Hi family, During the discussion regarding our GeoCities woes, I very carefully weighed everyone's opinions and desires. We had a good discussion and it quickly became obvious, both on the table and privately, that the majority of the cousins wanted our own domain. Since many of you already told me you would help me support a domain, I went ahead and found us one. It's done. Effective today we have a new home. What's more ... IT'S ALL OURS!!! YIPPEE!!!! (clap clap clap jumpa jumpa jumpa) I spent every day of the last four days researching this domain business and finding a webhost. Yesterday I signed us up for a domain and our name. This morning I finalized the registration process. We are now unequivocally, undeniably, completely and totally ... howellresearch.com ...or, howellresearch.org ...or, howellresearch.net However, just like any new home, we have to wait for the "closing" ... namely, me to get us moved from GeoCities (hopefully, taking about 2 days). We can't use our domain name [the howellresearch] yet because it still has to be made official at the domain registry. I'm told it takes about 72 hours before that happens. However I *can* give you our new IP address (our address in numbers only) which you can click on right now and see our groundbreaking spot in cyberspace. (I warn you now there's nothing, but nothing to see yet except a few words from our host saying that area is ours. I'll create an announcement page later today.) http://64.177.27.166 Yep. That's us! lol Temporarily, just think of it as a post office box before you get your new, permanent address! <g> First off, since at GeoCities we were already being found under howell_research, I figured it would be easier for everyone to remember if we just stay with what we already had for a name (howell research). However, the powers-that-be in domain registration don't allow names with underscores [_], so we'll be howellresearch instead. It's just a matter of remembering to remove the underscore [_]. I'm considering changing us to "Howell Research Center" and making the Howell Research Room part of the Center. However, that won't happen for a while yet ... and may not happen at all unless I can come up with ideas for new areas ... a library, perhaps? ... a store to help support the domain? ... a classroom for our newbies new to research? ... Then again, now that I'm coming up with all these ideas ... hmmm Now, the business part: The cost: $200 = domain registration and set up (a one-time only fee) 10 = .net registration (I'll explain this below) 10 = .org registration (again, below) 10 = to get the .org "attached" to our .com domain.* 50 = 5 extra gigabytes of data transfer {space?}** --- $280 outlay for howellresearch.com/.net/.org * The .net was free. **Our webhost has assured me that if we exceed our data transfer allotment like what's been happening at GeoCities, we will NOT be locked out of our site, but will be billed $10 for each extra gigabyte of {space?} we use. That being the case, I got us signed up for an additional 5 gigs of data transfer to prevent my being billed. RE: The .net and .org extensions ~~ I registered for howellresearch.net and howellresearch.org so nobody else could use those names and cause us to lose traffic with surfers thinking to reach us and get someone else instead. Not only was I guiding surfers to us with .net and .org, but also any inline cousins! Anytime someone gets confused as to whether howellresearch is .com, .net or .org they'll still reach us. We won't be paying any monthly fees, just that one-time $200 outlay. However, we will have annual fees due next January: Annual fees will be: $70 = annual fee for the domain space 10 = annual fee for .net registration 10 = annual fee for .org registration -- $90 annually for howellresearch.com/.net/.org RE: Domain support ~~ please understand straight off ... NOBODY is REQUIRED to help support this effort. It is all voluntary and in no way will you be prevented from using the Research Room or any other site, page, etc. we may set up at Howell Research. There are cousins who have offered to help offset my expenses for our new home. However, if you would also like to contribute to this effort I will very humbly and gratefully accept any donations: Colleen Pustola P.O. Box 13154 Fort Carson, Colorado 80913 IF the donations exceed the $280 I have already paid out, I will roll those extra funds over to take care of our annual fees. I will NOT retain any of the funds for myself, but keep it all within the family to pay for our home. In the next couple days I'll begin transferring all the files out of GeoCities and into our domain. This will coincide with taking down our tree and storing all the new information away, but this part will take longer than the two days I mentioned earlier. NOTE: Cousins of the HOWELL-SURNAME-L, Since the HRR is not your regular homesite, this is more of an information message for you only. However, if you'd like to help support this alternate site, you are certainly invited to; your support would be most welcomed. I think that about covers everything. I hope this finds you all having a most THRILLING Thursday! :) For me, well ... E.R. is on tonite!!! :-D Colleen