But you need a webpage, several webpages as a matter of fact.  Storage, don’t forget about storage.  Oh and while you’re at it, throw in some bandwidth.

Wait a second, what do all these terms mean and why do I need them?

Well a webpage is pretty self explanatory, it’s a webpage, or several webpages.  Storage determines how many webpages you can have, after all they take up space on the host servers.  Bandwidth is basically how much traffic you get from people viewing and interacting with your website.  Bandwidth is probably one of the most important, and expensive aspects of having a website.

Image via Wikipedia

Some people simply cut back on their plans for their websites.  Others dig deeper and find the money to upgrade their accounts to handle the load.

Some people want the best of both worlds.  They buy their domain, and then park it.  Parking a domain is an option with several companies, and there are some companies who do nothing but park domains.

But what can I do with a parked domain?  A parked domain simply means that you are not using their servers to host any data you want to present on your website.  A parked domain can have a line of code that redirects anyone who comes to the page to another website address.

But why would anyone want to do that?

Because it’s cheaper.  There are many companies out there that will provide people with free website hosting.  The only caveat is that you end up with a really long URL that probably has nothing to do with the real name of your website.  Some free hosts will also put banner ads on your pages.  Some will not.

So what some people will do is buy their domain name and park it with a line of code redirecting websurfers to their real site, which is being hosted for free at one or more of these companies.

But what about the web address that is shown in the browser bar?

If you look hard enough, a simple Google search will do, you can find a trick that will make the browser bar show your own domain address.  No one need ever know that they have been redirected to a free hosting site.

It’s like eating your cake and having it too.

Free Web Hosting Companies

1. Angelfire

2. Tripod

3. Fortune City

4. Free Web Space

5. Blogger

6. Free ASP Hosting

7. 00FreeWeb

8. Pure Portals

9. Profuse Host

10. 987mb – Not exactly free, but for $1.99 a month for what you get, wow.

11. eSmartStart

12. Orgfree

13. FreeProHosting

14. WebNG

15. 1SweetHost

16. 250Free

17. Free Web Page Hosting

18. 007 Sites

19. Hostse

20. BlackAppleHost

21. ZeroCatch

22. TopCities

23. HostRator

24. 000Webhost

25. Afmu

There are literally thousands of free web hosting services and plans out there, but these twenty-five will get you started.

Dedicated Web hosting allows the website owner more flexibility and freedom with complete control over their website, utilizing equipment that is essentially “rented” from a dedicated hosting company. Dedicated Web hosting supports all of the website owners needs and many of his wants, allowing access to state-of-the-art technology and the ability to pick and choose which settings and operating system the website owner wishes to use. Dedicated hosting sites are generally more appealing to site owners who expect high traffic and who need massive amounts of data storage and bandwidth.

Examples of such sites are online stores, news networks, eBay, and Youtube. Medium to small businesses generally do not require the need for dedicated hosting, however they can benefit from this option by having access to equipment that they otherwise could not afford to acquire on their own or have access to. The drawback is the website owner will be faced with a much higher cost for this type of hosting operation. Unlike Shared Server services, Dedicated hosting is accessible by only the website owner.

Shared hosting is primarily designed for websites requiring less complication, but still allow the capabilities of sending and receiving e-mail, filling out forms, requesting information and a presentation which does not require multitudes of pages and links. Although Shared Hosting is a more affordable means of hosting your website, the drawbacks are that you provide your own server equipment, which in itself can be costly. Consequently in the event of equipment failure, you the owner are responsible for cost, repair, and upgrade of your own equipment.

Before you can decide whether you go dedicated or shared, assess your needs. Exactly what will your website need to maintain functionality and image which you want to portray? A few factors that should be considered are as follows:

Usage– why you have the website in the first place.
Storage– how much megabyte of space will you need.
Bandwidth — in times of heavy traffic. It is recommended that you have 10 times bandwidth of that of storage.
Web support– a team you can turn to and count on in times of technical trouble.
User-friendliness– remember, not all of us are IT experts!
Guarantee– another word for assurance of support
Price– you get what you pay for.

If Internet users hit the wrong TLD they are bound to end up on the wrong website as many web addresses may share the same secondary-domain name. But how does this pose a problem? The problem arises when the secondary-domain name, that is, the name that lies between the two dots in the example, (www.example.com) are the same. If the secondary domain names are the same, then the TLD has to be specific to locate the right site.

Just imagine trying to log on to the TNT Network for some Inside the NBA news by typing www.tnt.com only to realise that typing the TLD “com” lands you on a website for a shipping and document service in the Netherlands! The correct TLD, however, for locating the website for the TNT Network is www.tnt.tv. So, we see here how the TLDs “com” and “tv” determine to which address you end up, much like a zip code locates the right address or a surname in a class registry to locate students with similar first names.

A TLD, therefore, finds the right website users intend, much like a teacher locates the right student in a class of many named John when she calls him by his surname.

Brief History of Top-Level Domains Names (TLDs)

The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) developed more than three dozen TLDs by 1985 and these TLDs were specific to uses, services and countries. TLDs specific to countries are called country code TLDs (ccTLDs). Examples of a ccTLDs are .ca, .uk and .us for Canada, United Kingdom and the United States respectively.

The uses and services outlined by the IANA in 1985 clearly show the way in which these TLDs were to be used and for the most part these regulations have been kept. Here are the ten common TLDs and their uses:

10 Common Top-Level Domains Names (TLDs), their history and uses

1. .Com

   This is by far the most popular TLD worldwide and one of the oldest. Launched in January 1985, the “com” is short for commercial and was originally intended for use by commercial businesses. Due to the popularity the Internet gained in the 1990’s, the dot-com domain name is used for more than commercial purposes.

2. .Net

   Like dot-com, dot-net was created in 1985. Dot-net is short for “network” and was intended for use by Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Today, anyone can register a dot-net domain as it has become a second dot-com.

3. .Org

   Established in January 1985, dot-org (organization) domain name was originally recommended for use by organizations and individuals. But due to its use as a domain name for non-profit organizations in the US and UK, it has become mostly associated with these bodies. It is also used by some US political parties, diplomatic missions and the French consulates in US and Canada.

4. .Gov

   Established in January 1985 with an intended use among US government agencies, the dot-gov domain name remains exclusively available to US government agencies; other countries have to use their ccTLDs. Example, Australian government agencies use .gov.ar.

5. .Edu

   The dot-edu (educational) domain name was established in January 1985 with an intended use among educational institutions worldwide. However, only US educational institutions have a strictly dot-edu domain name; other countries have to use a ccTLD. There are, however, some websites such as the Smithsonian Museum (www.si.edu) and the Montgomery Blair High School (www.mbhs.edu) that are registered with this domain name.

6. .Mil

   Created in January 1985, the dot-mil domain name is exclusively intended for use by the US military.

7. .Name

   When the dot-name domain name was established in 2001, it was intended for use by individuals and personalities, both fictional and real. Its use has remained as such.

8. .Info

   Established in 2001, the dot-info (information) domain name gained much popularity after September 11 when the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) gave new transport routes on the newly created www.mta.info. Also, the rise in affiliate marketing has done much to raise the popularity of the dot-info domain name.

9. .Biz

   The dot-biz (business) domain name was created in 2001. It is intended for businesses.

10. .Museum

    The dot-museum domain name was born on October 20, 2001 and is exclusively available to museums.

1. RapidShare

   

   Quick, no hassle uploads of up to 300 Megabytes. Downloaders can only get one file per IP per hour. Files are removed after 30 days of inactivity.

2. MegaUpload

   

   Quick, no hassle uploads of up to 500 Megabytes. Files are removed after 90 days of inactivity.

3. File Dropper

   

   Quick, no hassle uploads of up to 5 Gigabytes. Files are “forever as long as they are being downloaded.”

4. Uploading.com

   

   Quick, no hassle uploads of up to 100 Megabytes. Files are removed only when the user deletes them.

5. YouSendIt

   

   Quick, no hassle uploads of up to 100 Megabytes. Files are removed after 7 days.

6. MediaFire

   

   Quick, no hassle uploads of up to 100 Megabytes. There is currently no time limit for stored files but the site says it will notify users in advance in the future if it becomes necessary to delete older files.

7. EatLime

   

   Quick, no hassle uploads of up to 100 Megabytes. Registered users can upload files of up to 1 Gigabyte. Other users can immediately begin downloading the file once you begin uploading it-even if it has not been completely uploaded yet. Files are kept on the server “as long as they’re in demand.”

There you go folks. These are the best free file hosting sites I have found in my years of webusing. I personally use file dropper the most these days but all of these are excellent options depending on your needs.

Happy hosting!

We asked Aaron Handford, President of Solar Energy Host how much carbon the net itself is generating and he had some surprising answers. According to Handford, “The Internet has a big carbon footprint. It’s estimated that globally it takes about 868 billion kWh (kilowatt hours) of electricity per year to run the Internet, associated PCs, routing infrastructure, and phone networks.” (UClue: Energy Use of Internet).

He notes, “Of this, about 112.5 Billion kWh are used to power “data centers”, which are the servers that store all the websites.”

This represents a lot of energy, and potentially a lot of CO2 emissions. What can be done to reduce the carbon footprint of the Internet? Handford has some suggestions for those willing to research the net itself for answers. “There are web hosting packages now available that are responding to the need to be “carbon friendly”. My company Solar Energy Host powers our websites directly with solar energy.”

Handford adds, “If your website is currently sitting on a server powered by energy from the grid, then you are tied to a system where you can never be sure where that energy is coming from, possibly from the burning of coal or other greenhouse gas producing sources. Solar Energy Host offers consumers another choice – a way to get your website off the energy grid.”

A new wave of these solar powered companies is on the leading cusp of moving away from traditional power sources.

Says Handford: “A server such as ours is “Carbon Free”, which is a step beyond “Carbon Neutral” because you are not adding more pollution and then buying carbon credits to make up for it.”

It has been estimated that as of early 2007 there were about 108,810,358 of these websites in existence. (See the link below for further details. (The Size of the Web).

This means that on average, each website uses about 1020 kwh of “data center” energy each year.

Handford went on to explain that the data center used by Solar Energy Host stops the emission of the following gases/toxins:

• 19,890 lbs of Carbon Dioxide (CO2/GHG) per year
• 5.9 lbs of Nitrous Oxide (NOX/smog) per year
• 0.45 lbs of Sulfur Dioxide (SO4/acid rain) per year

He is also following a socially responsible business model by giving back. “We donate five dollars from each account to the “Gardens of Hope” Project,” says Handford. “This money funds the planting of one tree and helps link five communities in Lesotho, southern Africa, into a network of projects that share ideas, skills, resources and common purpose while supporting the educational needs of orphaned and vulnerable children.”

We had to ask, what happens to your server at night? “Good question,” laughed Handford “We have a large set of batteries, a propane generator, and as a last resort, the conventional energy grid, which we have never needed to use!”

Looks like the future is now.

Solar Energy Host is part of perhaps the only commercial carbon-free data center in existence. For more information about Solar Energy Host click here.

So what’s an energy-conscious, green-minded Web hosting customer to do? How about choosing a hosting company that uses renewable energy to power its operations? A growing number of Web hosts are moving in that direction, including these 9 solar-powered companies:

1. Affordable Internet Services Online

   Based in Romoland, California, AISO is a 10-year-old Web hosting company whose data center is powered by 120 solar panels. AISO also uses solar tubes to light its offices naturally, and is now designing a green roof topped with drought-resistant plants for its data center. The company also hosted the Live Earth concert Websites.

2. Athenaeum

   In 2005, the U.K.-based Athenaeum launched Ecological Hosting, which is powered by a solar-energy data center in California. Owner-operators Jamie Simpson and Sue Rhodes are also strict vegetarians and avid recyclers.

3. Atypica

   Atypica completed its conversion to grid-tied solar power in February of 2005. The 10-year-old company, located in Scotia, New York, offers application development, email and hosting services.

4. Eco Web Design

   Based in the U.K., Eco Web Design uses solar-powered Web servers to provide three types of hosting plans, from entry-level to professional.

5. Greenest Host

   Launched just this past summer, Greenest Host is powered fully by solar power. The company, located in San Diego, California, offers a variety of Web hosting plans along with email and e-commerce services.

6. Green WebHost

   Another U.K. based company that uses a solar-powered data center in California, Green WebHost also operates Solar WebHost (http://solarwebhost.net/) and plants a tree on behalf of every customer.

7. Planetmind Internetworks

   While most of Planetmind’s services are run by 100-percent wind power, the Netherlands, Colorado-based company has also added a low-powered Web server running completely on solar power. It offers a limited number of hosting accounts for its solar server.

8. Solar Host

   A subsidiary of Floppynet Ltd., Solar Host uses energy from a solar-powered data center in California. The U.K.-based company offers email, Web hosting, and Website management services.

9. ThinkHost

   Founded in 1999 and based in Portland, Oregon, ThinkHost switched to 100-percent solar/wind power in last 2005. Most of its team members also telecommute to reduce their environmental impact. The company offers Web hosting, e-commerce and other services.