Hi I know this may be off topic but I think that this is the forum where this belongs as it affects most of us. I have just read the threads below regading 3darena and Lannis 3d world (sorry if I got the titles wrong) but these are not the first cases i've seen lately of isp's or site providers cashing or at least trying to cash in on people either by saying that we're going to charge more or we're closing you down due to band with problems. Is there no loyalty these days to people who have made a supplier their home as it were for some cases several years, do these people not realise that if a site is over subscribed, ie bandwidth that it might be worth investing some time in as it provides a market or even a constant income for the supplier (site supplier I mean)rather than the type of income where casual income where a page is set up and not visited by anyone for several months and then abandoned as so many are? I have had a similar problem with my isp at the begining of the year and as a consequence have lost the e-mail address I had for 5 years! (not quite the same I know but still had the hassel of notifying everyone of the changes!) anyway sorry to rant but I was wondering if any one else feels the same way. Dave

I think the web is suddenly very unfriendly and is going to get even more so. I own a huge list that has been chugging away for years, first on onelist and then on Yahell. Now Yahoo wants money and we pay. We're moving on to another provider-- I'm not sure we won't run out of providers eventually. This is thousands of people all over the world who have been discussing a rather arcane topic for over 4 years. Well, we had a good run. I'm heartsick to see people like Lady SilverMage and Lannie getting dumped on. I can see NO good coming of it but another run of dot.com failures from greed. Emily

That should be "Yahoo wants money and we Won't pay." Emily

yeah, and I have been looking at the costs for commercial account here..they don't have anywhere near enough bandwidth available. thinking about buying sattelight uplink and running my own internet server with unlimited bandwidth. though it would cost to get the ip's and the hardware.....what would I do with 20 ip's as that is the minimum you can get when registering an internet server...may have to run hosting service. looking into it, no time frame set up, but may have to sell webspace to have reasonable site space for Thunderstorm Creations stuff..bandwidth specially. if I have to, I'll, of course, be running email server so email accounts would be available also....free with space...depending on available bandwith on free webmail.

Bandwidth is the biggest issue, and most hosting services sell more than they expect you to use so even if you use what you're alloted, they not happy about it, and many will want $5-$10 per Gig when you go over. Another key is to make sure you have your own domain name. That way, even if you switch hosting services, you've still got the same url and e-mail addresses. I was Gonna start a thread next week, but if you could get your BW for less than a buck a gig, would folks be intersted? I'm launching a hosting service, and it looks like I'll be able to sell 96G over a six-month interval (averages to 16G per month) and 800Meg storage, for just over $94 (billed every six months.) Still typing up TOS, FAQ list, etc. but pricing is pretty much set now.