17 replies to this topic

[shadowx]

Damn, T17 is always two steps ahead!

As for setting up s local server to test this all out on thats no problem at all, if you want more info on that id suggest starting a new thread, that way more people will see it and help, ive done it twice now as a testing environment, never as a live server but i dont think its that hard.

As said the collective mind of T17 is HUGE! The folks here can do anything from set up a local web server, email serve, build a car from scrap, race cars at 200mph and hang doors, we really are diverse so give us a try Im not in the coding group for nothing

[jlhaslip]

Google XAMPP, or WAMP, or LAMP, or Easyphp to get links to any of these packages.
I recommend XAMPP, myself. It is a one-click installer that gives you all that you will need for testing php scripts locally.

[Saint_Michael]

shadow I do believe there is a XAMPP topic somewhere around the forums on turning a computer into a testing server, but of course that topic is like buried somewhere . Well its not the matter of trusting someone to hold your credits, but like rval mention some one could go create a count post some big posts during the week and get like 20-30, maybe more, and then just transfer them and never have to post on that account. That is why I suggest fixing the loss of credits period instead of finding away around it.

[shadowx]

I think i may have started an xampp topic as it goes! But yeh for local testing certainly go for Xampp, as jlhaslip said its a one click installer for windows and as soon as it is installed you switch it on with the control panel and you're going, its so reliable, light and simple its silly!

If you need any help with that PM me or one of the guys above and im sure we can help

[anwiii]

you get what you pay for. although this site isn't free since we have to post for credits, it's free in the sense that no money is being exchanged. now i have personally searched for free hosting before and decided on trap because of the services and resources offered that most free hosting accounts don't offer. again, you get what you pay for though.

now my advice is to apply for hosting right away! decide later if this site is right for you. although you have 100 credits, those are nothing compared to what you will need if you plan on hosting your site here for a few years so apply now, decide later so you don't have to waste anymore credits.

your complaints are valid and i say that because i know you are not the first person to complain about the credit system and some of the vagueness in the readme's. but again....you get what you pay for i say suck it up and learn how it works as you go along.

i know you are looking for a reliable host. i was anal my own self when searching for a good host and aside from the very few complaints trap has, it is a great host. many advantages that you wouldn't normally get with any other host.

now i know the credit system is connected to the hosting but try to seperate it. post because you like to post not because you need hosting. if can't seperate it, posting will become a chore and hosting wont be fun for you anymore here.

also know something about your credits. it's easier to collect credits faster when you have fewer credits banked. the more credits you have especially over 100+, i've noticed it's harder to collect the same amount of credit compared to if you had only 10 credits banked(a very few amount). what this means is you have 100 credits now. it will take you longer to get to the 200 mark compared to when you get hosted and getting back to your 100 mark. trust me. you can get to 100 in a day. it's not that hard especially if your wife is connected to your account. now this really isn't very well known but i thought i needed to tell you that since you want to be up front on everything so you don't waste your time.

i wouldn't wait for 280 credits for your domain name and spend the rest towards hosting. i believe the rules state you have to be hosted FIRST before you can apply for a free domain with credits. everything really is in the readme's and i don't think anything is in fine print as you tried to point out. they just need to be read and understood but not a lot of people want to take the time to read the readme's. also, transfering 70+ credits wont do you any good since you also have to be hosted FIRST before being allowed to transfer credits.

with someone so concerned about losing his site, i'm surprised your not going to paid hosting. i'll tell ya this though. if you lose your site here, you will lose it anywhere. i'm pretty shocked you already lost your hosting just by trying to complete a backup. if you were more specific to what you need to do and what your site is being used for, we could probably be more able to help you determine if the free host route is your best option. otherwise, you are limited to your own good judgement in what you think is acceptable when your site will be one of 100's in sharing the same resources

with that said, hope ya find a home here. it's a pretty good place overall and posting has never been a chore. a great opportunity to get hosted and belong to a community of some really cool people who will always be open to talk to ya and help ya with any problems you have.

[travstatesmen]

Thanks for all the help and advice everybody, I have downloaded XAMPP now, and will start playing with it soon (probably not before next weekend now, as I'm back at work). I have one further question about this though. Remember, I raised the issue about the "allowable CPU usage limit" in response to the fact that my previous web host suspended my account for breaking their Excessive Use policy, by just backing up my home directory and the mySQL databases connected with my account, using the built-in backup routine in cPanel. It was actually using cPanel that I got myself into trouble there. I notice that XAMPP, nor any of the other suggested localhost packages, include cPanel. So, I guess, no matter how much I try, I am still not going to be able to adequately abide by Trap17's Excessive Use policy any more than I could for my last web host. It seems to me that the cards are stacked against us, and we just have to hope that whatever we are doing won't max out the processor, huh? I will do what I can, as a good community member, to try to avoid causing problems with my scripts, but if Trap17 and other web hosts provide tools (such as cPanel) for us to use, then it is quite unfair for them to punish us for making use of those tools. No doubt Fantastico will also provide such potential to max-out the processor. I haven't even started playing with that yet.

[rvalkass]

travstatesmen, on Aug 25 2008, 08:30 AM, said:

I have one further question about this though. Remember, I raised the issue about the "allowable CPU usage limit" in response to the fact that my previous web host suspended my account for breaking their Excessive Use policy, by just backing up my home directory and the mySQL databases connected with my account, using the built-in backup routine in cPanel. It was actually using cPanel that I got myself into trouble there.

Your previous web host obviously had serious issues with their hardware then. They shouldn't have offered cPanel if they couldn't actually support it.

travstatesmen, on Aug 25 2008, 08:30 AM, said:

I notice that XAMPP, nor any of the other suggested localhost packages, include cPanel.

cPanel is proprietary software which requires a licence to use. Therefore, free (gratis) software like XAMPP can't include it.

travstatesmen, on Aug 25 2008, 08:30 AM, said:

So, I guess, no matter how much I try, I am still not going to be able to adequately abide by Trap17's Excessive Use policy any more than I could for my last web host.

I have been using my hosting for ages, and I make regular use of all of cPanel's features. I have never had a problem with exceeding CPU or RAM usage limits, even when running fairly intensive tasks, such as taking full backups of my files, databases, emails, etc. I think I once exceeded my space allowance, but that was my fault for keeping too many backups on my hosting space I was downloading them too, so there was no need to keep a copy of every backup on my hosting account anyway.

travstatesmen, on Aug 25 2008, 08:30 AM, said:

It seems to me that the cards are stacked against us, and we just have to hope that whatever we are doing won't max out the processor, huh? I will do what I can, as a good community member, to try to avoid causing problems with my scripts, but if Trap17 and other web hosts provide tools (such as cPanel) for us to use, then it is quite unfair for them to punish us for making use of those tools. No doubt Fantastico will also provide such potential to max-out the processor. I haven't even started playing with that yet.

As far as I am aware, no-one has ever faced issues with cPanel or Fantastico in the way you describe, and no-one has had their account removed for exceeding CPU/RAM limits with them.

[Saint_Michael]

anwiii, on Aug 25 2008, 03:22 AM, said:

now my advice is to apply for hosting right away! decide later if this site is right for you. although you have 100 credits, those are nothing compared to what you will need if you plan on hosting your site here for a few years so apply now, decide later so you don't have to waste anymore credits.

also know something about your credits. it's easier to collect credits faster when you have fewer credits banked. the more credits you have especially over 100+, i've noticed it's harder to collect the same amount of credit compared to if you had only 10 credits banked(a very few amount). what this means is you have 100 credits now. it will take you longer to get to the 200 mark compared to when you get hosted and getting back to your 100 mark. trust me. you can get to 100 in a day. it's not that hard especially if your wife is connected to your account. now this really isn't very well known but i thought i needed to tell you that since you want to be up front on everything so you don't waste your time.

i wouldn't wait for 280 credits for your domain name and spend the rest towards hosting. i believe the rules state you have to be hosted FIRST before you can apply for a free domain with credits. everything really is in the readme's and i don't think anything is in fine print as you tried to point out. they just need to be read and understood but not a lot of people want to take the time to read the readme's. also, transfering 70+ credits wont do you any good since you also have to be hosted FIRST before being allowed to transfer credits.

I have to completely disagree with you anwii since I I know this system pretty well, and I selected a few points in your post as to why I disagree. The first point I disagree with is the fact to get an account right away especially with so many credits and leads to my second point. Banking your credits will not reduce the amount of credits you get in posting but the amount of posts a person has. It is obvious these two can make a lot of credits within 5 posts so it should be a real problem for them, I will say that the amount of credits will be reduce but by a very small amount. I will agree though that if they have a second computer they can log into the account on two different system and go post crazy made.

Now as for the 280 plan you want to get your domain first and then send in the application and then apply for hosting that is how that works, but not to many people have done it that way nor have many requested a free domain either. Although that is a lot of credits lost, these two will make them up quickly.

Quote

Thanks for all the help and advice everybody, I have downloaded XAMPP now, and will start playing with it soon (probably not before next weekend now, as I'm back at work). I have one further question about this though. Remember, I raised the issue about the "allowable CPU usage limit" in response to the fact that my previous web host suspended my account for breaking their Excessive Use policy, by just backing up my home directory and the mySQL databases connected with my account, using the built-in backup routine in cPanel. It was actually using cPanel that I got myself into trouble there.

I notice that XAMPP, nor any of the other suggested localhost packages, include cPanel. So, I guess, no matter how much I try, I am still not going to be able to adequately abide by Trap17's Excessive Use policy any more than I could for my last web host. It seems to me that the cards are stacked against us, and we just have to hope that whatever we are doing won't max out the processor, huh?

I will do what I can, as a good community member, to try to avoid causing problems with my scripts, but if Trap17 and other web hosts provide tools (such as cPanel) for us to use, then it is quite unfair for them to punish us for making use of those tools. No doubt Fantastico will also provide such potential to max-out the processor. I haven't even started playing with that yet.

As for any other concerns travstatesmen, I am sure velma and OpaQue will calm your fears about trap17 hosting true me all these responses are from people who have been here the longest, we wouldn't be giving you BS answers just to mess with you. Like rvalkass mention XAMPP is open source software so it is free and what not. Also I wouldn't be relying on fantastico software because of the fact most of it is out of date and so your better off downloading them from other websites.

Trust me the only thing stacked against you would um nothing, this host is very reliable and like other host we do have problems, but that is why a members make sure to contact the right people make the right posts and give the support needed to help everyone that needs it.