Free Website Hosting

Free Website Hosting

 

There a many free web hosting providers available on the Internet. The two main sources of free Website hosting are:

ISP Web space

 An ISP (Internet Service Provider ) is the company that you use to access the Internet in the UK BT, Onetel, Tiscalli and FreeServe are some of the well know ones. Almost all ISPs offer free Web space (10-50MB) with your monthly subscription the domain name is a sub domain of the ISP and looks either like yourname.ISPdomain.com or www.ISPdomain.com/yourname.

  They don't usually have banner ads like the free Web hosting providers and so are more suitable for clubs and private use. They offer limited service depth and tend to be limited to standard Web pages and perhaps a few standard scripts, however this doesn't need to be  a problem as there are many websites that offer these.

The none personalised domain name is usually the main limitation but it can be overcome using the technique of Website forwarding.

Free Website host

Website hosting can be obtained free of cost from a variety of sources such as Yahoo!. The user does not pay for service because it is usually subsidised by banner advertising. Because such sites do not charge, they offer limited service depth and quality of service.

For example, many free services do not provide personalised domain names i.e. www.yourdomain.com. This limitation can however be overcome using the technique of Web forwarding.

Finding Free Hosting

To find a free website hosting provider just go to your favourite search engine and search for "free website hosting". Here are some excellent resources to help:

 Free Online File Storage Directory
 of more than 30 virtual disk space / file storage and sharing providers with detailed descriptions.

Free Web Hosting - The complete guide to free web hosting providers with reviews of offered services, including free PHP hosting, free ASP hosting, free Domain hosting, No Ads free hosting providers and more.

 You may also find the articles on the pros and cons of free web hosting at this thefreecountry.com site  useful.

If not there are many companies offering free hosting services. For a CNET review of the four most popular see here. The four free hosting sites are:

http://www.tripod.lycos.com/
http://geocities.yahoo.com/home/
http://www.angelfire.lycos.com/doc/zones/build.html
http://www.expage.com/

You may also find the articles on the pros and cons of free web hosting at this site useful.

Beware!

Some free hosting providers require that you transfer your domain name (if you have one ) to them. You should be very wary of this as it could potentially prove expensive.

Should you Choose a Free Website Host

If you think you may one day try to monetize your website then no. If you are running a serious personal, club, hobby site then again no. In hich case you should take a look at  Website Hosts and Website Hosting Packages.

However if you are looking for a site to learn on or are just making you site for you own enjoyment the a free site is an ideal choice. See making a free website for other resources you will need.