Free Web Hosting

[VampiricClown]

I'm looking for a site that will host my website for free with a sub domain and that I can get with a normal domain name later on for a reasonable amount. Most of them are wanting upwards of $12 a month for all of their tools and templates, which I don't need because I am writing HTML. I'm also wanting one that I can upload my HTML pages from my computer.

I've tried:

Bravenet
Freewebs
Googlepages

And none of them offer what I need. Google has the unlimited page space, which is needed. Freewebs offers nothing I need. And Bravenet doesn't work with what I'm doing.

Someone please help.

[ManchestrMorgue]

Have you considered godaddy.com ? They are not free, but with hosting starting from $3.99 per month, they are very cheap, and you can upload your HTML. Can also have mySQL databases etc.

[AmericanManiac]

myspace, LOL

[VampiricClown]

Have you considered godaddy.com ? They are not free, but with hosting starting from $3.99 per month, they are very cheap, and you can upload your HTML. Can also have mySQL databases etc.

I was looking at that last night. I found it by going to Vod's old site. I may wind up doing that. I just need to build out my page a little more.

@AM
Myspace won't do. I need unlimited pages...Not blog pages.

[VampiricClown]

I'm working with Tripod right now. This one seems to be doing what I want.

[joshaube]

I've been creating numerous websites for a few years now; running them from both free and paid for hosts. If you tell me, in some detail, what you'll be using the webspace for I could help you out.

I noticed you were using HTML. Does this mean you will not be including pages written in / or including PHP? Usually websites are created with a hybrid of both HTML and PHP. Do you need CSS style sheet support? Javascript?

Those really aren't terribly important when looking at hosting, as most hosts include support for all of the above. They wouldn't be much of a host if they didn't.

The big questions, that are very important are the following:

+ Do you need subdomains? (yournamehere.yourwebhere.yourdotblankhere)
If so, how many? 1-3 is a reason amount
Most websites use subdomains for forums, galleries or other hosted material.
For example, forum.yourwebhere.com is a subdomain that leads to a forum.

Will you be using MySQL databases?
If you have no idea what these are, chances are you don't need them.
They are used for many things, however, and you may not know if you need one or not. These forums run from MySQL, for example. So do most blogs.

How will you be uploading your content? Some sites offer web-based uploading and managing, but most require the usage of FTP. Do you know how to work with FTP?

Do advertisements bother you? Web banners, pop-ups or rented space? These are frequent on free webhosts. Usually to the point where it is unreasonable.

---

Webspace and Bandwidth, bandwidth being the most crucial.

Is this a personal site, or one which you expect many visitors to view?
Does it include mostly written content, or are you planning to use any images, music or video? Those three are bandwidth killers.

Keep in mind that webspace and bandwidth, while important, are not the be-all-and-end-all of selecting a host.

It may seem small, but you likely won't need above 50MB of space for a personal site. You surely don't need 5GB of bandwidth, either.

Many hosts offer "unlimited" webspace and bandwidth. Be warned, this is not accurate. Unlimited does not mean unlimited. Eventually, it will run out. They just advertise it as so, because the amount is so high they don't expect anyone to actually reach the limit. But it is possible.

---

As for domain names. Do you really need one? Is it necessary? Like I asked before, how wide-spread will this site be? If you just want a shorter URL, try dot.tk... a free domain name site. It will give you a www.yourwebsitenamehere.tk address. For free, with advertisements.

[VampiricClown]

I've been creating numerous websites for a few years now; running them from both free and paid for hosts. If you tell me, in some detail, what you'll be using the webspace for I could help you out.

I noticed you were using HTML. Does this mean you will not be including pages written in / or including PHP? Usually websites are created with a hybrid of both HTML and PHP. Do you need CSS style sheet support? Javascript?

Those really aren't terribly important when looking at hosting, as most hosts include support for all of the above. They wouldn't be much of a host if they didn't.

The big questions, that are very important are the following:

+ Do you need subdomains? (yournamehere.yourwebhere.yourdotblankhere)
If so, how many? 1-3 is a reason amount
Most websites use subdomains for forums, galleries or other hosted material.
For example, forum.yourwebhere.com is a subdomain that leads to a forum.

Will you be using MySQL databases?
If you have no idea what these are, chances are you don't need them.
They are used for many things, however, and you may not know if you need one or not. These forums run from MySQL, for example. So do most blogs.

How will you be uploading your content? Some sites offer web-based uploading and managing, but most require the usage of FTP. Do you know how to work with FTP?

Do advertisements bother you? Web banners, pop-ups or rented space? These are frequent on free webhosts. Usually to the point where it is unreasonable.

---

Webspace and Bandwidth, bandwidth being the most crucial.

Is this a personal site, or one which you expect many visitors to view?
Does it include mostly written content, or are you planning to use any images, music or video? Those three are bandwidth killers.

Keep in mind that webspace and bandwidth, while important, are not the be-all-and-end-all of selecting a host.

It may seem small, but you likely won't need above 50MB of space for a personal site. You surely don't need 5GB of bandwidth, either.

Many hosts offer "unlimited" webspace and bandwidth. Be warned, this is not accurate. Unlimited does not mean unlimited. Eventually, it will run out. They just advertise it as so, because the amount is so high they don't expect anyone to actually reach the limit. But it is possible.

---

As for domain names. Do you really need one? Is it necessary? Like I asked before, how wide-spread will this site be? If you just want a shorter URL, try dot.tk... a free domain name site. It will give you a www.yourwebsitenamehere.tk address. For free, with advertisements.

What I am basically wanting, is something along the lines of "wwwBloody-Disgusting.com". Just a lot more than that.

As far as HTML and all, I'm using frontpage and editing things with it. I'm not sure 100% of the other stuff, because I'm learning it as I go.

Subdomains are not needed at this point.

I'm not sure about the MySQL. What would be something I would be able to use it for? You mentioned blogs, but what part of the blog does it affect?

As far as FTP, I was trying to figure that out about an hour ago actually. I'm still not real clear on exactly how to use it.

The ads don't bother me, as long as I can rid my page of them later on.

I am making a site for many people to view. And images and music will be there. As far as videos, I can link to youtube.

As for the domain name, I can get by with a freebie, or s subdomain for the time being. I will most likely purchase a dot com further in the future.

Would this help if I could explain what all I'm wanting, and how many pages I'm going to need?

[ferretchucker]

Piczo has always worked for me.


www.ferretchucker.piczo.com

[VampiricClown]

Piczo has always worked for me.


www.ferretchucker.piczo.com

Thanks, but it doesn't work with what I'm trying to do.

And sadly, the font I'm trying to use on the "Enter Site" page, only works on other computers, IF they have that font downloaded.

[ferretchucker]

Aw, sorr about that man. Just a tip for the future though. To get a good name instead of something like www.freewebs.com/Ilikecheese go one www.dot.tk then do all the stuff. But the annoying thing is, it runs out after a while and you go back to the original name.

[AmericanManiac]

Thanks, but it doesn't work with what I'm trying to do.

And sadly, the font I'm trying to use on the "Enter Site" page, only works on other computers, IF they have that font downloaded.

Make it a jpeg or a gif, let me ask you something. How much of this site do you have done, if its not much, maybe we can talk about re-launching mine. I could send you all the files, so you could update them when you wanted. How advanced are you in html, or do you use a program like Dreamweaver.

My site has a lot of css, but I used that for pretty much the layout, so you really don't need to know anything about it. If you don't have a lot of the site built already hit me up on msn jb00952906@hotmail.com or aim: STAmericanManiac. Message me either way, it's been a long time, take care.

[joshaube]

Hm, you're making a site similar to Blood-Disgusting, only a lot more? Ouch. I'm afraid to say, it's going to be a long journey.

A site like Bloody-Disgusting runs off PHP and MySQL and advanced code. To do news updates like they do, that uses PHP and mySQL. The commenting feature is also highly advanced. Their review pit is even further advanced. Let's not talk about their streaming video clips (BDTV.) A forum at that scale would suck a lot of bandwidth by itself.

To run a site like BD, you can't get by with a free host, or even a smaller host. You're looking at an expensive, or even dedicated (as in owning your own server) hosting.

MySQL is a database. It stores information, and allows you to recall it on a whim. They are confusing, and advanced little devices. Using one requires PHP knowledge. Hell, activating one can even be confusing.

Now... you could do BD in all HTML, on a free-site / low cost host. Just don't expect many visitors, or else your bandwidth will go down the drain. Also, you would manually have to re-edit every page each time you update. A news update? That means writing a new one at top, moving every other one down, and if you run out of space... that means saving the overflow news in a separate file, or moving it manually to another archives page.

PHP and MySQL are basically... automation. Instead of you manually moving items, it will do it for you. You write a news post, and it will say to your website: "Hey... move the past news down, display this at the top. Now... move the older news post to an archive, and use this code to display that archive on a separate page." Of course that would all happen in 0.002 seconds.

For example...

<font size="3"><b>News Post Example</b></font><br>
<font size="1">This is just a sample news posting.</font>
<p>
Hello world. This is just a sample news posting!
I hope you enjoy my site... keeping reading!


Or...

Write your post in a text editor, similar to the one used to create a new thread on this forum, store it in a mysql database... and use this to call it up on your page.

<?php include("news.php"); ?>

Not only is this easier when updating, but it keeps the sizes of your pages small... therefore allowing you MORE pages.

It doesn't look like much here... but keep in mind. When you have 3508 new posts... the HTML file will have EVERY single post, in the same format as above... while the PHP file? Just that single line. Forever.

Another thing to note. Don't worry about how many pages a host will let you have. The amount of pages you have doesn't mean shit. It depends on the SIZE each page is. Hosts don't allocate an amount of pages (ie... 50 pages max.), they allocate space (ie... 50MB max.)

So if you had a 50MB host... the results could vary.
1 massive page of code that is, somehow, 50MB... and your done...
Or 50 pages that are 1MB in size.

Essentially you can have as many pages as you can fit in.

[VampiricClown]

Hm, you're making a site similar to Blood-Disgusting, only a lot more? Ouch. I'm afraid to say, it's going to be a long journey.

A site like Bloody-Disgusting runs off PHP and MySQL and advanced code. To do news updates like they do, that uses PHP and mySQL. The commenting feature is also highly advanced. Their review pit is even further advanced. Let's not talk about their streaming video clips (BDTV.) A forum at that scale would suck a lot of bandwidth by itself.

To run a site like BD, you can't get by with a free host, or even a smaller host. You're looking at an expensive, or even dedicated (as in owning your own server) hosting.

MySQL is a database. It stores information, and allows you to recall it on a whim. They are confusing, and advanced little devices. Using one requires PHP knowledge. Hell, activating one can even be confusing.

Now... you could do BD in all HTML, on a free-site / low cost host. Just don't expect many visitors, or else your bandwidth will go down the drain. Also, you would manually have to re-edit every page each time you update. A news update? That means writing a new one at top, moving every other one down, and if you run out of space... that means saving the overflow news in a separate file, or moving it manually to another archives page.

PHP and MySQL are basically... automation. Instead of you manually moving items, it will do it for you. You write a news post, and it will say to your website: "Hey... move the past news down, display this at the top. Now... move the older news post to an archive, and use this code to display that archive on a separate page." Of course that would all happen in 0.002 seconds.

For example...



Or...

Write your post in a text editor, similar to the one used to create a new thread on this forum, store it in a mysql database... and use this to call it up on your page.



Not only is this easier when updating, but it keeps the sizes of your pages small... therefore allowing you MORE pages.

It doesn't look like much here... but keep in mind. When you have 3508 new posts... the HTML file will have EVERY single post, in the same format as above... while the PHP file? Just that single line. Forever.

Another thing to note. Don't worry about how many pages a host will let you have. The amount of pages you have doesn't mean shit. It depends on the SIZE each page is. Hosts don't allocate an amount of pages (ie... 50 pages max.), they allocate space (ie... 50MB max.)

So if you had a 50MB host... the results could vary.
1 massive page of code that is, somehow, 50MB... and your done...
Or 50 pages that are 1MB in size.

Essentially you can have as many pages as you can fit in.

I'm not too interested in doing the news part as much as just a review database for movies, games, books, music, etc. I have some other ideas with working with bands, artists etc.

As I said before as well, I'm not really wanting the video clips aspect anyway.

And Freewebs actually told me I could use only a total of 20 pages. To have more, I have to pay a large sum of money right off the bat. Which I was trying to avoid.

Here, take a look at what I have so far on googlepages:

wickedwonderlandstudios.googlepages.com

It's not anywhere near finished, but I was trying to do something that looked a lot less generic than this.

[AmericanManiac]

Get ahold of me on msn vampiric! I still have all the pages, from before!