Ok, I'm back!
I too have been doing research and have a few bits of information that may help, and hopefully not muddy the waters...too much.
Dropbox: I started moving my files to Dropbox when Photobucket started getting so unstable. The bulk of my builds are currently linked there and the only thing that I got the nasty pic on was a few links I missed. Now I find the
Dropbox will not allow hotlinking after
9/1/2017 so I am moving files...again.
Finding a new free site to host: Sounded good, but then a bit of common sense reasoning hit me up side the head. Photobucket for whatever reason, decided they were done with 3rd party hosting. They have always been the leader, the go to site. I expect the other free sites to follow along within a year. Of course the other issue here is READ THE TOS. Most of these sites do not allow porn, and THEY decide what porn is. Then there is the issue of hosting swf files.
Hosting from home: This was my method of choice. I have a WIN8 machine that I am literally using for a foot rest. I was excited, ran down the software I needed, read up on what I needed to do. Was even more excited cause I knew I could do it. Then WHAM! Seems my IP was not too enthused when I spoke to them. Was actually checking on something else when it came up, seems they consider that kind of bandwidth usage COMMERCIAL and that is much more than what I am paying now. (For those of you who do not know my tale of woe, I moved to the country and didn't think about net access. My choices are VERY limited and cannot get any speed. I am currently on my IPs Platinum Package, paying more than most of you could dream and I get 11 down and 2.75 up!!) After that conversation, this option was out.
Microsoft Onedrive: Most of us are now on WIN10 and you get 5 gb free! It works, a friend here tested it. I was happy about this then realized it probably wouldn't be too long before MS jumped on the pay me bandwagon also. You know the old 'too good to be true' thing Ann Landers warned us about.
So I was left with using an outside server to host. Works for me! I have relinked my textures once, going to have to do it a second time, have no plans to do it a third time.
Obviously there there are a lot of variables, different things are important to different people. I can quickly load files on the server with FTP. Move them around, size doesn't matter (I do have some HUGE files), I can have swf files and porn and no one will bother me
They also keep the virus scanner up to date, the software up to date and do a daily backup...
That is my personal analysis, take it or leave it, please no rotten tomatoes!!
~Coug
BTW I am not sure where to put this, but all of my builds are whole, if you need a replacement, please inbox me!
