A simple (or not so simple) guide to requesting free webhosting

**Trel** · August 16th, 2003, 16:08

The following is an unoffical guide to how to request free hosting here on FreeWebspace.net

It is not required to request, however it is a very good idea.
Please take this under advisement and have a nice day.

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For all of you that havn't got a clue about webhosting, what you might need in terms of space/bandwidth/features for your site, or just generally whats possible and whats not possible.. this is for you.

1) Before you post, think about what you need for your site.

Do you need a host that accepts domains? (i.e. have your own .com you want to have hosted.)

How much space/bandwidth do you think you will need?
If you don't know for sure, you can estimate it fairly easily, take a look at this..

50 MB of space will suit most anyone well. If you have .jpg pictures at 20 KB a piece you can put up 2500 pictures before you run out of space. Thats a good bit.

As for bandwidth thats pretty easy too. Heres what I suggest..

Take your main page and build it to how you like it, then take every picture that will load with it and the page itself, right click on those and look in properties. Thats the size that we'll use in this calculation.

((Yoursize (in KB) X visits) x 30) / 1000 = Bandwidth in MB

Lets do an example.

Say your site will recieve 200 visits a day and the main page's size is 100 KB.

((100 x 200) x 30) / 1000 = 600 MB of bandwidth

This is just an estimate and could give you a good idea what to request. Also you need to repeat this process with every page that you plan on putting up, so you can get a more complete idea of the bandwidth you'll require.

Next, features.. What kind of fancy features are you going to want to use for your site? A forum, a content management system like Xoops or PHPNuke.. maybe, an Ikonboard?

Go look for the scripts you want to use ahead of time and see what they require. Thats all you will need from your host. The general rule is, the more features a host provides.. the more likely they are to be abused and close down.

**Important**: If you don't have a clue what it is, don't request it.

2) Now that you know what you need for your site, lets move on to a more likely to be responded to request.

Now here on Freewebspace.net I know all requests are responded to but, usually with just links to the normal free hosts you can find via Google or other search engines.

If you want to get a response from a host personally, try these steps!

A) Give a greeting, tell alittle about yourself maybe.

B) Give your site's URL and what you intend to put there. If its not up on the internet yet, give a very detailed description of it.

C) Tell what language it will be written in and where you are from.(this is very important because not many hosts will accept websites written in Chinese, Korean etc.. also don't lie, hosts do have ways of knowing where you are from

)

D) Describe what you need within reason, there is no such thing as unlimited bandwidth/space.
If a host is offering it, they are lying to you. Visit: http://www.unlimband.com/ for more information.
A normal free offering could stretch upwards of 300 MB of space and 6 GB of bandwidth but, don't count on getting it. Those kind of accounts are hard to get.

E) Check back in your thread often to see if hosts have responded, and respond back answering their questions.. if any. That will show you care and give them an idea of if they can host you or not.

F) Read the Terms of Service/Use and/or Acceptable Use Policy of your potential host. If they prohibit what you need to do, find another host. This will save you and your host alot of time and trouble.

H) Special note for all people wishing to place illegal content/store files/hotlink pictures/send spam. You will be caught, so don't waste your time.

H) Final note, not having advertisements is a great thing. However, if a host has no ads on their users' pages they are making no money off of your site. They won't be around a very long time like this

. I know there are exceptions to this rule, that includes us at Lifelesspeople.com. I just want to make sure users understand that ads = long life for a host generally.

3) A shorter guide to how to request free webpace: (by Riverworld)

I) Keep specifics (space, transfer, etc) at the top of the post in an easy-to-read manner (try listing them).

II) After you have a quick summary, go into detail about your site or what you plan to have hosted. Don't be concerned about writing too much at this stage- but on the same token, don't ramble on about nothing.

III) Give some details on how to contact you... a host may want to talk to you before offering anything. So make sure you have filled out your profile completely.

IV) Don't go overboard in what you need. If you know 15mb is enough- don't request 50mb. If you aren't going to get more than 300mb transfer/month - don't ask for 1gb.

V) If you are concerned about your site growing... say "I only need 15mb space now, but will need about 50mb space in 6 months time" - just to give the host an idea of these things, and how much you may grow.

VI) Don't be greedy and ask for too much, because you will be the only one to lose out in the end.

4) Build an interesting page and make your host proud to have you! Also, always **always** provide a link back. Even if your host doesn't force it. It just shows your proud to be there.

I hope this guide serves some people well and helps to make the requests around here a bit more then..

HELP I NEED A FREE HOST PLZ (inside it..)

I NEED 1 GB OF SPACE AND 100 GB OF BANDWIDTH FOR MY WAREZ PLZ K THX!!!!!!!!

Thanks for reading.

**MATRIX** · August 16th, 2003, 19:06

I recommend to Add:

No abuse of the Free Service that they are Providing

Another:

Don't Break their T.O.S.

An Another:

Make Intelligent Questions:
Don't Ask for 100Gb Bandwith if you even Started Your Site, if you need that much prove it ROTFLMAO

Also for the Space, if you want to start your Own Page start with Little Things (Space and Bandwith) and then when you got more Visitors than your Bandwith/Space can Handle request more

I hope that helps a little bit

**Antonio** · August 16th, 2003, 20:17

Originally posted by LifelessHost
Lets do an example.

Say your site will recieve 200 visitors a day and the main page's size is 100 KB.

((100 x 200) x 30) / 1000 = 600 MB of bandwidth

there is something wrong in the examples

if one visitor only visit one page of your site,that is correct.but if they visit more than one page,what will they cost?

and take my site as an exmaple, 7 pages /one visitor and you can figure it out,it will cost 4200mb=4.1GB bandwith ,right?

**Trel** · August 16th, 2003, 20:47

Edit: ((Yoursize (in KB) X visits) x 30) / 1000 = Bandwidth in MB

Also I only meant visit to that page alone. I included information that they would need to do that for each page.

**Riverworld** · August 17th, 2003, 00:15

Edit: See LLH-format Guide Section 3 for the original contents of this post

**MATRIX** · August 17th, 2003, 00:58

Originally posted by Riverworld
Adding:

Keep specifics (space, transfer, etc) at the top of the post in an easy-to-read manner (try listing them).

After you have a quick summary, go into detail about your site or what you plan to have hosted. Don't be concerned about writing too much at this stage- but on the same token, don't ramble on about nothing.

Lastly, give some details on how to contact you... a host may want to talk to you before offering anything. So make sure you have filled out your profile completely.
_______

Also remember- don't go overboard in what you need. If you know 15mb is enough- don't request 50mb. If you aren't going to get more than 300mb transfer/month - don't ask for 1gb.

If you are concerned about your site growing... say "I only need 15mb space now, but will need about 50mb space in 6 months time" - just to give the host an idea of these things, and how much you may grow.

Finally- don't be greedy and ask for too much, because you will be the only one to lose out in the end.

That's like what i said

**Trel** · August 17th, 2003, 01:43

Redid the formatting alittle and added in Riverworld's and Matrix's comments.

Opinions?

**Matt8** · August 17th, 2003, 02:09

I think it looks very good lifeless host. I just hope that it gets sticked and that newbs read it......

**Trel** · August 17th, 2003, 02:45

Hey we can hope.

I just get tired of everyone coming here and just giving a short one line post.

That won't cut it at my site, and I don't think at many others either.

**Antonio** · August 17th, 2003, 02:50

but it is hard to figure out how much transfer they will use for newly started site.they do not know how many visitors that will come.
personally,just for the guy have not run a site,500mb transfer is enough.and then they can get some free stats like http://www.pstats.com to get the stat info for their site and figure out their transfer again.

if your site have the transfer over 5gb i feel the better chioce is paid host. as free host will request add some ads more or less,if you want to run a bigger site,free host will meet your need some time.

many guys will have a process from free to paid for host

**MATRIX** · August 17th, 2003, 03:07

Originally posted by LifelessHost
Hey we can hope.

I just get tired of everyone coming here and just giving a short one line post.

That won't cut it at my site, and I don't think at many others either.

You think that you are the only one who is Tired of Newbs ?

In FWS.net needs New Posts, Comments, etc. Not only Request

**Trel** · August 17th, 2003, 03:33

Maybe we should setup an IRC room on one of the major networks, or one of us set it up?

Real time chit chatter with the hostees along with the forum?

Lets get some ideas going!

**MATRIX** · August 17th, 2003, 03:38

Originally posted by LifelessHost
Maybe we should setup an IRC room on one of the major networks, or one of us set it up?

Real time chit chatter with the hostees along with the forum?

Lets get some ideas going!

That's a good idea

!

But i don't like IRC

Why don't whe set up a phpmyChat room ?

**Trel** · August 17th, 2003, 03:40

I would never visit.

I hate php/perl based chat applications.

IRC is fine as long as there is a web interface. Maybe Java based?

**MATRIX** · August 17th, 2003, 03:44

Originally posted by LifelessHost
I would never visit.

I hate php/perl based chat applications.

IRC is fine as long as there is a web interface. Maybe Java based?

ok. But maybe we can Ask to the User's First

to know their Preference

phpmyChat vs IRC

And, who is the Guru in IRC