Sorry for the downtime

[Brian Turner]

Server had another brainfart...

[monaghan]

That explains why I hit the Post button and it was still sitting there nearly 2 1/2 hours later whe I next returned to the forum

[UKSBD]

Originally Posted by Brian Turner

Server had another brainfart...

Tell me about it
The database-driven side of my site has been down for 10 hours now and
can't get hold of my host to see what's wrong.
Frustrating to say the least.

[monaghan]

Originally Posted by UKSBD

Tell me about it
The database-driven side of my site has been down for 10 hours now and
can't get hold of my host to see what's wrong.
Frustrating to say the least.

[shamless plug]If you want a new host, feel free to PM me with your hosting requirements

[Brian Turner]

Which host are you with, UKSBD?

[UKSBD]

I leave it all to a guy I know through Usenet, I used to be with Fasthosts
but had big problems and this guy helped me out and got everything set
up quickly on his system.
Haven't had a problem for 4 months and the site has been running a lot
faster, and without the troubles I had when with Fasthosts.
He's always been very helpful, but this week the database-driven side of
the site has stopped twice now, and this time I couldn't get hold of him.
In fairness, it's probably problems at my end rather than with the hosting.
but at times like this it makes you realise you can't really be reliant on one
man bands.
It's made me think, what happens if there is a problem and he is away for
a few days?
Like wise, I don't want to go with a too big company, especially after the
experience with Fasthosts.

I think the main problem is the site is still on an Access database and
can't cope with the load, I just haven't got the technical knowledge to
switch to another way of doing it and don't know if it would effect google rankings.

[tamecrow]

Originally Posted by UKSBD

I think the main problem is the site is still on an Access database and can't cope with the load, I just haven't got the technical knowledge to switch to another way of doing it and don't know if it would effect google rankings.

Switching to another database (MySQL etc) is very unlikely to affect your rankings

[monaghan]

Originally Posted by UKSBD

I think the main problem is the site is still on an Access database and can't cope with the load, I just haven't got the technical knowledge to switch to another way of doing it and don't know if it would effect google rankings.

I'd be happy to work with you to migrate away from Access. Drop me a PM if you're interested

As tamecrow suggests, there should be no impact on rankings if you simply re-code your data access layer to use an alternative data store.

[UKSBD]

My guy told me I should switch to another database (MySQL) but I have
no idea how to do this.
The pages are all .ASP If I change databases will I no longer be able to
use .ASP and will my URL's all be different?

He has offered to help me switch a couple of times, I'm just too woried
about messing everything up

[monaghan]

Assuming you're doing a fairly basic SQL query against Access, All you're doing is replacing the Access database connection string with an ODBC connection to MySQL (or other data layer).

This is possible in ASP, however I would consider migrating to ASP.Net as this gives you the benefit of compiled code on the server rather than having to run the ASP script through the interpreter each time.

I'm a database consultant and have many live products in place using MySQL, so would be more than happy to quote you to migrate away from Access, then to look at migrating away from ASP in a controlled way at a later date.