Newbies -- check here first BEFORE you post!

[LeX]

First of all, welcome to the freewebspace.net (most people here refer to it as fws.net or simply fws) boards!

Before you start a thread requesting a host with the features you want, you should keep a few things in mind:

• Read the rules before you start posting!
• Remember, this is the Free Webspace forum. If you have any other problems or questions, please find the corresponding forum to post in. If you want to share information or discuss anything not related to the other forums, please post in the General Discussions section.
• Please briefly scan the thread titles first and check if your question is asked already. If it is, please take a few minutes to browse through the thread, for your question might have been answered already.
• There is no such thing as "unlimited"! It just doesn't exist. There is always a limit to something, no exceptions.
• When requesting, asking for the features you are using will result in more hosts than if you ask for additional features that you won't be using. For instance, don't ask for a host that offers PHP/MySQL if you're never going to use it.
• It is no use to repeatedly ask the same question over and over again. All threads are always read by somebody, and new hosts don't just pop up everyday, so don't get the idea that if you ask again a week later you will recieve new answers. In fact, you probably won't even get a reply since you've already asked before.
• Free hosts that don't put advertisements of any sort on your site most likely won't last very long, since they have no source of income. Hosting isn't simple business. The most expensive part of hosting people is the amount of bandwidth consumed by the users and visitors, so any host claiming to offer "unlimited" bandwidth will most likely put themselves out of business. (There are exceptions, but only under certain circumstances)
• IPs are very expensive. Don't expect fwps (free web providers) to offer them.
• Fwps are doing this for you. They don't get anything from you, yet they offer you a lot. Don't make demands, and don't expect too much features, reliability and support from fwps. If you want some serious hosting, I suggest you go over to the Paid Hosting section or Webhosting Offers section. You will get more if you pay. Simple business.

That's it! Enjoy your stay at fws, mind your manners and be nice. I hope you will find the host just right for you!



Extra stuff you might want to know:

1. Ever wondered how some of the members here got that nifty little image under their names? There's a requirement that you must meet before you can upload your own little images (called avatars or "aviator", an improper term used by some fws members). You must have 50 posts. Don't spam to get to that number, just regularly visit and post and you'll see your post count fly! You'll get to have one sooner than you think.

2. If you're hip for a custom title, you'll have to do lots more than just post. In addition to the 1,500 posts requirement, you will also have to be a registered member for 6 months. Not very easy, huh?

3. If you want to test some of the features of this board, please do it in the Test things out section.

4. Check the FAQ for more Q&A.

5. If you still have a question, feel free to contact the moderators!


Happy posting!


== For current fws members ==
If you have something to add to the list, PM me. Replies are
reserved for newbies to ask questions and recieve answers.

 

[bigperm]

Here are a few more things.

* Stop trying to find a place to upload your 5 gigs of mp3's, DBZ movies, warez, or any other crap you think the the internet at large cares about... but they really don't.

* Don't spam for some cable host that just popped up. Sorry... it will not last. And it sucks.

* Sorry for everyone, but f2s no longer offers free hosting:cry2:, and that was all we could tell some of you.

* If you don't know what php/cgi/perl or any of that stuff is and you just learned about animated gifs... go with tripod.

* For the love of GOD, don't use java applets. They are so 90's

<<no longer applicable>>

That's all. And no matter what context... never put hitler in your avatar. People do not understand. It's a bad idea.



<edit>
* Read posts... sorry Lex.
* changed f2s info
</edit>:

 

[niv]

My outlook on this.

The majority of free webspace providers give hosting away on the false pretense that they will make money, but this is but a pipe dream. The reality of the situation is that if they do not impose some form of barrier, like gcsnet when it had existed, it will not make any money and in fact lose quite a lot.

The factors that go into the survival of a free webspace provider:

1. Reliable source of income. It is not fair to say that ads will make up for the money spent on serving users...in fact it is the opposite of what takes place. Myacen.com.au has a strong backbone for its free webspace provider, and that is a sucessful paid host, and that is why ads do not have to impose ads on user pages.
2. Are users going to generate high traffic sites with less transfer used up? Transfer is a very important word when it comes to hosting, it is the amount of data that is transferred both ways...from the user himself/herself, and people viewing the user's pages. Ads only serve one purpose in this industry, and that is to make money, but let's say there is a site out there that uses 20 GB transfer monthly [which happens to cost around a $1 each when bought in bulk in a dedicated server/colocation service, or just a chunk of transfer used on a dedicated connection which may cost from $1000 to up into the millions of dollars (and will end up being $0.50/GB]. The site also has 100 hits per day. Assuming that most people don't click on ads (and assuming that the webmaster doesn't ask for people to click on the ads, for he/she himself/herself will not likely understand the reality of the situation), and only 2% end up clicking. Well, let's see. Most ad companies pay around 20c a click. Not much. 2% of viewers monthly would end up to be around 60 clicks. $12 generated. The host pays $10-20 for the transfer, and it's a $2 gain to an $8 loss. Not really much, considering that the maintenance for the server is also factored in most cases, and that would amount to loss. This is the basic case. This also reinforces the idea that less space would prolong the life of a fwp.
3. Less features means longer lifespan. I know many want it all. The works. mySQL, MS-SQL, and postgreSQL together for no reason whatsoever. They want PHP, Perl, ASP, C++, Python, Starlogo, Scheme, everything they can get their hands on. Well, newsflash: those that offer less features are less likely to get exploited or abused. Keep in mind that a user would not likely abuse a paid host server because they're actually paying for it! They wouldn't want to lose any money. That is why sometimes, when you are asking for the impossible, we just have to tell you to move to a paid host.

I'll come up with more as soon as I recover from this fever.

[yeah, i did read that original post that said that I should PM LeX, but he's not here right now so... ]

 

[Jan]

Updated for AMChost:

FWS (unofficial) Free Request Guide:

If you have taken the time to browse these forums a bit before requesting, you will doubtless know that many hosts take ill to people who request large amounts of hosting, especially if they dont need the space they ask for.

The purpose of this (unofficial) Guide is to inform the requester of a few base facts. Please read this, it will put you in good stead when you do request.

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Be Polite...
It doesn't seem to occur to most of those who request free hosting, that what they are infact requesting is for someone to provide you with a service
that would, under normal circumstances, cost you money - totally free of charge.

Now you will find that free web hosts don't mind doing this, we would be in the wrong job if we did. However what we DO mind is people who come to these forums and demanding free hosting without any courtesy or thought spared for the provider. As if they consider it their right. Lets just get one thing straight...... Free Hosting is NOT a right !

If you want to know what i mean by this, well that should be pretty obvious:

I want free hosting 5gb space and 50gb bandwidth, I Wont Post2Host and I wont put up any ads, as i NEED to place my own.

I NEED this fast

SO, any offers...?

Be Realistic...

Did you know that thousands of sites open everyday? From the amount of space you are requesting, I'm Guessing you guys all think you are going to be the next Myspace in a Weekend. While i am not denying that you may succeed, something of that size will take years to develop, and you wont be running it off free hosting. The Chances are that your idea has been tried before and you will be heading into a competative market, you wont always be a hit success.

When you are requesting your space and Bandwidth, please consider how much space you will infact be using. To give you a small guidline, one of my newest sites has 150 members, and while admittedly the forum isnt hosted with the rest of my site, ive never used more than 1 GB a month on hits, Uploading images is the only time at which i have used more.

You will Find that hosts will probably offer you more space than you ask for anyway, but if they see you asking for a lot to begin with, they may be less kind.

Finally, i have often found, that ( with a few exceptions, and i am not pointing any fingers!) a host that is willing to provide you with 20gb space and 200gb of bandwidth for free, will probably not be around for very long, I suppose this is also a message to those hosts out there, unless you are Very confiedent in your ability to maintain your service while providing that much, don't offer it.



Facts:

1 GB B/w per month = 100,000 Pageviews

50GB B/W per month = 60,000,000 Pageviews per annum.

One application will on MOST occasions use no more than 1 MySQL Databases
Infact many applications will allow multiple installation on 1 DB

A 15 page website (minus addons) should take up no more than 2 MB

A high quality picture will take up 2 MB while most will take up a mere 70 KB

1024 KB = 1 MB 1024 MB = 1 GB



Frequently Asked Questions:

How much space will I need for a forum? - 100 MB MAX

How much space will i need for a Picture forum? - Assuming you dont all have $700+ Cameras then no more than 500 MB - If your Cameras are that powerful then you should be changing the pictures to .GIF anyway

How much will I need for phpNuke with full addons? - 100 MB MAX
(the same applies to most other CMS scripts)

How much space will a personal site with few Logos/images use? - 5-10 MB MAX

My site gets 300,000 PageViews a Month how much B/W do i need? - To be safe I will say 5GB MAX for other figures see the guide earlier on in the post.

How Much will a Flash file Use? - 50 MB MAX (i've never seen one that big and that includes games)

I want to host direct downloads for my site, how much space will i need? - Forget it. Get out your Check Book.

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Still unsure about something, ask the person offering to host you, they will be more than happy to help you out.

I hope you found this guide useful to you.... (happy host hunting)

Regards,