Who has FREE web hosting & site creation tools?

[bizability]

What do you think of tripod.lycos.com?

Free web space and tools?

For 8 year olds...or what?

Do you know of any place that lets you have a web site for free, hosts and maintains it?

Where you can go and practice your skills?

What is the catch with these places?

Do tripod and geocities web sites give the impression that you're not a pro...you are a novice...or worse?

[Aronya1]

Hi biz,

I'll comment on the last 2 questions:

The catch is usually that they abuse your site visitors with ads they place on your site (often over your content), or with popups. Or both.

Re: Geocities, etc. Yes, yes, and yes.

[chrismartz]

just run your own IIS server if you want to play with stuff

[buntine]

Theres nothing wrong with setting up a web site on a Geocities account, provided you are doing so for a personal web page.

However, using geocities and similar companies (eg. Lycos) to host your business web site would be a very bad idea.

Theres 100's of companies who allow you to set-up free accounts and host a small web site. Though, mostly, these sites would be full of adverts and other annoying web-typical attempts at driving traffic away.
They do this with the knowledge that most people will end up purchasing a paid-for package if they hang around for long enough.

Regards,
Andrew Buntine.

[David Harrison]

Try www.freewebs.com you are *supposed* to put a bit of code into your page that puts ads on your page. They are only small ads though, and the bit of code is actually an include.

This means that you can include other pages in your page, which is handy if you have lots of repetitive code on your pages, you can just remove it to a separate file and include it where-ever it is needed.

[shalombi]

I am using one that is not too bad.
they give you quit a lot of tools including uploading the pages without using an ftp program and editing you web pages directly using in the browser (a bit hard to explain) also they give you scripts html tutorials and some stuff and chats,forums polls etc.
15 megs limit which is ok
and for the ads they put its only at the top of the page but quite big
you can see what i mean at http://maxco.bravehost.com
this is just my o level school you can give me some advice if you want id apreciate
see ya

Max

[buntine]

Personally, i think you have over-used JavaScript... Also, i have sent you a Private Message which you will interested in.

Regards.

[bizability]

The hackus site I left immediately...

...you have no credibility when you use striking, but hard to read colors scheme: light green type on dark green background...

...and pseudo-disclaimers like "we don't advocate criminal hacking..." but you list in left margin things like how to hack into and disable...blah blah blah, whatever.

No offense, but an ethical professional avoids these kinds of sites like the plague...

...when I was a rowdy anarchist teen I did lots of mild vandalism projects for kicks, not really criminal but annoying stuff, made homemade vomit and dumped it in neighbor's backyard, then threw ice cubes at their garbaged cans, next morning they called my parents and said apparently a drunk had been messing around with their back porch, clanging around, and puked all over the place.

However...hacking instructions...hmmmm...not my cup of tea.

THE AD ABUSE PROBLEM: I sort of suspected, see, I don't have much time to do research on obvious things you guys and gals know a lot about, so I extend my reach through you, with deep gratitude....

...and maybe I can share some of my tiny speck of knowledge about usability or direct response marketing or persuasive writing techniques...with you sometime...here and there in this forum.

[SirHans004]

http://www.firewebx.com

Totally free host- doesn't matter which plan you choose, they're all free. No catch. No ads. Cpanel pro, php, etc.

I use it for my site, and so far no problems whatsoever. Though sometimes signup might take a few days....

I'm not kidding!

No site creation tools, but cpanel pro has a lot of extras (like php nuke setup and phpBB installation), but perhaps that's a bit more advanced than what you're looking for.

[Paul Jr]

Just for practice? Download a webserver. You can get PHP, MySQL, whatever it is you want, and it's free.

[David Harrison]

I'm sorry, I didn't realise that hackus was under fire here, well I think I'd better respond.

Originally posted by bizability
...you have no credibility when you use striking, but hard to read colors scheme: light green type on dark green background...For the record, we have a new layout with images and everything coming in, this subject was brought up in the guestbook towards the end of page 4. For the record the green and black was not my idea, ~C~ seemed to like it so I left it for the time being.

Originally posted by bizability
...and pseudo-disclaimers like "we don't advocate criminal hacking..." but you list in left margin things like how to hack into and disable...blah blah blah, whatever.While it is true that the articles do teach how to gain control over various systems, at the same time they also teach how to protect against such attacks, not everyone is out there to get you you know, don't be so paranoid. This is not to say that some people won't go ahead and use them to further their own ends so that is why we have a disclaimer.

Originally posted by bizability
No offense, but an ethical professional avoids these kinds of sites like the plague...Offense taken, why should I avoid it like the plauge? If I want to learn how to hack or make a hacking site why shouldn't I be able to? Are you also against www.hackthissite.org as well? They endorse hacking but only within the confines of their site.

Originally posted by bizability
THE AD ABUSE PROBLEM: I sort of suspected, see, I don't have much time to do research on obvious things you guys and gals know a lot about, so I extend my reach through you, with deep gratitude....PeOfEo suggested that we transfer to webmatrix hosting, they have all the bells and whistles and no adverts. I would transfer to them but that would mean updating all of the code to ASP.NET and I barely have a grasp on ASP as it is. So for now I'll stick to blocking the ads on brinkster even though I know I shouldn't. I will agree with you there, that is unethical.

[bizability]

Sounds like "here's how to make a bomb...but don't bomb anybody...at least not any nice people." Joking a bit with you.

Maybe I should have spared you the embarrassment, if you indeed were embarrassed, and sent you an email or something.

I was just kind of taken aback to see a site on "hacking" when that has bad connotations to me.

Didn't mean to subject you to any kind of ridicule, just a gut response to the site.

I don't know a lot about programming and hacking, though I know a little about malware and the like.

Like I said, I landed on your site, felt uncomfortable, and left in a hurry.

You have every right to defend what you're doing, and I leave it up to those much wiser than I to determine the ethics of it.

THe AD ABUSE was not at all directed at your Hackus site, sorry I wasn't clear: I was referring back to the Free Web Site sites and their SOPs.

Thanks for not getting hostile about anything, since I did not mean to be hostile to you, and wish I would've emailed my comments to you privately. Sorry.

[Sam]

I was just kind of taken aback to see a site on "hacking" when that has bad connotations to me.

this is mostly because you don't understand what hacking is, and have openly accepted the negative connotations. see this article for more information on "hacking (http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html)"

[David Harrison]

I'm not embarressed, if you have something to say then say it out load, or at least where everyone can see.

Originally posted by bizability
Sounds like "here's how to make a bomb...but don't bomb anybody...at least not any nice people."It's exactly like that, information is freely available on anything on the internet, what you do with it is up to you but there are people who make a lot of money developing software to prevent you from doing things that are destructive.

Originally posted by bizability
I was just kind of taken aback to see a site on "hacking" when that has bad connotations to me.That's because you have confused the terms hacking and cracking, their definitions are on this page (http://www11.brinkster.com/hackus/articles/article06.asp).

[buntine]

Im not going to get too involved.. But, surely, you are not teaching hacking, you are showing people how to break into PCs without authorisation.

This is cracking, right?

Regards.

[David Harrison]

We are not cracking, if other people want to use that information to crack then we recommend that they don't. If however they don't listen to us then they will break the law and probably get caught. Here are a couple of quotes from our guestbook, page 1:

wannahack
Do u know how to hack a hotmail or even a yahoo account?~C~
Ok, if you want to hack hotmail, be prepared to spend about 15-20 years in a cell with a guy called "peaches" who wants to make his lonely nights more bearable.OK, so I know that ~C~ isn't the most moral of people as he then goes on to offer a less illegal way to obtain a password but to be fair that isn't cracking, that's just craftiness.

[buntine]

Sorry to disagree.. That is cracking.

[David Harrison]

Ok then, we'll have to just agree to disagree. I'm not going to argue my case any more for two reasons, I'm tired and crave sleep, secondly this thread has gotten way off topic.

For the record I am still learning the tricks of the trade and one day I hope to be able to crack with the best of them, but I don't intend to ever put my cracking skills to use.

[PeOfEo]

Originally posted by buntine
Theres nothing wrong with setting up a web site on a Geocities account, provided you are doing so for a personal web page.

However, using geocities and similar companies (eg. Lycos) to host your business web site would be a very bad idea.

Theres 100's of companies who allow you to set-up free accounts and host a small web site. Though, mostly, these sites would be full of adverts and other annoying web-typical attempts at driving traffic away.
They do this with the knowledge that most people will end up purchasing a paid-for package if they hang around for long enough.

Regards,
Andrew Buntine. AHHHHHHHHHHH THERE IS EVERYTHING WRONG WITH THAT. They are going to spit out a lot of invalid code that has tons of annoying ads and give you no scriping options, they make more then enough revenue with ads to pay for apache which is free. They are a horrible host for a free host and that is saying something, if that ads were less annoying they would be tollerable, and I will not even touch the bandwidth cap, if you go over it you get a page that says "sorry" and still is filled with ads so they do not loose cash on it.

[buntine]

Yes, GeoCities is terrible..

But there is nothing wrong with someone who is not interested in using the web for anything more than sharing knowledge to use such a host.

If that person decided that they would like to further their knowledge, they would most definetely need to swap hosts.

lavalamp "I'm tired and crave sleep". You know sleep is a waste of time;)

Regards.

[David Harrison]

I know that sleep is a waste of time but my brain doesn't (what a contradiction in terms), idealy I would have been in bed for just over 4 hours by now, since I have just under 4 hours to be up again.

I agree, geocities is more for your weeamwe (http://www.geocities.com/weeamwe) and personal type sites, if you want to impress your visitors with ads that don't take up half the screen then it's time to look elsewhere.

[bizability]

Ho hum. I don't know why anyone would claim they want to be among the best in a certain skill, yet claim also they never intend to use aforementioned skill. This is contradictory or an incredible waste of time, to learn something and not use it.

Like a surgeon who is among the very best: but has no intention of ever operating on anybody.

Returning to original thread:

I asked about free web sites, because I've seen people on other blog sites and forums criticize a web site, then when you go to their free web site at an amateur-hour free hosting site, the web site is not so great (understatement to be diplomatic).

Funny: a person with a free site at a free hosting site criticizing a paid site that has to be at least good enough to generate revenue to support the continued existence of the site.

Just an observation. No one here is being pointed out.

:cool:

[David Harrison]

Originally posted by bizability
I don't know why anyone would claim they want to be among the best in a certain skill, yet claim also they never intend to use aforementioned skill. This is contradictory or an incredible waste of time, to learn something and not use it.So you've never done something just so you can say that you did it? I enjoy stuff to do with computers, this is me just learning a bit more stuff about them.
I know how to make web-sites, that doesn't mean that I want to make them for a living, I hope to be an engineer.

[SirHans004]

Did anyone even see my previous post on the previous page?

[bizability]

Okay Lavalamp, fair enuff then.

I made tons of electronic music, no techno, mostly science fiction or avant noise music, with no intention of being commercial...

...and wrote tons of poems and short stories and novellas...and ended up tired of accumulating them, and threw them all away, the literature and all the music too...

....so I guess I have to say yes, doing it for the mere sake of doing it is a valid thing, or at least I've done that myself.

Peace!

:)

SirHans004: yes that www.firewebx.com, I will check it out, thank you for providing that URL and for reminding us all of your post, don't feel bad, this happens all the time on posting sites, somebody says something briliant or answers a question, but there's been a threadjack accident and everyone's gawking at the wreckage and carnage, and misses the solution! Ha!

Thank you SirHans.

I don't want to post a query, get an answer, then not acknowledge the reply---that is ruuuuuuuuuude. Sorry bro.

;)

[DaveSW]

The point of the article on hacking frontpage enabled sites is that you disable frontpage extensions...

Personally I'd prefer to pay a small sum to get a decent hosting package with no ads. After all, advertising returns on popups rank at about 1%. Any hosting company trying to get returns on that is going to be in for a slim time!

[David Harrison]

Originally posted by bizability
somebody says something briliant or answers a question, but there's been a threadjack accident and everyone's gawking at the wreckage and carnage, and misses the solution!A quite comical but accurate description. :D

SirHans004 - I noticed your post and I'm sure everyone else did as well. One of the disadvantages of forums is that the only facial expressions are the ones in the emoticons, if people take something you've written (or not written) the wrong way then that's when disputes can happen. I'm sure that no-one was trying to be rude to you and I hope that you aren't too offended.

[bizability]

I'm starting to love this forum.

People here seem mature, smart, and willing to debate things intelligently.

Keep up the good work everyone.

[David Harrison]

I'm glad you like it, maybe you'll be sticking around for a while longer. ;)

[SirHans004]

Don't worry, I'm not offended. Just wanted to remind you guys, 'cuz my post seemed tiny and unnoticeable in the sea of debate.

Oh, and once again, FireWebX is an excellent host. I highly recommend them.

[bizability]

Since I started this thread, I'm going to take the liberty, if you allow me to do so, to pose a related question:

what do you think of wiki?

If you know what it is, good. Comments?

EDITED TO ADD LINK AS REQUESTED...

Since you force me to reveal the secret of wiki:

www.wiki.org

http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WelcomeVisitors

Invented by Ward Cunningham.

A collaborative "Open Source" web site where users can delete, add, and revise. "wiki" means quickie, as in "quick web."

Very detailed, I've oversimplified for sake of brevity.

[PeOfEo]

link.