Since I run my forum directly off my own computer, I lack a mail server (the thing that sends validation mails, and all that.)

Does anyone happen to know any? It's sort of a necessity at this point in time.

Doesn’t you domain registrar allows emails? You can also use gmail to host you domain emails now, that way you will receive emails even when your server is down!

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Nope. It's just an IP mask, until I buy an actual domain.

I don't really know enough about servers to set up my own (your own) mail server at home...I'm sure it can be done, I'm just not sure how...and it would probably cost you quite a bit of $$

Just buy some hosting...You have already spent money on vBulletin and haven't paid for good hosting? Good hosting only costs $5/month...Not only will you be able to send mail with ease, but your site will also be much faster...It's very slow right now.

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Wait, I found one. It's called Mercury/32. And nah, it's usually much, much faster. It goes on and off at random. Like google. Some times google takes 6 seconds to load. Hosting is too complicated, and I really don't trust people with me 10.2 MB database.

I would think buying a hosting package would be much less complicated than hosting your forums off of your own computer... You say that your site's speed varies from fast and slow, if you get a paid host you won't have to worry about that. Whether its normally faster or not, slow page loading time can turn potential users away. Plus if you can afford vBulletin then you should be able to pay $5 a month for some hosting.

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Your choice then...If you aren't willing to pay for hosting, then you sacrifice speed, reliability, and functionality (email in this case)

If you do manage to achieve speed, reliability, and functionality on your own machine, then you are spending much more than $5/month to maintain it. Buying paid hosting is the only way to go...The best performance for the lowest price, and it also gives you more time to focus on building your site instead of maintaining a server.

How is paying $5/month for a fully managed account more complicated than running your own server at home?

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It's pretty simple running my own server. Maintaining it isn't a challenge. All I gotta do is hope that I don't trip over the power cord, or hope some uber l33t h4x0r doesn't screw it. Plus, I've reached my spending limit this month, according to my parents.

You still didn't tell me how paying $5/month for a fully managed server is more complicated than managing your own.

You also still haven't commented on speed and reliability. Your site is slow...Many of us have already said that here at AF. Your site is slow because you're running it at home, and it's only going to get slower as it starts to receive more and more visitors.

Your site also doesn't offer all of the functionality that a paid server does

What happens when your power goes out at home?

Also, I think I saw that you mentioned you had 5 vB licenses in your intro thread...You have 5 vB licenses and can't afford quality hosting for $5/month?

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Yeah. 5 rented, just to clarify. And the speed is slow because I'm state hopping again. When I get home, the site will run off a 56k mode-Umm, T1!!!, Nah, It'll run off cable. And what functionality is that? In terms of reliability, it is pretty reliable. So, if my computer goes boom, all the information will be safe on this CD/DVD disk, a USB storage thing, and finally, on a 500 gig external harddrive. Excuse me for saying this, but I doubt I'll be paying for hosting.


(Notice how wildly off topic this thread has flown.)