# XFINITY (aka Comcast) Personal Web Pages to be discontinued



## phrelin

Got this friendly email today from the nice folks at xfinity/Comcast:



> Whether you are actively using XFINITY Personal Web Pages or set one up in the past, we want to let you know that we're going to make some changes to this service. As of October 8, 2015, the Personal Web Page (feature of XFINITY Internet) service will be discontinued.
> 
> By October 8, 2015, you should go into your personal web page and save pictures and anything else that you may have put on your personal web page onto your computer. Once the service is discontinued, you will no longer have access to your web pages and your files will be deleted.
> 
> We value your business and hope you enjoy all our other XFINITY Internet benefits.
> 
> Sincerely,
> Your XFINITY Team


You have to admire the audacity (or is it idiocy?) of someone who in the first sentence tells you "we're going to make some changes to this service" and in the second sentence tells you the "service will be discontinued."

But they do value my business and hope I enjoy all their other benefits, even though I'll be getting one less.

I used to back up some of my website there, but I quit that ages ago. Nonetheless, I did check to make sure I didn't leave something there that I might have lost.


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## James Long

I would not use my connectivity ISP's "personal" web space for anything permanent unless they allowed me to bring my own domain.

I have had one domain since 1994 ... others are much newer than that. They are hosted at web hosting companies. The original domain started out at my connectivity ISP (a dial up company) but it was my domain. I do not need to be loyal to my connectivity ISP in order to keep my websites active.

I have seen some decent websites suffer from being hosted on "personal" webspace where the site location kept changing as the user changed ISPs or the ISP changed name or ownership (or, as Comcast is doing, service ended). Getting a forwarding URL (ie: "phrelinstuff.com" pointing at comcast.net/~phrelin or whatever the personal URL is) helps ... but search engines index the /~ site and people bookmark the real pages .. which are gone with any move or discontinuance.

Hosting is cheap from a hosting ISP ... it is the best way to go for anything permanent.


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## Eva

And hosting companies are a dime a dozen. One can Google for the best host.


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## dpeters11

I thought ISP provided web space went out with Geocities.


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## harsh

dpeters11 said:


> I thought ISP provided web space went out with Geocities.


All three of my current ISPs support personal web pages. Comcast will be the first to bow out.

I guess they expect that everyone has already got (or can damn well get) a Facebook page or similar.

It isn't like it is costing them an arm and a leg to support.

Since the cost of a hosted site is more (monthly fees plus domain registration), I'm not sure that's a straight-across trade.

Comcast is calling it a change so they don't have to call it what it is: removing a feature without decreasing the price.


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## harsh

Eva said:


> And hosting companies are a dime a dozen. One can Google for the best host.


One can also get taken to the cleaners over promotional domain registrations and sign-up deals.


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## James Long

Choose a good one, harsh. I did.


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## dpeters11

Not all hosting companies and registrars are GoDaddy


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## phrelin

I have no complaints about Yahoo Website Hosting which I've used for years. It's part of Yahoo! Small Business which must be technologically kept up to date but is surprisingly cheap. If I could, I'd move the website I manage for our local government there, but they use a "local-ish" hosting service.


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## Eva

dpeters11 said:


> I thought ISP provided web space went out with Geocities.


Oh my, I remember Geocities. And the controversy when they had the bloody watermark on their member's pages.


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## harsh

James Long said:


> Choose a good one, harsh. I did.


I do my own hosting outside of my PWPs.

How does one safely avoid getting taken for a ride?


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## James Long

harsh said:


> I do my own hosting outside of my PWPs.
> 
> How does one safely avoid getting taken for a ride?


Research ... not gloom and doom statements spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt without offering any solution.

Self hosing has its own problems with changing IPs (unless one pays for a fixed IP or has a good dynamic update to DNS) connectivity issues and an improved firewall since you are running services. I prefer hosting at an ISP where there is far less connectivity downtime and fixed IPs (even if they are shared IPs, they don't change without coordination with the DNS). I do not have to give up any of my home connectivity speed to hosting (send the file once per update to the server and let the world read it as many times as they want from the site). Some ISPs prohibit hosting unless one pays extra.


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