Benefits of owning a domain (was Re: Cross Yahoo off the list of free e-mail services!)

[tbuskey at usa.net (Tom Buskey)]

Paul Lussier said:
>In a message dated: 21 Mar 2002 13:19:17 EST
>"Kenneth E. Lussier" said:
>
>>Domains are cheap these days, so anyone can afford it. Setting up the
>>servers really only requires a few old PC's, a Linux distro, and some
>>documentation. 
>
>You forgot one important thing:
>
>	Affordable, high speed, always-on internet access.
>
>I could easily afford to register my own domain, but without xDSL or 
>cable modem access to the net, what good is it?  A dial-up connection 
>just isn't a feasible means of running a domain.  Can it be done?  
>Absolutely.  Is it worth the trouble?  No, not really.  Especially if 
>the only reason is to gain POP3 e-mail access.
>
>My $21/month for an ISP gets me upto 8 POP3 mailboxes if I really 
>need them.  If I *really* want to run a website, I get 10MB or so of 
>space.  
>
>Running my own domain, as I'm sure is true for most internet users, 
>is actually *more* trouble than it's worth, especially considering 
>I'm restricted to dial-up access, as is the majority of the U.S.!

I've had a usa.net address for a long time.  My work email has changed 
6 times.  mediaone.net just became attbi.com and (I think) they're up 
for sale so another domain change will be happening in the future.  
Also, I've been looking for a house for awhile & will be looking again 
as soon as I get a job.  I might not be able to get a cable modem with 
attbi where I move.

It's been nice to tell people tbuskey at usa.net & have that forwarded or 
POP'd to whatever real address I have.  Then they started charging $30/
year for it.  I paid because I think that's reasonable.  Now, they're 
upping it again to (I think) $60 or so.

Register.com will let me get buskey.name with a forwarded email for $25/
year.  And I can renew the domain every year so it'll be around for 
awhile no matter what my ISP or work does to the domain name.

I'm doing it so I don't have to resubscribe to every list and tell my 
friends my email has changed yet again.  What a pain.  It's worth $25/
year to avoid that.

-- 
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Tom Buskey