I'm switching to a free host because of money issues, but I've seen none that satisfies all 4 of my needs:

1. No ads
2. FTP
3. SMTP (email)
4. Full DNS control

So I want to set up a free host (Atspace) while still using GoDaddy's nameservers (because it includes SMTP). Is there a way to set it up by putting a host's IP into my www A record rather than changing the nameserver to the host's?

Of course there is, nameservers don't HAVE to be at the same location as the web hosting.

Ok, good to hear. So I'm guessing I need to find an IP address from the host and put it into my GoDaddy A record as the www. Any idea where I would find that IP?

From the hosting company.

You need to set an 'A' record for the hostname and a 'CNAME' (Alias) for the www sub plus 'A' & 'MX' records for the SMTP server.

I asked Atspace support and they said I'm not allowed to do that, so I found two other free hosts. Zymic says using the A record is allowed but not recommended, while FreeHostingNoAds.net gives me the IP right in the control panel. I'm going with the latter for now.

Originally Posted by AndrewNoNumbers

I asked Atspace support and they said I'm not allowed to do that, so I found two other free hosts. Zymic says using the A record is allowed but not recommended, while FreeHostingNoAds.net gives me the IP right in the control panel. I'm going with the latter for now.

I think either "full of crap" or blatantly lying covers those.

Maybe THEY don't allow it because it circumvents their ads system as some "free" hosts will hijack the HTTP error page and display ads on that.
But it's certainly possible in DNS, you could have ten sub-domains on ten different servers in ten different countries if you wanted to and two or three (or more) mail servers in different countries on different providers with no problems at all.

We have a couple of clients on our servers who host their own website using DynDNS and have email on our servers

I'm sure we have a Zymic rep as a member here, maybe we should ask them why it is

I suggest you Byethost, fast and easy. Byethost.com. I think ATspace allows you only one domain. You can have more. My website is hosted there and I never accountered problems with them.

Originally Posted by chrishirst

Of course there is, nameservers don't HAVE to be at the same location as the web hosting.

Yeah. There's no other way

Originally Posted by chrishirst

Of course there is, nameservers don't HAVE to be at the same location as the web hosting.

Originally Posted by theophile

Yeah. There's no other way

What? No other way to having the nameservers and hosting in DIFFERENT places?

By the way

Originally Posted by AndrewNoNumbers

I'm switching to a free host because of money issues,

If your sites are not making enough to cover hosting and renewals, maybe you should be re-thinking why you even have the websites!

Originally Posted by chrishirst

What? No other way to having the nameservers and hosting in DIFFERENT places?

Ahh, no I'm sorry. I didn't meant that. I thought you wrote

"Of course there is, nameservers HAVE to be at the same location as the web hosting."

And no, there not forced to be at the same location

When choosing web hosting provider, be sure that it is reliable host..
I suppose that support team is the face of the company, so they should help you to solve the problem you faced.

Originally Posted by SiberForum

When choosing web hosting provider, be sure that it is reliable host..
I suppose that support team is the face of the company, so they should help you to solve the problem you faced.

And that relates to the question HOW exactly?????

maybe you can try out ooowebhost which is rated as the top free hosting service. but it's not easy to pass the registration.