.Mac account

Can someone explain what is the .Mac account and do I have to pay for it ?

The easiest way to explain is for you to take a look here.



http://www.apple.com/dotmac/features.html

.Mac is Apple's online service. It offers net based storage in various sizes, email accounts and net access to them, syncing ability between several Macs (if you are lucky enough to own more than one), iWeb integration and a few other goodies. It is priced at around $100.00 per year. Frankly, I have never found it to be worth this price, but many have. It is a personal preference item in the end.

You can find many of its components available for free, or at lower prices if not free, out there on the web - free storage, free email... still, none of them feature the overall integration with the total Mac experience that .Mac does. Read the above link, evaluate it, and decided if it is worth $100 a year to you!

thanks for the reply Reel1 !

thanks mac57

I got .mac to host my iWeb site. It cost the same as my previous web host was costing me. So I got the extra features for free looking at it that way. I have two macs so the sync features are invaluable as it's all intergrated.

It definitely is a preference...

• For just under $10 per month, you get 1g of storage and a web address that looks like http://web.mac.com/yourname as well as a .mac email address (and the ability to add some email aliases).
• For $10 per month, I've got a hosting company that provides me with three full domains (http://www.yoursite.com), 200g of storage, 2g of email (and more addresses than I could possibly ever use), 50 mysql databases, full cgi (with perl, php, etc), ssh/shell access and other goodies that escape me.

That said, I still pay $100/year for a .mac account (in addition to the $10/month account above) because I love the ease of iWeb and its integration, I also appreciate .mac sync services (my bookmarks, address book, keychains and calendar are syncronised between my Mini at the office and my MacBook Pro at home). Besides, let's face it, having a .mac email address is cool

Three words: Waste. Of. Money.

i am a student and have a .mac account. i dont really use ichat at all, but i do use iweb, the email and the sync and idisk etc..

it is expensive but just about worth it. i wouldnt use it if it cost anymore.

get it if you want conveniunce (soz cant spell) and ease of use.

I've had a .Mac account for four years and I love the integration with iCal, Address Book, Mail, Safari bookmarks, etc. Very easy to use.

I signed up for the .Mac trial and I haven't really found much use for it. I get much more out of my Dreamhost plan (which btw, cost a fraction of the price).

I'm using .mac and loving it. I like that I don't have to tote my computer with me to use my address book or anything, and I can give access to my brother to put stuff there for me to get later, and I do the same thing when I'm away from home. I use iWeb as well, and the integration is absolutely wonderful.

Is there any non-Apple hosting service that provides the sync'g capability of .Mac? That's really the only thing that .Mac offers that it really useful to me (multiple macs in the house). You can get a lot more storage, email, etc., elsewhere for much cheaper, but I can't figure out how to replicate the sync function (I'm using MS Entourage, btw).

Thanks for any ideas.

Answering my own post --- I did a bit more googling and found this:

MySync

Seems like this might provide the equivalent of .Mac sync'g of calendar, contacts, etc., without requiring a .Mac account. I have no idea how well it works, but I'm going to give it a shot.

iWeb required?

When using the .Mac web site, is iWeb required? In other words, do you need to be using the iWeb software on our mac to post to your .Mac web site? Or can you post to the .Mac web site straight from the .Mac website by logging in?
Thanks,