Re: self host providers

Computer Nerd Kev <[email protected]> wrote:
> Theo <[email protected]> wrote:
> > Do consider some kind of AI bot blocking, as this consumes a big chunk of
> > traffic and CPU time nowadays.
> 
> Oh great, and make another site that won't let me in unless I'm
> using a mainstream Web browser.

I didn't say that.  There are other ways, including blocking known AI
User-Agents and blocking IPs/ranges which are seen to hammer your server. 
It's a depressing game of cat and mouse.  The Cloudflare / Anubis
browser-checkers are one tool you can use, but there are others.

> CPU load is also low (most content there is static). That said,
> their free VPSs are over-subscribed so you don't get the sort of
> CPU performance you might see with a paid service using an
> equivalent-spec CPU.

It's a particular problem if you are hosting dynamic content - eg I hosted
webSVN and the bots tied up the server in knots as every page is full of links
to other dynamic pages.  The CPU couldn't serve them fast enough to keep on
top of the bots requesting them all.

Theo