Free website hosting - what do you use?

[mononguy63]

I've been thinking it might be fun to create a personal website for my layout. It may well be I believe it would be fun out of sheer ignorance, as I know almost nothing about the topic. My main problem is that I'm incredibly cheap and don't want to pay anything for it.

So my question goes out to those who've trodden this same path before. What have you used for your website creation and hosting?

Thanks in advance

Jim

[Pruitt]

Free I don't have, and from what I've seen, free is worth what you're paying. I pay $12 a month to have Yahoo host my website. I have my own domain, and absolute control over the site. I don't have to accept some free hosting service's annoying ads as the price for using the service.

I used Frontpage 2003 to create and update the website, but now I use its replacement, called Expressions (not an improvement as far as I'm concerned).

[Robby P.]

 I use a free called Freewebs.   I mostly use it to show my weathered cars.  I can show cars, comments, have a poll, and a few other things.   It has a couple of adds, but nothing to major (no pop ups).   

 I've had it a few years now.   Its not to bad, and its pretty easy to use.   Its perfect for what I do, but for someone to look to get more out of it....A better website will probably be needed.

[rrinker]

 Mine's $5/mo for up to 3 domains, for one domain it's only a dollar a month. Worth it over a free site - how many of those have folded over the years leaving you to find a new place to host? Places like GeoCities closed up leaving users stranded.

 My provider has multiple co-location sites for redundancy with a high speed backbone connection to the internet, and I have YET to have any noticeable outages with my site. And it's run by a guy who really knows what he's doing when it comes to internet hosting.

                      --Randy

 

[tstage]

Jim,

Until recently I was using Earthlink's FREE 10MB of web storage space that came with my ISP plan.  It was sufficient until I started running out of space.  So, last week I decided to take the plunge and signed up for Earthlink's Startersite plan and a domain name.

For ~$20/month (first 3 months are only $9.95), I'm moving from 10 MB of web storage to 5 GB!   Even with uploading pics, I don't expect to need anything much larger than that.  Currently, I'm only at 11.5MB of usage.

Earlthink was able to successfully migrate my old site over to the new domain this past Monday.  (See link at bottom of post.)  The monthy cost of the web site is added to my monthly Earthlink bill.

I originally created the site using the FREE online Trellix Site Builder software tool package provided by Earthlink.  It's a decent web design software program that uses built-in templates that don't require you to know HTML code.  Personally, I look forward to eventually learning that aspect of web design myself so that I'm not tied to a template.

I will also be trying an older software package offered by Earthlink with my Startsite plan: NetObjects Fusion 8.  The software can be requested FREE from the makers of NetObjects but there's a $9.95 charge for S&H.  ( I bet it only costs thems about $1 to ship it in the mail.  The newest version of the software is now NetObjects Fusion 12)  Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing what it does.

If any of the aforementioned web design software tools aren't to your liking or familiarity, you should be able to use any other like software packages such as MS FrontPage (older) or MS Expression Studio 4 (new).

Anyhow, check with your ISP, Jim.  They may already have FREE web storage space and online web site building capability available to you with your account.  It's worth a try...

Tom

[krupa]

You could also go with something like Blogger. You don't have as much control over things like layout, color schemes, etc. but you can post pictures and text which is what I assume you're going to do with it.

Your ISP may also provide hosting services as part of your service plan so you may want to look into that as well.

[jwhitten]

Brunton

Free I don't have, and from what I've seen, free is worth what you're paying. I pay $12 a month to have Yahoo host my website. I have my own domain, and absolute control over the site. I don't have to accept some free hosting service's annoying ads as the price for using the service.

I used Frontpage 2003 to create and update the website, but now I use its replacement, called Expressions (not an improvement as far as I'm concerned).

 

Agreed, I have a $20/month account with a hosting company called 'BlueWho" (BlueWho.com). I get gobs of disk and bandwidth allotment per month, unlimited domains, DNS, a slew of services, access to databases, etc. They have redundant servers in several geographic locations around the globe and in the five+ years I've used them I have not experienced any downtime at all that I am aware of. They have always been quick and friendly to assist when needed, and the rest of the time they're clever enough to stay out of the way. I can interact with the site via most typical means-- ssh, ftp, http, https, front-page extensions (have to request they be turned on), web-dav, etc.

And I very much agree that you get what you pay for.

 

John

[cacole]

My ISP, Cox Communications, provides free web space on their servers.  That's what I use for our club's web site -- http://members.cox.net/cacole2

 

[Aralai]

I use HawkHost. They are not free however. I agree that instead of hosting - use a free service like Blogger. It is probably your best bet for free.

[vancouverislandrail]

I use viviti.com  for my railway website.  Great use of pictures, blogs and other items you can drop and play. 

 

Mark

vancouverislandrailway.ca

[ns3010]

I use Google Sites. I like it a lot, and it's free. There is a lot you can do with it, and probably more that I haven't tried/don't know about.

Click on the "Tri State Rail" link in my signaure if you want to look around.

[Flashwave]

Two schools of thought here. I used Freewebs before, and I like it. It's a good tryly open sapce, and it is free for 40mb (I delive) does what I need, and they offer the option of multiple websites, so even IF you fill one, nothing says you cannot overflow into a different site with a different url, Hyperlinking is hyperlinking. The main issues I saw with it is that it's not the easiest to update live. The better way is to pull down the site page you've modiefeid and put up the newer one. Also, since having been switced to Dreamweaver from Frontpage, I haven't figred out my margin settings. MS Frontpage will do those default, but for anything else, good luck.

So, I switched to Google Sites. Google pupplies templates which can be modified in shape, color, background, and content, and I think there's a way to upload HTML pages. Google Sites also allows for adding download attachments, and being Google, will show up in a Google search. I'm not fond of templates as my site still kinda looks like everyone else's, but upsdating the page live on the internet is as easy as typing a Word Doc.

https://sites.google.com/site/cmpaho/

[Railphotog]

Another vote for Google Sites, I have several for my own use and our local club.  Not the fanciest but I can do mostly what I want.  Check out my model photography site in my signature.   I've had personal model railroad sites on several free providers over the years, but do like Google the best.  Never had enough interest to want to pay for a hobby site.  Once you start, it's an ongoing expense I can do with out.

 

 

[mononguy63]

Thanks for all the replies. I've started bumbling around with the Google site. It seems pretty straightforward, and the price is certainly right. it does seems to have some appearance limitations, but for my purposes so what?

If I do ever get something up and running, I'll make a grand opening announcement for all my technical consultants here!

Jim

[keystonecrossings]

As stated, you get what you pay for.

I use GoDaddy. At $80 a year I have 150GB of storage and tons of bandwidth. I can host as many sites and domains as I want, with e-mail, etc. They also offer dozens of free add-ons like forums, blogs, photo databases, guest books, calendars, etc.

My largest site there is "Keystone Crossings", my Pennsylvania Railroad site:

http://kc.pennsyrr.com

[Anonymous]

Railphotog

Another vote for Google Sites, I have several for my own use and our local club.  Not the fanciest but I can do mostly what I want.  Check out my model photography site in my signature.   I've had personal model railroad sites on several free providers over the years, but do like Google the best.  Never had enough interest to want to pay for a hobby site.  Once you start, it's an ongoing expense I can do with out.

Chalk up another vote for Google Sites.

Custom formatting is actually possible, you can change colors of almost everything, fonts, etc. Take a look at my page for my old railroad, the White River Southern. That's not a template.

[htgguy]

Actually if you go with blogger there is quite a lot of freedom as to how your site looks. You can play with the html in the template to your heart's content. I've customized my template, for the site in my sig. I also have a domain name but that's the only part that costs and you don't need to do that.

Jim

[Thommo]

Well, I use http://www.000webhost.com/ - FREE, 1.5GB space,  100 GB / month traffic.

It is probably not for professional web sites, but it served me well in a almost 2 years now.

[Hamltnblue]

I use godaddy.com It's not free but you depending on the type of site you can have it for 2 bucks a month. The dot com or org is more expensive but for a personal site you don't need those extensions.

[HOtrain32]

Check out Hostgator.com also...

[Geared Steam]

I like Google Blog, click my signature for a sample.

I don't use it like a blog, I create subject matter with links on the left.