Can you really get FREE web hosting?
Yes, there are hundreds of free hosting web sites, as far as not having to pay
any money to have your website hosted. Generally they either cost you in time,
web hosting restrictions, or modifying your free web pages by adding popups,
banners, or other adverts. When looking for free web hosting (especially on
search engines), you should beware that there are also a large number of
commercial web hosts that claim to offer free hosting services, but those often
have a catch, such as paying an excessive amount for a domain name or other
service, and therefore aren't really free. The free free hosting guide below
will give you some tips for finding the right free webhosting comapny for
you.
How do the free web hosts make money?
The free website hosts
often make money in other ways, such as putting banners, popups, or popunders
ads on your free webpages. Some free web hosting companies do not put ads on
your site, but require you as the webmaster to click on banners in their control
panel or signup process, or just display banners in the file manager in hopes
you will click them. Some lure visitors with free hosting in hopes you will
upgrade and pay for advanced features. A few send you occasional emails with
ads, or may even sell your email address. A new method that is becoming popular
is requiring a certain number of "quality" forum posting, usually as a means of
getting free content for them and thereby being able to display more ads to
their website visitors.
Are free web hosts reliable?
Generally no,
although there are a few exceptions. If the free host is making money from
banner ads or other revenue sources directly from the free hosting service, then
they likely will stay in business, provided someone doesn't abuse their web
hosting server with spam, hacking, etc., as often happens to new free web
hosting companies with liberal signup policies. If the freehost accepts just
anyone, especially with an automated instant activation and it offers features
such as PHP or CGI, then some users invariably try to find ways to abuse it,
which can cause the free server to have a lot of downtime or the free web server
to be slow. It is best if you choose a very selective free hoster which only
accepts quality sites (assuming you have one).
Uses for free
webspace
Free web hosting is not recommended for businesses unless you
can get domain hosting from an ad-free host that is very selective. Other
reasons for using free hosting websites would be to learn the basics of website
hosting, have a personal website with pictures of your family or whatever, a
doorway page to another web site of yours, or to try scripts you have developed
on different web hosting environments.
How to find the right free web hosting
site
The best place to search for free webhosting is on a free webspace
directory website (i.e. a web site which specializes in listing only free web
hosting providers). There are some which add new free hosts pretty much every
week (and if it is updated often, has usually had to delete about as many).
There are also many which almost never update their web site, and a huge percent
of their links and info are outdated. Unfortunately that includes most of the
directories that were the best several years ago. The problem is free hosts
change so often, and most fold up in less than a year (often even after only a
day or two), that it is hard to keep such a freehosting directory up-to-date.
The most recommended free web space directory is Free Web Hosting
(http://www.free-webhosts.com/), which has a detailed list of over 500 free web
hosting providers with user reviews, ratings, and free hosting searchable
database. It is updated daily, and the advanced free web hosting search has 42
options, helping you to find the free hosting package with all the features you
need, such as CGI, PHP, MySQL, ASP, SSI, Ruby on Rails, FrontPage server
extensions, and even free cpanel web hosting.
For a smaller, more
selective list of the best free hosts, there are also these free webspace
hosting directories:
Best Free Webspace
(http://www.100-Best-Free-Webspace.com/)
Free Hosting
(http://www.Absolutely-Free-Hosting.com/)
Free Webspace
(http://www.free-webspace.org/)
Other (usually less useful) resources include
subcategories of freebies sites, search engines and directories, and forums.
Your ISP might also supply you with free webhosting.
Hints for finding the
best free web hosting service
Generally it is best not to choose a free
hosting package with more features than you need, and also check to see if the
company somehow receives revenue from the free hosting itself to keep it in
business. As already mentioned, it is best to try to get accepted to a more
selective free host if possible. Look at other sites hosted there to see what
kind of ads are on your site, and the server speed (keep in mind newer hosts
will be faster at first). Read the Terms of Service (TOS) and host features to
make sure it has enough bandwidth for your site, large webspace and file size
limit, and any scripting options you might need. Read free webspace reviews and
ratings by other users on free hosting directories. If you don't have your own
domain name, you might want to use a free URL forwarding service so you can
change your site's host if needed.
Recommended free web hosts
It would
be awfully hard to recommend any free web space host and someone not like it, as
different people need different web hosting features and have different
priorities, and the webhosting quality may change over time. Also some people
want free domain hosting (you own the domain), and others might not be able to
buy a domain name. Here are some of the most recommended free web hosts, and
their main features.
50Webs (http://www.50webs.com/) gives you a URL such
as http://you.50webs.com/ (or you can use your own domain name), and offers 60
MB webspace, POP3 email, and unlimited bandwidth. You can upload via a file
manger or FTP import. There are no ads or popups placed on your hosted web
pages. You can setup multiple addon domains and subdomains under the same web
hosting account.
Tripod (http://www.tripod.lycos.com/) is controversial.
Many people hate the ads they put on your site or its other limitations, but it
is one of the oldest and most reliable free web hosts. They give you 20 MB
webspace, a subdomain, file manager and editor, and webpage statistics. The
bandwidth limit is 1 GB/month. You can upload several file types such as
RealAudio, RealVideo, Flash, MP3, and Java; and CGI/Perl, SSI, and FrontPage
Server Extensions scripting is supported.
For complete information and guidance visit:http://smellaffaire.com
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