I've heard of nothing but trouble from free hosting. But for a long term family site that may be the cheapest way to go (you may still have to pay for the domain name). However, these days you need to consider the newer "Web 2.0" solutions like Facebook and Myspace instead of an independent website. They do all the grunt work for you.
Other than that, the only real question to ask a potential shared host is: "What level CPU do you allow on a box before you buy and offload clients to a new server?". CPU load averages should be no higher than 1.0 per CPU. So, on a quad server, that's 4.0. Chances are they won't answer you, even if they could. Instead they trot out huge bandwidths and enormous disk quotas to entice you to overcrowded servers. Just be prepared to move if you aren't happy. Oh, and check out the host's forums BEFORE you sign up. Way too many people wait until they're having trouble to log into the support forums. You aren't looking for no trouble reports at all; people with trouble are more likely to post. What you're looking for is a speedy, friendly, competent Help staff. On Mon, Apr 27, 2009 at 1:10 PM, Mike Sloane <[email protected]> wrote: > I just found out that Yahoo is closing down Geocities (where I have my > Website <www.geocities.com/mikesloane>). The big advantage to me of > Geocities is that it is *free*. Does anyone have a suggestion for something > comparable at the same price? I don't need technical support, just some > minimal space and some bandwidth so people can get to the site. ************************************************************************* ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *************************************************************************
