Two-year itch
I’m moving the entire site to another server, so if you experience any downtime or DNS resolution issues with musicandmeaning.com in the next couple of days, it’s only temporary. Thanks for your patience.
As for the "two-year itch" thing, it hasn’t really been 24 months yet, but looking at year numbers, I noticed a pattern: server migrations happened in 1999, 2001, 2003 and 2005. I never thought, "Well, it’s almost two years. Time to switch!" For some odd reason, it just worked out that way.
another server or another host? is there a particular reason to switch servers while staying at the same host?
i’ve learned quite a bit hosting first a FreeBSD box and now a Macmini at home on my DSL line. i’m paying a little more for static IP and 1.5M down/384k up but not much more than I’d be paying for a DSL line and (decent) server space. although it is annoying when my DSL service goes down, then my website goes down too but it doesn’t seem to happen too often.
Yes to both counts: another server, another host.
As for switching servers but staying with the same host…it could be that one machine fails or keeps having problems, so the host switches you to another one. Or, you keep experiencing downtime with a server and you ask to be moved to another one. Or, it could be that the host decides to phase out its older machines (for whatever reason…this might fall under the problems/failure umbrella as well), and so you have to move if your site is on one of them. This was why I switched the last time.
Maybe someday I’ll run my own server, if I ever have a spare machine and can leave it on 24/7. I did work with serverware a number of years ago, but not with the intention of hosting a site around the clock.