On Dimioca site and free hosting

[Cas]

As you guys may have noticed, R4K is hosted at one subdirectory of my site dimioca.com. I've got my domain paid for another year, I think, but the web hosting actually uses a free hosting site. Some time ago, one of the support guys there attempted to persuade me to pay for the service, which actually wasn't expensive and I considered it, but in the end, I didn't do it. I do pay yearly for an e-mail service from them.

Now, this has happened: I've received an e-mail saying that all free accounts will expire and that their contents will be deleted, as they are going to stop providing free hosting. Yet, the due date has been a few months ago. My guess is that the guys don't want to drop me, as I am paying for another service, but officially, they very well could. I am going to speculate so I'm not going to pay for hosting right now. As a consequence, there is a chance that the site vanishes suddenly at some point. If that happens, I'll probably have to hire this host again or some other one... I don't know.

I do plan on keeping R4K running, but I'm not sure if I want to continue to pay for a domain and for the e-mail and/or hosting. It's not about money. I want to stop providing my personal information online. I don't think this will be an issue, as there is always an option on the Internet, but this is just to avoid surprises and so that any ideas you may have, you can post them here, any thoughts, etc. Thank you all for your attention!

[afullo]

Is there any possibility to buy a domain via a trustee or something similar without expending too much, such that the domain is substantially yours, but formally is not, and your personal data are not disclosed in the whois database or elsewhere?

[dreadnaut]

I want to stop providing my personal information online.

On many positions one can have on privacy and internet, I think I am quite close to yours. I avoid social networks, I clear cookies every time I close the browser (and I close it probably every 30m), I restart my router to get different IP addresses... etc. — In part because of my education and the industry I work for, I have strong ideas on privacy.

However, I think there is a difference between throwing personal data at Facebook, and registering for a paid service with a small business. I don't think there is much difference between giving your information in a physical office, and sending it to the hosting company with whom you have a contract.

There are many ways to spread your personal data around on the internet, but it's important to understand how this can happen, and how to avoid high risk situation. But locking yourself in a room it's never a solution, the only thing it does is take away your freedom.

[Cas]

Thank you, guys, for your feedback. I've been thinking about this thoroughly. There are many points to consider. I've thought of what Afullo suggests before and the thing is, if somebody else registers for me, the connection still exists unless that person does not know me personally. So, if I am to do that, I might as well just pay for the domain myself. Of course, it is a little more indirect, but all this work to use services without providing more data than necessary is too much hassle and it's much easier to just don't use those services anymore. If my domain expires and I do not renew it, I still can have an address that's less catchy by just using a subdomain from a free web server.

And Dreadnaut, yes, I've been thinking all that too. The thing is this: I do things online that I can't escape from. I pay my tax (I could do it at the counter but very soon, only online will be allowed) and my current job is online too. But if Big Brother is gathering personal information from me, the State and my boss will still give that. The difference has to do with the services I use because of my personal interest, because the others, everyone uses them anyway, so no special information is added. I've been considering I should quit the internet for every purpose that's not required. Yet, I feel comfortable at the Stunts community because ZakStunts and the Forum are not full of Google and Facebook accesses like most sites today. Soon, it will be impossible to surf the web without your data being sent to those two and others. I am free to do so many things that I haven't been doing for so long because I was stuck on the computer...

For now, my first step is this: I won't start using any new internet service. I will also try to drop some that I really don't need and that are just vice, like YouTube, unless somebody comes and tells me "hey, see this, it's important", because most of the time I just watch it to relax for a moment. I shouldn't do that. I should play my piano instead. Now, I'm not sure about how I'll manage this particular domain and hosting point I've mentioned in this topic, since it's really one of the least invasive internet services I've been using so far, so others are priority to quit. And besides, the Stunts community itself is too valuable. It'd be the last piece of the internet I'd quit if I were to, but I don't think I will ever have to do that.

[Cas]

It finally happened: It seems the free hosting server I was using stopped providing free hosting and deleted all data from my site. It's not that serious: I had everything copied to my computer except probably some replays from last race. My domain dimioca.com is still active, but pointing nowhere. I don't remember which e-mail address or password I used to register that domain, so I don't know when it will expire. I can try to figure out, but I don't really need it. I could use some other domain anyway. I'm trying to find a new hosting site and I'll let you know when I have set it up. Thank you, guys, for your patience.

[dreadnaut]

If you are looking for another free hosting, I have been on Altervista since 2003, and I'm more than happy. PHP, MySQL, FTP access, HTTPS, etc. Choose the plain hosting option.

[Cas]

Thanks, Dreadnaut!  I'll try that one!   I had searched and found several options, but didn't know any of those personally yet, so it's great help that you give me your recommendation

[Cas]

Good news, Race For Kicks is up and running again!  We have a new host and the new address is r4k.fnhost.org. I still do have my Dimioca domain, but I don't remember how to access it to set it up and I'm not sure if I'd renew it so, for now, this is the address.

Dreadnaut, I tried Altervista and it seemed promising, but I wasn't able to register because I had a problem with Google's recaptcha. It didn't work well with Tor and IceCat, which I frequently use. Probably, once registered, this wouldn't have been a problem anymore, but fnhost.org seemed to have no problem with these browsers, so I went ahead.

[Duplode]

If any of you see a parked domain page when following the http://r4k.fnhost.org/ link, try changing the DNS you are using. Strangely enough, I was unable to access the site using my provider's DNS (via 192.168.1.1) or Google's (8.8.8.8 ); however, it has been working with OpenDNS (208.67.220.220).

[Cas]

Oh, looks like it hasn't propagated completely so far, then?
I never noticed this. With my network set up, from the first day, I was able to access without any change. Really curious.

[dreadnaut]

I've updated the link in the Forum directory

[Cas]

Ah!  Thanks!  I had forgotten about that. I thought about it immediately when I changed web host and then I got distracted and forgot to ask.

[Cas]

Yesterday, by sheer chance, I had the idea of making a full backup of Race For Kicks. I couldn't have been more lucky with my timing!  Today, I try to get to the site and I get a message saying it's expired. When I click on the link they give, they take me to the "privacy policy", so I think... "How strange?  Did it have to do with any privacy-related issue?". So I go to my e-mail and there's no warning or notice that anything would happen. Weird.

Finally, I go to fnhost.org, root page, to see if I can log in or anything. Only then I realise what is going on. The whole fnhost.org is down and now, putting attention, it says "This domain name expired on 2020-09-23 12:06:46. Click here to renew it" (clicking "there" is what takes me to the privacy policy page). See, it's not their hosting, but their domain. Maybe it's both. Who knows?  And they didn't even warn me so probably they didn't even know.

Alright, so... either the guys at fnhost.org will renew their domain and everything will be back to normality soon or I will just have to move to a new host. One thing I can do in the meantime is pay for a domain name and host the website myself on my computer. This means it wouldn't be up all the time, but at least, it could be up. The thing is reliable hosting is expensive... Not for somebody living in a normal country, but this is the Argentine Medieval Feud.

[Cas]

So... to update the news... yes, fnhost.org died. It never came back!  On the other hand, KyLiE has very kindly offered to host the tournament so you guys can now find it at http://www.raceforkicks.com