Domain/Webhost shopping!

DNS · Post by **DNS** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 12:43 pm

Me and geocities are currently having a bit of trouble in our relationship.
Apparently, even though it's just the second of the month, I'm using 62% of my alotted data transffer limit.
Which is impossible, and icnredably annoying. So now I'm thinking of going through the incredably tedious process of getting a webhost so I can screw over geocities properly. Something good, and cheap.
:/ the problem is, i have no idea how to do this. is there anywhere that any else uses that's really good? and not too pricey. X.x
I'm thinking about just switching to geocities pro, since that wouldn't involve moving all my files, but that seems particular unsavory too.
eh.

Shiolar · Post by **Shiolar** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 12:48 pm

If you have a spare PC, you can turn that into your own webhost, which is completely free... Doesn't even have to be a decent PC... my last server was a little one...

Xalia · Post by **Xalia** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 12:50 pm

How do you turn a PC into a server? I've got an old PC...a couple actually, in different states of disrepair and have always wondered about turning them into servers... >.>

And for webhosts, I /love/ my current webhost. $5/month for lots of room and bandwidth and features! http://www.e-starr.com

DNS · Post by **DNS** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 12:54 pm

ooh, 5$ a month sounds a loot better than geocities.
-takes a look-
and.. ooou, interesting! We have no spare PC's, becuase my mom took all of the computers but for mine and dad's in t he divorce, but it would still be good to know. XP speak, oh great shiolar!

Shiolar · Post by **Shiolar** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 12:55 pm

Basically, there's some software you install, and you sign up for a service called DynDNS, which aligns a web address to your IP address. Attach the PC to your network and make sure it's on the internet 24/7, and there you have a webserver. I think I have a more in depth guide to it somewhere...

Keilin Alyr · Post by **Keilin Alyr** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 1:15 pm

I plan on using StartLogic (or a similar site) for a domain name and phpwebhosting for an actual host once I have some money and content to throw around.

I've been looking forward to using phpwebhosting for years now. Several friends of mine have loved it, I love the stats, and it's been my personal carrot to get me through this crappy first job.

I'm also a fan of the wholesale domain rates going up recently ($6.95/yr seems to be average), but I'm not entirely qualified to rate them against the bells and whistles offered by the longer established companies like Register.com and Network Solutions. Hopefully someone with more experience can help you weigh features against cost if you're serious about moving your site.

Neishai · Post by **Neishai** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 1:23 pm

Aw, man... if I had known about making an old PC into a server, I'd have been able to talk my mom into keeping our old one... x_X; Bah, I say.

Shiolar · Post by **Shiolar** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 2:17 pm

Okay, how to create your own webserver:

Firstly, you need a computer. It can be a spare one, or if you can afford to leave your own PC running all the time, that will also be fine.

Then, you go to http://www.dyndns.com/ and sign up for an account. There's several plans available. The free one allows you to tie in an address given by to you by them to your current IP address. If you pay them a small amount of money, you can tie your domain name to your IP address. The URL's they give you are generally decent enough, we've got shiolar.merseine.nu and essell.ath.cx, and there's a variety of others to choose from, too.

You install the DynDNS client to the computer that's going to act as a webserver, and fill in the appropriate fields. The only ones you need are the details of the URL of your webspace, either the one they gave you or your domain. You leave the other settings alone.

Now, for setting up the webspace itself, the method varies according to your system. If you have Windows XP, you can use IIS (Internet Information Services), which can be found under Administrator Tools in the Control Panel. In IIS there's a section for websites. There's various settings in there which you can play around with, but the most important one is the folder you want to act as your webspace.

If you don't have Windows XP, there's other software that can do basically the same thing. There's one called Abyss that we used successfully for many years, and there's a lot of other ones out there too. A Google search will give you plenty of options.

Basically, this method will work on any PC, so you don't really need an extra one... But your webspace is limited to the size of your hard-drive, your bandwidth is limited to any restrictions your ISP places on you, and the speed someone can download from your server is limited to your internet connection's upload speed.

For my server, that's 60gig webspace, unlimited bandwidth (officially 15gig per month, but they've never enforced it), and around 150kps. You can probably buy better from a professional server, but... this way is free, aside from occasional hardware replacements/upgrades...

Astra · Post by **Astra** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 3:34 pm

just a fair warning if you live in the states a lot of internet providers will say no-no to setting up your own server due to bandwidth reasons -- I know I can't, because I use comcast cable internet >_>

I'm in the process of setting up a server right now, though it is for my work and not for personal uses. Having never set up a server before ... *prints out shiolar's instructions and dances about with glee*

As for personal uses, I use godaddy.com. Cheap and reliable and I haven't had any problems yet. Hope that helps...

(( tehee, DNS needs a DNS ^_^ ))

Shiolar · Post by **Shiolar** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 3:42 pm

What ISPs don't know won't hurt them...

DNS · Post by **DNS** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 3:46 pm

hee. dns does need a dns. >.> Yay for accidental puns!

and ouu, I'll have to find out if fiberoptic allows that. :/ then again, i don't have a spare PC anyway.

Thanks for the new suggestions. -looking at all websites as they come in-

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 4:13 pm

Yahoo/geocities counts by hour, not by month. Every geocities account I've had has gone over limit at least once in a while, because more than 3 people are looking at it (due to a hatching or whatever).

I have 60 geocities sites. I have a photobucket account I pay for, and I have one official website I pay for - through yahoo - that I host other images at. I would say it's not worth your bother and worry, just learn to spread out your images to other places. Photobucket is well worth the price, for the bandwidth you save on other sites.

Just my two cents.

Fuzzy · Post by **Fuzzy** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 4:18 pm

Wow, Shard. And I thought I was bad when I had 30 geocities sites. I'm down to 3 or four now and run on bluecapacity.com which is 5 bucks a month and $11 per year for a domain name. ^^* I don't really recommend them though since their support is only through AIM and they otherwise haven't answered trouble tickets in the past 3 *years*. I'm just too lazy to bother switching.

DNS · Post by **DNS** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 4:54 pm

-blinksat- It's hourly? It's listed on the statistics page as monthly. -prods it curiously- it says I'm using up 60% of my monthly data transffer, but then again, it could be lying. :/

I'll look into it. Thanks shard. X.x and I was considering that-- I may have to do that, since I'n dead broke-- I just want to avoid spacing out everything too much, or else I loose track of it and get overwhelmed and gods know what else.

Astra · Post by **Astra** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 5:05 pm

Oh do I know how that goes

Before I was hosted at godaddy, I was hosted at doteasy, which is dirt cheap but not very fast or reliable. Half the time I couldn't ftp in to upload stuff and so I'd have to have about half my crap on my domain and half on my geocities site, and that got really hard to keep track of. So yes, I feel your pain. I don't know what I'd do with 60 geocities sites lol!

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 5:25 pm

Well the thing I don't really understand is: no one needs to have 'just one' site. I've seen people even here who up and move everything - like 'physically' move from one site to another. But it's not like moving one to another is going to free up any more space, or reduce traffic. It just makes more load for the new site.

Most of my pages are linked so you (hopefully) don't even notice when you go from one to another. With the times I'm working on newer versions of old sites, I am moving things - but once I really do that I'm going to be using the old site for something else, and leave up the pages that have redirects to the new ones.

But yeah - geocities time is counted hourly, though it goes 'monthly' in the agreement (are you paying for the site? or is this just a plain geocities?). It's only down for a small amount of time, and then comes back up. That's why I heartily advise just buying a year of photobucket and see how it goes. Leaves a lot of space for text and minor permanent images like backgrounds and such, but you can put dragons and other things on photobucket to save the geocities bandwidth immensely.

I am teh master of internet 'webbage'...

lol.

I have a 2-column page of my sites and passwords... I have to do that because otherwise I know I'd forget one or another. And ever since I lost the original Genrehopper site because I wasn't paying attention this is even more important that I remember the names, dates, etc that I use for id signup. But now they have a nice printable page of it. It's a shame I can't remember half the info i posted for my older sites, because some of them are so old they didn't even ASK for certain things, and now I can't get in to change them because... I don't have the security for it... lol!

DNS · Post by **DNS** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 5:32 pm

XP I have over a hundred ancient geocities accounts, but they;re all dead and made for email. and I've forgotten them all, so they don't count. .______o hee for sn hoarding.

but yes. -shrugs- I don't like having multiple sites cuz I'll forget about some and forget what's on each one and whatnot. I have a really shakey method of doing backups right now anyway, and ergh~ I've been thinking of ways to organise it for a few days now, but i dun like any of them. -waves paw- I'll see how it goes. it's mostly a little obsessiveness on my part. O__o pain in the ass.

I do use photobucket most of the time, but not a paid account. I've got a feww one, is that any worse than the paid ones? or do the paid ones somehow take stress off of the websites you link the images off of somehow or something?

and it's a free geocities account.

Luna · Post by **Luna** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 5:43 pm

Hmmm, I use www.bluehost.com I forget the rates, but after several arguments with my own server (I was running an apache web server and a game server from the same machine DOH! ) and none too few debates with tripod, geocities, yahoo, and others... I appreciate the professional approach bluehost offers. They are right up there with Register.com, and the tech support is second to none. I called the help line, got a real person, and after a couple of minutes, they had my site running smoothely. It was special and I love them muchly. XD

Anyway they are very easy to navigate and are just plain user friendly in general. ^__^

Mystic Dragon · Post by **Mystic Dragon** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 5:51 pm

The reason I'm "up and moving" to the new site is because the banners really got to me. My pages tend to be tabbed to begin with, so having those banners there makes it that much smaller. :3 Plus the new domain gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling.

Astra · Post by **Astra** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 5:54 pm

I <3 my domain name. Best $45/year I could possibly spend, seriously. I reccomend it for anyone who can afford it, for convenience if nothing else!