hosting images

unwashed potato! · 17 Dec 2006 at 12:07

is it possible to host images with a place like image shack, and then have it so on my site they are there without the imageshack stuff, just the image (if that makes any sense). e.g. i have a portfolio, and then for like web works i have a small image, and graphic work small image, is it possible to host these images with some place for free, that if i just link to they will appear there? may sound stupid but i firgured it would lower bandwidth usage but then why isn't everyone doing it.

im not considering doing this for my site, im just interested in how to do it so i know. If this is possible can anyone reccomend a good place for this that images will stay at and not be deleted after time. don't know if imageshack do this, just would image that they delete images older then say a month or something

thanks

zetec452 · 17 Dec 2006 at 17:02

I can't see why on earth you'd want to do that but a services like www.filevend.com or Beansprouts uploader would do.

Zefan · 17 Dec 2006 at 17:14

Yeah you can use imageshack but they expire after a while + people will be able to see in the image URL that you're hosting it there.

Jotun · 17 Dec 2006 at 17:24

It's easier to host the images yourself I find, when I'm making a website I will just have all the files on my pc for testing, then once it's complete you just log in to the FTP and copy all the files over. I don't think there are many sites that allow hotlinking and FTP access, so uploading them all by a web form could take ages if you have lots of them.

Then if you want to delete an image you don't have direct control over it, and if you want to replace an image, you have to upload a new one and then update the URL on your webpage(s).

Also recently I've had problems with imageshack, so if any sites were doing what you said, none of the pictures would load a lot of the time.

Given the cost of bandwidth I don't think it's worth the hassle really, unless you plan on having *huge* pictures.

daz · 17 Dec 2006 at 17:37

The issue is - if you have portfolio, I imagine you have a professional site, i.e. a livelihood based upon it. If that is the case, why rely on a free external service that you have no control over? If the free image hosting goes down, they owe you diddly squat. If you have a decent hosting package, which goes down at least you can complain which might get you somewhere depending on the severity of the downtime. In any case, on a paid hosting package you're paying people for a service, they're going to be more inclined to care if somebody is disgruntled.

unwashed potato! · 17 Dec 2006 at 20:37

like i said it isn't really for my site or anytinhg, just wanted to know how. for instance how do people get the signature images to load up? thought something like image shack was being used but then isn't that hotlinking?

Jotun · 17 Dec 2006 at 21:03

A lot of people use beansprouts uploader, imageshack or something similar, if it goes offline then it's nothing important that is gone. Also as a signature is generaly changed pretty infrequently they don't need regular access, it can just be uploaded and left. Hotlinking is a bigger problem when you don't have permission to link to a file, and the person who is hosting the image could replace it with a nasty picture, which would then show up in place of the image you had linked to.

In my case I host my own sig, as quite a few members do, and another benefit of that is it doesn't have to be a static image, there is a member who's signature displays the current time, and a lot of people (myself included) have a random sig that changes on reload.

James07 · 17 Dec 2006 at 21:43

imageshack dont expire if they are being used constantly and you can easily edit out the url data that links you to their site...

unwashed potato! · 17 Dec 2006 at 22:17

thanks guys, just what i wanted to know