Dying on slowness here...Help!

[kvmiller]

Hello. I've recently taken my somewhat-OK-slow site with (15) products, to a HORRIBLY-slow site with (~80) products. With the update, I added in OpenUI, and a few other modules (Viking Coders Temples -- all of them), CBS Shipping SuperMod, TinyCart, RecentlyViewedItems, etc.. I actually have some more modules I'd like to add in, as well as many more products, but am realizing that I'm loosing enough business with the way the site is now, there is not rush to add to it.

I know I'm getting LOTS of visitors (over 500 a day), since I keep cleaning-up all the abandoned baskets. Yes, I'm doing the DELETE, PACK, PACK several times a day. That is only helping a little bit.

I've started a support call with my hosting provider (Network Solutions), but am not getting much from them -- they of course are suggesting now that I drop all of my $1,000's of dollars in Miva related software, and several MONTHS of personal work, to go with their new e-Commerce choice, MonsterCommerce. NOT HAPPY.

I'm well aware that shared hosting can be slow (but for us small business owners, it's the affordable option we have). My question is what should I be expecting and/or asking of my hosting provider as far as performance? I'm currently getting between 30-40 seconds PER PAGE load times! There's no way any reasonable visitor is going to put up with this.

Suggestions? Thoughts? How do I get this thing to behave reasonably, or do I really toss all this out the window and get some other product?

Thanks!

Ken

http://secure.netsolhost.com/512977.523447/Merchant2/merchant.mvc

www.pastoralartisan.com (http://www.pastoralartisan.com)

[jason - jmh web services]

Hello. I've recently taken my somewhat-OK-slow site with (15) products, to a HORRIBLY-slow site with (~80) products. With the update, I added in OpenUI, and a few other modules (Viking Coders Temples -- all of them), CBS Shipping SuperMod, TinyCart, RecentlyViewedItems, etc.. I actually have some more modules I'd like to add in, as well as many more products, but am realizing that I'm loosing enough business with the way the site is now, there is not rush to add to it.

I know I'm getting LOTS of visitors (over 500 a day), since I keep cleaning-up all the abandoned baskets. Yes, I'm doing the DELETE, PACK, PACK several times a day. That is only helping a little bit.

I've started a support call with my hosting provider (Network Solutions), but am not getting much from them -- they of course are suggesting now that I drop all of my $1,000's of dollars in Miva related software, and several MONTHS of personal work, to go with their new e-Commerce choice, MonsterCommerce. NOT HAPPY.

I'm well aware that shared hosting can be slow (but for us small business owners, it's the affordable option we have). My question is what should I be expecting and/or asking of my hosting provider as far as performance? I'm currently getting between 30-40 seconds PER PAGE load times! There's no way any reasonable visitor is going to put up with this.

Suggestions? Thoughts? How do I get this thing to behave reasonably, or do I really toss all this out the window and get some other product?

Thanks!

Ken

http://secure.netsolhost.com/512977.523447/Merchant2/merchant.mvc

www.pastoralartisan.com (http://www.pastoralartisan.com)

Two words for you: Wolfpaw (http://www.wpcomp.com) or Hostasaurus (http://www.hostasaurus.com). Network solutions is known for this. You shouldn't think about the cost of moving. The real burden is the cost of staying. Both hosts are reasonably priced and will move you for free.

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

Ah, three words... forgot dotcomhost.com

There are other inexpensive hosts that would probably do a lot better at your store size than your current host. For example: hostmysite, dreamhost and even valueweb can run a site better than that.

Also, while some folks my not understand, adding OpenUI AND a bunch of additional modules, and using those modules such as Viking templates to do certian things can slow down your site even on one of the aforementioned three.

So, my advice whould be to first consider what it would be worth to get 1 to 2 second response times out of your cart, then look for a good Merchant intergrator/developer to take a close look at determine if you need horsepower, or horse-sense (in the site development that is).

[jason - jmh web services]

hostmysite, dreamhost and even valueweb can run a site better than that.
Not by much. All three of those are lifetime members in the miva merchant hosting hall of shame.

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

whatever....

[Vic - WolfPaw Computers]

There are other inexpensive hosts that would probably do a lot better at your store size than your current host. For example: hostmysite, dreamhost and even valueweb can run a site better than that.

We routinely transfer sites from all three of those hosts almost nightly.

They all had their share of misconfiguration, security, over crowding, lack of knowledge or support, etc...

Keep in mind that your host is like the foundation to your home. If the foundation is cracked...eventually the house is going to come tumbling down. Maybe not today, or tomorrow - but its a definite red flag that you're heading for trouble at some point.

If the bottom line is expense...you may want to think about this:

When your store does start showing errors or goes down...how much will you lose in revenue before your current host responds to your request(s) for help?

How many customers (let alone sales) can you afford to lose because your store/site performs poorly?

Many store owners who had a poor hosting experience somewhere will tell you, it really is true that you get what you pay for. Go cheap, get cheap. Sure, there are tons of low cost, all the features you'll never need; hosts out there. Eexperience and expert knowledge comes with a price tag, but is worth the cost and piece of mind. That $10-20/month you saved with the bargain host may not be worth the thousands of dollars in lost sales you may not even know you are losing.

[chucklasker]

[QUOTE=Bruce - PhosphorMedia]Ah, three words... forgot dotcomhost.com[QUOTE]

Three words? Is a domain counted as two words? ;)

If all you want is a basic Miva Merchant store, with no modules, go with one of Bruce's suggestions. As soon as you get into special needs with OpenUI, third party modules, or actually having people buying stuff, you'll want to spend the extra 10 or 20 bucks a month on a proper Miva Merchant expert host. Compare it to rent for a retail store. You can save money on the location by renting the free standing shack behind WalMart, or you can pay a bit more and get a strip mall location.

Any active site will need host support at some point. Choose one that will answer your requests with knowledge and experience, not with a screen of preset answers. If you don't know the name of the person (or people) who own your hosting company, they don't know your name and don't care about you at all.

[nevadamet]

Hey Ken:
We had a similar situation with one of the "big box" hosting companies. Fought with it for years. After watching the message boards we finally changed (wolfpaw in our case) and wish we would have done something years earlier. The level of knowledge and support is in a whole different league. There is a bit of work with the transfer, but they do most of it and it is well worth the trouble.

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

Three words? Is a domain counted as two words? ;)

If all you want is a basic Miva Merchant store, with no modules, go with one of Bruce's suggestions.

Those weren't suggestions...they where comparisons. Meaning, that EVEN those host would return faster results than what the original poster was experiancing.

The other importent distinction that is being lost is that the WAY features are implemented in a store can cause undue page load times EVEN On dedicated servers on a high performance server. (However, it is my experiance that the Host would be the first one to point out the load problem and possibly offer suggestions.)

[jason - jmh web services]

If all you want is a basic Miva Merchant store, with no modules, go with one of Bruce's suggestions.

Those were more comparisons. Those three are probably a small, tiny step obove network solutions. But yes, they shouldn't even be considered as suitable hosts when moving.

As soon as you get into special needs with OpenUI, third party modules, or actually having people buying stuff, you'll want to spend the extra 10 or 20 bucks a month on a proper Miva Merchant expert host. Compare it to rent for a retail store. You can save money on the location by renting the free standing shack behind WalMart, or you can pay a bit more and get a strip mall location.

Any active site will need host support at some point. Choose one that will answer your requests with knowledge and experience, not with a screen of preset answers. If you don't know the name of the person (or people) who own your hosting company, they don't know your name and don't care about you at all.

True. History has shown us that the majority of problems are not the way people add features. Simply adding features causes problems. These three hosts then just play the blame game. Guess how many complaints Wolfpaw and Hostasaurus have received from customers complaining that their store is slow after simply installing the OpenUI? ZERO! Chuck is correct that problems don't stop at installing additional features. The lack of knowledge and support of miva merchant is horrendous as well.

[chucklasker]

Those weren't suggestions...they where comparisons. Meaning, that EVEN those host would return faster results than what the original poster was experiancing.

Sorry - misunderstood - you're right.

The other importent distinction that is being lost is that the WAY features are implemented in a store can cause undue page load times EVEN On dedicated servers on a high performance server. (However, it is my experiance that the Host would be the first one to point out the load problem and possibly offer suggestions.)

True. I've seen it on almost every host. And with the Dinos and Wolfpaw, even with Cyberhost (I don't know who they are now), I've contacted them and they've helped me track down configuration problems. More often than not, they contact my client before my client even knows there's a problem. I haven't seen that with the big box hosts.

I know I get passionate about hosts. For me when I work on sites, it's like the difference for a pizza delivery person between a bike and a car - if you want the job done quickly and efficiently, you need a good foundation. So much of my days have been wasted on hosting issues.

How's that for mixed metaphors?? :)