[finboy]

Well, after 13 years of using AOL's FTP for my class stuff, they're finally closing everyone out on 10/31. I'll dump my account there (keep the free email though, I've had the address since 1994) but I've got to find another cheap way to host some files for my students. Nothing fancy, just some text pages with PDFs and stuff that they can access for class notes.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[Rumor]

http://www.thefreesite.com/Free_Web_Space/

Perhaps?

Though, you should look into getting your own webspace. I think mine is $70 a year. With it, I get up to 3500 GB of data transfer a month, among other things.

[moep]

If you are looking for real webhosting, my experience is that you get what you pay for. In my experience there’s no good and free alternative to a paid webhost like there is with Email and Gmail.

Simple file hosting is a different chapter though. The free 2GB Dropbox offer should work great for your purposes.
Or maybe mobileme if you own multiple macs/an iPhone.

[finboy]

Originally Posted by moep 

If you are looking for real webhosting, my experience is that you get what you pay for. In my experience there’s no good and free alternative to a paid webhost like there is with Email and Gmail.

Simple file hosting is a different chapter though. The free 2GB Dropbox offer should work great for your purposes.
Or maybe mobileme if you own multiple macs/an iPhone.

OK, so CHEAP webspace I guess. WebHost recommendations?

[Rumor]

Lunar Pages. I have been very happy with them.

[SSharon]

I use dropbox for small things like hosting images that I post on NN. I would try it out and if you aren't happy then find a service that you pay for.

[64stang06]

I use TotalChoice Hosting. Can't go wrong for $4/month or $44/year (1 month free if you pay upfront). I've had about 10 minutes of downtime total in the last 4 years I've been with them.

[mduell]

getdropbox.com

[Railroader]

icdsoft.com

$6/month

[finboy]

Originally Posted by Railroader 

icdsoft.com

$6/month

Thanks for the input everyone. I'm checking on the status of my "camped" names now, and then I'll see about getting something hosted.

[residentEvil]

if you simply want to share documents with your students, just use google docs? you can upload pretty much anything (.doc, .ppt, .pdf, etc)

http://docs.google.com/

you can even email the files (not .pdfs though) to your account and thus, uploading it to share.

create a gmail account and google docs becomes available. free. viewers of the documents don't have to have gmail accounts either. you can invite them to view them.

[shifuimam]

If you want to learn something along with hosting files, try a VPS service.

Linode.com is $20/mo for 200GB bandwidth and 12GB storage, and since it's an unmanaged VPS, you're in complete control of your environment. Getting SFTP up and running is very fast and easy.

Just a thought.

[angelmb]

Originally Posted by finboy 

Well, after 13 years of using AOL's FTP for my class stuff, they're finally closing everyone out on 10/31.

If you don't mind me asking… what does that include?, I didn't get any notification from AOL's Bluestring or Xdrive. Thanks.

[finboy]

Originally Posted by residentEvil 

if you simply want to share documents with your students, just use google docs? you can upload pretty much anything (.doc, .ppt, .pdf, etc)

http://docs.google.com/

you can even email the files (not .pdfs though) to your account and thus, uploading it to share.

create a gmail account and google docs becomes available. free. viewers of the documents don't have to have gmail accounts either. you can invite them to view them.

Very nice, thanks. I hadn't heard of this but I'll check it out. It may suffer from the firewall issues that our university servers have, though.

[finboy]

Originally Posted by angelmb 

If you don't mind me asking… what does that include?, I didn't get any notification from AOL's Bluestring or Xdrive. Thanks.

It's what they now call "AOL Hometown". Here's a linky:

http://www.peopleconnectionblog.com/...ing-our-doors/

Basically, every AOL screenname (address) had its own FTP space with no access restrictions for reading. FTP is from back in the old old old days, and Hometown was glomed on recently. Over the years I've posted more and more stuff there (not big stuff though) to keep things simple. Our school uses WebCT, for instance, and lots of folks can't access WebCT from work due to firewalls (even to just download stuff). It was great to use, and easy to use, although lately access has been harder and harder to get. I noticed in July that the latest AOL client for mac didn't have a way to access FTP built-in, and that tipped me off. But I didn't expect to get shut out so quickly.

I know folks are asking "why use AOL anyway?" Well, because I've had the email address since 1995 (or 94 maybe). And because it's easy and transparent to my students. No IT folks to deal with all these years moving my stuff around from semester to semester and school to school. So, yeah, I'll miss it. I'll keep the AOL free address for a while too, but only because it's so old. Really hacks me off that we have 30-days' notice.

[Rumor]

Have you asked if there is any way to continue service?

[angelmb]

Originally Posted by finboy 

It's what they now call "AOL Hometown". Here's a linky:

http://www.peopleconnectionblog.com/...ing-our-doors/

Basically, every AOL screenname (address) had its own FTP space with no access restrictions for reading. FTP is from back in the old old old days, and Hometown was glomed on recently. Over the years I've posted more and more stuff there (not big stuff though) to keep things simple. Our school uses WebCT, for instance, and lots of folks can't access WebCT from work due to firewalls (even to just download stuff). It was great to use, and easy to use, although lately access has been harder and harder to get. I noticed in July that the latest AOL client for mac didn't have a way to access FTP built-in, and that tipped me off. But I didn't expect to get shut out so quickly.

How detailed should an answer be?, can't hardly get any better than that. Thanks finboy.
I guess it is (well, was) a service aimed at US residents hence I didn't even know about its existence. Sorry about the abrupt end of service.

[nonhuman]

I'll chime in with the Dropbox crowd. I use it for keeping files synced between my OS X and Linux machines, but it's also great for file sharing. Also, if you want a good deal on hosting for FTP space, there's always the oldy but goody: Dreamhost. I've been using them for years and really have no complains, though obviously others do. Plus now they offer 'unlimited' hosting for just $6/mo, not a bad deal. If you do decide to use Dreamhost, I would very much appreciate it if you use my referral link: http://www.dreamhost.com/r.cgi?41365

[finboy]

Thanks again to everyone who's chimed in.

Soon as I figure out how much bandwidth I'm going to need, I'll be able to take my camped address and host it. But I may try Google docs. Paying for bandwidth may get expensive every month.

[Big Mac]

How could you stand to use any AOL service for all of that time?

[finboy]

Originally Posted by Big Mac 

How could you stand to use any AOL service for all of that time?

I didn't. I basically paid the monthly and got all the storage and bandwidth I could use. The service itself (with the email address) was irrelevant for most of that time (I think I stopped using dialup in 2004, even occasionally).

It was nice to have the dialup fallback option AND TCP/IP the rest of the time, and it was neat to set up Airport base station in OS 9 to dial in for me then sharing the connection throughout the house.

[angelmb]

Now that I was liking to use the AOL Pictures app -besides the occasional unexpected quit- the service is ending by December, 31st

Dear AOL Pictures User:

We are sorry to inform you that, as of December 31, 2008, AOL will no longer provide the AOL Pictures online photo service. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.

The good news is that AOL has partnered with American Greetings® PhotoWorks® to enable continued access to your pictures through the PhotoWorks service. PhotoWorks provides unlimited free storage, just like AOL Pictures, as well as a variety of options for making creations and sharing your photos. You can access your images on PhotoWorks simply by providing your screen name and password to register for a free American Greetings PhotoWorks account. Register for PhotoWorks now.

While we recommend the American Greetings PhotoWorks option, you may also:

Download your photos to your computer using a new tool that will enable you to quickly save multiple images and albums; or
Purchase a DVD archive of your images. Please note there is a charge for the DVD archive based on the number of images you select.

It is important that you take action no later than December 31, 2008. After this date, you will no longer be able to access your images through AOL Pictures. You may choose from or combine any of the options listed above, based on your needs, as long as you do so by December 31.

Please go to AOL Pictures as soon as possible to register for American Greetings PhotoWorks for continued access to your pictures or to save your images on your computer or to DVD. Here, you will also find more information and step-by-step instructions on each of the available choices.

We sincerely appreciate your being an AOL Pictures user. It has been our pleasure to provide you with an enjoyable online photo experience.

Sincerely,

The AOL Pictures Team

[shifuimam]

That sucks...time to move to flickr! $20 a year for a pro account (or is it $25? I forget now), with unlimited bandwidth, and lots of organization options.

[- - e r i k - -]

Another vote for Dropbox. I hardly ever bother with my own webspace anymore.

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by shifuimam 

That sucks...time to move to flickr! $20 a year for a pro account (or is it $25? I forget now), with unlimited bandwidth, and lots of organization options.

And ways to get to your data.

I refuse to recommend services that just want to lock you in and control your data.

[villalobos]

webhostingbuzz.com : cheap, fast and reliable.