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sachmo71
03-26-2004, 08:11 AM
In the past, people have been curious about where they can find free web space for posting images and webpages. If found this article in todays Lockergnome, and thought I would pass it along for anyone who was interested.




GNEWBIE GNOOK: Free Parking On The Web
By Brandon Watts

Q: I would like to create my own Web site. Can you suggest a FREE site where I could simply copy the site and change the text and graphics?

A: After being a netizen (net citizen) for a while, you may start to develop an interest in making your own personal Web site. This can seem like an overwhelming obstacle if you have never messed with Web site construction. If Web terms such as HTML and CSS give you the heebie-jeebies, you can take comfort in the fact that there are services out there that will take you by the hand and guide you through the sometimes-confusing Web development world. There are companies on the Internet that will provide you with free Web space and even give you templates and building tools to get you up and running. In most cases it's as easy as copy and pasting code and then making changes to the content. Bada bing, bada boom - you have an online presence. Established Web developers will probably want to look elsewhere due to some limitations in these services as to space and bandwidth (data transferred from your site) allotments, as well as imposed banner ads. But for a complete newbie, the services and space provided should prove to be ample. Here's a listing of three free services that'll help satisfy your Web site craving.

Angelfire
This service has sentimental value for me because it's what I used for an extended period of time when I first started making my own Web sites. I was surprised to find my account from several years ago was still active and contained all of my old files. I took a trip down memory (or should I say laughing stock) lane by looking at my relic files from when I started experimenting with HTML. Your sites will look better than my attempts by leaps and bounds because of the nice templates that are provided now. You will receive 20MB of space with which you can store your files. This is more than is needed for a basic site. There's also a blog creation tool that is crazily simple to use. I built a working blog in around 30 seconds. Unlike some of the free blogging tools out there, comments are integrated right into your page. You can also add to the list resources such as image and script libraries. Angelfire is a fantastic place to start for the first-timer that wants to get a little coding experience.

Yahoo! GeoCities
If you've never heard of GeoCities, then you are part of a very small group. The chances are high that anyone that has been hanging around on the 'net for a decent amount of time has visited a GeoCities page at least once in their online career. This service has been the place that most people have turned to when starting to build their own Web site. Their free service will give you 15MB of disk space, and a generous 3GB of bandwidth. They have a nice wizard and a more comprehensive page builder that will allow you to lay things out in a graphical way through your Web browser. Statistics on your site traffic are available, and so is a virtual toolbox of add-ons such as guestbooks, counters, and weather reports. GeoCities also contains a beginner tutorial on HTML that will teach you how you can customize your page even more.

FreeWebs
One of the irritating things about these free Web hosts is that they contain banner advertisements. What do you expect for free? Well, now you can expect no banner ads. FreeWebs offers entirely free Web hosting without any of those annoying graphical banner ads or popup windows. And there was great rejoicing amongst those with small bank accounts. All kidding aside, FreeWebs offers you an initial 40MB right off the bat, and this is upgradeable to 100MB by just e-mailing them and telling them why you want the space. I have heard people raving about this service recently and it appears that their joy is warranted. The online builder is simple and produces quality results. You'd think that the sites might be slow due to the amount of workload on these servers, but the content arrives swiftly. It also appears from their testimonials and easily accessible contact form that they promptly reply to questions and comments. A generous amount of free Web space without banner ads, containing an easy online builder and employees who really care about support - it appears that this is no longer a dream.

I hope that this has given you some direction toward where you should head in looking for a free and easy template based Web host. Who knows, maybe in the future you'll become a big shot with Web programming technologies. When this day comes you can head on over to our Web Developers newsletter for an all-you-can-eat seafood buffet of information. Be sure to try the salmon.

Ksyrup
03-26-2004, 08:14 AM
I've never created a webpage before, so one thing I'm curious about is this...I had a geocities "page" once, and uploaded a pic to it, then tried to post the link to that pic on this or another forum, and it didn't work (got the red 'X'). Why is that? Do these types of sites not allow that, or did I do something wrong?

sachmo71
03-26-2004, 08:16 AM
I think Geocities has a restriction on linking to their pictures. You may want to check that out with them. But normally to post an image, you put the img tag around the link, and that's it.

Ksyrup
03-26-2004, 08:20 AM
That's what I did. I didn't follow up on it, but I'm sure that's what the issue was. I'm assuming that most free sites would have the same restrictions, but I don't know. Thanks.

One of these days I'll get around to creating a site...but then again, probably not.

sachmo71
03-26-2004, 08:22 AM
The links do reduce bandwidth, and I guess when you take into account the number of pages that they have, it must make a big difference.

WSUCougar
03-26-2004, 08:40 AM
Wow, FreeWebs.com looks too good to be true. And anything that seems to good to be true usually is. Am I missing something? What's the catch?

fantastic flying froggies
03-26-2004, 08:45 AM
I've just visited Freewebs and while very interesting, they do not allow hotlinking. Therefore not interesting to me, since my main objective in getting free webspace would be in posting pics here...

fantastic flying froggies
03-26-2004, 08:49 AM
dola- no hotlinking either in Angelfire...

Ksyrup
03-26-2004, 08:52 AM
I've just visited Freewebs and while very interesting, they do not allow hotlinking. Therefore not interesting to me, since my main objective in getting free webspace would be in posting pics here...
Same here. I guess if I ever get my lazy ass around to it, I'l'l need to find a cheap hosting service that allows hotlinking.

Maple Leafs
03-26-2004, 08:56 AM
If all you want to do is post pictures, there are various Photo Album sites around the web that will give you a free account to host images. Most have pretty strict bandwidth limits, but nothing you should push by posting links here.

If you want a full site, my advice would be to shell out a few bucks a month to go with a paid host. They're not too expensive, and it's worth saving the trouble of having to work with the free guys.

Pumpy Tudors
03-26-2004, 09:34 AM
Har har. I have all the free web space and bandwidth I'll ever need. My wife's best friend has given us complete access to his server. h0h0

[/jackass]

CamEdwards
03-26-2004, 09:37 AM
Har har. I have all the free web space and bandwidth I'll ever need. My wife's best friend has given us complete access to his server. h0h0

[/jackass]

that's how I was able to get camedwards.com off the ground. Less than a year later I'm already getting bandwidth messages (and that's with 200mb a month). Looks like I'm going to have to start shelling out actual money soon, which means either a)blogads or b) tip jar.

Senator
03-26-2004, 10:13 AM
I know readyhosting is only 99 bucks a year with unlimited bandwidth usage, and 500 MB storage space. I have 6 or so sites with them and 1 and 1.

Cap Ologist
03-26-2004, 11:21 AM
Another cheap site I use is totalchoicehosting.com. You can get a pretty decent amount of space and bandwidht for 4 or 5 bucks. I've been using them for my site for a couple of months and haven't had any problems.

HornedFrog Purple
03-26-2004, 12:49 PM
Cap Ologist you are in Fort Worth? That would have been 4 of us except Senator moved. I think thealmighty lives here too.

CamEdwards
03-26-2004, 01:24 PM
Senator moved? where to, Senator?

JonInMiddleGA
03-26-2004, 01:29 PM
Senator moved? where to, Senator?
IIRC, he now hails from "Parts Unknown"

http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/%7Efof/forums/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

HornedFrog Purple
03-26-2004, 02:42 PM
he moved out of Fort Worth, not the area though

thealmighty
03-26-2004, 04:48 PM
I grew up in Ft. Worth, but I live in Dallas, now (unfortunately :( ).