Free Web Hosting: is it for You?

Who doesn’t like the word FREE? Every time we see those four-letter words, our eyes light up! Fortunately for us, the web is loaded with freebies. That includes web hosting. Fine, our enthusiasm are dampened a bit because we know that Free Web Hosting can be deceiving.

I can think of many reasons why Free Web Hosting is not that popular and I’m going to give three:

1. Free Web Hosts are not stable. Sites offering free web hosting have been known to shut-down operation without as much as a wave and taking along the precious hosted files with them.

2. Free Web Hosts are not REALLY free. Web hosting cannot endure on enthusiasm and passion alone in the long run. Somehow, the free hosting companies have to fashion monetization models to keep their service in threads. These usually include posting-for-hosting, placing of advertisements, integration of links, or any combination of the three.

3. Free Web Hosts cheapens websites. Free web hosts do not help the reputation of websites. If an owner or admin uses paid-hosting, this communicates to visitors that they care enough to provide a stable environment to shell-out a few bucks.

Now that I have given the cons, would anybody still use Free Web Hosting, especially since paid hosting companies are offering cheap packages? Definitely, since Free Web Hosting is quite useful in the following context:

1. No web cash. Paid-hosting companies usually accept only electronic cash. For those that do not have access to web cash at the moment, the barter-type economy of a Free Web Host is heaven-sent.

2. Newbies’ first site. Getting a website online have monetary risks involved that might deter newbies from attempting. Free Web Hosting allows them to try different concepts without fear of losing real cash.

3. Testing certain scripts/features. Free Web Hosting allows webmasters to take scripts or new features through its paces before committing. Free Web Hosts can serve as online laboratories.

4. Educational purposes. The internet is one huge learning opportunity and the best way use it is to get our hands dirty. Free Web Hosting allows us to twiddle with web development until we get everything right.

There are always perils involved in web hosting, even paid ones. The trick is, especially for Free Web Hosting, to minimize the risks by researching and looking for Free Web Hosts with the following features:

1. Free branch of a paid hosting company. Free-hosted sites are housed in the same servers are paid ones. The former gets the same benefits as the latter, including security and stability. In addition, there will be fewer hassles when a webmaster is ready to move to paid hosting. For example, Zeeblo is a Free Web Hosting site/forum for ZeebloPro. Transferring from free to paid hosting can be made via a simple request.

2. Monetization alternatives. Free Web Hosts that tries to get non-monetary benefits from hosted sites like displaying of advertisement or site-wide integration of links is better. Why? Because they make the free-hosted pages valuable to the hosting company, which will make them keep the Free Web Hosting up and running. Choose ones that offers unobtrusive text links for hosting like Zeeblo . That’s it, there are no requirements for posting.

3. The name does not indicate a free host. Choosing a Free Web Host that sound like a regular hosting company is a definite plus. Try to stay clear from one with the word “free” in their name. Zeeblo has a leg up since it has a professional-looking homepage that can be confused for a paid-hosting’s site.

4. Availability of hosting upgrade. Some Free Web Hosts does not only provide free hosting but even gives members an opportunity to upgrade their accounts. Zeeblo has established a system wherein member can be paid Z$ in exchange for quality posts. These Z$ can be used to purchase upgrade packages to their existing accounts.

Lastly, it is always a webmaster’s responsibility to ensure his website is safe. It is important to regularly back-up a website off-site. If this precaution is religiously followed, we can bank on free hosting with peace of mind.

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How to Consider a Web Host?

Now that your website was built. Your next task is to find a web
hosting company that will not cost you more money and time. More
money if the hosting fee is expensive and more time if you
failed in selecting a good web host, you may try to find again
another web host to transfer all your files. How if you have an
active community? You have active visitors using your message
boards, chat, e-commerce software and other stuff on your
website. You stuck on them.

The things you need to find selection of a good web host is to
make sure they have a high-speed connection (T3 or higher) to
the Internet, price is competitive, reliable servers (hardware
ad software), they have plans available for your expansion, high
bandwidth, backup system, quality of support service (how they
handle your complaints and speed of responds), they can give you
email addresses, FTP access or file manager and other features
such as allow scripting (cgi or php or asp) and database (SQL or
MySQL). Sometimes they allow you to use their existing scripts
to your website.

Speed: – Make sure they have high-speed connection (T3 or
higher) to the Internet. Expect your visitor not to come back
again or disconnect their connection of opening your site if
you’re website is very slow.

Price: – It must be competitive. Expect to pay $3 to $50 per
month for your 5 pages website. Some web host gives you
discounts if you pay them annually. Most small web sites uses
only 2 to 5 MB web space. Choose a plan based on the size of
your website.

Reliability: – Ask them the server specifications and the uptime
guaranteed. If the computer they use is in the top brand and
model, and 99% guarantee then you are lucky. But no one can give
you 100% guarantee because there are times the earthquake and
other disasters strikes. Ask them the issues involve when
there’s disasters and how will they answer it? – Ask them about
the backup system, if they have.

Expansion: – Most of the web hosts have different plans on
expansion. Ask them if you can upgrade your plan later.
Badwidth: – Aware on this one because if they give you low
bandwidth, you’re site will not be viewed. It will happen if
your site has traffic. Support: – The quality of support is
based on their speed of response and how they solve their
problems. Most of the web hosts have experienced engineers doing
the maintenance and support. Make sure you can contact them 24/7
by phone or email. Ask them more before you sign up. Features:
These are some of the basic feature of a Web Host: – Domain name
registration – At least 5MB of allocated space – Unlimited
bandwidth – POP3 E-Mail Accounts – Email Forwarding – Email
Auto-responders – Email Aliases – FTP Access – FrontPage Support
- Own CGI-Bin Access – Free Scripts – Scripting
(CGI,ASP,PHP,etc.) – Server Side Includes (SSI) – Secured Socket
Layer (SSL) – Password Protection – Free Technical Support – 30
day money back guarantee – Room for expansion Plan your website
carefully because in the future you may need to add more pages
and add more programs. Less feature less consideration. Types of
Hosting: A. Free Hosting – Most of the Free Hosting Companies
displays thier banner on your web pages – It is only applicable
to small websites – Limited support – Limited web space -
Unreliability of server (hardware and software) – No notice when
they want to Shutdown their server – Sometimes you can’t use
your own domain name B. Virtual or Shared Hosting – No Banner
Ads – Low cost – Good for small to medium size websites – With
Support (most are free) – reliable server(s) – Speed may vary
depends on how many sites on server – Sometimes slow updates -
Can use your own domain name C. Dedicated Hosting – No Banner
Ads – High cost – reliable server(s) – Good for large websites -
Full Support (most are free) – Speed may vary depends on how
many sites on server – Can use your own domain name – Can add
more domains. This is good if you have several domains
registered. Now that you know the type of hosting and the some
basic features on a server, you can choose a good web hosting
company to serve you. It will be your partner for your online
success.

Free Web Hosting Tips

Can you really get FREE web hosting?

Yes, there are hundreds of free hosts, as far as not having to pay any money. Generally they either cost you in time, hosting restrictions, or modifying your web pages by adding popups 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, but those have a catch, such as paying an excessive amount for a domain name or other service, and therefore aren’t really free.

How do the free web hosts make money?

The free hosts often make money in other ways, such as putting banners, popups, or popunders on your site. Some free 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.

Are free web hosts reliable?

Generally no, although there may be a few exceptions. If the host is making money from banner ads or other revenue sources directly from the free hosting, then they likely will stay in business, provided someone doesn’t abuse their hosting with spam, hacking, etc., as often happens to new free web hosting companies with liberal signup policies. If the host 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 host to have a lot of downtime or the server to be slow. It is best if you choose a very selective free host 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, such as DistantHost (http://signup.distanthost.com/) or Fairmount (http://www.fairmount.nu/). Other reasons for using free hosting 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 website of yours, or to try scripts you have written on different hosting environments.

How to find the right free web hosting

The best place to search for free webhosting is on a free webspace directory website (i.e. a 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 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 directory up-to-date. The most recommended directory is Free Webspace (http://www.free-webhosts.com/), which has a detailed list of over 900 free web hosting providers with user reviews, ratings, forums, and 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, and FrontPage extensions.

For a smaller, more selective list of the best free hosts, there is also:

100 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

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 host and someone not like it, as different people need different hosting features and have different priorities, and the hosting 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. Here are some of the most recommended free web hosts, and their main features.

DistantHost (http://signup.distanthost.com/) offers subdomain or domain hosting, 100 MB webspace, no forced ads on your site, FTP and/or browser upload, CGI and Perl, PHP, MySQL database, SSI, and FrontPage Extensions, as well as a collection of other pre-installed scripts. It has great support and a generous bandwidth limit of 6 GB/month. There is also CPanel 7 control panel with most if not all the options you would find on a paid host: web-based Email and forwarding, statistics, custom error pages, SSL, Cron, and much more. What is the catch? You must click on a certain number of banners in the control panel monthly.

HostRave (http://www.freehosting.hostrave.com/) gives you a URL such as http://freehosting.hostrave.com/b/ , and offers 21 MB webspace, POP3 and web-based Email, PHP and SSI, MySQL database, guestbook and forum script, and unmetered bandwidth. You can upload via a file manger or FTP import. Only English websites are accepted, and there is a text link at the top of your pages. It has about the best support of any free host, and in fact, maybe better than any paid host. It’s two sister sites offer slightly different features:

Hp-h (http://signup.hspages.com/cgi-bin/signup) – 50 MB.

Homepage-Host (http://www.homepage-host.uni.cc/index1.html) – 10 MB, and no forced ads.

Yahoo Geocities (http://geocities.yahoo.com/home/) 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. Your URL looks like http://www.geocities.com/you . They give you 15 MB webspace, file manager and editor, web-based Email, and statistics. The bandwidth limit is 3 GB/month, and the file size limit is 5 MB. You can upload several file types such as RealAudio, RealVideo, Flash, MP3, and Java, but other scripting is not supported.

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Deciding Between Windows and Linux Web Hosting

Many people recognize Linux as the best type of web hosting solution around, because of the added advantages of this solutions, which provide reliability, security, functionality, and affordability all in the one package.

Linux Servers Advantages
Linux servers have been known to run for long periods of time without technical difficulties or down time being experienced, which is a considerable achievement since many Microsoft servers need to refresh and reboot their operating systems at regular intervals.

Linux installations have no known vulnerabilities in their security operating system; however, it is still considered a priority of Linux to keep their systems running with the best degree of security around.

Linux also offers its customers the added advantage of cheaper Linux based web hosting solutions. This is largely due to open source distributions; hosts generally pass these savings onto their customers, making Linux solutions extremely affordable.

Disadvantages of Linux Servers
With every advantage of a solution, there has to be disadvantages as well, Linux hosting solutions are no exception to this rule. One of the main disadvantages of Linux based applications is that they are unable to accommodate windows applications and the coding conversions. This can spell disaster for websites that have been coded especially for windows based applications.

When choosing a web hosting provider for Linux, make sure he offers all the basics services on security, including firewall, load balance for the servers, Denial of Attack (DOS) protection.

Also, there are some basics services any service should include, such as MYSQL services, statistics (preferably two scripts), antivirus and antispam services (added or included) and the possibility to add your own scripts via FTP. If provider doesn’t include SSH access (this is very common), make sure they can offer you support to install those scripts. Of course, if your script presents a security flaw, your provider may ask you to change it or deny installing it altogether.

Windows web servers
Windows web hosting solutions provide many benefits such as NET support, ASP, visual basic C++ and pearl scripts. Windows are also known for their dynamic page displays. All windows plans, as well as MSSql for more experienced webmasters support the Microsoft Access 2000 database and are generally easy and strait forward to apply codes to.

Be aware that a Microsoft Access database, although simple to use is a limited option, and should not be considered if you are planning your site to grow. However, it is a very good option for small sites with little growth.

Although Windows hosting packages offer a large number of benefits and extras, the fact that they have the odd security problem, are prone to down time, and scheduled rebooting on a regular basis remains a viable disadvantage to using windows servers as an option for your web site.

While the choice of a web hosting provider is an individual decision, those looking for a business solution should consider the benefits and disadvantages of both windows and Linux severs before making a choice.

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