Did Someone Say "Free"?

If you're looking to set up a Web site on the cheap or you want to get your site going before committing any money to it, you'd do well to check out the commercial online services. Both America Online and CompuServe offer free no-frills Web hosting included with the price of the membership. If you're already a member, it won't cost you anything extra. Prodigy offers a similar deal, but appears to be de-emphasizing it. MSN may offer something later in the year, but was unwilling to reveal what it may or may not cost.

Then there's the issue of what you get with the no-cost plans from AOL and CompuServe. You won't get your own domain name, such as "yourcompany.com." With AOL, your Web address will be "members.aol.com/username." With CompuServe, your Web address will be "ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/username." For "username," AOL uses your screen name, and CompuServe uses your alias name (the account name that consists of letters--not the one that consists of numbers and a comma). Given these limitations, you could have a tough time getting your top choice in names--unless you don't mind being Larry3765 or shoe!co. If you or your organization needs the simplicity or status of a simple straightforward URL, then these Web addresses clearly won't do. But if the address itself is unimportant, AOL and CompuServe are well worth considering.

The main function of a Web host is to provide disk space on its server for your files. Not surprisingly, the online services provide the smallest amount of disk space. AOL limits each screen name to 2MB of disk space. Because each account can have five screen names, that's a maximum of 10MB for each AOL account. You can't reallocate the storage space among your AOL screen names, but you can create a site with pages that bounce back and forth among the screen-name Web spaces. CompuServe, which allows only one name per account, has a limit of 5MB.
While 2MB and 5MB may not sound like a lot of disk space, remember that large Web pages take a long time for your visitors to download. Any page with more than 50K of files is probably too large for a 28.8Kbps modem. For a modest-size Web site with a moderate amount of graphics, 2MB should be enough to get started.
Even if the available disk space isn't an issue, you may run into problems if you plan to use a commercial software package to create, upload, and maintain your Web site. Until recently, the only way you could upload your files to AOL's server was to use AOL's own online FTP utility and upload each file separately. And due to an idiosyncrasy of the system, you ended up having to type each filename twice, which took up even more time. Furthermore, each time you changed your Web site, you had to upload each changed file separately.

Though you still have to use AOL's software to upload your files, you can now upload all your files at once using AOLpress 2.0. Previously named Navipress, AOLpress is a bare-bones Web-publishing program with a built-in FTP component. AOL provides another bare-bones Web-publishing program, named Personal Publisher II, but it doesn't do FTP, forcing you once more to use the FTP utility that's part of AOL. And although you can use a commercial Web-site-creation program--such as Adobe PageMill 2.0, FrontPage 98, Macromedia Dreamweaver, or NetObjects Fusion 2.0--to create your HTML files, you won't be able to use the built-in FTP components of these programs to post to AOL. Instead, you would have to go on AOL and use its FTP utility, or find a way to use AOLpress to upload the files.

With CompuServe, the task of uploading your files is similarly restrictive. Once again, you can't use standard FTP programs to upload your files. CompuServe provides its own basic Web-publishing program, which is relatively easy-to-use. You can use it or almost any Web publishing program to create your HTML files. To send your files to CompuServe, you'll need to use the service's Web-publishing wizard, named WebPost. The wizard is smart enough to compare the files between your computer's hard drive and the server's hard drive, and upload only the files that are missing or need to be updated.

GeoCities (www.geocities.com) provides another no-cost Web-hosting solution. The free Web sites on GeoCities are called homesteads, and they're arranged into thematic neighborhoods with numbered address blocks, houses, and vacant lots. If you're interested in setting up a Web site that fits into one of the prescribed themes--such as computers, family, health, science fiction, or travel--this could be a good way to get started.
With GeoCities, you get 3MB of disk space and the File Manager utility to help you create your Web pages. You can use the service's EZ File Upload utility to upload your HTML files from other applications. Your Web-site address would follow the form of "www.geocities.com/neighborhoodname/username." GeoCities also offers a couple of options for those who don't mind paying a modest fee for additional features. For $4.95 a month, your site can expand to 15MB of disk space, and for $5 a month, GeoCities will redirect traffic from a virtual domain name (such as "yourcompany.com") to your GeoCities Web address. Even though the traffic is redirected, you'll still have to pay the usual InterNIC fees to maintain your virtual domain name--current fees for .com names are $50 a year. And the browser will show a domain name such as www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/8005/620zone when the Web site comes up. While GeoCities isn't for everyone, it may be worth a look if your Web site is more personal than corporate.
For personal sites and uncomplicated corporate sites, the no-cost pricing from AOL, CompuServe, and GeoCities can far outweigh the limitations. You'll be able to use standard HTML features, such as different-size typefaces, embedded graphics, embedded sounds, and even Java applets. And when you're ready to move on, you can use your old AOL, CompuServe, or GeoCities Web site as a doorway to your new Web site.

So why would you want to move beyond a free Web-host service? Because in addition to having your own domain name, gaining more disk space, and being able to use just about any commercial software package, you can get feedback such as detailed visitor statistics, set up elaborate e-mail forwarding, accept credit cards from your site, and get technical support any time you need it.
The scenes are comparable to the email, a sales man is trying hard to sell a $1000 deal to a client, the client asks the sales man for a business card, on the business card he notice the website address "Http:// www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/8005/620zone" and then comes the email address fred8765432@hotmail.com. This isn't going to give a new customer confidence in the sales man or the product. You are what you portray.