If you are a WebMaster or simply put up the occasional website, this may help you. There are a lot of places which will host your website free of charge and I have tried out many of them. When I hear of another one, I try it out as soon as I can. Some are good, some are not. This is the result of my findings. For each one which I liked, I provide my own URL so that you can see what the host does to it in terms of banners and/or popup ads. No, they are not all links to the very same page! There are some *very* different pages here. If you find that some have improved their service, please let me know. If any sample links don't work, please tell me that too. NOTE: I am very critical here; there are so very many of these "free hosts" available that you and I can "afford" to be fussy. Before we get into my findings, please let me make a few of suggestions/comments:
before doing any uploading, make sure file names do NOT include any hyphens or other symbols such as ~ nor ^ nor &, AND make sure all filenames are in lower case only. Also, keep to the "8.3" format, e.g. "abcdefgh.abc."
name your main page "index.html" (or "index.htm") and keep all files in one folder on your hard disk.
If you are concerned about your copyrights to your material, be sure to study the "terms of reference" or similar documentation to see if they might "take" possession of your material.
Most tell you they don't want you putting "objectionable" or "copyrighted" material on your site. Please take note.
Note that some will not let you upload ZIP files, MP3 files nor files over a certain size
When uploading, don't be fooled into thinking that your system has gone wonky if nothing seems to be happening, and all you see at the bottom of your screen "Connect: Contacting host: www2.fortunecity.com..." or some such note; it may be busily uploading but you won't be told.
If you click on the 'htm' file to view your newly uploaded page, maybe you won't see it and wonder what happened; note your taskbar; it may be hidden behind the host's File Manager page.
Note that some places expect you to put a checkmark beside "Overwrite" if that is what needs to be done and other places overwrite the existing file by default.
Note that all these free hosts may toss popup or popunder ads at your visitors and even set cookies.
ABOVE ALL: KEEP BACKUPS!! THESE FREE HOSTS MAY DISAPPEAR WITH ALL YOUR FILES, NEVER TO BE HEARD FROM AGAIN. That's what happened to several of my pages. These are the ones I've tried; you can search for more at http://www.freewebspace.net/
FOR A BEGINNER......... the two which I think are most "User-Friendly" are 150Megs, and TopCities. I would recommend Dreamwater too but they will delete your accounts without warning if you do not log in for a period of (6 weeks?)
http://angelfire.lycos.com/ sample page: http://www.angelfire.com/dc/stickmaker/ ONE SUGGESTION: if you find that the window listing your files is the size of a postage stamp, you can enlarge it. Login to your account and go to http://www.angelfire.lycos.com/cgi-auth/membership/my_account?webshell_prefs=1
Sample page at http://www.angelfire.com/dc/stickmaker/
http://www.anycities.com/cgi-bin/manager.cgi
http://www.basicministries.org/ sample page: http://www.basicministries.org/heaven/business/CrystalSea/010
http://www.bizhosting.com/ sample page: http://walkingsticks.bizhosting.com/index.htm
http://www.bravenet.com/ sample page:http://stickmaker.bravepages.com
http://dreamwater.com/ sample page: http://www.dreamwater.com/sport/walkstick/index.htm ONE MAJOR PROBLEM: with this one; if you don't log in for (6 weeks?) they delete your account without warning!!!! This is very unfortunate because their system is VERY USER-FRIENDLY.
http://www.fortunecity.com/ sample page: http://members.fortunecity.com/stickmaker
http://www.topcities.com/ sample page:http://stickmaker.topcities.com
http://www.tripod.com/ sample page: http://members.tripod.com/xkenx
http://www2.xnapster.com/ sample page: http://stickmaker.xnapster.com/index.htm
http://www.Geocities.com/ and http://www.yahoo.com/ sample page: http://www.geocities.com/klaninga/index.htm
http://20m.com/ sample page: http://diamondwillowsticks.20m.com
http://www.50megs.com/ sample page: http://users.50megs.com/kxn//index.htm
http://www.150m.com/ sample page: http://stickmaker.150m.com
http://www.100megsfree5.com/ sample page: http://diamondwillow.100megsfree5.com
http://www.free-webmaster-resources.net/hosting.html
http://www.thefreesite.com/Free_Web_Space/ (note Escalix is still there)
http://www.freebiedirectory.com/Free_Web_Space/
Most of these (maybe "all") are also listed at http://www.thefreesite.com/freewebpages.htm and you can find a few more comments about them there. There is also a huge collection of Free Web Hosts at http://www.freewebspace.net./. Also at http://www.freebiedirectory.com/Free_Web_Space/
If I have been "unfair" to any host, and they have improved their system, please let me know; I'd be happy to move them from the "...DON'T like..." to the "...LIKE..." section!