Does distance (location) of server host affect the speed?

[EsLobos]

Hye..
This is my first thread.. i'm currently in the uk and i'm building site for a society at my university. its kinda hard to find a cheap hosting here in uk (or if anyone here knows any imform me please ) cheap i mean less than rm150 a year suitable to run a blog n a forum n of coz the webpages. so, if i sign for a webhost form outside uk will it affect the speed? owh, one more. one MySQL database, one script or we may have more than one? (don't laught.. i'm learning )

[limcs]

Hello EsLobos,

Welcome to WMM Forum.

It all actually depends on your Internet Service Provider(ISP). Normally, your local host will be faster since, may be, your ISP and the local host's data center sharing the same connection backbone.

If there are no cheaper option, you can make a ping test on your own to see which is faster, simply go to the Command Prompt and type: ping -t [domain name], e.g: ping -t webmastermalaysia.com (to test out the speed of Malaysia's site). The results (if fast) should be within 50ms.

[corallinkz]

Hey, welcome to this forum.

rm 150 i suggest you to look at exabytes packages, cgyhost package or malayahosting.

sign for a webhost form outside uk will it affect the speed?

It will affect for users browse from outside Malaysia but not affect too much, still speedy as long your server is not overloaded and your connection is not too slow. BTW, i have my server located at UK. still speedy for me!

[kawan]

Below RM150: www.easynet-interactive.com
Their servers are based in The Planet which is in the United States.
Server response time should be ok for you in the UK.

oh, BTW, they accept paypal!!!

[EsLobos]

thanks to those who responded.. many seems to agree it should be no problem... in that case a host ouside uk (i think) should be fine, nway we've got quite a good internet connection here. 10Mbps. and i prefer paying via paypal. i'm planing to run forum and blog. does that means i need 2 databases? anyone? thanks!

p/s: sory la kalau english aku terabur...hihi..

[limcs]

Originally Posted by EsLobos

i'm planing to run forum and blog. does that means i need 2 databases?

Yes. One for the blog, and one for the forum.

Originally Posted by EsLobos

p/s: sory la kalau english aku terabur...hihi..

Nope, at least you tried and your english is clear and understandable.

[kawan]

Originally Posted by limcs

Yes. One for the blog, and one for the forum.

Generally true but not exactly right. (no pun intended)
You would most probably need a database for the forum but you can use a flatfile (or called text file) to store your blog post.
Technically you only need one, in this case. See this blog software. It's awesome and I use them..
http://www.solucija.com/home/snews/

The reason I pointed this out is because there are webhost charging you more if you need extra database.
If you use sNews, you save money.

[EsLobos]

Thanks limcs and thanks kawan.. i'll have a look, you guys are very supportive.. two thumbs up!!