Any server hosting experts from USA?

[Sami]

I'm looking into the possibility for adding a mirror to USA for our servers. (well not actually a mirror but more of a "North America server" that would have additional game worlds; and quicker access for NA customers)

As I feel that Googling around for the best hosting solution is not the preferred way to find a quality provider I'm posting this to see if there are users around who have expertise about dedicated server hosting in USA. Contacts to companies, tips for good providers ..etc.  (PM me.)

[Sigma]

Was this an issue in your recent survey, sami?  

I know you've asked the question before and I didn't think it was a problem.  I know that, without a doubt, AWS is one of my most consistently fast websites I visit; and without a doubt the fastest forum, and I visit a lot of them.  It's always in the 50-100ms range with virtually never any packetloss or lag spikes of any kind.

[swiftus27]

perhaps it is to allow him to have another game up? 

[Ilyushin]

I know that, without a doubt, AWS is one of my most consistently fast websites I visit; and without a doubt the fastest forum, and I visit a lot of them.  It's always in the 50-100ms range with virtually never any packetloss or lag spikes of any kind.

Same here.

Ilyushin

[Sami]

Not an issue, but was thinking that a mirror to SFO for example may be beneficial for both American and Aussies for example?  As surely connection from west coast to Europe is already rather long/slowish?

[JumboShrimp]

Not an issue, but was thinking that a mirror to SFO for example may be beneficial for both American and Aussies for example?  As surely connection from west coast to Europe is already rather long/slowish?

I don't know how much speed (bandwidth, latency improvements) it would add.  Accessing from New York City, the site is reasonably responsive.

It may be a better idea to add a few optimizations to "slow" pages, or overall, streamline the UI so that a fewer page loads would be needed.
The slow pages are:
- demand for a route page (including graph etc).  Slowest by far from NYC.  Best way, IMO, would be to reduce the need to call up this page repeatedly.  If an abreviated summary of the demand graph could be added to Open New Route listing (average demand, supply, player provided capacity).  This would probably cut down the need to call up this page by 90%, if not more.
- Opening New Route.  Well, a lot goes on on that page, server callbacks etc.  It is fine for opening single 1234567 route.  But doing it 7 times for 7 day rotating schedule is a major PITA.  Implementing an automated 7-day schedule creation into Route Opening page would go a long way to fix this.  It would greatly reduce the tedium (clicking, waiting, clicking, waiting), and increase enjoyment of the game (especially for veteran players who do these schedules).

The implementation of the 7-day thing might affect a bunch of places, but if treated as a group, it could be reasonably manageable to deal with them (programming wise).  The way to keep them as a group is to keep the existing Flight table (keeping the flight times the same for the group) and adding additional table with just 3 fields Flight ID (pointing back to the existing table), Day of Week, AircraftID would probably do the trick 

- List of Destinations and Airlines - can be sluggish, but this page does not need to be reloaded many times.  So speed is not of the essence here.  Collapsing 7 days schedules here would shrink this page significantly, improving load times.

[RushmoreAir]

Same here.

Ilyushin

I live in South Dakota, USA (smack dab in the middle), and AWS is one of the few websites which I consistently lose packets, etc.  At least twice per day, I get a "server not responding" message from my web browser.  It could be just because of my location, but all Scadinavian-based websites have the same thing happen, though not to this extent.

I think a North American server would be kinda nice.

[Sigma]

I live in South Dakota, USA (smack dab in the middle), and AWS is one of the few websites which I consistently lose packets, etc.  At least twice per day, I get a "server not responding" message from my web browser.  It could be just because of my location, but all Scadinavian-based websites have the same thing happen, though not to this extent.

I think a North American server would be kinda nice.

That's gotta be your ISP.

I work out of Lincoln, NE -- probably not more than a couple hours away from you unless you live on the west side, and, as I mentioned earlier, I have absolutely zero problems.  Even when travelling, which is most of the time, I normally tunnel through my home PC -- so I'm bouncing to my home PC and then bouncing out from there to AWS -- and never any problems at all.

Of course given the fact the last time I was in South Dakota (about 6 weeks ago in Sioux Falls) the internet in the hotel was not working and the excuse the ISP gave was that it was "too cold for the internet to work", so with that sort of expertise up there it's not surprising that some ISPs could have "technical" problems.

[JumboShrimp]

I live in South Dakota, USA (smack dab in the middle), and AWS is one of the few websites which I consistently lose packets, etc.  At least twice per day, I get a "server not responding" message from my web browser.  It could be just because of my location, but all Scadinavian-based websites have the same thing happen, though not to this extent.

I think a North American server would be kinda nice.

I notice a couple of short outages in last coupe of weeks.  I think Sami mentioned he was doing some work on the server.  I am wondering if you are referring to those.  "Server not responding" very much souds like there is some work being done on the AWS servers, rather than connectivity issue from the US to Scandinavia.

[tman558]

i am currently having some issues as well (losing server connection). Would a Canadian server work? (from business perspective)

[DHillMSP]

- Opening New Route.  Well, a lot goes on on that page, server callbacks etc.  It is fine for opening single 1234567 route.  But doing it 7 times for 7 day rotating schedule is a major PITA.  Implementing an automated 7-day schedule creation into Route Opening page would go a long way to fix this.  It would greatly reduce the tedium (clicking, waiting, clicking, waiting), and increase enjoyment of the game (especially for veteran players who do these schedules).

The implementation of the 7-day thing might affect a bunch of places, but if treated as a group, it could be reasonably manageable to deal with them (programming wise).  The way to keep them as a group is to keep the existing Flight table (keeping the flight times the same for the group) and adding additional table with just 3 fields Flight ID (pointing back to the existing table), Day of Week, AircraftID would probably do the trick 

+1 from me.   

[DennisN]

Sami,

www.Slicehost.com is an excellent hosting company.  Pricing is excellent and performance is top notch.  They were actually aquired by Rackspace.com a couple of years ago and remained a separate product that Rackspace doesn't advertise.

Have a look and good luck!  Your site is fantastic!

[zorbon]

About 4 or 5 years ago I rented a high end ($400/month) server from http://hostforweb.com/ for about 6 months
Anyhoo it was great, they bent over backwards for me
They've grown larger since I had an account with them, so i'm not sure if they're still as good...

I'm going to be using http://www.tektonic.net/index.html for the company I just started. I'm not sure if they have dedicated servers, but their VPS deals are great!