Cheapest way to put pics online?

I don't host pictures, but wanted to mention another advantage of using your own host. When your Internet Service provider or Email host goes out of business, you can still retain your EMail address.

For instance, for many, many years I had an Email address that was provided via a startup Internet hosting service here in Las Vegas (@wizard.com). Then, one day, the company just sold itself to an outfit in Denver and sold the domain name to another party. I was not notified and noticed one day that my address was no longer working. Fixing this problem was a nightmare I didn't want to re-live, so I obtained a domain name from GoDaddy and hosting services from solidinternet.com.

When solidinternet.com started acting screwey I changed to another host (can't seem to remember that name right now), then when that place started charging more for multiple domains, I went with 1and1.com. During these transitions I was still able to retain my same Email address as I just "transferred" the domain to these various hosts as needed.

So as long as you pay for the upkeep of your domain name, you will have your Email address, no matter what host you decide to use. (Internet hosting sites are like cellular phones, they outdate themselves and get more expensive unless you switch).

Those of you that use sites such as gmail for your Email are probably better off than the smaller ISP's but I can't help to think that one of these days those services will go belly-up.
 
good point, there.

I've had my main email with yahoo for over 11 years now, and it's a habit just too hard to break.
 
Not just that, but you have full control over your mail which is important because of all the damn spam. When you own the domain, you can make literally any email address @ the domain. So I used different email address depending on who/what I am communicating with. Very few people get my real 'personal' address. So if I have say shopping@mydomain and it starts getting spammed alot, you can simply change it to something else. The $5 month I quoted was from GoDaddy, just to KISS, but if you shop around you can find all kinds of prices. I even remember seeing at low as $2.99 if prepaid. I have had my own domain for many years now and could not imagine not having them. Most TOS will prohibit your own hosting and it may be shades of gray just changing the ports, etc. and most DSL will be 512k or less which is gonna be slow compared to a host not to mention the impact to your personal stuff.
 
I would go with GoDaddy to register your domain and not worry about saving the few bucks to go with someone else.

Believe me, I recently gone through registrar hell with Registerfly.com (they had their license pulled via ICANN and "froze" all their domain names, which put them in limbo for a while)!! That was another nigtmare...
 
Sorry, to clarify, the $5 was hosting with GoDaddy. Figured that was the easiest if you were already registering there.
 
3) Buy a domain ($10/yr) and a hosting service ($4/mo).
1and1 includes the domain registration . .. it is registered in your name (reg and admin), but they pay (tech and bill).

No, I don't get paid by them (although I should probably become an affiliate and start! ;-)
 
Not just that, but you have full control over your mail which is important because of all the damn spam. When you own the domain, you can make literally any email address @ the domain. So I used different email address depending on who/what I am communicating with. Very few people get my real 'personal' address. So if I have say shopping@mydomain and it starts getting spammed alot, you can simply change it to something else. The $5 month I quoted was from GoDaddy, just to KISS, but if you shop around you can find all kinds of prices. I even remember seeing at low as $2.99 if prepaid. I have had my own domain for many years now and could not imagine not having them. Most TOS will prohibit your own hosting and it may be shades of gray just changing the ports, etc. and most DSL will be 512k or less which is gonna be slow compared to a host not to mention the impact to your personal stuff.

I also thought that I would got the route of BSR, but I didn't want the hassle, or what I perceived as the hassle for this. If you don't want to PAY for a name, you can NIX the cost of the DNS name, as dyndns.org allows for mail and host redirection to any IP...do if you used a HOST where you had to PAY for a name, you can use dyndns...although, as BSR pointed out...if DYNDNS goes under, you will need to get a new name...where his method guarantees the name so long as he keeps paying it...it's all in what you want to pay.

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You can do the spam "filtering" (i.e. multiple e-mail addresses) with Gmail, or with www.spamgourmet.com

I believe Gmail does it with adding a "thing" in front of your mail name (beezel.<gmailname>@gmail.com). But I'm not sure as I just use spamgourmet for this. The best part of using spamgourmet, is that to change mail servers, you just put in the new "key" e-mail address (where all the mail is routed to).

It's also free.

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I think your summary from the first page is really a good list of your choices. I chose 2, as I don't host my own mail (didn't want the hassle...I did IT for a while and maybe it was because I had to maintain the MS Exchange server (V5.5! AHHH!!), but I didn't want to deal with the e-mail. I host my own web server as I like to have all my content local...I also don't get that much traffic...

Your other point about needing to RUN a PC 24x7 is true...but I use Homeseer, so I am running a PC 24x7 anyhow. What's another program that is sitting in the background? I noticed you mentioned you are running a PC 24x7 for (CQC was it?). So, that's not really an issue.

So for me, at the cost of $15/mo, twice a year, every year, I can take my wife out for a GREAT fancy dinner...dressed to the nines. She loves it! AND at no additional cost to my pocket book. OR I used to look at it as one extra car payment a year...which helped get the car paid down faster.

You just need to figure out HOW you want to justify it.

--Dan
 
i do something somewhat similar, but without paying for mailbox fees... Same reason as BSR - my local dial-up got bought out, then they got bought out, then they got bought out - eventually it became Earthlink... Luckily I jumped on early so I only changed my e-mail once... I bought a domain name or two from DirectNIC.com (they've been absolutely great - I have about 50 domains through them now, including all my company's domains)... $15/year handles the base registration... from there you can use your own DNS servers, or use theirs for $5/year (which I do... they're actually much better than what I used to pay $200/year for from Network Solutions)...

The part where my trick differs is that I use them to register the name and pay the $15/year, then have e-mail forwarding go to whatever free e-mail address my ISP gives. As an example, say my domain was toddsmail.com - [email protected] goes to [email protected] - I also use the random e-mail addresses like [email protected] - so when that starts getting spammed, I add another redirect that says [email protected] forwards to [email protected] (dunno who that poor fool is, but I use that a lot)... and the spam stops (right now I get a lot of spam to [email protected] - so that will be a new redirect soon). When I send mail it shows my purchased name - [email protected], but sends through comcast. If I change from comcast to roadrunner some day or someone else, I just go into DirectNIC and change the forward-to to whatever my new ISP e-mail is. If I'm in a transition point or if my ISP is having issues, I can just direct to my yahoo account too.

Then - part 2 is vital as well... Get a yahoo or gmail account - and any time you fill out a form for anything, use that address.... don't ever give out your personal address unless it's for a reputable bill, ebay account, whatever.... something where you know it won't get out. that goes a long way to stop spam.

*all domain names and e-mail addresses have been changed to protect me from spammers!
 
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