One thing I’ve learned over the last week of VPSs has been to make my occupation of VPSs as portable as I possibly can. In a way I’m glad of the experience of a double VPS loss where I had to move my Websites twice, as it has taught me how to set myself up so as to minimize the down time as well as discomfort.
I’d say one of the greatest blessings is my membership of FreeVPS.us, as I have learned and am still learning the tools that are needed to make oneself independent. For example, it’s much easier for me to assess the services of a VPS, what I should be looking at before I get one. In my case it’s the latency of the VPS, i.e. the speed with which my IP can deal with the VPS IP. There are many other factors too, like a good turnaround time in submitting tickets, and a VPS architect who knows how to create the VPS. I.e., a minimal installation of CentOS or Debian. I’m used to getting minimal CentOS and can immediately load VestaCP on it. I’m usually up and running within minutes of changing my password.
Another blessing is VestaCP, a control panel that currently has become completely effortless to administer. All I need to do is go to the installation page, generate my bash command, and load it in my VPS. I’ve also become fairly experienced with managing domains, databases etc with VestaCP. Next blessing is that I’ve also become experienced with installing WordPress at the command prompt with only four commands. I can have a WordPress Website up and running within a couple or more minutes. I’m also experienced with migrating WordPress sites with the minimum of down time. So all of that helps.
FreeVPS has helped me to become much more resilient than I was before. I don’t expect permanency with either free or paid hosting. I’ve been able to make my Websites portable. Things change all of the time, so who knows what can happen to VestaCP. Nothing stands still. But for now, for this moment, I think I’m well prepared. Most important for me at FreeVPS are people like Nevil and the owner, Dave, who are very present with trying to provide a great service to the members of the Forum. Both are specialists in servers, and in VPSs, have their feet completely flat on the ground and are actively working on turning things around. I feel completely blessed to be in that environment and surrounded by other members like me all working on the same thing.
Finally, I got the message from Nevil that maybe we’ve become too starry eyed with high-spec VPSs. We have to work with what we have and make it work for us. I’m now OK with that too. Only thing I really need to be careful with though is with the latency. Unfortunately Charlotte, North Carolina is not a good location for me. Again though, even if that is the only VPS that is available, there is always many ways to work around it. FreeVPS’s greatest value for me is the opportunity for learning from experts in the industry. It has all of the tools available, so if we’re going through lean times, and there’s a location problem for me, I’ve learned from FreeVPS how to source affordable VPSs outside FreeVPS. HostUS is tops for me and I’m most happy with my current VPS.