Open Realty and Site 5 Overcrowded?

[jrutter]

Hi everyone,

So Im having Open Realty install their IDX plugin on my current webhost which is site5. But they are telling me that my shared plan is too overcrowded on the web server and therefore the software will function slow. Has anyone else had this problem? I need to set this up for a client asap. Open realty is telling me that I need to get a VPS or dedicated host? Has anyone done this?

Jake

[webmaster]

IMO there are almost zero shared hosting platforms that are equipped or robust enough to handle proper IDX integration - go with someone who specializes in custom shared hosting (More expensive) or like they said, dedicated.

[MattL]

I agree with Jim -- property searches (especially robust ones) require serious processing power (and gobs of RAM). Most shared hosts are designed for static (or near-static) pages and not intensive database heavy-lifting.

Either get an IDX host, a dedicated/rented server plan, or buy a basic server and put it in a colocation facility (which is often more economical when you do the math).

-Matt

[drewnick]

I'm digging up an old post here, but it's the closest to my needs so instead of posting a new thread, we'll continue this one.

First of all, the Webmaster is 100% correct - the Site5 type hosts ($5/mo for 55GB space!?!) can't handle this, I believe.

My question is this: Our MLS has probably 10k-20k properties listed, based on what I can tell from talking to folks (I'm going to be licensed in a few weeks and will then know for sure).

With an IDX feed, and let's say < 30k listings, should I setup a dedicated server? I have a datacenter presently, so I probably will anyway, but I'm just wondering what you guys are hosting with.

I know some are using VPS's and I refused to use a VPS - they are not worth the trouble IMHO.

[REW Fergus]

VPS (Virtual Private Server) has some of the same drawbacks of shared hosting. They're both situations where you have to share server resources with other hosted clients. Intensive applications will always struggle when choked for RAM and CPU cycles, and general purpose hosts sometimes see those intensive applications as a form of abuse.

[AaronSOLD]

Drew,

I think you'll be better off going with a professional IDX solution. REW has an awesome system but it will set you back some money. While I don't subscribe to it or nor am I a client of REW, if you look at their stuff you'll see they are the Ferrari of design & IDX.

[drewnick]

Hi Aaron,

What do you mean by professional IDX system? As opposed to what? Right now I'm looking into Open Realty.

PS I enjoyed reading your Success in 2006 thread!

[AaronSOLD]

Instead of using an open-source system that will probably require more time and money than you think, I'd recommend just outsourcing the job. It's likely more profitable over time to get a kick-ass solution in place ASAP & worry about selling houses instead of developing an IDX solution on your site yourself.

Wolfnet, MLSfinder, REW & others have nice solutions. You really want to look at the lead capture systems of each.

[DMike]

You should check up the number of listings that you'll have in the mls. Also how many fields(beds, baths...) you want to have on every listing(plus how many photos for every listing so you can see how many space you'll have to get from the server). If you have under 5 000 listings it could work fast, but above that you'll probabily have to check out a better hosting plan, dedicated server, ...
Open-Realty should work with a large number of listings, around 50 000, but you hage to get a good hosting plan to make sure it will work quickly

[drewnick]

As the owner of a hosting company, I end up having lots of "old" servers.

I'm going to host my application on a three-server cluster. I expect a good bit of traffic and want it to be snappy.

I'm going to use 2x P-III 1 Ghz servers w/ 1 GB RAM each for the Web servers and a Xeon 2.0 GHz w/ 2 GB RAM for the MySQL database and load balancer.