Searching for somewhere to host your website can be tedious. Many charge a fee and prices can vary, but how about 100 MB of web space for free? Yes, that’s right - FREE!! Esmartweb offers free web hosting, and also allow you to take your own domain name with you, if you have one. So what’s the catch? Well, they do include their banner on your pages, but you can’t grumble at that when you get so much. You have the choice of having it fixed to the top of your pages, or you can opt for a pop-up.
This can be better, because if your visitor’s leave it minimised, it won’t pop-up again when visiting other pages. This has to be done yourself. Simply insert <popup> on it’s own line between your <head></head> tags. This has to be done for each page that a pop-up is required. Sign up is easy. You first select which domain name suits you. They have plenty to choose from, and your final address will be something like this: https://mywebsite.esmartweb.com (where ‘mywebsite’ is the name you choose).
Other domains available are:
esmartguy
esmartbiz
esmartbuyer
esmartstudent
esmartmusic
esmartdesign
my100megs
multiservers
250x
50g
They then ask you to agree to their terms and conditions. These are fair, and not very long. They do not allow adult or pirated software sites, and you have to be at least 13 yrs old, but they do allow you to have paid advertising, so you can bring your own paying banners. A bit of demographic information is also asked for, as well as your interests. You will then be up and running in a matter of minutes. You have the choice of building your site using the esmartweb file manager, or you can use an ftp client (file transfer protocol). If you decide to use the file manager, you may be interested in their great templates. They have lots to choose from, and all very professional looking. They also supply a html editor. If you choose to upload your files by ftp, it will depend on which of the domain names you are using.
In your ‘Host name’ box you will enter: ftp.esmartweb.com, for example. Unfortunately, they do not support Microsoft Front Page extensions, but you can still build your site using MFP and upload via ftp. They do however, give you support for their own CGI scripts, form mailer, guestbook and counter.
What else are you going to get?
As well as your free 100 MB, you are allowed unlimited traffic.
A free web based email account with unlimited addresses. Free email forwarding.
Free webmaster tools.
Free submission to the top 15 search engines.
Free Web-board/Discussion Forum for your site.
Free Technical Support
Esmartweb have had their down times, but so have many other web hosts, in order to improve their services. These are usually listed on their site. They can also be very slow at times. As I write this, I am having trouble connecting to their ftp. On checking their site, they have not listed it as a down time, so I have sent an email to their technical support. They are very good at responding, in the past they have replied within 48 hours. Anything else you should be made aware of? Yes. You cannot upload a single file that is more than 3 MB, and you cannot use it as a storage space for files. All files must be on web pages. All files not linked within your web space are deleted. Apart from that they are an excellent service, and all for free.