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Tech: best free website?
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Subject: Tech: best free website? From: Marion Date: 05 Jul 04 - 11:10 PM Hi gang. I'm planning to set up a simple website to share lyrics and chords for my original songs. Searching on "free website" turns up many, many options, and I don't know where to begin. Can anyone recommend a specific host, or give me some ideas on what features I should be looking for? I would be putting up just text (lyrics, chord progressions, liner notes, abcs for tunes), not pictures or sound files. I know a bit about html coding and would do it myself. I don't want popup ads - that's non-negotiable. I would strongly prefer not to have banner ads that flash, and I would mildly prefer not to have any banner ads at all, but banner ads aren't necessarily a dealbreaker. It would be nice if the URL wasn't too long and convoluted. And of course I would prefer something that's easy to make and edit than something that's a pain in the ass, but since I'm new at this I don't really know how to distinguish them. Those are my desires that I know about - but odds are there are qualities that distinguish one option from another that I have no idea about, so feel free to enlighten me about what other factors I should be considering. Thanks a lot, Marion PS I know that generally you get some free website space with your internet connection deal - but I don't have a computer of my own, I mostly use internet in libraries, so I would need some independent location. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: best free website? From: Mark Clark Date: 05 Jul 04 - 11:40 PM I know funds are probably tight but you really should consider using a paid hosting site. You can find a hosting company that will set you up for as little as seven USD a month. Maybe even less. One such hosting site is Lypha Networks owned by Tucows, a well known download site. These places will have everything you need all lined up and ready to use. They run on Linux or UNIX, a vital consideration, use Apache and can support all standard goodies you might need. Also, my advice is to get your doman name (i.e., marionstunes.net) from a registrar other than your hosting company. You don't want your hosting company holding your domain name and you want to be free to move your domain any time you choose. If any of this is unfamiliar to you, you may not be ready to start a site. The stuff you need to learn isn't hard and won't take long but you really don't want to learn it after you're already committed to something you don't want. There are a number of experienced Web developers on Mudcat and I'm sure we can get you where you need to be without much pain or expense. - Mark |
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Subject: RE: Tech: best free website? From: GUEST,woodsie Date: 05 Jul 04 - 11:56 PM Try this one Freewebs No tiresome FTP or coding just click and paste what you want! It's pretty good and there are no ads on the site for 45 days and then it's only a small banner. You can have as many sites as you want just register under a different name aech time. Have fun. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: best free website? From: Marion Date: 05 Jul 04 - 11:57 PM Thanks Mark. What I wonder about is this: you really don't want to learn it after you're already committed to something you don't want. In what way would I be committed to a free website? I expect that sometime in the not too distant future I'll want to set up a nice website with a good domain name and pictures, sound files, and so forth. But what I had in mind for the immediate future was a quick-and -dirty site where I could point people who asked for lyrics to one of my songs. I have been assuming that when I'm ready to make a good website for promotional purposes, I can just cut and paste the content out of my interim site then throw it away. Anything wrong with this plan? Thanks, Marion |
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Subject: RE: Tech: best free website? From: Marion Date: 06 Jul 04 - 12:05 AM Thanks to you too Woodsie (guess we crossposted there). Marion |
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Subject: RE: Tech: best free website? From: GUEST,.gargoyle Date: 06 Jul 04 - 12:14 AM DON'T be cheap!!!!
It is an insult to your work and an insult to your visitors that are "promised" (no critter pop-ups for "women's viagra" but they recieve instead postings from loans to self-publishing-firms)
A decent site, (something above home, geo, or laugh-kats)...will cost you about the price of a Starbuck's Cafe'Latte a month.
DO IT!!! (there are NO "free" websites...you pay....or your friend's pay...one way or the other...the bills are paid.)
Sincerely,
Who is your current ISP? Perhaps, you are already paying for a "web-presence" and not taking advantage of it? |
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Subject: RE: Tech: best free website? From: The Fooles Troupe Date: 06 Jul 04 - 01:24 AM I too am looking for options (I'm in Australia though - exchange rates changing can wreak budgets in Australia dollars!) for a web hosting at very low personal cost (financial reasons), not necessarily free. Unlike Marion, I already have a site with my ISP which is around 5MB, and mainly Vanilla HTML 3.2/3 (Hey it suits what I want - and KISS!). I can handle any webscripting needed (VB, JS, Python etc), but from experience prefer to keep that to a minimum. I'm thinking of going to broadband soon, and would prefer my main site to be independent of any future hoster. My current ISP has been taken over several times, and the previously good service has gradually diminished to zero. Also my email will have to change from my current ISP (might help to trash the spam!). I abhor 'click and paste' web design, unless I can later hand optimise, and wish to be able to upload changes independently of the proprietary mess some systems use. I'm with Marion on "I don't want pop up ads - that's non-negotiable. I would strongly prefer not to have banner ads that flash, and I would mildly prefer not to have any banner ads at all, but banner ads aren't necessarily a deal breaker." Robin |
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Subject: RE: Tech: best free website? From: GUEST,sandra in sydney @ work Date: 06 Jul 04 - 03:38 AM Robin - my webmaster (Mudcatter Chicky) is very cluey & chose freewebs for 3 sites she maintains. There are no ads that I'm aware of. www.freewebs.com/loadeddog www.freewebs.com/almostacoustic sandra |
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Subject: RE: Tech: best free website? From: Nick Date: 06 Jul 04 - 05:24 AM If you are in the UK then I would highly recommend FreeUK . I have used them for about five years + and they have hosted a couple of sites, one small one larger. The larger one has 100+ pages (mostly text) and has 30000-50000 visitors per month and has served several hundred thousand pages a month. I have never had any problems with bandwidth moans or significant outages - though I dare say it probably isn't the fastest site in the world. It has no ads whatsoever and gives 25mb of web space. Upload is via FTP and they offer a cgi script for mailing which is handy if you want contact and feedback off the page. They are happy with pretty much any sort of content as long as it is legal (even adult as long as it is stated). And their support - on the two occasions I have contacted them - was excellent (via email thus free). The only drawback would be uploads. You would need to dial up via FreeUK as otherwise (not surprisingly) you cannot get FTP to them. This could cause a problem if you are trying to do it via a library. To set up an account is free and they purely charge at local rates when connected. The url for site is either something like http://www.nameofsite.freeuk.com which is ok or you could buy a domain name and just use the space (recommend 123-reg which gives you full control over everything including mail and web fowarding). A .co.uk domain costs 9p per year which shouldn't break the bank (plus £2.50 registration). I have been very happy with what they have offered over the last few years. Perhaps there is such a thing as a free lunch after all? |
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Subject: RE: Tech: best free website? From: GUEST,Jon Date: 06 Jul 04 - 06:45 AM Ditto to most of what Mark Clark said. I'll add my own ISP http://www.38h.com as a Windows operator who I'm happy reccommending. On the Windows vs Unix/Linux (I'll call them *nix) like issues, the *nix/apache solution is well regarded as being stable but as far as I understand it Windows 2003 is pretty good too. In any case, I don't see that choice in itself as being the most important issue. Good support, that servers are monitored and set up well IMO are more important. It's possible to get a lousy *nix ISP or a good Windows one, etc. Take notice of a company's reputation - I'm pretty sure the one Mark suggested will be very good. Where I feel your choice of platform would be more important is if you ever decided to develop beyond HTML. You could find that the O/S on your development machine (when you get one) influences your decision or your choice of development language does, eg. if you wanted to use asp.net, that would lead you to Windows, etc. Personally I wish I'd have written all my stuff in php. You may never need to be concerned about these things but on the other hand may even at this stage consider what (if any) scripting and ISP offers or whether a database is provided. It's surprisng how things can grow and you could soon find how much more flexible you can be without being confined to just HTML. Our own efforts with abc are in a database which now has over 500 songs. FWIW, you can find that one here. Something like that of course takes more time to create but eliminates the need to create a html page for each song - songs are added in much the same way as a post is made here. Hope that helps a little. Jon |
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Subject: RE: Tech: best free website? From: GUEST,Jon Date: 06 Jul 04 - 11:29 AM I should add one rider to the above. If I ever planned on my own web server and doing the whole thing myself, I would then tie in line with Mark Clark - the *nix/apache route would definately be my choice. I'm happy with a monitored Windows system and paying for the service but I still don't have enough confidence to choose that and say I'll leave it unattended for a weekend - and if I was doing all on my own would not be in a position to play "nurse maid". Costs would also be a consideration and I quite like free and open source stuff. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: best free website? From: wysiwyg Date: 06 Jul 04 - 11:51 AM You're committed as soon as you invest the time and energy to load it all in and tell people where it is. OTOH it can be handy to have a free place where you draft and build what you want. I have one like that now in MSN Groups. It never shows in a Google search but it's there if I want to send people to it, and if I get to a place where I can pay for a site, I'll have my content and overall structure well laid out. ~Susan |
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Subject: RE: Tech: best free website? From: Mark Clark Date: 06 Jul 04 - 02:38 PM The reason to insist on a hosting company that uses Linix, FreeBSD or some UNIX flavor is that Windows sites are always so vulnerable to attack and have stability issues that require monitoring and frequent rebooting. Open systems sites are generally stable and reliable. Except for DDoS attacks, they rarely have any downtime at all. Open systems sites also have generally better performance. A good place to check out candidate hosting companies is Netcraft's site. You can compare the measured performance of sites, see what their uptime has been, find out who owns them and where they are located. This is a great resource. There are several reasons I said you really don't want to learn it after you're already committed to something you don't want. One is that as your site becomes known, people save shortcuts and create pointers from their Web pages. If you own your domain name, you can move it around without breaking the rest of the world. If your site is just a segment of another domain, you're stuck and they may not let you post a forwarding page when you move. Other reasons have to do with the features available to you as a Web builder. Even a cheap hosting company will support php server side scripting and have standard forum, chat, calendar, and photo album software free for your use so you don't have to build any of that stuff later. They also have a round-the-clock support staff that keeps everything running and can answer questions or help with problems. When you evaluate potential hosting companies, you'll want to make sure you understand how much total Web storage space you're getting and what monthly transfer volume (sometimes called bandwidth) is included. Remember that the information you move up while maintaining the site is bandwidth too. I think you should insist on a hosting company that includes ftp support for moving pages up to the site. Most companies do this but be wary of any that don't. I think one of the very best Web development tools available at any price (it's free though) is HTML-Kit. This doesn't polute your site with a lot of unnecessary code like a lot of tools do and it lets you easily organize your site. It includes it's own ftp client so you can move pages to your site just by dragging an Icon, the ftp process is handled in the background so you don't need any experience using ftp. - Mark |
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Subject: RE: Tech: best free website? From: *#1 PEASANT* Date: 06 Jul 04 - 08:45 PM Having been doing this a long long time now I still use Geocities- http://www.geocities.com geocities There are pop ups but you can choose the category.... and they pop up quickly and by that time you can scroll down anyway. Just design the page with them in mind....yes after a lot and lot of hits they go off for a while but what I give is a gift and people can wait if things get real busy which they rarely do. I guess I could change at some point but that would mean changing all the addresses and a pain.....so stuck in my old ways but.....not really inconvenienced as geocities now under yahoo has only gotten more reliable. It is important to upload something every 3 months but generally I am adding to the sites anyway within that time. One can also get as many e.mails an accounts as one has time to create.... One of the problems with web hosting providers is that they also come and go. Probably the cheaper ones going up in price and perhaps gone if they are new before long..... I also have accounts with Ncf Carleton Canada. Extremely relyable and great people. Never a pop up always up and running. You dont even have to give them a donation! Register on line and then send in zerox of your drivers license. For a while I went free but now I pay them something each year because they are just so wonderful. They came from the prehistoric freenet age when money had not crept into every aspect of things. We need more of that. Mudcat is the closest thing to a folkie freenet we have! That is why I put my stuff here first. I am all about spreading the data around. There is so much to make accessible. Anyway here is the canadian freenet address: http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/ carleton freenet Life is too short to make money all the time.....it just gets you involved with the Irs and making change is a pain..... I cant turn down donations though! And paper publications are still very essential. Another important point. Register your page(s) with the search engine as soon as they are created and never pay anyone to do this for you. Just go to the relevant part of the search engine page and paste in your address and sometimes a brief description. It takes a while to get listed so do it right away.... Good luck! Conrad |
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Subject: RE: Tech: best free website? From: Marion Date: 07 Jul 04 - 11:15 AM Hi gang. I decided to make a test site at Freewebs and see how it worked. Result is here. Seems to do what I want it to, no ads, and I was able to edit it from both the library and my mom's computer. So I seem to be sorted out. The only remaining issue that I see is informing people of the URL change when I am ready to switch over to a professional site. I have been assuming that I could just keep the free page up and have a message saying where my new site is, like I see so often. So what concerns me is this from Mark: they may not let you post a forwarding page when you move. Do these free hosts really monitor the sites to make sure nobody has a change of address message? Or is it just automatic forwarding that isn't allowed? I appreciate the contributions made here but I've got to admit that it's almost all over my head technically. But to me, that's all the more reason to pick the simple and free method for my immediate needs, and not commit to a better paid site until I can make an educated choice. Thanks, Marion |
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Subject: RE: Tech: best free website? From: wilbyhillbilly Date: 07 Jul 04 - 11:22 AM Marion, why change, you can stay with Freewebs and just register your new URL with them, which is what I did when I changed from the free site. I have found them very helpful and have had no problems with the site hosting, which is also quite reasonable cost wise. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: best free website? From: Pauline L Date: 19 Nov 05 - 03:16 AM I need some more advice on website hosting. I'm not a techie, but I know enough HTML to write my own web pages. I have one web page posted in various places on the Internet advertising myself as a violin / fiddle teacher. You can see it at http://sweetkeys.com/Paulinefiddle.php . I get a lot of my students this way. I've written another one about my skills and availability as a science/medical writer and editor, and you can see it at http://mysite.verizon.net/resr6cq4/paulinelernerphd/ . I recently switched my ISP to verizon.net. They give me some free web space, but I can't stand the constraints they place (I, too, abhor click-and-paste). I'm looking for a commercial web hosting plan which will:
I do not need anything fancy, like audio files or flashing lights. I'd appreciate some good advice on website hosting. I'd also appreciate feedback on the layout of my current web pages. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: best free website? From: GUEST Date: 20 Nov 05 - 12:37 AM Not making any implications Pleasant Peasant Pheasent Plucker....but geo-cities GAY associations make it a "turn off" to many/most family screened and public school browser systems.
Determine your audience before determining your carrier.
Most hosts are worth 50- per year.
Sincerely, |
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Subject: RE: Tech: best free website? From: GUEST,Jon Date: 20 Nov 05 - 05:28 AM I see I recommended 38h.com earlier in this thread... They were very good at that time but things turned sour Aug/Sept this year. I think they had financial difficulites but whatever, they just disappeared without warning in September leaving a number of people stranded. I am now using the services of Red Fox Hosting who I've been very happy with so far. Also, at the moment, I'm am tring some hosting out from home on what they call a LAMP (linux.apache,mySQL,php) set up. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: best free website? From: danensis Date: 20 Nov 05 - 10:18 AM I'm afraid I have to warn against geocities since their takeover by Yahoo. When they did this they changed my password, and because I am no longer have a user if at the site where I was when I registered and they have changed the "mystery question" options I can no longer access my site, nor change my password. I have e-mailed support several times, but they are totally unwilling to help. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: best free website? From: JudyB Date: 20 Nov 05 - 10:52 AM Hi Pauline - I also have Verizon as my ISP, and while I had to initially create my homepage using their cutesy tools, I had no problem then replacing it (and uploading the rest of my site) using my standard HTML editor and FTP program. The only constraint I've found is that my site can't be seen by folks in Australia (it's a strange world we live in!). However, I don't do anything especially fancy - I mostly use the site to demo sites I've worked on, and my niche is bare bones sites for lyrics and MP3 samples and such (though I've worked on other types of sites - but nothing with forms, dancing monkeys, or other fancy stuff). I would highly recommend that you back up your complete site, either on your computer or a CD or somewhere - Verizon did manage to lose my site twice, though I think they've got that bug worked out now. Good luck! JudyB |
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Subject: RE: Tech: best free website? From: Lancashire Lad Date: 20 Nov 05 - 12:44 PM A little off topic, but if Marion (or anyone else for that matter) wants as site to host mp3's please check out Woven Wheat Whispers here We allow free downloads of demos for anyone working in folk music and give you a page to include as much info as you need (pics, biog, contact details and more). We operate the site without cookies and all pages are pop up free. Alternately feel free to contact me direct here Cheers LL |
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Subject: RE: Tech: best free website? From: Seiri Omaar Date: 21 Nov 05 - 11:28 AM Geocities, now in the hands of Yahoo, is perfectly fine if you weren't a user before the switchover. The side bar that they put in is removable with a single click and the service is easy to use and a reliable host. I have had no problems with it. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: best free website? From: Big Al Whittle Date: 21 Nov 05 - 02:02 PM I use Fasthosts and sitebuilder - its about £3 a month, but there is 24hr a day technical back up, no ads. you deal with human beings. its easy to understand and you don't have to learn all the technical bullshit. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: best free website? From: hesperis Date: 22 Nov 05 - 11:03 AM There are some mudcatters who are web hosts. I personally have a range from really cheap beginning site packages ($10 USD a year) to more advanced multimedia packages ($20 USD a month). However, all the packages have standard features like php, mysql, webmail, etc. The domain name is free with hosting if you buy it through my domain name business as well, or you can get a cheap domain from godaddy and just point the domain to my nameservers if you prefer. (I've heard complaints about godaddy's hosting however.) Reliability has been very good for the over two years I've been in business, despite some personal troubles the servers have been rock solid. When I started this business I was fed up with free hosting and was looking to provide a service I'd be happy to buy if I was a customer. It's never going to be a corporate monster business, either. For mudcatters, I'd be happy to provide a special discount for a copy of your CD. PM me for more information. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: best free website? From: Pauline L Date: 23 Nov 05 - 06:51 PM Refresh. I'd like some more advice. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: best free website? From: hesperis Date: 23 Nov 05 - 07:14 PM The sweetkeys page looks really nice, it especially works with their header and sidebar, although you'd want your own violinish graphics for your own site most likely. The medical writing page - I'm not sure sure about the colour scheme, and you've got a font tag inside a title tag and font tags don't work there. To have your site show up on a google search, the best way is to have relevant content, good meta tags, and have popular sites link to your site using the important keywords. It'll be picked up by google in a matter of a couple of months. |
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