy. I have a flu and it has beaten me to another reality.

YES, it can be done. I've installed download protection to my FTP account, so web-bots and leeching software don't over-whelm the server. Will send you both a more detailed PM on how?

Example: http://127.0.0.1/WizardX/download.php?f=calea.pdf

It would be possible with the FTP files, however, I believe the URL would have to change... unless there is a way to host one website on two or more different servers using the same URL. I think that should be possible, but I don't know how to do it exactly. I'll look more into this when I have more energy. I have a flu and it has beaten me to another reality.

You could add a subdomain and route it to the new server so the URL wouldn't be too different.  lib.thevespiary.org or similar.

Why can't you backup data from the new server?  Can you request a shell account or cron jobs so you can just zip everything up and grab it via ftp?

(actually, you can do it via php, but you'd be using system commands assuming they're not disabled and it's a little more messy)

Well, you could try wget to archive the site, then tar.bz2 it to bring it to a small size.

The thing with that is he'd probably have to get it approved first like the cron backups because of the bandwidth usage.

i can't believe the site is really 33gb, that's pretty big, but then i've never moderated a forum before either.  i just couldn't imagine it being that large, even with the ftp directories.  wow.

if you were to run the site yourself that would be the cheapest route i'd imagine, as long as you can supply proper bandwidth.  just don't use IIS, doing a LAMP setup is always what i've heard recommended but i don't know linux well enough to comment further as i'm more of a lan/wan guy.  why does your ISP want to charge you with a business plan instead of residential?  why would they have to know if you're running a web server or not?  i don't have comcast so i'm not familiar with how they do business, that's why i ask.  keep in mind if you want people to get decent download speeds then your upload speeds are going to have to be pretty good.  broadband and dsl are notorious for crap upload speeds but i've eaten my own words with saying that before, ya never know really... because this depends just as much on their topology and where you fit into it as it does the plan you purchase from them.  you can't control where you physically fit into their topology and basically how well that bandwidth you purchase is going to be utilized for your needs until you just try speed tests at different days/times to see if anyone else is going to be grabbing all your bandwidth before it gets to you (keeping in mind that comcast/broadband is shared).  or you could go with dsl and not worry about shared bandwidth, there is comparably fast dsl that can compete head-on with broadband if you're close enough to fiber, but then you might be unlucky and be routed through an over-subscribed router as your next hop.  these are things you can't control but need to keep in the back of your head as they all play a part in the overall performance and latency of the website.  your current host probably has metro ethernet or a T-carrier circuit of some sort to deliver stable, steady, reliable download/upload speeds with bandwidth throttling.  if you have any type of UTM box in front of your server then perhaps you can pull off some traffic shaping / throttling as well to keep some greedy asshole from saturating your bandwidth.  these are all things your current provider has in place and you'll have to take into consideration.  you want functionality but performance as well.  look at what happened to WD with their DoS attack that took them down for quite some time, things of that nature that you don't have to deal with now but might (hopefully not!) at some point in time if you administrate it yourself.

i'd have to agree with the statements above, why not password protect the FTP like the forum?  that would make sure that all the traffic traversing the entire website is legit traffic from members but you'd lose google being able to turn up results for those individual ftp pages.  then you wouldn't need authentication protected access to rhodium because they'd already have to authenticate to even get to the ftp index page anyway.  i dunno, just some ideas.  i say put the whole website behind authentication, ftp section, forum, and all.  stop the random googlers from hitting the ftp so only legit members do.  but then you're reducing your exposure to google, which may be a good or bad thing depending on how you look at it.

NPH, thanks for your input. 33GB seems pretty large to me as well, but thats what it says

How could WD help?

NPH, thanks for your input. 33GB seems pretty large to me as well, but thats what it says

You might be able archive a stripped down version like they used to do at RS. Heisenberg probably knows more.

Well, if I set a limit like he says is possible, and it would only download new material vs all of it every-time, that would be significantly less everything. problem is... SSH isn't offered I don't think... I need to look into it.

Either silver or gold accounts http://www.canaca.com/virtual.html would do nicely for you. Store files on Canaca with download links back here using a PHP script. Send you PM soon? Alternatively, you could move the entire forum to Canaca Silver or Gold?

Forgot to add this...

Online Synchronization 1.0 http://www.sourcecodeonline.com/details/online_synchronization.html

* Database to database synchronization.
* Database to file synchronization through ftp(file transfer protocol).
* File to file synchronization.
* Custom synchronization.

1. Database to database synchronization: this synchronization provides the user to update the database from one server to another. In this online data synchronization one database format is converted into another database format through XML-RPC and then on other server it is again formatted accordingly. Mobile devices also doing same procedure when you connect to your computer or laptop. Online data synchronization procedure is completed through XML-RPC.
2. Database and file synchronization through ftp (file transfer protocol): in this online synchronization process database and files on one server can be synchronized together on another server through XML-RPC. Convert your Database into XML format and again convert XML format into your Database format. The synchronization is between the two servers. The server from which the database and files are transferred and the server on which these files are transferred.
3. File to file synchronization through ftp (file transfer protocol): in this online synchronization process only files on one server can be synchronized with the files on another server through XML-RPC and updated.
4. Custom synchronization: in this type of online synchronization you can choose the way you want to synchronize the files or database on other server through XML-RPC and updated. In this online synchronization your requirements are taken and then it is implemented accordingly.