Cheap webhosting

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  zfa on 28/04/2013 - 14:38

  +2

  There's no reason to move your webhosting, you can normally just move your email over to another provider. E.g. you could move it from your web host to using Microsoft Outlook on your own domain name free of charge:

  http://www.labnol.org/internet/setup-outlook-on-custom-domai…

  If you only have one email address (with aliases if you like, but just one 'inbox') then you could alternatively use Google Apps for free, otherwise it's $50 per user per annum. This would give you GMail on your own domain.

  Using Outlook or GMail will greatly reduce your mail being considered spam, especially if you follow the instructions they each provide for adding an SPF record (Outlook) or SPF, DKIM and DMARC records (Google Apps).

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    glenb83 on 28/04/2013 - 18:26

    Thanks for the advice, if I follow the guide above will I still be able to use thunderbird and other email clients to get the mail by simply changing the pop and smtp servers?

    Also, will this automatically deactivate any existing email accounts I have on my domain or will they run side by side till I configure it to only send/receive on the outlook servers?

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      zfa on 28/04/2013 - 20:40

      Email will be received at your old account until you change your MX server records over to Outlook. These are what tell other email servers out there where to put your emails. As soon as they are set to Outlook.com and this change is propagated around the net then all mail addressed to your domain will arrive at Outlook. Make sure you have an account at Outlook.com with the correct name so they know where it goes (if you're currently getting email at [email protected], make sure you have a user called joe.bloggs set up at Outlook.com).

      Email can be sent from both old and new servers but you should stop using your existing provider and move over to Outlook as soon as you have put your SPF record in place (this effectively tells mail recipients what SMTP servers can send mail on your behalf - if you say you're using Outlook then they'll think email from other servers such as your old one is spam…).

      To get email to and from your new servers instead of the existing ones you're right - you just change the SMTP and POP servers over to Outlook in Thunderbird or what-have-you. Everything else remains the same. In fact if you generally use Thunderbird instead of webmail you will see no difference between your old provider and Outlook.com. If you bother to do the SPF record you should notice that your email has a better 'reputation' and is less likely to be considered spam once you start sending from the Outlook.com infrastructure.

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        glenb83 on 28/04/2013 - 20:51

        Great advice, thanks for that mate! I'm going to give this a try and stick to the free hosting then :D

        So just to be clear before I migrate, at the moment I have [email protected] (most likely changed to @outlook.com by now) which I rarely use. I login with that, add my domain, then use the mx records they give me at my registrar, then create a new user under member accounts for each email address I currently have (there are 3 in total, all [email protected]) then update my server settings on each device/client, and that's it?

        It is a global change though, I would need to move all of them or none of them to the live account, I can't keep some of them managed through the cpanel of my servers au account right? Also, if I create a cname record as the guide suggests, that will just take me to the outlook.com interface of my emails as opposed to the roundcube/cpanel version of webmail currently right?

        (Sorry for the noob questions!)

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        zfa on 28/04/2013 - 21:03

        The change is made at a domain level, yes, not user level and so once you move to Outlook.com, it's all at Outlook.com. Every user. The old accounts at your current host will still be there but no mail will ever hit those server. The updated MX records make sure of that (no mail server will know to deliver mail to anywhere other than Outlook.com when you make that MX change).

        The email accounts at Outlook.com will be brand new and nothing to do with any old Hotmail/Outlook.com accounts you may have. You will actually log into their service using your existing 'custom' email address - i.e. [email protected] - and not any old Hotmail/Outlook addresses you may have. That's actually the beauty of it and the point of it all - you get the Outlook service, reputation and infrastructure but whilst appearing to have your own email infrastructure with your own domain name etc.

        That how-to in my first post should explain how to move ahead with it (start at 'Guide: Setup Outlook on a Custom Domain') and if it all goes tits up you can just move your MX records back to your old host (so keep a record of them) and you're back to where you are presently.

        Any probs I can probably help out but it's all pretty straight-forward providing you know how to change your DNS records at your domain registrar.

        EDIT: Just seen your bit about the CNAME. Correct again - if you set up mail.company.net.au then going to that address in a browser will take you to the Outlook.com login page. Also just to clarify you change your MX records at your domain reigstrar to those for Outlook.com, not put your existing MX value into Outlook.com somewhere…

        EDIT 2: That guide does say you may need to log in with an existing ID although I don't remember having to do so when I last set this up. If you do, you do. It should all be pretty straight-forward though…

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        glenb83 on 30/04/2013 - 15:01

        I followed your lead and got as far as creating the MX record. I have my domain with crazy domains, and it appears I need to purchase DNS Services to allow MX record creation? Would that be correct or am I looking in the wrong place? The only details I seem to be able to change are the nameservers.

        Any advice, or do I just have to pay the $18/year for DNS Services to get it working?

      • 

        scotty on 30/04/2013 - 16:42

        No. You change your MX record at your current DNS provider, which is most likely your hosting company, i.e. Servers Australia. Check their cPanel settings to change the Mail Exchange / MX records.

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  Daabido on 28/04/2013 - 17:03

  I thought Google Apps no longer had a free option?

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  zfa on 28/04/2013 - 17:38

  +2

  You can sign up via Google Appengine for a single-user account.

  The rationale is that you may have an app hosted at Appspot (Google Appengine) that you want to run on your own (sub)domain. You can therefore simply go into your app (can be anything, or even nothing except the placeholder app with no code) and say you want to host it on your own domain. If the domain isn't already tied into Google Apps you are offered to ability to create an account for it but it is restricted to one user - effectively it's meant to administrate the app but the setup is a complete Google Apps account including gmail, calendar, sites etc.

  If you don't mind one inbox you can still use email aliases and alternative 'send as' addresses etc to run multiple email addresses if you like.

  EDIT: Found a link which explain things a little better:

  http://lifehacker.com/5967336/use-google-app-engine-to-get-g…

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  c64 on 28/04/2013 - 21:40

  currently have a free account with Servers Australia, but find that alot of my emails end up in people's spam folders due to the shared-cp mail server and people presumably taking advantage of the free service and sending spam.

  that sounds strange. most shared web hosting would use a shared mail server. if the mail server was blacklisted then you should get delivery failure reports for your emails, saying that your server was blacklisted.

  • 

    scotty on 28/04/2013 - 22:14

    Not necessary. Some mail spam filtering don't reject black listed mail servers outright, but use RBL as part of the scoring system and only send the emails to spam folder if the score is above certain threshold - instead of rejecting them outright with a 5xxx status (minimise the damage if false positive).

    Shares hosting also don't do domain keys or SPF for you, which would be greatly penalised by some spam filters.

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  littlebeauty on 29/04/2013 - 11:59

  Please contact me, I'm happy to offer you a year of free hosting and email hosting also, I look forward to hearing from you. No ads either ;)

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  rachel33 on 30/04/2013 - 14:56

  This doesnt answer your specific questions but it may give you some help

  "Five Best Web Hosting Companies"

  http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2012/05/five-best-web-hosting-c…

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    scotty on 30/04/2013 - 16:47

    DreamHost, HostGator, BlueHost are huge US-based hosting providers that appear on many "top 10 hosting companies" because of the hefty referral bonus they are paying.

    Linode is a US-based VPS provider that most likely won't suit OP's need.

    A Small Orange is never the same when Tim sold it 3 years ago…

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  sly on 04/06/2013 - 15:11

  I normally grab some offer in http://www.lowendbox.com/

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    scotty on 04/06/2013 - 21:02

    "cheap / free webhosting"

    =/=

    "cheap virtual private servers across the Pacific ocean with 200+ms latency on an oversold server run by 16yo high school kid, and requires knowledge of Linux command lines and security to get a website up and running…"

    :)

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  jamesbenhart on 06/07/2013 - 09:46

  For your emails, I think http://www.domains.live.com/ is still free, no? With Google Apps closing their free service, I think Microsoft is the next best thing, well, apart from you buying a paid hosting for emails that is.