After being exposed to your issues first-hand this week , I have to advise you to get better broadband access. Why? Host it yourself. More on that later in this post...

If you absolutely cannot host yourself, finding a cheap host offering shell access (telnet, SSH) is difficult. You're paying $22/month now. I found these guys offering what you want for $20 (1GB of space and 10GB of trans/month). I cannot speak for them, but their price is right.

Now, on to "rolling your own." I first did this a couple years ago on my residential DSL line. At first, it was a project simply to hone my Linux skills. After getting a Caldera OpenLinux 1.2 and RedHat 5 box up and running, I realized the power I had commanded. No longer bound to local ISP's ~username webpages, I was free to host what I please and there was no limits. I soon transfered my "fake business's" domain name to point to my DSL IP. I have never looked back.

There are some things you have to watch for when putting a server on the net. These things would normally be handled by a web hosting company, but you benefit from my mistakes. For one thing, you have to secure the thing as best you can. I've been used as a spam relay a couple times before I learned about pop-before-smtp.

IIRC you have a cable ISP that blocks port 80 (bastards). DSL is the answer. Particularly Telocity (now DirecTV DSL). They don't come out and say it, but they don't care if you run a web server/email server on a residential line. Plus you have a static IP. The only thing to take into consideration is your CLEC (maybe ILEC, I get the two confused). Say your local Bell company is Verizon. Telocity almost exclusively runs their service over the local Bell's service. So, you will have a Verizon line with Telocity "features" such as static IP and no PPPoE. But, you are bound by Verizon's speeds. The typical Verizon line is 768/128 meaning 768k download and 128 upload. Anyone accessing your website is going to get it at no faster than 128k. Yeah, that kind-of sucks, but I think it's good enough for your application.

If you decide to host yourself, you have this BBS at your fingertips for help. I am also on your AIM buddylist. Heck, if we could get a DC meet going, I could come down and get you started. It really isn't that hard (especially with RH 7). My opinion is you should try doing your own before cancelling your service with infopop. Once you get that going, you will be so proud of yourself and finally feel in control. I guarantee you will give infopop the boot.