Last week, we looked at several inexpensive
and free programs to create your own simple Web site. This week, we
explore how and where to publish your creation on the Internet for all
the world to see.
You have created your first Web page. Congratulations! You want all
your friends to see it, so you have been carrying your trusty PowerBook 1400 all over town and showing
off your creation to anyone who will watch. But now you also want Uncle
Bob in Des Moines and Cousin Sam in Boise to see your page as well. You
think about taking a week off and driving across the country, but then
you think, "There must be a better way." In fact there is, and this
week we show you where to put your new Web site so it is accessible to
anyone with an Internet connection. And all this on the cheap - or even
for free!
The first issue is where to put your Web site. There are a number of
companies that will give you Web space for free, usually in exchange
for a banner ad placed on each of your pages. I was excited about
writing this week's article, because I already had it pretty much
finished last week. I was going to tell you all about what was then my
favorite free Web hosting site, 20m.com.
About three days ago, I received an email site telling me that
everything was going to change! My maximum storage would be limited to
12 MB, the maximum file size would be limited, and the bandwidth would
also be limited. Of course, I can choose to pay a monthly fee and these
changes won't affect me. However, that kind of defeats the purpose of
seeking free hosting in the first place. I maintain about five
sites with 20m.com, mostly for nonprofit organizations. I will now
start over trying to find a new "favorite" free web host.
If I had published this entire article last week, half of my advice
would have been outdated by now. This drove home a critical lesson: The
importance of teaching one to fish, rather than merely giving away free
fish. With that realization, the focus of the second half of this
article changed. I will still note some examples of sites and tools,
but I will focus more on giving you the information necessary to
evaluate other sites and tools that may appear long after this article
is published.
It seems that every time one free Web host goes under or starts
charging, another springs up in its place. In your search for a free
hosting company, it is important to realize that whatever choice you
make today probably won't wind up being your final answer. As my
experience illustrates, the situation can change at any time. Here are
the criteria I believe you should use in evaluating a free hosting
company for your site:
- Is it really free? Read the fine print. Some sites claiming to be
"free" are only free for introductory or evaluation periods. After a
certain period of time, you have to either start paying or your site is
closed or restricted.
- How much storage space do you receive? Let's face it, if you are
shopping for a free Web site, you are probably not anticipating a heavy
volume of ecommerce. None of the sites I maintain on the free servers
are larger than 3-4 MB total. For most of you, 5 MB of storage may
be enough. Ten is probably better, and twenty more than enough. When
calculating, remember that the quickest way to eat up storage space is
with image files. Be mindful of those GIFs and JPEGs - and be sure all
your images are in one of these formats. Bitmaps and TIFFs, in addition
to causing some difficulty in viewing, are huge in size compared to the
Web-friendly GIF and JPEG.
- Does the site limit the maximum file size? The way I look at it,
they should not care how you distribute your 10 MB allotment: one 10 MB
file or hundreds of smaller ones. However, some Web hosts look at it
differently. If file size is restricted, make sure your largest file is
within the limit. Realistically, even if the limit is a relatively
small 256 KB, a file this size could take several minutes to download
on a dialup connection, so it is better to avoid large files
anyway.
- Does the site meter your bandwidth? Do they limit you to a maximum
number of gigabytes per month? If so, run, do not walk, away. This is
my pet peeve, whether the site be free or fee-based. Think for a minute
the conundrum this places you in. You have just put up a great new Web
site. You want the whole world to see it. But you don't want to exceed
your bandwidth quota for the month. What to do? A bandwidth limit puts
you squarely at odds with the very purpose of what most people want for
their site: traffic. This is my one deal-breaker for a Web host. If
they meter bandwidth, they are automatically and summarily disqualified
from my consideration.
- Is the speed adequate? Many free web hosts try to deliver a
staggering amount of content over an incredibly small amount of
bandwidth. Visit the site and click through some links. If you can,
visit some sites hosted there. Are they slow? If your site is sluggish,
you won't get many repeat visitors.
- Is the site reliable? Visit several times over the course of a week
or so, preferably at different times of day. Are there any problems
with the site? You want a home for your Web site that is as stable as
possible.
- On what platform are the sites hosted? Linux, Unix, Solaris, or Mac
OS X are best; pre-X Mac OS, Novell NetWare, and OS/2 are
acceptable; any version of Windows is not. Compared to the Unix-based
OSes in the first group, Windows is extremely unstable and has
significant security flaws.
There are several prominent free Web hosts. GeoCities, Angelfire, and Fortune City are among them. However,
I have noticed sites on each of these hosts responding slowly on
numerous occasions. Don't forget Apple's iTools on Mac.com. That is going to be the first stop on my
new search. I have been very impressed with the reliability and speed
of my mac.com email.
Before you make your decision, my advice is to go to Yahoo! and do a
search for "free web hosting." You will receive a very large list in
return. Go down the list and check out any that seem interesting.
Remember, it's free!
Since the focus of this article is creating a Web presence "on a
shoestring," I won't take a lot of time or space discussing fee-based
services. However, if you find your site growing to the point where you
need more than your free host can offer, or if you just don't like the
banner ads and are willing to pay for their removal, here are some
suggestions:
Their basic package is $100 a year with a $20 setup charge. You
receive 50 MB of server space and two email addresses (can be set up to
forward). There are also other features not relevant to a beginner-type
setup. As the name implies, all hosting is done on the Mac platform.
Although they don't specifically mention it, I believe they give
unlimited bandwidth. I have not used them, but I believe they are worth
checking out.
Their basic package is $8.95 per month for 25 MB, with a $19 setup
fee. Some of their features include:
- Unlimited email forwarding
- Unlimited Traffic/Hits
- Secure Server (SSL)
- POP email account(s)
- Web based Control Panel
- High-speed Multiple T3 connection
- 24 Hour Tech Support
- Diesel Generator and UPS Power Protection
- Backups Performed Every 3 Days
as well as other features you probably don't need as a beginner. All
hosting here is done on Linux servers. I have personally used this
company for several sites I maintain and have never had any
problems.
All of the information above was taken from the respective web
sites. When evaluating a fee-based host, you should use the same
criteria as with a free site. Always do your homework!
Next, you will need a program to transfer your files from your Mac
to the Web host. Many HTML authoring programs (including my favorite,
Claris Home Page) include built-in support for transferring your files.
Some Web hosts provide a Web-based method for uploading your files. My
experience with Web-based upload systems is that they tend to be slow
and buggy.
If your authoring program does not have built-in support for
uploading files, you will need an FTP program. My favorite is
Fetch. This is actually the only Mac FTP program I have ever used.
It is simple to use and compares most favorably to the numerous
Windows-based programs I have attempted to use over the years. Fetch is
free if you are affiliated with an educational or nonprofit
organization; otherwise it is a $25 shareware program. It is readily
available on most any download site such as Tucows or Shareware.com.
I hope your Web creating experience will be a pleasant one. Those of
you who tried your hand at creating your first Web pages, please email
me when you get them posted. I would like to take a look. We might even
be able to spotlight some of them in future articles.
Update: I want to thank reader Ric Davis for bringing the following
information to my attention in response to last week's article:
It may be worth mentioning in your Web presence articles that the
HTML editor in Netscape 6.1 is OS X native and produces rather
nicer HTML than AppleWorks, the only other X native option or earlier
versions of Netscape composer.
I am looking forward to downloading Netscape 6.1 and trying this
out! 
