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My Experience with Free Web Hosting
by: Aisha Nee
As a beginner web developer I decided not to waste my precious cash on commercial web hosting and opt for a free service provider. After some trial and error with various free web hosting firms I had finally settled on one that seemed to meet my needs. Then my true journey to discover what free web hosting is like begun. Before I describe my experience with my former free web hosting company, I should like to make some remarks about choosing a free web-hosting provider.
If you are a complete newbie, you need to watch out for these companies’ control panels and their ease of use. Does it look like your usual Windows environment? Is it clear which folder you have to choose to upload your files? Can you edit your uploaded files online? Browse through these companies control panels and see if you are comfortable with them. The ease of use is one primary criterion that will determine the bounds of your relationship with your free web hosting service. C’mon, we are not talking about money here, and thereby not expecting the highest quality of service.
Bandwidth and the number of domains you can host on a free account are other common things that you ought to look out for. However, if you are hosting a home website to share your photos with the rest of the world – and in this case, perhaps, you should opt for an Apple “mobile me” option should you be a proud Mac owner – then you probably not even need to bother with those things. If you are lxooking for something more substantial than your baby photos, then bandwidth, disk space, and the number of domains become quite important.
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In particular bandwidth. In simple terms, bandwidth is the amount of traffic allowed to pass through your website within a given period of time. So if you are expecting a lot of visitors to your site, or even hoping to upload new versions of your pages ever so often, you should be wary of this thing. Most free web hosts offer a limited bandwidth and that could slow your site down.
Now you have settled with a free web host, whose control panel you like and whose bandwith and disk space limitations you accept, what next? In my experience, my first steps with my free web host were marvelous. I found my control panel easy to navigate. I soon learnt how to put files into my web site root folder and to control the process. I learnt how to change the content of that page quickly within the web hosting service environment – bad practice but I still did it – and the world seemed a perfect place.
However, as the complexity of my site grew, and I was adding new, and more sophisticated pages, I began to experience disillusionment with my free web host. As soon as my site became bigger and better, the speed of its loading decreased significantly. At some points, I experienced the server’s inability to deal with my pages. Quite often, the service was down and its cost me in my pay-per-click conversions. The free web host seemed to become to little for my needs, or perhaps my needs grew out of my free service. Pretty soon I realized that unless I move onto a proper paid web hosting company, my site had no future. And I have done just that …. But I will always remember my first free web host for teaching me many useful lessons of web hosting, design, and web programming. I wish you good luck with your own search.
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