Web- and file-hosting

[Artega]

I've been looking for a high-quality place where I could get some free webspace, but haven't been able to find any. All I've seen are crappy places like GeoCities and Homestead. I'd like a place that would give me a small bit of space (a few megabytes, nothing more) to host some reviews and guides. And speaking of which, I'd also need a filehosting site that would support a couple of megabytes for said files.

Also, some pointers on HTML would be appreciated. I know rudimentary HTML, but little else. A URL or two to a tutorial site or something of that nature would be very appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[WarBlade]

1.) Your signature is huge. Does it really hve to be huge considering very few people will bother to read it?

2.) Have you checked your own ISP account fine print yet? Not so long ago Shadow was asking me about image hosting and I pointed out that many ISPs offer a modest 5MB with limited bandwidth as part of the account package. Some ISPs charge a little, but in cases like mine there's 5MB to play with activated after sending them an email at no additional charge. B)

It's worth checking out for something that won't plague your 'client base' with advertising . . .

Although the thing about ads is there are ways . . . cough . . . to make them a little less . . . cough, cough . . . shall we say 'obtrusive'? ;)

[Elric of Grans]

Hail Artega,

On top of what WarBlade has said, check out www.htmlgoodies.com - that site really helped a lot to begin with.

[Roland]

1) How much space?
2) How much expected bandwith (roughly)?
3) What kind of guides?
4) Do you need other services (e-mail, cgi-bin, et al), or just file hosting?

[Ice]

I've gone from Anglefire to Fortunecities to Geocities but settled with Topcities eventually, though Fortunecities is looking far better now than the time when I left it.

So far www.topcities.com had done the job relatively well for me as long as I don't do anything to attract a spectacular amount of traffic to the site:

- 600 MB monthly bandwidth
- 150 MB space
- 900 kb maxed file size
- no banner ad or pop-up
- no remote linking of images


But somehow my website started to have bandwidth problems almost daily or bi-daily for the past 1-2 months, after being all good since december 2001.

1) 25-30 MB or so.
2) No idea... it can range from no traffic at all to blowing 20MB in less than 12 hours.
3) Guides like this.
4) No, but being able to easily upload several thousand files (mostly very small 2-3k jpg files) without ftp would be very helpful.


Any better suggestions or revenues I can turn to in this case?


http://www.thefreesite.com/Free_Web_Space/
Found this site to be rather useful in finding freebies on the net. Perhaps some of the resources there could prove useful to you as well.

[Roland]

Have you ever blown more than 600 MB of bandwith in a month?

As for "easily uploading several thousand files without ftp", I don't think it's possible. ;) My host (payed, and fairly expensive, if you're use to freebies; a great deal, however, if you don't need MASSIVE bandwith) has a web-based control panel, that does allow uploads. Unfortunately, that form of FTPing only supports one file at a time. ;) WS_FTP handles all my FTP needs, and it's FAR easier / better than one file at a time through the web control panel. ;)

If you can stay under the 600 MB limit at your current host, I'd be more than willing to drop you some space at my host. I have more than enough bandwith to cover that amount, monthly, but certainly not enough to cover what the Lounge uses. ;) Hence the mini-questionaire.

Get back to me on it, and I'll see what I can do. :)

[WarLocke]

Homestead has always been plenty for me. They supply 8mb of webspace, and while I can't remember off the top of my head how much bandwith you get, it's always been enough for me (but I just host sigs, some random pictures, and half-finished NWN modules, anyway).

I think they require cash for a new account now, though.

[goldfish]

If your guides are all text, you can put them on a web log, which are free and very low-maintenance. www.blogger.com is the main blogging site.

[Artega]

I use Bellsouth.net's Dial-Up service. As far as I can tell, they've completely forgotten that service. I've sent countless emails to their "tech support" section, and have never gotten even an autoreply. I think that BS.net is too damn busy keeping their crappy ADSL and business servers running to worry about small things like dial-up. They have apparently forgotten my entire dial-up account, as I cannot access anything about it from their website.

I have no idea how much bandwidth I would need. I really just need enough space and bandwidth to host a couple of small mostly- or all-text guides and signature avatars and small little things like that. Perhaps Homestead would work. Perhaps not. I'll have to check into it either way, despite the fact that it basically doesn't allow raw HTML.

At any rate, thanks for the feedback.

[Tal]

I use Bellsouth.net's Dial-Up service.

I don't know if you're on the Bell South at www.bellsouth.net but looking at their Dial Up Services you should have 10 MB of space. It doesn't state whether or not they allow external linking however. Depending on how much space you need I can probably help you out on my host if you want as well.

[Yrrek]

Great site, and easy to follow:
http://www.davesite.com/

Good luck!

[Elric of Grans]

Hail Lurkers,

I'm fiddling with an image at the moment in The GIMP (trying to teach myself to use it), and have modified it into what I hope would work as an avatar. I just need somewhere I can actually put it so I can see if the transparancy has worked (if I missed some spots, I'll need to touch it up :P ) and actually use it here. Does anyone have any thoughts?

I need to update this section of the FAQ too, so any good suggestions shall be added there :)

[the Langolier]

1.) Your signature is huge. Does it really h[a]ve to be huge considering very few people will bother to read it?

Huge? It is 328 characters. Also, how can you say how many people will decide not to read it? I read it when I first saw one of his posts. Why don't you waste everyones time and create a poll asking how many people actually read his signature. Once you get 50+ responses, then you can state something like that. Until then, don't be a jackass. Instead, go talk to people like XOblivionX.

[WarBlade]

Instead, go talk to people like XOblivionX.

Yeah, did that too.

And in case you hadn't noticed the standard of this forum has taken a nose dive over the past month in the area of users with with signatures that often equate to more page space consumed than the actual post itself.

The posts are the meat in the LL sandwich as far as I'm concerned. Not some bit of artword or extensive list of quotes or dozens of deceased HC character's names etc etc. When the trend of good posts starts to get swallowed up in a trend of oversized signatures the whole forum slides.

I hate seeing that happen, so I'll throw in a comment if it does.

Bluntly. <_<

[Tal]

Hail Lurkers,

I'm fiddling with an image at the moment in The GIMP (trying to teach myself to use it), and have modified it into what I hope would work as an avatar. I just need somewhere I can actually put it so I can see if the transparancy has worked (if I missed some spots, I'll need to touch it up :P ) and actually use it here. Does anyone have any thoughts?

I can host it for you Elric. :) Will you be needing FTP access or will e-mailing it to me do?

[Roland]

Just drop me a line.

[Elric of Grans]

Hail tal125 and Roland,

I take it there's nowhere I can simply setup some kind of an account for file hosting then. Shame: I needed to update the FAQ to hold one, as well as trial my avatar. It's only a simple one - no animations or anything :P - but may need touching up from how it currently is (cannot tell until I see it here), so that may be an inconvenience on anyone hosting it for me. If you're sure that's not a problem, just let me know, and I'll email it to you.

Thanks :)

[Tal]

Hail tal125 and Roland,
...so that may be an inconvenience on anyone hosting it for me. If you're sure that's not a problem, just let me know, and I'll email it to you...

Thanks :)

I'm certain its not a problem for me. I may even be able to set up a directory for you to connect to directly - I'll have to check with my Tech advisor on that score. (Actually I know I can give you ftp access but dunno if I can give you access to just what you need ;) ) At any rate I have no problem with hosting/uploading the files you need in the meantime. So long as you don't mind it being hosted at thepumpkinking.com. ;)

-Tal

Edit: I've figured out how to set up a sub directory and ftp access for you. Check your e-mail. ;) : :D