Funny enough, it’s really not difficult to setup your own DNS, but getting the users to actually use it and switch from their ISPs default DNS which only works with ICANN domains can be the difficulty.

That, and figuring out where the revenue is going to come from to keep the alternate DNS servers running, and a few other things… However, it’s inevitable and these things will be figured out eventually. There is a project based on the Bitcoin code called Namecoin that aims to solve the “control” issue – in that no one is really in control of the system or profits from it. It’s still only in beta, however something like this would truly be “open” and no one could take control of the network in anyway, which would completely upset governments. You can check out this project here: http://dot-bit.org/Main_Page.

OpenNIC is a bit too centralized. With Namecoin, once you register a domain, no one can take it away from you. You own it, plain and simple. That’s how the code works, similar to bitcoin. When you own a bitcoin you own it, that’s that.

Anyway – as I said before – peering into my crystal ball I see alternative DNS taking over and a bunch of small search engines dedicated to each type of DNS until one reigns supreme and maybe, just maybe knocks out ICANN. All because the US Government is trying to control the uncontrollable. The internet is decentralized, and governments have to learn they have no control. If they try to control it – new technologies come out to keep the internet open and free for everyone.

They’re also pretty standard with the features they have. The one issue you might have with them is content, as they are not used all that frequently. For a better experience, you might want to check out Usenet. Here’s a tutorial on usenet.

Then again, that also means you lose some freedom, and it could be a little more risky to host your own files there if they were accidentally identified as DMCA material. Mediafire and a few others have been known to remove anything that has links on a blogspot blog or other locations, so you have to be careful if you don’t want your files deleted.

Overall, so long as you keep everything private you upload to Mediafire, it’s a good host that could definitely meet your needs. The only real downfall of Mediafire is that it’s centralized, so if Mediafire goes down your files could go with it.

For a more open environment for your files you can learn to upload to and download from Usenet. With retentions the way they are you can almost expect any file you upload to be around for a very long time. (Downloading & First Setup Tutorial, Uploading Tutorial)

It seems pretty standard for a file host. $13 per month or 9.99 €  seems a little bit on the expensive side to me, especially since you never know how long the file host is going to last. If you want something stable the best option is always Usenet. The cost is going to be similar to file hosting companies but speed and reliability are going to go far beyond. To learn more about usenet, follow my tutorial.

• Unlimited download speed anytime

• No waiting time before downloads

• Unlimited parallel downloads

• Download accelerators supported

• No registration needed

• Remote HTTP uploads

• Resume paused downloads

• Upload files up to 2GB in size

• No daily limit on downloads

This is a pretty standard list of features for a premium account. However, it costs about the same amount as Usenet costs per month, and in general Usenet is by far superior.

For a more in depth tutorial on usenet, refer to my guide.

Once you sign up and maybe buy something, they redirect you to sites similar to beezid.com (which is a legitimate penny auction business) but they are misleading consumers into believing it’s something that it’s not.

This seems to just be a marketing trick. If you want real penny auctions with an established company, visit beezid. Yes, you have to buy bids, but that’s the way it is with all penny auctions. Why go with nomorerack when they could have possible issues, I mean look at the BBB reports on nomorerack.

Penny auctions are where you buy bids and bid on a particular item. What you end up paying is whatever the bid is when the time runs out.

So the answer is yes, people are getting iPads for $20 or lower on these sites, but not all the time. It can be somewhat difficult to snag a deal on these sites. Beezid is one of the most reputable penny auctions out there at the moment, so if you want to give it a try, beezid is a good place to start.

If it sounds too much like a roll of the dice, don’t bother with these “Liquidation, Warehouse deals” or any other site where you buy bids and bid on something.

Beezid actually isn’t a scam, you just have to understand how beezid works. You buy bids to raise the price around a penny every bid. However, you pay for those bids. Whoever is the last bidder when the time runs out is the winner.

Now, this might sound like a scam because you might end up spending more than what the item actually costs to actually win the item. Sometimes that’s true, but you need to look at this types of sites as more of a “fun” thing to do rather than a place to get a $0.10 iPad.

You might not win, but then again there’s a chance you might win. So check out beezid today if you’re ready to take the chance.

See the problem there? So first and foremost, always use complex email password you use nowhere else. On unimportant sites like forums you can get away with using the same password and still be secure, if you want to be lazy. The only thing they can get into is other forums. Generally when people get passwords they’re not after forums because they don’t exactly know the ones you’ve registered at. The first thing they go after is your email. From there they try and pull up more and more stuff until it’s financial and then it gets sold on the black market.

Forums, blogs, and other databases are “hacked” all the time because a lot of PHP based software really isn’t all that secure. They have a lot of holes and people can grab the entire user database. If the database is unsalted it only takes a few days for GPUs to break the hashed passwords.

Make your financial stuff, email, and possibly facebook “special” in that you have 4 – 5 separate passwords if you can’t go all out and use a different password everywhere with LastPass or something similar.

Anyway, turbobit is pretty reasonable with their premium subscriptions at $9 per month, and that’s all you’d really want to pay with them because they could be gone next month.

As with most file sharing services, the speeds you get might fluctuate – especially with these new file hosts that don’t know what they’re doing. If you want something “real” again, the only option is to turn to usenet. It’s decentralized so if one server goes down the others are still up. Nearly impossible for it to go away entirely.

For a guide on usenet, refer to my usenet download guide.