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Losing web services-new server advice? — Parallax Forums

Losing web services-new server advice?

VIRANDVIRAND Posts: 656
edited 2010-03-14 17:01 in General Discussion
My domains are so old that I am paying very little for ones with only 5 or 6 letters in them.
Since I got them, and have been renting them, they have been getting better and worse
in different ways. Over the past few years I haven't been keeping them up to date.
Recently I have had need of them and have been getting traffic but a lot has happened
that has made the services very awful since I first got them.

When I first got them, the websites had background music, and for some reason they
don't anymore. I assume that the music police made the browsers not support music
anymore. But that isn't a very big deal, still, the internet is very obviously to me in a
state of reverse progress or ruin, my services are fading away. It seems that to regain
the services, the most obvious ways have been to pay more and become exposed to
more junk that I will never consider acceptable.

Recently, one hosting service changed my email service so that I am no longer able
to use either option they currently offer. I contacted them but they said they could
not give me former email service anymore but told me how to upgrade. I don't intend
to upgrade because I cannot secure the upgrade.

Since then, I can no longer send email on any of the domains and can still receive it
but cannot add new email addresses. That happened once before. I originally had
great email but it was downgraded and made not free. At that time I avoided paying
for services I had for free previously in clever ways. I found servers that could either
receive or redirect incoming mail, and for a while I had a program that could send
mail from any of the addresses in my domain that I was using but others had modified
it for spamming so somehow the ISPs blocked it, but fortunately I found another
host with an email server. Suddenly I am getting mail I cannot respond to. The hosts
and domain name providers all have hidden or made unusable the email services.

I have a link to all of the addresses that is inaccessible to anyone who could spam me,
which I could share if necessary to be helped, because it is the list of the email addresses
that I lost control of because of changes in services and service providers buying each
other out. I will not accept the option of paying for formerly included services, especially
since the one host that still offers me email service has changed it to be unuseable without
exposing my network to them. What I will do instead is avoid the new fees for less useful
email services by setting up my own web and mail servers the way I want them to be
set up, and save a lot of money. Some of my problem is that a lot of my previous solutions
to the progressive extortion is so unconventional that it cannot be fixed except by canceling
all of my unsatisfactory hosts and email services and doing it myself the right way according
to books on the subject, such as Apache. I am somewhat ignorant of "the right way" to do it,
not that my way is "wrong", it just got broken by unwanted service changes by services
that are trying to rip me off, or at least ruining my setup with their changes, so that I don't
have email and they are trying to sell it back to me. IT WILL BE CHEAPER TO HAVE MY OWN
SERVERS THAN TO RESPOND TO THEIR CHANGES, AND IT WILL BE BETTER TO HAVE MY OWN
SERVERS WITHOUT BEING SUBJECT TO UNWANTED CHANGES. Why pay for something that
keeps being made more useless? I just say NO. I use Linux for the same reason.

Please if anyone can answer these questions:
Where can I get simple old fashioned email service cheap? (Temporarily at least.)
Could it be as easy as contacting my ISP to allow SMTP for all my email addresses?
Any advice of what LINUX software to put on my webserver and mailserver,
or a link to that information, or a common book about it?
Is there one trustworthy host that is not always making it harder to have multiple
websites with email accounts that is worthwhile compared to having my own servers?
MY SERVERS ARE (WILL BE) FREE AND THE LINUX SOFTWARE IS FREE,
BUT MY HOSTS THINK THEY CAN MESS UP THINGS AND CHARGE ME MORE FOR THEM,
SO I THINK NOT.

If the servers are too hard and time consuming to maintain,
I am sure I could put my websites on SD cards and run them on Propellers with ethernet chips.
I am not so sure about email but email (SMTP/POP3 or WEBMAIL) is not more complicated
than a webserver that can handle my old fashioned mostly HTML content.
All this is relatively easy... writing a browser is not necessary, but I think that would be a very hard project.

So, any advice on how to clean up my messy webs, and get full email service back, and not get ripped off?
What a waste of time it was today testing all the email and finding EVERYTHING messed up by
all the ISPs that I chose, to avoid putting all the eggs in one basket and having this kind of
Smile happen?

DNS is ok.
Hosts are increasing storage and bandwidth for free
but removing email features while also trying to resell them to me,
except for one that only offers an unacceptable way of doing email that would otherwise be OK.
And they all now offer a million extra nickel-and-dime features in addition to the take-away and resell nonsense.
I may just set up a junk computer to use the "bad" email without endangering anything else,
just because it is the only email that still works ANYTHING LIKE the way it used to like it should.

I'm going to do some more research and look for good mail services and software,
and get an idea of how things work best these days when all the good stuff is fading away.

Who remembers FREE GLOBAL INTERNETPHONE in the 1990s? Is VOIP free? Magicjack is trash.
Nothing is as good as Dialpad.com was when it was FREE. You could call any phone in the world and NOT sound
like Stephen Hawking! Every phone on this consumable junk dump planet sounds like him these days.
A rotary dial phone sounds the best, but Dialpad was even better than that.

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Coming soon. My open Propeller Project Pages and favorite links index.

Comments

  • LeonLeon Posts: 7,620
    edited 2010-03-12 11:40
    I use this company:

    uk2.net

    It's not expensive and I've never had any problems with them.

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    Amateur radio callsign: G1HSM
  • Oldbitcollector (Jeff)Oldbitcollector (Jeff) Posts: 8,091
    edited 2010-03-12 14:03
    I've been using gkg.net (domain registrator) for years.

    One of the services they offer is the ability to park a domain for free.
    The parking services include a web-redirect as well as 5 email forwards making
    the domain handy even if you aren't doing anything with it presently.

    You could transfer in and take advantage of their services.

    OBC

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  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    edited 2010-03-12 16:39
    www.domaindiscover.com is my registrar, and www.futurequest.net is my hosting company. I like both of them.

    -Phil
  • bill190bill190 Posts: 769
    edited 2010-03-12 17:54
    The following is a good company.

    http://www.pair.com
  • WBA ConsultingWBA Consulting Posts: 2,935
    edited 2010-03-12 18:04
    I use 1and1.com and it's pretty easy to transfer domains to them. Their management console is very user friendly. Their new webmail interface is like a web-based Outlook.

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    WBA Consulting
    WBA-TH1M Sensirion SHT11 Module
    Special Olympics Polar Bear Plunge, Mar 20, 2010
  • VIRANDVIRAND Posts: 656
    edited 2010-03-12 23:29
    Thanks I will look into those.

    1and1 is the one whose email no longer works with my browser.
    But I guess at least it is the only one that still provides sufficient email service.

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  • VIRANDVIRAND Posts: 656
    edited 2010-03-12 23:32
    WBA Consulting said...
    I use 1and1.com and it's pretty easy to transfer domains to them. Their management console is very user friendly. Their new webmail interface is like a web-based Outlook.
    Hmmm. I wonder if they're using "DOT NET" and that's what's screwing me up.

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    Coming soon. My open Propeller Project Pages and favorite links index.
  • WBA ConsultingWBA Consulting Posts: 2,935
    edited 2010-03-12 23:44
    I have no problems with it in Firefox or IE. Always seems to go right through. It is SMTP/POP3 format because I still use Outlook as well. You may want to doublecheck your browser as I don't think it's a 1and1 problem. They upgraded their webmail interface about 4 months ago.

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    Andrew Williams
    WBA Consulting
    WBA-TH1M Sensirion SHT11 Module
    Special Olympics Polar Bear Plunge, Mar 20, 2010
  • icepuckicepuck Posts: 466
    edited 2010-03-13 00:46
    www.squarespace.com/ has a free trial for 7days I think it was, if you don't like it you don't pay.

    A lot of people in a local linux group I belong to use debian for their home servers.
    I used to use redhat and sendmail before mediacom started blocking email and web servers, check with your isp to see if they will "allow" you to run a server.
    -dan

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  • VIRANDVIRAND Posts: 656
    edited 2010-03-13 01:00
    WBA Consulting said...
    I have no problems with it in Firefox or IE. Always seems to go right through. It is SMTP/POP3 format because I still use Outlook as well. You may want to doublecheck your browser as I don't think it's a 1and1 problem. They upgraded their webmail interface about 4 months ago.
    Right, that's when it broke. I don't just upgrade everything everyday without any idea of what is different about
    the new code. I learned that painful lesson many times. About a month ago I noticed that flashplayer was
    turning on my webcam and mic, just a few weeks before a school in Pennsylvania got in trouble for
    giving a young man detention for smoking in his room alone at home; obviously the vice principal was
    looking at things he shouldn't have been looking at that were none of his business.

    I will look into getting an SMTP/POP3 client but I have to figure out how to prevent the possibility of
    losing email with it. OUTLOOK is for Windows which I haven't used for internet access since 2005
    due to a crime against me by certain powers which I was advised not to discuss here. If OpenOffice
    has an Outlook substitute I will consider using that. Can POP3 be used without deleting the email from
    the 1and1 mail server?

    Anyway, here is a screenshot of an attempt to send email
    using webmail. It is impossible to write since the letter is off the screen and nothing is adjustable.
    I am using Mozilla. I tried using Firefox but it closed due to a script error.

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  • VIRANDVIRAND Posts: 656
    edited 2010-03-13 01:22
    icepuck said...
    www.squarespace.com/ has a free trial for 7days I think it was, if you don't like it you don't pay.

    A lot of people in a local linux group I belong to use debian for their home servers.
    I used to use redhat and sendmail before mediacom started blocking email and web servers, check with your isp to see if they will "allow" you to run a server.
    -dan

    That is exactly the sort of thing I had in mind.
    I think I should be able to run a server with my ISP.
    Obviously spyware does that all the time.
    It seems to me that at least one of my hosts
    should be able to run a simple server; couldn't
    I possibly write a webmail page as a front end to sendmail?
    I really wonder why 1and1 said I could not use PINE instead
    of their new webmail, and I'm sure I ordered UNIX or LINUX hosting.

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    Coming soon. My open Propeller Project Pages and favorite links index.
  • WBA ConsultingWBA Consulting Posts: 2,935
    edited 2010-03-13 08:16
    Looks like a screen resolution issue that's not allowing the webmail app to properly resize its layout dynamically like it is supposed to. Are you on a netbook or something? You should have a lot more on your screen than what is in the picture you posted. Here's a screenshot of my 1and1 webmail when my resolution set all the way down to 1024x768.

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    Andrew Williams
    WBA Consulting
    WBA-TH1M Sensirion SHT11 Module
    Special Olympics Polar Bear Plunge, Mar 20, 2010
    1024 x 768 - 123K
  • Harrison.Harrison. Posts: 484
    edited 2010-03-13 10:10
    It appears that what you really want is a VPS (Virtual Private Server) host. There are a ton of different linux vps hosts out there that will let you do whatever you want (as long as it is legal). The only downside to having this much control is that it costs around $20/month for a basic VPS account (which is actually a great deal).

    I personally use Linode (linode.com) for my VPS hosting needs. They let you run pretty much any linux distro and give you full root access, much like you would have if you were running a dedicated linux box yourself.

    Also, I'm not sure why you are running into so many problems with computers and the internet. Perhaps all your problems are caused by attempting to run super security-hardened linux installs. Sometimes simple and standard solutions are the best...
  • VIRANDVIRAND Posts: 656
    edited 2010-03-13 21:59
    WBA Consulting said...
    Looks like a screen resolution issue that's not allowing the webmail app to properly resize its layout dynamically like it is supposed to. Are you on a netbook or something? You should have a lot more on your screen than what is in the picture you posted. Here's a screenshot of my 1and1 webmail when my resolution set all the way down to 1024x768.
    I am using 1024x600 and I posted the whole screen capture. I cannot change the size of anything on that page.
    Judging by yours I should still be able to read and write the email even with less vertical resolution.
    but my screenshot is of the whole screen and I can't make it smaller.
    Maybe I can... I'll try... I very much doubt it because I tried almost everything.
    It was even more completely stuffed up before I got rid of the calendar junk.

    @Harrison: I am maintaining security. Mail doesn't work because they changed it, as acknowledged above.
    On security in general:
    If a door is locked and they go in through a window, locking the window makes more sense than unlocking a door.
    My security system is more like a doorman or an alarm than a lock though.
    My firewall is simply like a wall.
    Things are not supposed to enter through walls anyway so there is nothing extreme about that at all.

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    Coming soon. My open Propeller Project Pages and favorite links index.
  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    edited 2010-03-13 22:21
    VIRAND,

    If you're running Linux, consider KMail. It's POP3- and SMTP-capable. That's what I use, and I've never had a problem with it. Losing mail is never an issue, because it remains on the remote server until the transfer is complete and KMail tells the server to delete it. In KMail, everything is resizable, so it should work fine on your screen. I use it via SSH to my Kubuntu box from my iMac under X Windows. I'm not certain whether you need to be running KDE on your Linux box to use it or not. I suspect that you do.

    -Phil
  • VIRANDVIRAND Posts: 656
    edited 2010-03-14 03:12
    Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) said...
    VIRAND,

    If you're running Linux, consider KMail. It's POP3- and SMTP-capable. That's what I use, and I've never had a problem with it. Losing mail is never an issue, because it remains on the remote server until the transfer is complete and KMail tells the server to delete it. In KMail, everything is resizable, so it should work fine on your screen. I use it via SSH to my Kubuntu box from my iMac under X Windows. I'm not certain whether you need to be running KDE on your Linux box to use it or not. I suspect that you do.

    -Phil

    That (underlined) is the issue with losing mail. I don't want to download and delete it.
    What place makes more sense to keep mail in than a mail server?

    I DON'T KNOW HOW TO MARK THIS THREAD AS "SOLVED" BUT IT IS NOW PARTIALLY SOLVED;
    I AM NOW ABLE TO USE THE MAIL SERVICES THAT WERE FORMERLY NOT DISPLAYED PROPERLY.
    THANKS EVERYONE FOR ALL OF THE SUGGESTIONS WHICH DID LEAD TO AT LEAST ONE SOLUTION.
    [noparse][[/noparse]
    roll.gif
    I will see what I can do about the "lost" mailboxes. Transferring the other domain may "fix" that.
    Someone elsewhere suggested an openwebmail server. I am considering that also.

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    I should be typing in Spin now.
    Coming soon. My open Propeller Project Pages and favorite links index.

    Post Edited (VIRAND) : 3/14/2010 7:35:17 AM GMT
  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    edited 2010-03-14 08:41
    VIRAND said...
    What place makes more sense to keep mail in than a mail server?
    Um, your hard drive -- that you back up regularly, maybe? Plus you can keep it organized in your own local mailbox folders any way you want, along with your original messages and replies.

    Anyway, you don't have to delete it from the server, if you don't want to. KMail has a setting for "leave fetched messages on the server". But I can't imagine any host being willing to store all of your email, especially if you receive a lot of large attachments.

    -Phil
  • Harrison.Harrison. Posts: 484
    edited 2010-03-14 17:01
    What you want is a mail server/client that supports IMAP. The IMAP protocol keeps all mail on the server, letting the client download just the message headers. There are also a bunch of opensource webmail clients that support IMAP.

    I recommend Dovecot for IMAP/POP3 and Postfix for SMTP. Both daemons support SSL/TLS encryption.
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