When I first began as a webmaster back in the 90's, I used free web hosting exclusively as I learned html and how to design and build my pages.
Free hosting was plentiful in those days until the cost of bandwidth began to increase, forcing many of the free hosting services to either shut down or begin to charge fees.
Now that bandwidth is again affordable, there has been a significant increase in the number of companies that now offer free hosting without forced advertising.
With so many free providers out there now, how do you choose one? The answer is simply research.
It's very easy to get lured into signing up at one of these sites that all seem to promise every server feature known to man, but then once you sign up and take the time to modify your data name server (dns) information and upload your site, you find out you are not actually getting what you thought you were going to.
This happens all too often and accounts for most of the negative reviews you read from users of these free services.
The first thing you have to keep in perspective is that it is "free" hosting.
That having been said, do not expect to get all the high-end features you would get from paid hosting.
This is warning flag number one in your search: If a free hosting provider's offer seems too good to be true, it probably is, so beware! When you finally find a provider you think you might like to try, here is a little tip for you: Do not sign up to have your primary web site hosted there! Instead, use a disposable domain like a .
info that you can now buy for around one dollar per year and then upload a junk one page site.
This will give you an opportunity to measure page load times, monitor down time, check how well ftp works, familiarize yourself with features like a cpanel, file manager, stat tracking, and other built-in elements.
Then, if you like it and it seems reliable, open another account with your primary domain name and upload your site without risk.
There are no shortage of web sites to help you in your search for free hosting and many of these are worth visiting to get a good "starting point" for your search.
Top 10 Free Web Hosting [http://www.
top10-freewebhosting.
com] is a recommended site that compares the ten best free hosting providers.
Keep in mind that many free hosting providers are mirror sites of other providers under a different domain name with a slightly different design layout.
To find out who these sites really are, use your c: prompt or dos shell to do a "tracert" or "ping" command.
This can be an interesting and most informative tool.
Customer service and tech support are another factor that should weigh heavily in your decision.
This is another reason it's a good idea to begin with a dummy site.
Ideally, you will want to have tech support available by phone or by live chat, not email only.
If a provider only offers email support, do not even consider them.
If they do claim to offer phone support, test that once you set up and upload your dummy site to verify they do in fact offer what they claim.
Only thorough research and careful consideration of the facts available will keep you from signing up with one of the many bad hosting providers on the internet.
Choose intelligently and you will reap the rewards of your efforts.