Want a website with no banner ads? Your own personal transloader? A place where you can store your email graphics? A host that really understands WebTV users? Come inside the WTV Zone!

Features: 15, 30, and 50 MB websites "File Beamer" and "Directory Beamer" (transloaders) Banner free WebTV-friendly tools CGI, SSI, and PHP3 Email linking OK Commercial sites OK File storage OK Not Allowed: Hacking and warez Spamming RealAudio files (yet) Cost: $5 - $15/month (paid quarterly or annually) Address: www.wtv-zone.com

Larry Bumeder, aka "Agent Iceman," bought his family a WebTV for Christmas in 1998, and he and his wife soon discovered the joy of building their own web pages and participating in the ADWH M.A.L.L.R.A.T.S. HTML help group with other WebTV'ers (see our previous story about this community).

But the pride of accomplishment and the joy of helping others was mixed with frustration. "The 'free providers' let us down over and over again," says Larry. "At night things were so slow at Tripod that you couldn't even work on a webpage or get a doggone sig to load... and of course there were the restrictions... No CGI to speak of, unless you lied about being a business and went to Hypermart or Virtual Avenue. No linking to images or midis for sigs unless you wanted to break the rules and cheat."

One day, Larry surfed to his Tripod website from a PC at work and saw the banner ads that popped up on every link. "I knew that they were there even though we could not see them on WebTV." he says, "but this particular day they bugged the heck out of me. I knew that it was a fair exchange for a free site, but I started thinking that I'd be willing to pay a few bucks to get rid of those doggone things."

Larry thought about some of the other things that WebTV users needed but couldn't get from the free site hosts. "I wanted a little more freedom to do what I want with my files without having to worry every time Tripod ran a 'sweep' if my sites and collections of images and music would still be there in the morning. I wanted the right to build a bannerless commercial site. I wanted to be able to build sigs and not have to cheat or steal bandwidth from someone to do it."

One night, after Larry had been unable to get to either of his site hosts, he broached an idea to his wife, Kari. "I said, 'I bet we're not the only WebTV subscribers that feel this way. I wonder how much it would cost to set up our own server? I wonder how many other people would be willing to kick in a buck a week to help pay for the doggone thing?'"

A few days later, Tripod went down for a couple of days. "That sealed the deal," says Larry. "We got determined to give it our best shot to build a WebTV-friendly service that could offer WebTV users a place to call home. A service that catered to them instead of looking down on them... a place designed by WebTV users and for WebTV users." The WTV-Zone was conceived.

"We spent the next three months planning and researching hardware and software configurations, and decided upon having a server custom built for us. We found a provider that would build it the way we wanted it, and also co-locate it for us on their T-3 lines."

That was the easy part. The more difficult challenge was how to pay for it. "We were quite literally broke," he says. "Actually being broke would have been an improvement.. we were deep in debt with no credit. Not only were we going to have to borrow enough to set up the server and get it up and running but we had to feed the kids and keep a roof over our heads in the mean time. We also knew that we would have to work this thing full time to do it right, so there was no time for a job."

Larry and Kari realized that it was decision time -- did they dare embark on this venture? They decided that they were on a mission. Although the first two financing deals fell through, they finally made a deal to borrow every dime they could and ordered up the server. "We were quite literally betting our family's financial as well as emotional future on The WTV-Zone."

Fortunately, Larry knew more than a little about computers. He had become fascinated by them in high school and had gotten experience in the Air Force and on several jobs. He began the work necessary to set up the hosting and the tools for the new site.

"I literally spent every waking moment deep into Linux and Apache at the computer... 16 to 20- hour days became the routine for months on end. Kari and kids believed in me and gave me the strength to carry on to put this thing together and get it up and running."

In March, after six months of work, Larry and Kari announced that they were about to launch the site, and offered an "early bird" special to those that signed up before they opened. "We learned that we were right... there were others out there that would be willing to pay a buck or two a week for a quality web hosting operation designed by and for WebTV users," he says.

The WTV Zone now hosts a couple of hundred WebTV users, and is adding more daily. "Our tools and methods were quite crude at first but Kari and I began to build a team of like minded WebTV users through our network of friends in the newsgroups by trading webspace for help. Perlwiz, Thatchmo, Colonel Buckeye, D4WG and Mandrake joined the team along with my wife Kari and myself and we began in earnest to develop a next generation site manager and the other necessary tools for WebTV users to be able to build quality websites. Today we have about the most WebTV friendly hosting operation that I know of and we're not done yet...."

WTV Zone Features

The WTV Zone offers 15, 30, and 50MB websites, ranging from $5 to $15 per month (paid quarterly or annually -- there is a one-time set-up fee that is waived on sites that are paid annually). The site offers an excellent file manager with support for directories and sub-directories and "zip and unzip" to access archives like MOD files and others that are provided in compressed form.

There is also a "File Beamer" (transloader) to transfer your graphics, audio, and even complete directories to your site, and a "Webbers' Tool Rack" with source code validators, links to image manipulators, and other useful tools. The WTV Zone also allows full CGI, SSI, and PHP3 scripting for people who are interested in building their own tools and utilities, and Larry has collected a large library of CGI scripts, including message boards, that are available to WTV Zone members for their sites.

And, remote loading images and audio into email from WTV Zone? "No problem," says Larry. "That's one of the specific needs that WebTV users have -- a place that will allow them to store their resources for their email and won't cancel their site for it. A number of WebTV users also need to have a site where they can store files, but don't plan to publish them to the web. That's one of the things that a lot of free sites like GeoCities don't allow, so it's another use for WTV Zone."

The WTV Zone rules are, as Larry describes it, "Common sense: use it, or lose it. We don't allow anything illegal, so no hacking or warez, and we don't tolerate spamming. We're also not interested in having porno here, although private files (those that aren't posted on a website) are just that, private. The one thing that we really can't support right now is RealAudio files -- we've had to make them off limits because of the enormous bandwidth they require, but we're hoping that we'll be able to add a server for them as our membership grows."

Larry says that WTV Zone is planning to add POP3 email in the near future, and also intends to offer the ability to have named domains like 'yourname.wtv-zone.com.' "This is just the beginning," he says. "We are looking forward to being able to contribute to the WebTV community in many ways and I don't ever see the road ending."

If you're looking for a home for your website, in a place that really understands the WebTV experience, check it out!

The WTV Zone