paperlined.org
apps > dreamhost

document updated 16 years ago, on Dec 12, 2007

Reasons why Dreamhost seems good: relatively cheap ($2/mo for first 12 months, with a promo code (though note that they're now max $50)), allows adult content, debian-based, etc

resources

dreamhoststatus.com
IRC channel — #dreamhost on Freenode

howto

setup that's good to do right away
- setenv TZ ... in your .htaccess, to fix timezone
- features to enable
  - ssh
  - process accounting
Apache configuration
- modules
  - how do you get a list of them? it's hard to tell
  - mod_perl is unavailable, use FastCGI instead
  - mod_rewrite, of course
  - mod_include
  - mod_security. Caveats:
    - be aware of the referer gotcha

extra work you have to be aware of

DH's bandwidth-throttling features are sub-par. The available throttling feature does't react until 24 hours after you've gone over your limit, so you have to implement your own bandwidth limit solution. Mine consists of:
- a cron job that every 15 minutes scans the newest Apache log entries, and keeps close track of bandwidth totals
- when the bandwidth crosses a predetermined limit, it swaps the topmost .htaccess with a pre-built one that has a number of mod_rewrite rules, intended to divert or minimize traffic

limitations of the shared system

The basic Dreamhost subscription is put on a large multi-user server (see TOS "MATERIAL PRODUCTS" item 7). (okay, they also have a virtual private thingy... but you don't get root on that one either. Gotchya!)

certain (resource-intensive) persistent processes will be killed. There's an automatic reaper that kills processes using unknown criteria. This suggests that the limits are high, but who knows.
apps/protocols that are categorically forbidden
- IRC
- BitTorrent
- Zope (?!!?)
other annoying things that are categorically forbidden
"Any application that listens for inbound network connections"

nice bonuses of the shared system

automated brain-dead backups

dedicated plan

qualitative comparison between the plans

tips

using PerlDiver (download) is a decent idea
if (when)