Free Web Space if you already have free domain?

[MilesAhead]

Is anyone using free web space for an existing free domain?  Search is difficult because all the hits offer a free domain if you sign up.  I already have a free .tk domain. I'm looking to try out a web creation tool and thought I might as well put it up on a real site instead of using a simulator. What I want to do is dummy up a few sample web pages.  See if I can get some work.

DotTK apparently has free DNS service if I can find a spot to plunk on.  I don't really know what html5 is.  But I want to find out.  

Edit: I should add I don't want a site that forces you to use their picture dragging tool etc.. I want to be able to upload the html files produced by this tool I'm trying ..(  Deleted tool link. I'm not spamming the site creation tool after all  )  

[kilele]

dropbox allows to run html5, just put the folder of your app in the public folder and share the public link of the html file

[Deozaan]

Some DVCS sites such as BitBucket and Github allow you to run a repository as a website.

You can then set up a custom CNAME for your domain to point to the DVCS, which makes it look like you've got the content hosted on your domain.

[MilesAhead]

Thank you both for the info.   

[app103]

I have tried out quite a few free hosts over the last couple of years, and the ability to work with .tk domain names was a requirement.

They all have had their pitfalls, but the one I have liked most was 503 Hosting.

As long as you are not running a forum or something similarly heavy, it will work ok. There can be some issues with sending email through your site (such as receiving notifications from a Wordpress blog) but that can be expected with a lot of free hosts, due to abuse by spammers. Sometimes the email works well, sometimes not at all. Sometimes it works well with one site you have hosted there, but not at all with another.

If you need reliable email, you might as well go with paid hosting, and if you can spare the cash, I do have a friend that owns a hosting company with plans starting as low as $3 per year (that plan is good enough for 1 small low-traffic website).

[MilesAhead]

Thanks App.  That sounds about my price range. 

[TaoPhoenix]

Is anyone using free web space for an existing free domain?  Search is difficult because all the hits offer a free domain if you sign up.  I already have a free .tk domain. I'm looking to try out a web creation tool and thought I might as well put it up on a real site instead of using a simulator. What I want to do is dummy up a few sample web pages.  See if I can get some work.

DotTK apparently has free DNS service if I can find a spot to plunk on.  I don't really know what html5 is.  But I want to find out. 

Edit: I should add I don't want a site that forces you to use their picture dragging tool etc.. I want to be able to upload the html files produced by this tool I'm trying ..(  Deleted tool link. I'm not spamming the site creation tool after all  ) 

-MilesAhead (May 14, 2014, 01:30 PM)

(Summons) Hey Seraphim, are you out there? What is your opinion of what Miles wants to do?

For those who do not know, this sounds close to dead center of what a free host provider does and years ago I set out to find a couple of fellas who provide that. Seraphim Labs was my overall winner in my survey.

[MilesAhead]

Googled Seraphim Labs.  The page says to sign up via irc due to spam.  I don't have irc set up and I'm not sure if the college WiFi blocks it.  I would imagine the public library system does because they even block sourceforge.  That's how paranoid they are these days. 

Thanks for the suggestion though. 

[TaoPhoenix]

Googled Seraphim Labs.  The page says to sign up via irc due to spam.  I don't have irc set up and I'm not sure if the college WiFi blocks it.  I would imagine the public library system does because they even block sourceforge.  That's how paranoid they are these days.  

Thanks for the suggestion though.  

-MilesAhead (May 15, 2014, 12:15 PM)

Well let's see if I can not make this Snarky.

A long time ago I went hunting for free web hosts for reasons darn near what you wanted. PS I hate Google and sometimes you just don't search for things. On my tip Seraphim showed up here and he has posted a few nice comments. I left it a bit as an "open entry" because it might take him a day to find my post here but he's pretty good.

So my post had a bit of a "Batman Signal" quality to it. Before you judge him, give him a chance. Services like what you want and what he offers are often wrecked by a raw engine search, be it Google or Bing/Yahoo ot whatever. I used my own "private" methodology but let's just see what happens.

Here is his profile page:
https://www.donation...ion=profile;u=372590

I think he set it up that if you send him a PM it filters into an email. Either way if he cannot help what should be a simple request for you I need to know because you sounded dead center into what I was trying to do five years ago - aka find simple quick low tech free hosting.

My other suggestion is Charles Decker from Decker Services. While he reduced his web hosting exposure due to spam entries, I think he will trust my recommendation that you are a smart fella and worth working with.

I suggest you first read this for a quick overview:
http://www.freevoteu....com/WebHostFAQ.html

Then you want the "executive summary" of the thread here:
http://www.freewebsp...y-host-spread/page38

A couple of important details quoted from there:

Deeplist/Charles Decker: Due to the amount of bogus nonsense, I removed automated signups some time ago. However, I still provide free hosting, but it's by invitation and/or request only. I don't actively promote it any longer either.

Seraphim (Labs): I took my site for new signups down entirely. It looked awful, the code was not aging well, and no matter what I did to it I couldn't stop the spam signups. Though I will still accept new clients if they ask me about it. Hopefully I can turn things around for Seraphim and actually build it back up to where I wanted to be when I started.

So closing the loop these are two guys who I think are pretty good but that you can't "Google them". It's a test of my rep here as Phoeni. If neither of them can help you (and they are wise enough to share a small tip here and there to each other) then that's all I have. But in another thread I spent 18 months looking for free web hosting for darn near exactly what you want, but that happens to be "unGoogleSearchable". Again in the other thread, I took a very innovative/new metric to judge my entries and those two were my dead heat ties with another one just barely behind.

Summary is, if Awesome Miles and three Awesome Providers can't work it out, I need to know for data reasons if nothing else. I'm a humanities guy. I picked a clever durational metric to weed out the jokers on FreeWebSpace.com. But between them the winners' basic tech skills sounded solid. So if AwesomeMiles can't get a hit with any of them, that's a higher level order of info I would appreciate!

And I just now posted a "please visit DC" note over there for them. : )

Yours,

--Tao

[SeraphimLabs]

I'm here.

Is anyone using free web space for an existing free domain?  Search is difficult because all the hits offer a free domain if you sign up.  I already have a free .tk domain. I'm looking to try out a web creation tool and thought I might as well put it up on a real site instead of using a simulator. What I want to do is dummy up a few sample web pages.  See if I can get some work.

DotTK apparently has free DNS service if I can find a spot to plunk on.  I don't really know what html5 is.  But I want to find out.  

Edit: I should add I don't want a site that forces you to use their picture dragging tool etc.. I want to be able to upload the html files produced by this tool I'm trying ..(  Deleted tool link. I'm not spamming the site creation tool after all  )  

-MilesAhead (May 14, 2014, 01:30 PM)

I don't believe in that fancy online content designer stuff anyway. The sites they create are cookie cutters with bloated and buggy code that invites trouble and often won't even run right on another server if you have to change providers.

My services keep it simple- I provide FTP access for uploading files, and a basic web-based SQL management for databases. What you build on that is entirely up to you as long as it isn't anything I would object to.

Using your domain name is no problem at all! I've got other people doing exactly that, and have a whole bunch of domains I own personally that I use on the same infrastructure without issue.

Just PM me on here with what plan you had in mind. I need a username, the domain name you want to use, which plan you had in mind, and an email I can send the account info to and contact you at if there are issues.

[MilesAhead]

Just PM me on here with what plan you had in mind. I need a username, the domain name you want to use, which plan you had in mind, and an email I can send the account info to and contact you at if there are issues.

Thanks for replying.  Is there copy where I can read about the available plans?  What I'm looking to try is to create a few sample pages to try out the tool and also the prospective customers can see on their own machines when they load the url.

I did a site for my own software some years ago.  It was all html/css but that's not my forte.  I'm trying to find a tool I can afford that gives more options than navbar on top or navbar on side, if you know what I mean.  To do it all by hand I'm not sure I could survive until I developed the skills.  I guess I'm looking for the mythical Golden Mean that would let me make a small site in a day or two that didn't have the "newspaper front page" look.

I took a look at some of the sites by web design companies and they seem to go with subdued backgrounds and orderly columns.  Nothing jarring.  But they may be aimed more towards businesses.  I'm thinking more of quickie but solid inexpensive personal pages.  Programming is all learning curve.  I'm sure I'll have more focus once I get in the water and paddle around a bit.  

[TaoPhoenix]

Hi Miles.

I think we might want to separate hosting from tools here. I have no agenda, Seraphim was my final study winner because just like now he jumps in to try to help.

Let's suppose Seraphim's basic hosting plan is 1 Gig of space. Let's say you two hit it off and you spread some good words besides me, he might give you a little more.

As for creating a new page, that's a different service altogether. I have no info on that at all. For ex if you got hold of some new page design you liked and the whole thing was under a Gig, upload it and have at it.

But as for analyzing whatever was weak about your old page and what you want to do with it, is way outside of my range. Seraphim may have a couple of ideas, but even though he offers free hosting if you want hard core web re-work I'd consider dropping him a donation whenever you can manage it. (I know, I saw the other threads, it will be a while, I am just laying out the groundwork!)

[MilesAhead]

I appreciate your thoughts.  My idea is to create the page, then it's up to the customer to host it someplace.  Then as long as my html is valid I'm out of the picture and all is between the customer and his hosting provider.  I see ads for up to 3 pages for about $120.  But that supposedly has functionality for business.  I'm looking more to do one off nice looking personal sites relatively cheaply.  More or less "if it works and looks good I'm gone" type of deal.  Of course I would fix some problem in my code etc..  But I don't want somebody to own my attention for years for $75 or whatever ends up being the price.

My older brother was a Senior Software Engineer.  He used to lament that programs never go away.  There's always a new bug to fix.  He wanted to open a restaurant instead.  His business theory being, if they don't get food poisoning, once they use the bathroom, the warranty period is over.  

[TaoPhoenix]

I appreciate your thoughts.  My idea is to create the page, then it's up to the customer to host it someplace.  Then as long as my html is valid I'm out of the picture and all is between the customer and his hosting provider.  I see ads for up to 3 pages for about $120.  But that supposedly has functionality for business.  I'm looking more to do one off nice looking personal sites relatively cheaply.  More or less "if it works and looks good I'm gone" type of deal.  Of course I would fix some problem in my code etc..  But I don't want somebody to own my attention for years for $75 or whatever ends up being the price.

My older brother was a Senior Software Engineer.  He used to lament that programs never go away.  There's always a new bug to fix.  He wanted to open a restaurant instead.  His business theory being, if they don't get food poisoning, once they use the bathroom, the warranty period is over.  

-MilesAhead (May 16, 2014, 08:31 AM)

Heh well fourth hand I wouldn't recommend anyone go from IT to opening a restaurant!

Back at the Webpages, Free Hosting is about people's little personal pages. Businesses are supposed to make a few bucks and should probably pay for hosting. But for ex if you are just getting started, and the web page client doesn't know what they want, sure. Not that I would imagine your code to "not be valid".

From my layman perspective creating a page is not at all about the 1-off. The managers will have new things to do with it, so it's a far longer term engagement, fees to be negotiated. It's tough news to have a 1-off that no one knows how to add to ever again.

So then off you go to create a page, off someone goes to upload it to Seraphim, and off the site goes into the wide world.

[MilesAhead]

Heh well fourth hand I wouldn't recommend anyone go from IT to opening a restaurant!

Yeah, if it was me I'd probably name it something stupid like Quick Bytes - get Brek Fist Fast Ham & Eggs $3.    So you want coffee?  Well it's gonna' run you a little more!

There was a kid in my grade school class in Catholic School who stuttered.  The nuns used the phonics method to teach reading.  The nun has him stand up.  She has the word "breakfast" split into syllables on the blackboard.  She's trying to get him to say the syllables individually.  Break Fast.  But every time he attempts it he says "Breakfast Fast."  Now I look back and think he was way ahead of his time.  People want to get their breakfast fast, no matter how you say it. 

[TaoPhoenix]

Hi Miles,

My other winner from my hosting contest, Charles Decker aka Deeplist just found my note, so I sent him the link to this thread, so we might hear from him soon. Then you can see if either of these guys can help you out! : )

[MilesAhead]

Hi Miles,

My other winner from my hosting contest, Charles Decker aka Deeplist just found my note, so I sent him the link to this thread, so we might hear from him soon. Then you can see if either of these guys can help you out! : )

-TaoPhoenix (May 18, 2014, 09:26 PM)

Thanks.  I received info an account was set up at SeraphimLabs.  It's been some time since I did anything on the web.  But it seems strange I can't get any ftp or admin access.  If I http using the ip address I get a page saying "It's Alive" but if I use the domain name I get access denied.  Support tells me to put an index.html page on and it will work.  But I have no means to do so.  https to the admin account hangs.  ftp times out.  Really bizarre.  Unless the WiFi I'm using is blocking it.  Which seems unlikely as I would think they would also block if I put the IP address in the browser.

Seems I can't get past go, no $200. 

[MilesAhead]

Free or not after 4 replies I can't get a simple 4 lines of information
ftp site
userid
pw
port#

I think I'm done with the guessing game.

[TaoPhoenix]

Thanks.  I received info an account was set up at SeraphimLabs.  It's been some time since I did anything on the web.  But it seems strange I can't get any ftp or admin access.  If I http using the ip address I get a page saying "It's Alive" but if I use the domain name I get access denied.  Support tells me to put an index.html page on and it will work.  But I have no means to do so.  https to the admin account hangs.  ftp times out.  Really bizarre.  Unless the WiFi I'm using is blocking it.  Which seems unlikely as I would think they would also block if I put the IP address in the browser.

Seems I can't get past go, no $200.  

...
Free or not after 4 replies I can't get a simple 4 lines of information
ftp site
userid
pw
port#

I think I'm done with the guessing game.

-MilesAhead (May 19, 2014, 07:45 AM)

Yikes!

I'm no shill, just hoping it's not as hard as all this!

Latching onto a couple of your comments:

1. "The Admin Account hangs..."
The address to the admin page is at:
https://airmid.seraphimlabs.net:2083/

I do know he has some glitch that keeps saying "this site is untrusted" but it's fine.

2. Is your location going through a proxy? I do seem to notice it drops if you try to do that.

3. If you can get through, for me at least everything gets loaded through a cPanel interface, so maybe you can use that instead of ftp.

4. "Web creation tool" vs "have no means to produce an index.html page" - I'm not sure what kind of setup you have - are you totally forbidden to create files? (If so, how are you ftp uploading anything?) I just make my pages out of text and then upload them with the cpanel interface.

I want to help not just because helping is nice, but it is kinda like late feedback after I recommended him to you and it makes me sad!

There's still that one other option I know of but he hasn't posted here yet. Maybe he can help.

Calling Seraphim! : )

[MilesAhead]

@TaoPhoenix I have no reason to think you would engage in some time wasting activity.  So I have to assume the distraction has another source.  The original admin web address I was given blocks/hangs as does the one you posted(for me I mean.)  Maybe https is broken on this WiFi network or there's some other reason.

The one at the public library is nearly useless for development as even downloads from sourceforge.net are blocked.


The trouble with email is it's pretty easy to start an argument between the parties on the ends if you are in the middle with total access.  So I have to give the sender the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it's Senior Prank Week or something.  I don't know.  I guess I'll put it in "try again later" mode.  

Sorry I let my frustration spill onto the thread.   It kind of reminds me of going through the self serve checkout at Walmart.  Every bar code scans except for the last one.  Everyone behind you in line looks at you like you are so stupid you can't pass the bar code by the scanner.  I don't use those anymore.  It's "faster" to wait in line for the clerk to check me out.

Edit: In any case it's not vital to tinker with the stuff "live." I can use AnalogX mini web server to start.  No biggie.    At this point I'm probably better off to search for a wage slave position.  Maybe I can get a part time help desk or something similar.

I appreciate your efforts and would never consider you a shill.  (Unless maybe we work the old fake "improv" bit together some time.) 

[TaoPhoenix]

Good enough Miles.

A guy from the other service named Charles Decker posted a note over at FWS, and says you can email him directly if you want to see what he can offer.

Hi Charles,

That potential client says he wants to try to start out simple and needs
ftp site
userid
pw
port#

- can you help?
---End Quote---
Yeah, I can set something up if he's still looking. I can be contacted directly at: [email protected] and we can get started.

[MilesAhead]

Thanks.  I started to play around with this tool I'm checking out.  I found a review for it.  It is definitely not for blog sites.  It's designed for static pages.  Might not be bad if the template may be designed easily.  It doesn't do drag and drop positioning bit stuff like banner titles and text blocks you just double click to edit.  It's Site Spinner and retails for $50.  It would seem made for personal pages.

Due to malware attack and other considerations I don't really want to be involved in the hosting end of it.  I just want to have the customer satisfied with it and publish it.  Then it's between the customer and the provider.  But we'll see.  Since I'm around MDC campus all the time and the only C++ Programming class offered is "Absolute Beginner" I'm thinking some unfortunate souls may take it as their first programming language.  Tutoring to the rescue.  That may be simpler to get started.

Thanks for your interest.  

[hornet]

I did some web page design for my business clients in the 1990's.

I used hostica.com ... and still have a small account with them.

They were cheap and had all that I wanted/needed.

At that time I subscribed to a plan where you could host "unlimited" websites.

I used to set up the "draft" website to show the client... and then pass it on to them to host "wherever".

This was just a little diversion for me....... there was little money to be made from it.

I imagine that has not changed much.

H.

[MilesAhead]

@hornet  thanks for the benefit of your experience.  The not much to be made from it seems prevalent no matter what it is these days.    My best bet for a steady paycheck is probably help desk.  The language barrier isn't likely to help any though.