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Running GSA on home network vs VPS

edited December 2012 in Need Help
I notice this question has been covered in official FAQ but I am looking for some further suggestions for my situation. I just got GSA and CS, running 4-5 campaigns at once in my home network - which offers unlimited bandwidth and up to 25 mbps per second.

I am aware that many users choose to run GSA on a VPS mainly due to bandwidth and a fast computer. In my situation, since my ISP offers unlimited bandwidth and I just bought myself a i7 computer, would you guys still suggest me running it on a VPS instead?

I was under the impression that with a fast computer + unlimited bandwidth + OK fast internet connection + private proxies, it should get the job done. However, something is telling me that this is not good enough and I am still missing some core reasons why many chose to go VPS instead. 

Please give me some pointers on this. Thanks

Comments

  • I think one of the reasons many people use a vps, is so they can 1) have it running 24/7 2) Not eat up system resources on main PC(s) 3) Not suck up bandwidth.

    With that being said, running GSA on a fast home internet connection with a solid PC, you will most def see better results than using most VPS systems. Remember you have to consider the speed of your proxies plus the system specs of most VPS's...
  • Thx for the input and outlining the concerns.

    1) Running it 24/7 - i think a lot of people dont turn off their comp even if they arent running GSA at the first place (assumption - since i never do)

    2) Not eat up resources on main PC - I have a powerful built that I run all my internet softwares on; including SeNuke, SB etc. I just isolate them into separate environment by using VMware - allocating 2GB-3GB RAM each. I wonder if this is good enough? I am not sure how much resources GSA will suck up.

    3) Not suck bandwidth - My ISP offers unlimited bandwidth, and i am sure what they meant is upon 'reasonable use'. Based on my tracker now, I use around 400-500GB per month (30 days). I am wonder if they will flag me if I use 1000GB /1TB per month - is that normal for regular users these days?

    Thx
  • @ninjaphp

    Of course ISP companies mean unlimited with "reasonable use" even if they don't say that to you. Usually if you go over 300/400 G they will flag/ban you though. This is your only problem since you have a powerful pc and fast internet connection. ( although the VPS is even faster around 100/mb to 1000mb per second)

    Unlimited plans in my country get flagged after 300/350 g per month. First month I get a warning and they reduce the speed to prevent you from going over that limit. Second month they ban you forever!. I don't know about your country though but my guess that it will be around the same limit and procedures. If you care you can give it a try and figure it out yourself.
  • royalmiceroyalmice WEBSITE: ---> https://asiavirtualsolutions.com | SKYPE:---> asiavirtualsolutions
    edited December 2012
    Apart from PC resources you also need to take into consideration other resources, like electricity, and cooling.

    I am in the same boat as @ninjaphp, I have a fast rig running a I7 2600K Sandy bridge over clocked to 4.2 Ghz and 32 GB RAM which is powered by a 1200w power supply and then i use liquid cooling -  I have a 50 Mbps download and 5 Mbps upload  - unlimited usage at home.

    My pc is running 24/7 apart from the occasional restart and power cut. The problem is a fast pc running at full blast 24/7 use allot of electricity so one have to look also if moving to a VPS will save you how much in electrical bill charges.

    The problem i have with VPS's is that the resources is much less than a desktop like mine and the high ends  normally come with 4 GB RAM which is not much compared to my 32GB, but the main shortfall is cpu's most VPS the cpu is just not enough for me to blast away. The suppliers like Poweruphosting now  are using the Interl E3 - 1240 or 1270 V2 CPU's which are awesome cpu's but consider that you will be sharing it with about 7 other people which all use a single pc with vitalization, then it is not much.

    Since my pc is running 24/7,  In my view the only thing that a VPS can offer me more is network speed, but then again, does one really need 1000mbps or even 100mbps - does this not create the possibility of building links to fast, maybe my home pc network speed force me to build links slightly slower which will look more naturally.

    If i did not run my pc 24/7 and push it so hard then i can reduce electricity bills by about USD 30 \ pm - which in my view does not justify a vps.

    But then again not everyone is so lucky to have fast public networks which offer unlimited usage like some of us, I know for instance in South Africa internet is about 10 years behind hat you will get in the USA or Europe or Thailand ( which is where i am) - in south Africa a fast connection at home is something link 3mbps  \ 512 kbps and then it is capped and you will pay your backside off if you go over the cap. -- For those kind of situations a VPS is definitely the only option.

    Conclusion:
    So if you have a fast connection at home, unlimited bandwith and a fast pc then skip vps
    If you have a slow connection ( like the South Africans) and have bandwith cap then get a VPS
    If you have a fast connection at home, unlimited bandwith and a fast pc but too much money then get a dedicated server with a ssd and 16gb ram 1000mbps port speed @ about $300\pm and run windows on it.
  • royalmiceroyalmice WEBSITE: ---> https://asiavirtualsolutions.com | SKYPE:---> asiavirtualsolutions

  • royalmiceroyalmice WEBSITE: ---> https://asiavirtualsolutions.com | SKYPE:---> asiavirtualsolutions
    edited December 2012
    Further observation - After a few days
    After running SER on my home PC for a few days with the number of threads to use to 100 and also checked the
    little box below thread settings : "monitor PC resources and
    automatically lower threads". I think the last mentioned option to auto
    adjust threads is crucial if running from either a VPS or home pc but
    more so on a VPS as resources are limited.

    I am running Ultimate
    demon at the same time on 30 threads and it is working 24/7 same as GSA
    SER - Sometimes UD only have a handful of task in the schedule so not
    using much resources, in those cases in notices GSA SER  auto adjusting
    and using more threads.
    GSA SER also auto adjust according to what
    it is doing for instance submitting, searching or verifying links.  GSA
    SER  is continuously adjusting threads and it varies between 30 and 100
    with average being around 60

    I have also kept an eye on my bandwidth usage and below is a screenshot of the hourly bandwidth usage since i started monitoring

    Please
    note this is all my bandwidth from Ultimate demon, GSA ser, GSA seo
    indexer, checking mails and in the last 4 hours of the graph i uploaded 
    +/- 2,000 articles to different blogs of mine via xmlrpc

    image


    Conclusion:
    There is no need for me yet, to move to a VPS as my home connection and PC is more than capable of handling everything

     

  • edited December 2012
    What's the best setup for GSA and other SEO tools is a question that often plagues me. I'm on Powerup VPS Plus (2 core, 2 gig) - a small package I'll admit, but all that's running is SER, GSA Indexer and CS. With GSA running over 25 threads the VPS "hangs up" very quickly, especially with CS taking up 30% CPU time and Indexer trying to do its thing at the same time.

    I've found SER runs faily ok at 15 threads, which seems to be the limit on this VPS package if I'm running indexer @ 5 threads and Indexer at the same time, provided that CS doesn't crash - then all hell breaks loose and I struggle to even restart it!

    I've even gone so far as to move my other SEO tools like SE Nuke, Spyglass etc to a separate VPS, so it's literally just GSA and supporting tools running.  Despite this extremely conservative setup, the CPU taps out at 100% for several seconds at a time, and the VPS hangs frequently to a point where I can't even end tasks.

    So, although I'm South African (crap internet), I've wondered if performance would be better on a local dedicated PC so resources are less of an issue. @royalmice you're in a good position because your internet speed means you can run a machine from your house, and it seems you can run pretty high volumes without being flagged. Unfortunaltey I know the answer's "no" in my case because of "reasonable use" (we have that too despite crap internet speed!), and of course my dismal 4mb speed (that's the highest available in most areas in SA including mine, up to 10mb in certain areas in SA).

    I'm thinking of upgrading the VPS to 4 Core 4GB and see how that goes, but honestly all these VPS's are starting to get a bit costly. So the next question is, perhaps dedicated is the answer? Well, that opens a whole slew of other things you now also have to manage, and of course it's at least 4 times the price of a 2 Core VPS.

    I may have missed something, but so far there's little feedback on "minimum requirements" or optimal setups for GSA. It would be nice to hear from other power users what works for them. I have a business built around SEO, so it's really important to me to know what works and what doesn't - so far, I only know what doesn't and am purely speculating on what does...
  • Based on your screenshot, between 12:00 - 20:00 timeframe (8 hours), total bandwidth consumption is 22GB? 

    So you continue the same activity for 30 days, total consumption for the month would only be around 660GB, which I believe its very acceptable for most ISP. 

    But if you run 24 hours a day, then the total bandwidth consumption per month would be 1980GB... in that case, I am not sure if ISP will honor that or take it as 'reasonable usage'.
  • poweruphostingpoweruphosting Los Angeles
    edited December 2012
    @Ruggero

    Even though the dedicated server is 4 times the cost of 2GB RAM and 2CPU plan, but dedicated servers are always much more powerful than a VPS (it's as good as running 8x of those VPS together)

    If you have the budget and if you wanna do some serious link building then dedicated server is the way to go.

    I have many customers running GSA on my dedicated server @300-400 threads with CS (Latest version which fixes the memory leak issue) along with 50-70 Projects and the CPU consumption is barely around 20-40% max on 100 Mbps port. With such a powerful server, you are left with a lot of extra unused resources which you can utilize to run tools like Ultimate Demon, Senuke Xcr, etc.

    =======

    This is what I would always suggest to each and every person

    =======


    1) If someone is just starting out then stick with a VPS. Make sure you don't spend anything more than your budget. It's very crucial to keep your expenses low initially when you are just starting out.

    2) Once you start making money and see your profits going up, upgrade your VPS to a better version with more resources, this way you can handle multiple projects.

    3) As you start making good profits (After 3-5 months), upgrade and get a dedicated server for yourself. You will instantly feel the difference and power.

    4) As you keep growing in terms of profits, get multiple dedicated server for various purpose as overloading one server is never a good idea, but again, never spend anything more than what you can afford.

  • poweruphosting can you please check your email.
  • royalmiceroyalmice WEBSITE: ---> https://asiavirtualsolutions.com | SKYPE:---> asiavirtualsolutions
    Happy new year all...

    @ ninjaphp
    I
    have been running my set up with Ulyimate demon at 40 threads for
    almost a year now and no problems at all with ISP. My ISP  is very
    generous and even throttle bandwith during non peak periods. So ( touch
    wood ) the added bandwith from GSA SER should not be too much of a
    problem.

    @ Ruggero


    It is pretty obvious that you cant run all those things ( senuke, gsa ser, gsa indexer etc) on a VPS with just 2GB RAM
    I
    would suggest just keep GSA SER + GSA SEO indexer on that VPS and then
    set it to 100 threads but tick the box to monitor resources, if your
    machine cant handle that then take it up 25% at a time untill your
    machine reached its peak. --- Alternatively get a Dedicated Windows
    server with at least 16GB RAM  - Poweruphosting can set you one up for 
    about $300 - $400 \ pm

    @ poweruphosting
    My
    concern with the high threads up to 300 - 400 is CS -- Mine bearely
    keep up with 100 threads ( I have it set as main CS solver and retries
    is set to 5 and then for the 2nd CS solver i use the new service  Image
    Decoders. Cant wait for the new GSA CB to come out


  • @royalmice

    I have a poweruphosting dedicated server, and have my thread count set to 300, and my CS manages without a single problem. 
  • royalmiceroyalmice WEBSITE: ---> https://asiavirtualsolutions.com | SKYPE:---> asiavirtualsolutions
    doubleup

    Can you tell me the average solve time of CS
    Are you only running GSA SER or other tools as well.
    IN GSA SER Capcha settings - how many times to you retry with CS

    Thanks for the help
  • edited January 2013
    @royalmice - I do realise that the VPS package is pretty lite, but my point was that all I'm running is GSA, Indexer and CS, and all on very tame settings totalling only around 21 threads combined, yet the combination is lethal to the VPS nonetheless. And actually this isn't the first time I've upgraded - I was on the lowest VPS packase and it seemed to me like I was getting practically the same results. As you can imagine I don't want to keep dropping money on bigger solutions if the performance of the system doesn't change.

    @poweruphosting - ok thanks that's good to know. It just started to seem hopeless frankly, so it's good to know that there is a point where GSA and supporting tools can't consume the entire PC's resources! Plus if there's still space for other tools I can drop my other VPS as well, to help compensate with the cost difference. Do you still have dedicated servers available? I couldn't find the page on your website. If you do, which package do you recommend? I'm ready to look into this seriously. Please feel free to PM me.

    Happy new year everyone!
  • @royalmice I have been personally testing GSA at 300 threads with CS and it's working like a charm. The avg. Captcha solving time is roughly around 0.4-1.00 seconds per captcha. The best part is, all the captchas are in a queue.

    Also, with Sven's new upcoming Captcha Breaker, you should be able to push GSA at even 500 threads because Captcha Breaker is much better, stable and faster from what I have heard when it comes to handling high threads.

    @Ruggero Sent you a PM
  • @poweruphosting - answered and actioned. Waiting on your reply, thanks!
  • royalmiceroyalmice WEBSITE: ---> https://asiavirtualsolutions.com | SKYPE:---> asiavirtualsolutions
    edited January 2013
    poweruphosting
    You are running GSA SER on a VPS with 1 GB RAM together with other SEO tools and 300 threads is not a problem ?? How many campaigns did u test with.
    I previously ran a vps with Ultimate Demon ( 60 threads ) + No Hands SEO  + Capcha Sniper + VAGEX + Proxy Goblin on a 4GB VPS and it kept failing due to lack of resources.

    I think the  E3 - 1240-70 V2 CPU's  you have in your VPS's are excellent cpu's but unfortunately the 4GB ram  is not sufficient to run all these powerfull seo tools at full blast - I would rather go for a dedicated windows server  with the same cpu fast HD ( like a SSD) and at least 16GB of RAM ( 32GB would be ideal) 


    Totaly agree on the new GSA CB - It will be awesome.

    My conclusions still stand as earlier mentioned:

    Conclusion:
    So if you have a fast connection at home, unlimited bandwith and a fast pc then skip vps
    If you have a slow connection ( like the South Africans) and have bandwith cap then get a VPS
    If you have a fast connection at home, unlimited bandwith and a fast pc but
    too much money then get a dedicated server with a ssd and 16gb ram
    1000mbps port speed @ about $300\pm and run windows on it.
  • @royalmice The test was done on a dedicated server :)
  • edited January 2013
    Well, just to keep you guys in the loop: I got a Dedicated server which I've actually divided equally into two VPS's, 4 CPU cores, 16gb RAM and 120GB SSD each. I can finally say that GSA is no longer a resource hog I need to worry about - IT FLIES! I'm currently running SER, Indexer, CS and SENuke 100% smoothly. GSA is running at 125 threads, but I think I can easily push that up and I often see GSA not even using all the available threads, so...

    My suggestion is (if you can afford it) get a dedicated server! You WON'T look back at VPS's that's for sure! Maybe some1's had better luck on a 4-core, 4gig VPS running GSA? I don't have personal experience with that setup, suffice to say that I think anything lower and trying to run GSA and supporting apps is a complete waste of time.

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