As I’ve added more WordPress functions to this site, I’ve noticed it starting to crawl during peak hours. A lot of it is due to the CPU-hoggy Markdown syntax I use in posts. This has been alleviated to some degree through the use of a cache plugin. Plus, I think this server might be a bit overloaded. So, I’m thinking of moving shop to one of the sites mentioned here. I’m currently using Pair Networks, which has been really great for the 6-7 years I’ve used them.

Here’s what I like about them:

• Shell Access! They’ve always had it, so I can login quick and do a quick nslookup or test whether my local network is down. It’s come in handy many many times.

• Reliability! Although I’ve heard some horror stories, I’ve found that the service has stayed up pretty much 100%. It’s only lately that I’m starting to have some problems related to CPU-load, which I found out about when investigating some timeouts of the WordPress scripts.

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p>That’s really it…in terms of online storage, “control panel” style access to features, extra FTP logins, and so on, it hasn’t been nearly as competitive. So I’m ready to look around.

I know a few people who might want to set up their own blog, so making a move to another host might set the stage for doing some web hosting on a personal, one-to-one relationship basis. Food for thought.