Store images on a free server to save bandwidth?

[Magic2K2]

Does anybody see any problems with getting a free account in addition to my paid account and storing my images on the free account to save bandwidth? Obviously, I slow load time a bit, but if the free server is reliable, I can't see any major problems.

Your thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

[meow]

That depeds on what you plan to do. If you are going to hot link them there will be problems.

[Magic2K2]

What type of problems?

[Canuckkev]

Well, because the page will not load from their servers, the images will be sucking their bandwidth, and their ads are not displayed.

So, not bad, eh? You don't have to pay!

Well, it really isn't so easy as that. Any free host will say no hotlinking(what you will be doing). So, you would be breaking their TOS. Not a good idea.

Also, some free hosts will not load images from different domains. Like crosswinds. If you try to call an image from a server other than crosswinds, it will not load the image for you. They set it up so you can't do that.

One option which you might have to have a second paid host. They might not care if you load the images from another server, because you are already paying for the bandwidth. This second pay server will not need much either. I am assuming you don't have Gig's of pics, and no extra features are required. Just a fairly high bandwidth. Or, just get a different hosting account with more bandwidth for your whole site. That might be your best option.

[Magic2K2]

What about geocities? Can I hotlink from them?

After all, my goodness, I'm not hurting Yahoo! Geocities by using up a gig at most. I might get shutdown eventually, but by then I'll probably just serve my own images or go to another free host.

P.S. Don't give me some stupid lecture on how ads pay for these free hosts. Frankly, I could care less. I just want to do this temporarily and I'll pay for my own crap sooner or later.

[Dusty]

P.S. Don't give me some stupid lecture on how ads pay for these free hosts. Frankly, I could care less. I just want to do this temporarily and I'll pay for my own crap sooner or later. Hmm, suppose everyone took that outlook? You're one gigabyte might not hurt Almighty Yahoo, but how many others do you think are just looking to steal "a gig at most"? Far too many people have the strange notion that they're alone in their ventures.

:(

[meow]

Your problem is that all hosts but f2s and maybe one or two more make it technically impossible to do what you want to do. And the few that don't sure would react if you leeched 1 GIG. If I was you I would give piggy a good shake and pay $10/year for 5GIGS/month at http://www.discount-hosting.com/

[Canuckkev]

Meow's suggestion is very reasonable. $10 a year is nothing. It would be worth it for the realiability of a paid host rather than trying to cheat a free host.