Oct 09 10 |
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First, a big “sorry” to everyone using the site!
Over the past few days the site has been loading very slowly. It isn’t my fault – it’s a new feature the web host (BlueHost) has introduced… Read on to learn more. It wasn’t until I found the BlueHost & HostMonster User Alert: CPU Throttling article on another blog that I had my suspicions confirmed. There’s a reasonably detailed explanation of the feature in that posting, but suffice to say, BlueHost have introduced CPU Throttling. No, it isn’t a way to strangle (kill) a CPU, it’s a way to strangle a site’s (this site’s) use of the host’s CPU.
BlueHost Strangling of this site with CPU Throttling
And yes, sometimes this CPU Throttling (strangling) kills the site! 
Some of you may have had this error message when BlueHost have “killed” the site with their throttling:
The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later.
Does it say “capacity problems”? What it means is, because we have strangled your CPU usage your site won’t work, didn’t we tell you?
It’s clear to me that this is a ploy by BlueHost to drive more sales of higher CPU accounts. There is nothing in this for their customers; just the host! When I first experienced this, knowing that nothing had changed on this site and therefore that the change must be at the host’s end, the support people didn’t even admit that they had changed their setup. They said it was the site that was at fault! Clearly not the case; they have changed their config, they have not advertised it, and they are now trying to force my hand by stealth! Poor, very poor service! When I bought this service under a specific set of Terms & Conditions I expected it to stay like that. Not one day to suddenly, without warning, get ham-strung !!!
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8 Responses to “BlueHost Strangles Site with CPU Throttling”
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Gosh Pete, I hope you thought about the fact that the site gets such a high Google Pagerank before you posted this.
A critical article high up in Google search wouldn’t be good for BlueHost’s sales. 
Can you change easily to a different web host, or is that impossible
. If they have changed the terms of the agreement, can we have the next blog rendevouz at their office, armed with sledge hammers and chain-saws?? 
The host is US based so we don’t need to feel restricted to such mundane items as chainsaws and sledgehammers
Pete: Thanks for the explanation, I freely admit to finding the impossibly slow service a bit frustrating. I have copies of all my articles and pictures in the event that there should be a problem if you decide to transfer to another host.
I’m a bit incredulous. I’m a customer who has looked into this as well, and from what I understand, even when you’re “strangled” you’re guaranteed 33% of a processor at a minimum. For a shared hosting service that’s pretty generous, if that’s not enough to run your site, then I’d say it’s time to either get off of $5/mo web hosting or take a good hard look at your code. I had a few things that I fixed, and I think perhaps there were a few bugs in their system that they’ve since worked out.
You might want to ask them exactly how much CPU your stuff is using, or SSH in and look yourself rather than deflecting the blame. From what I understand, a user has to monopolize an entire CPU for awhile before their system kicks in and says ‘hold on there, let others have a chance’.
A lot of “load and go” software, especially PHP stuff like wordpress and its plethora of poorly written plugins, is notoriously inefficient and cpu hungry. They’ll churn and grind on the CPU just to spit out a few dynamic elements. My guess is that beforehand, 5% of the users were monopolizing 90% of the CPU and ‘strangling’ everyone else. Now bluehost is ‘strangling’ those 5% (as opposed to the alternative of telling them to find another web host) and allowing the rest to breathe. Naturally, the 5% are going to complain.
It can’t be easy to make sure everyone gets their fair share on such a system, especially when plenty of people are trying to get by on cheap hosting when they require dedicated resources.
I’m simply looking at the facts Morgan…
So Morgan, why are you such a champion of BlueHost’s service? I guess you are either a zealot or an affiliate of some kind… Why not, as customers, call them to account?
Maybe you should explain why you utilize so many resources and how it impacts other customers. Unless you are on a dedicated server then you should be regulated in such a way. The reason nobody does it is because it is so hard to regulate.
There are more abusers/customers who are selfish *read yourself* and complain because that they want more than they are paying for.
Hey Joe, thanks for your contribution; how long have you been a fan-boy?
Honestly, how naive can you be, “read yourself”? I understand the principle of throttling, what irks me (if you read what I’ve written) is that there was no advertising of the new feature at all. Simply the service in one moment was fine and then the next it was strangled! That’s crap customer service. Then, to add insult – and when I got really mad – the support guys simply said nothing of throttling and helped no a dot. I ended up e-mailing Matt Heaton – he actually explained some stuff and offered to help diagnose where I should look to address any problems. Over a month later and I still haven’t heard back from Matt despite sending additional follow up e-mails.
Now, if your idea Joe of good customer service is no communication before, during, and after I think you are in a minority!
Thanks Pete for nice article.
My current host warned me about excessive CPU usage and i was looking for a better host who can support well wordpress site, and repeated visited Bluehost to check their service in this regard.
Now little confused. It would have been better it your dont mine in telling your approximate traffic, just want to know at what level this create problem.
Thanks Pete.