| Free web hosting is a service which provides users with the ability to store web sites and media on the Internet for no cost. While no monetary cost is involved, some free web hosts require advertisements or links to be placed on hosted sites. Other free hosts require posting in a forum. Forum-based free hosting will require you to either reach a certain amount of posts before getting a free hosting account, or be an active contributer in the forum (make posts often).
Most free web hosts don't like their services being used for file or image hosting only (with no web page). Hotlinking is usually disallowed on free hosts because it allows other sites to link directly to files on their members' sites (effectively stealing their bandwidth). Some free webhosts will also disallow files over a certain size (for example, 1MB).
Free Web Hosts will either provide you with a subdomain (yourname.example.com) or a directory (www.example.com/~yourname). In contrast, paid web hosts will usually provide you with a TLD along with the hosting (www.yourname.com). However, some free hosts will allow you to use domains, as long as you register them with a registrar.
Some free web hosts will have a basic package for free, and enhanced packages (with more features) for a cost. This allows users to try the service first, and then upgrade when needed. Web hosts will usually refer to their free packages as 'trial' accounts (and try to hide the signup links). |
