I Hate Yahoo

I'd guess that my biggest mistake on the web was having them host my website at the beginning, but I went with them because I equated "big" with "good" and didn't do my research. My bad! The tools for working on the site were very limited & buggy, tech support replied -- slowly -- with boilerplate, they were expensive, they were . . . ah, never mind. There were a LOT of irritating little problems, and finally one huge one. Anyway, last year I transferred to MM Hosting. Lovely service, low prices about half of Yahoo's. Excellent web tools. All the bells and whistles like email & FTP & Sub-domains. Customer service such that at ten PM on a Sunday night I sent in a service request on their website and had a response within minutes. This year, I ran into a problem, which is why my site is offline -- or rather, available only through http://74.63.64.61/~blacktai/ So here are two facts. First, the whole web runs on numbers, so when you type in a URL, the URL goes to a Domain Name Server (DNS) which supplies the appropriate numerical address for what you typed. Second, when you create a web site you have to register your name with one of the domain registrars and pay them a fee. One of the problems with yahoo is that they are not a Domain Registrar, they resell domains from an outfit in Australia, Melbourne I. T. Services. Another factoid -- you CAN transfer names from one Registrar to another. The huge problem came to light when I tried to transfer mine to MM Hosting. Transferring a domain from a domain reseller requires the cooperation of the the reseller, the Registrar they are affiliated with, and the Registrar you want transfer to. Yahoo & Melbourne might not make it impossible, but they make it difficult. I assumed (Yep, made an ass of myself) that MM hosting had successfully acquired my domain from Yahoo. When blacktailbooks.com died I found out that Yahoo hadn't allowed the transfer. Or Melbourne hadn't. Or both. Take your pick. So now I am stumbling through the process of renewing my domain ($35.00, non-refundable) with Melbourne and then transferring it to MM Hosting. Hopefully, this time the transfer will be successful. In the meantime, use http://74.63.64.61/~blacktai/ if you want to visit my site. And if you want to re-read this and insert your choice of four-letter adjectives and adverbs and a few select nouns into the sentences, you will have an idea of my present mood. (Oh, yeah -- last night the roof leaked and soaked the military books and this morning the van quit on me -- it needs a new computer. Add MORE four-letter tidbits to all the above!) Wish me luck. Update: I set up site forwarding at yahoo till I can, hopefully, get this mess straightened out. At least I have an accessible website again from its normal URL. (Me) (Blacktail Books)