Free Web Space Providers
Most Internet Service Providers allow a few Megabytes of free web space along with access to the web:
Global Internet, my own ISP, allows a very generous 50 megabytes for my files.This is more than ample for most home pages, but some web-sites rely heavily on high-resolution graphics or multimedia files and these take up considerable space.
In addition, for various reasons it may be convenient to have one site for professional or business use, another for home use, another for hobbies and so on.
I have checked out the sites listed below, but this is a rapidly changing market and I cannot provide any guarantees that any information remains accurate. All the sites listed below have been running reliably for at least a few months.
Fortunecity is as friendly as anywhere on the Web, and now provides an impressive 20 megabytes of space. I recommend this provider highly, unless you object to a banner on your pages. Uploading files is easy with Netscape 3 and FTP is now also available. I have had no problems, particularly now that the servers have been upgraded. Sweden also has an equivalent site, and German and Spanish sites have now appeared, along with a UK version.
Crosswinds offer unlimited free web space for either personal or business use, with free email. This sounds too good to be true, and indeed this site used to be excruciatingly slow. However the servers have now been replaced, and the last few times I have visited the site, there has been a big improvement in speed. Time will tell how long the service will remain fast, and whether or not the free space will remain unlimited. Certainly looks good at the moment: updates will follow!
Chez (10 megabytes) looks very good if you speak French.
Geocities has just increased its free web space to 11 megabytes. Appears excellent value and very well established and reliable.
I have recently taken another look at Xoom and they appear to have improved considerably. The service is much faster, and some of the earlier security problems appear to have have been addressed. 11 megabytes is now on offer, and the site seems to be popular.
Tripod have also just increased their free web space to 11 megabytes, and the service is excellent, although it may take a minute or two to use FTP at peak times for users in the USA. This service is very user-friendly for beginners.
Easyspace offer 25 megabytes free, (or 50 megabytes to .net magazine subscribers), - must be worth a look.
Freedrive offers a different type of space: 20 megabytes of hard disk storage - very useful for storing large zip files and the like. Some of the other free providers have an upper limit on file size. Registration is simple, and files can be uploaded and downloaded using IE4 and Communicator.
There are many sites that have long lists of Free Web Space Providers: one I visit regularly is The Free Site an excellent place to find many free web resources
Last Updated 2nd June 1999 |
