Arrived
Well my DNS has propagated now, and it seems as if my move between hosts has been relatively uneventful. I think that I’ve put everything back more or less where it belongs, but if you spot anything that’s broken, missing, or not where you expect it to be do let me know.
My move wasn’t prompted by dissatisfaction with my previous host, Blogomania. They have been great hosts: reliable, great value andâapart from a small blip a few months ago which is now resolvedâgiving great support. I’ve recommended them to people in the past, and would do so againâthey are a very safe bet. The problem was that I want to do some more Ruby and Rails development1, and to produce live web applications rather than ones that just run on my local machine. Most good hosting companies (including Blogomania) provide great PHP support, but very few support Ruby.
TextDrive are a relatively new hosting company, but they already have a stupendous reputation. They are chock-full of technological goodness, but what really attracted me was the full Ruby supportânot just for Ruby scripts, but also for running Rails applications and even installing Instiki on your server.
There are some major alpha geeks involved, and while I know that I’m nowhere near being in their league, I’m very happy to sit on their server and gaze adoringly up at them, as glowing halos of ones and zeros encircle their heads2. They also give terrific (and friendly) technical support, and sorted out my minor glitches with patience and efficiency. So, I’m here in my new home and having enormous fun rummaging around in the cupboards and trying out the satellite TV. I’m looking forward to doing some fun things with Ruby here.
I’ve only moved hosts twice, but both times I’ve felt slightly as if someone I’m very fond of is travelling in a remote and slightly dangerous region, out of range of the normal means of communication. When you finally get the phone call to say that they’ve arrived safely, it’s quite a relief.
1 I’m hoping to build Mr. Bsag a proper content management system for his art site. In fact, I solemnly promised, so I don’t want to cause marital disharmony.
2 Sorry. I’m getting a little over-excited.
1
Glad it all went smoothly. Out of interest, how easy was it to move your WordPress install to its new home? With my recent multiple server-moves, I found two different methods of moving my Movable Type-based setup, one of which [using phpMyAdmin] was much easier than the other [a MT-specific plugin], but there's no official "right" way to do it that I could find. Is there a recommended method for WP?----- Cool. Obviously things went smoothly as everything appears to be still working.
I wondered whether you were moving to TextDrive after your post yesterday.
I moved to them a few months back, which was a good decision. You'll fit in marvellously.
by Richard Chamberlain @ 16/12/2004 8:13 pm • Permalink •
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David: I don't know if there's a recommended method. All I did was to copy all the files from one server to the other via FTP (with my own machine as a staging-post), and then export the MySQL tables (content and structure) from the old server and import them into a new database on the new server. The only thing to check then was that the configuration file that holds the database name, user name and password has the new settings (I forgot this the first time because I was so eager to load the page). It was all pretty straightforward. The only issue I had was that one of my URL re-writing rules in .htaccess went a bit weird on me. I fixed it in the end, but I have no idea why my fix worked. I think that WordPress is a bit more straight-forward in that it dynamically loads the data in the database. So if you have the right stuff in the database, and the files in the right places, it should all just work.
Richard Chamberlain: Thanks! I think I made the right decision too.
by bsag @ 16/12/2004 9:13 pm • Permalink •
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I don't particularly do anything with any of my sites these days, but I love the community that TextDrive has built up over the last several months.
Glad to see you come on over! Welcome!
by Nathan Ladd @ 17/12/2004 8:13 pm • Permalink •
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Let me start by saying that I really like your blog, some great stuff on here.
So it's been almost two years now since you moved to TextDrive, how do you like it?
Also would you mind telling us what plan you on? I just signed up for the shared hosting but I'm considering upgrading to the business plan in the future.
Thanks!!!
by Michael Noga @ 09/11/2006 2:16 pm • Permalink •
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Michael Noga: Thanks! I love it at TextDrive. I've been really happy with the set up, and have everything I need here. I've got this site, the Tracks project site and my Tracks subversion repository hosted there. I also got a Strongspace account a year or so ago, and find that very handy for backups and storing valuable files.
I got in on one of their Lifetime Hosting deals a while ago (the VCII), so I've got, well, lifetime hosting for a one-off payment. It felt like quite a lot of money at the time, but basically I'm on what we VC-ers call 'gravy time' now. In other words, if I'd stayed on the plan I was on (I can't remember which, I think it was either $15 or $25 a month), I would have paid more now for my hosting than I paid for the VCII.
If you do sign up for the business plan, perhaps you could use the affiliate link at the bottom of the sidebar; TextDrive have an affiliate program now, and given that I'm a very happy user of their products, I'm happy to promote them. If you sign up via the link, I get a percentage of the profits, which will go towards Tracks development.
by bsag @ 09/11/2006 6:06 pm • Permalink •
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