Free Web Host Suggestions?

[KY5U]

Anyone have a suggestion for a free webhost? My current one keeps taking away features from their free package. I presently have a backup site locally here, but I want to set up a separate free server location.

All I need is minimum 200MB storage, 2GB bandwidth, ftp, and no file size cap.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

[K6ABZ]

Good luck with that; I don't think there are any truly free web hosts any more. Some may be "free" but ad driven, but I don't like the idea that I can't control what ads show up on my site. Would it be appropriate to have knock-off Viagra ads along side your personal web site?

What I would do is use a low-cost provider like GoDaddy; you can set up a site with its own domain for around $50-60 a year. That's not very much, and that will more than meet your bandwidth and storage needs.

Otherwise, you could investigate things like Google Sites - I don't know what their storage limit is. The only down side there is that it's not true web hosting; it's more of a wiki where things have to fit a pre-defined template.

[KY5U]

Thanks! Good advice.

[KT1F]

I tend to agree about the free hosting.

If you decide to look for very cheap instead, I've heard good things about

nearlyfreespeech.net

They use a "pay for you use" model. Your requirements work out at about $42 per year if you really use all that space and bandwidth, less $ if you use less.

Cheap Linux hosting at JodoHost for $2.95 per month is good too. 400 MB disk, 10 GB traffic.

Most reports I hear about GoDaddy are bad. Admittedly that might be because only the bad experiences get told but... if you're a geek who knows what he's doing, I'd tend to stay away from them.

[K7MEM]

Most reports I hear about GoDaddy are bad. Admittedly that might be because only the bad experiences get told but... if you're a geek who knows what he's doing, I'd tend to stay away from them.

I started my web site with a free site with the 0Catch.com group, around June 2004. They had a fairly simple interface and you could disable some of the advertising. There was even a pretty good support forum. After a short time I got tired of advertising and upgraded. That's when I found out how costly they were. Just to get PHP and data base capabilities was about $170 a year and once they got a hold of my credit card, I had trouble stopping charges. Then most of the support went to zero. I contacted them and offered to work as an admin for a new support forum. I did that for a while, and for one year they provided free hosting, but after that they continued to charge me and stopped answering the phone and emails.

So I went to GoDaddy to see what they had to offer. It took a while, but I moved all my domains and site material there and purchased low end Linux hosting. The cost was less than 1/3 of the 0Catch.com price and they offered so much more. Far more than I could ever deal with. Even the low end hosting has PHP, Data Bases, Photo Albums, Email, a variety of forums, unlimited bandwidth, lots of storage, etc... Everything your Geeky heart could want. Since I write my own HTML pages and Javascript programs, I don't need their assistance, but the also offer "Web Site tonight". That will get you up and running, even if you don't know what you want.

I have been with GoDaddy for about 5 years now and have nothing but good things to say. I have about 5 domains registered with them now, and that entitles me to lots of extra free stuff. For example, I own the domain "theshiftyjackranch.com". Because it is part of my package, GoDaddy provides me with free Linux hosting, with all the same capabilities as the paid hosting.

IMHO, GoDaddy is the best and is worth taking a look. Just be careful when you sign up. They present you with a gaggle of add-ons that most people really don't need. Initially, just skip all the extras. Anything that you might really want can be added later.

[KY5U]

Thanks folks!!!

[KT1F]

I have been with GoDaddy for about 5 years now and have nothing but good things to say.

I'm pleased it's working well for you. I'm sure thousands of people use them successfully. Maybe it depends what you're trying to do but I seem to hear from people often in the communities I frequent that they're fed up with GoDaddy and looking for an alternative. These are not people who need hand holding. It's usually a complaint about something being unusually configured or inflexible. They're usually trying to install some sort of CMS like DotNetNuke, Joomla or Drupal.

I've never used their hosting but I once ran into a problem trying to send email to someone who was using GoDaddy and my message bounced every time. I spent an hour or two getting down to the smtp level trying to figure out why. It turned out to be this exact problem. GoDaddy were using the Spamhaus PBL completely wrongly.

I have used GoDaddy for domain registration and they definitely made it more of a hassle to transfer out from them than it should have been.

Their support of SOPA and the video of Bob Parsons killing an elephant didn't help their reputation.

I do quite a bit of hosting and my host of choice these days is a virtual private server at Linode. I'm totally happy with them.

[VK5TM]

I use http://www.fatcow.com/ for my website. With-in reason, unlimited bandwidth and filesize.

If you catch one of their specials, it can be very cheap, mine was $129AUD (total) for three years hosting.

Terry VK5TM

[N0NB]

You might look at QTH.com as Scott's rates are competitive with Godaddy's.

[KK4AMP]

I've used http://www.000webhost.com/ for a few projects with pretty good results. Be prepared for their Fantastico app installer to "still be broken and fixed soon", but you can still manually install stuff like wordpress, etc.