Regarding InfinityFree in 2019

I have been using InfinityFree for awhile now, and I am very impressed with the experience considering it’s free. (except for forced JavaScript to view website :stuck_out_tongue: )

I am currently developing a new website, this time I would like to start off the right way, so I have the questions (since I have not been following any changes to InfinityFree):

  • Is there any free SSL (no credit card/trial) vendor that works with InfinityFree yet?
  • Is there any modern forum software available? I see support forum switched to Discourse
  • How fast is PHP? In the future I will be incorporating some PHP in my website (forums too)

If there is any notable changes that I’m not aware of (>2018), let me know.
I would start off using InfinityFree, but I do not want to have troubles in the future when I transition to new domain, etc.

Thanks.

Hi

please read here

Discourse - you need to have your own servers for it, it’s impossible to host on any shared service
github req
for forums you can pick one from control panel > Softaculous apps installer > forums

it really depends on the code itself
you can compare it with wordpress which is also PHP
but if some user adds a small plugin, but badly written or buggy the entire site becomes slow or dead

SSL
So the only way for free SSL is to register my own domain and then use cloudflare?
If so, the free domain is only for max 12 months, then start paying.

Forums
I see Softaculous updated Vanilla forums - at least that’s good. (Appears to load a bit faster too!)
Except that god damn email issue that I reported back in 2018 is still present; even when I find out how I solved the issue again, the new line spaces are like 8x, which is very unappealing for every user.

So now I believe this is an issue with InfinityFree email server? How can I switch to my own email server and see if that resolves the issue? (maybe someone kind enough who has their own email server can quickly test Vanilla forum registration email)

Conclusion
I suppose I’ll use InfinityFree for now. Perhaps I will put ads on my website and hope that one day I will start earning $1/day to have a custom domain without losing money.

if you talk about Freenom than after 12 months you are free to renew
https://www.freenom.com/en/freeandpaiddomains.html

https://infinityfree.net/support/how-to-send-email-with-gmail-smtp/

for other users
it’s important to separate between mail servers and mail clients .

Mail servers are responsible for receiving, storing and/or sending email. This part is normally not visible to you, but it can support connections with POP, IMAP, SMTP or other protocols to manage it. Examples of mail servers include Postfix, Exim and Microsoft Exchange.

Mail clients let you view, edit and compose email. The mail client connects to the mail server to make the changes. This is the interface you’re looking at when managing your email. Examples of mail clients include Mozilla Thunderbird, Microsoft Office Outlook or Apple Mail.

Roundcube is an example of a mail client . It doesn’t send email, receive email or store email. The email of your free hosting service is handled by our mail servers. Roundcube simply provides a way to access the mail servers through a web browser.

Gmail is both mail client and mail server . Gmail provides a web interface where you can manage your email, but also provides a sending and receiving service you can connect to with desktop or mobile email clients, or from your website code . Gmail can also be used to send and receive email from other email servers using POP and SMTP.

Free domain
Woah, I misunderstood. I will go and get a free domain now, and see if I can enable cloudflare to try get SSL.
Will CloudFlare make my website any slower?

Mail
I am unsure how to configure correctly for now, I will have to learn.
Ideally I wish the admins could take a look at this mail issue and see if it can be resolved, so any future users of Vanilla Forums do not have to set up email server just to have registration email be sent correctly…

Thank you for your quick responses. I’ll try get back to you soon when I get domain and try activate cloudflare.
Edit: Some people who got domain from Freedom says they built up some traffic to the domain, and then Freedom takes it over or asks for money. Not sure what to do.

Discourse is awesome, but requires own servers to run. Vanilla Forums is… OK. It doesn’t feel like software from 2004, but there are also some weird bugs and questionable design decisions. I have high hopes for Flarum, which shares some design philosophies with Discourse (but is written in PHP). But Flarum is still in early beta and their feature set is quite small, so I can’t recommend it just yet.

It should be the contrary: Cloudflare’s key selling point is that they make your website faster by caching static files around the globe.

In the mean time, you can use Gmail SMTP to send the message. You can set it up by manually editing the config.php file before you can even access the admin area.

I too wish the email service did real spam protection rather than content templating and injecting ads in the messages.

A domain name doesn’t have to cost more than $10 per year. You don’t need to make $1 per day to make a profit, you’d only need to earn $1 per MONTH for it.

And if you own your own domain and keep regular backups, then no hosting provider can stab you in the back and permanently take down your website. $10 per year is a small investment for the peace of mind.

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