Due to cicumstanses beyond my control my new website SUCKS! I've contacted my ISP various times but they just don't get it, I cannot edit my own site becuase my machine locks up every time I try! So, If you are currently being hosted by a freespace server,ie: xoom geocities,tripod. please let me know what you think of your server. I currently have over 100 models that I would like to post to the funstuff but cannot due to my ISP. Good and bad comments are welcome as well as file size limits, upload/download timeouts and amount of space offered. I don't want to start a huge off-subject thread, but, I need help!!! thanks alot - DEL

Personally I don't FEEL this is off topic in the least. (correct me if I am wrong since the idea behind the forum is to talk about things we all have in interest and / or related to poser) but I've been on the hunt for a while now regarding this matter DEL, here are my results so far (as the owner of 5 websites (maybe more I lose count): Xoom - doesn't allow you to link your images to another site, they offer the standard 11mbs if I'm not mistaken but the fact that you can't link up stinks. Also, when I first signed up to them they wouldn't allow you to make very many changes to your page without you using straight up html or their ugly templates. That's not good for beginners who don't know html but have good taste. That may have changed since my time there but I don't know..I abandoned the site with disgust. Geocities - pretty decent set up but took time to upload files. Same 11mbs, however they have a strange setup for locating a persons site in which you must travel via lil' virtual neighborhoods and find the persons "home". A REAL chore if you don't know the neighborhood and figured you'd drive around and sorta come upon it. Be prepared to have visitors stopping MANY times for directions and perhaps even giving up in disgust when attempting to visit your "geo home". Continued below --

part two the quest for a FREE HOST Tripod - so far the only problem I've encountered with them is the fact that they don't allow you to link up as of recently. Same problem as Xoom but in a way a little bit nicer in which they actually send you to a page that shows you that your page DOES exist but that you must click from their "middleman" page to get to it. However when you are in the funstuff section it appears as if your link is broken. That stinks because you are asked by the forum to delete your "broken" link even though it is really a working one. Netscape - Classy, and professional easy (sorta) to use templates for setting up a page...however that's about it. Once you get into the nightmare that is Netscape be prepared to deal with the LONGEST upload times ever (if you can even upload!). I once spent 4 hours attempting to upload a jpeg at 200 x 200 pixels and 72dpi. I was VERY disgusted. They have TERRIBLY slow servers...and their email takes almost 2 minutes to enter. Forget about customer support because it would appear there IS none. I've written to them on numerous occassions and it would appear I have been abandoned on the internet...or perhaps their servers are THAT slow that they have not recieved my mail as of yet.who the heck knows... Continued below --

Spree.com - Strange place but I've not much experience with its "linking" to side. It allows you unlimited space but you must allow them to place their ugly green and gold logo on your MAIN page and whatever adds it may have attached to it. They use those pop up ads as does Tripod and Geocities and I think xoom (don't recall see earlier post regarding why I left them). Spree signs you up in a program where you can make money from people coming and buying via your site. Possible good place to check out but I know their policy is to NOT have people using them as storage. Crosswinds - So far as of this date ok. The best thing I've found with them is that they literally don't care one way or another if you place a link to them or not! You don't have to put ugly ads on your pages and you definitely do not have to join a cult to be one of them. They get all of their money via their main join up page where they place all of their ads (sounds funny to me...that one lil' page could generate so much cash for them..hmm..maybe it's a mob front..haha) One thing I have noticed is that they also place tons of ads in their members pages (where you create your pages) which sorta stinks because it screws with you trying to upload things to them. The pages are bogged down and if your putting up zipped files it could cause a problem. They offer UNLIMITED space. One important thing to remember however is that they don't have ANY fancy templates (if they do I didn't see them) you've got to know html because that's the only way to input and create pages. They also apparently do not allow you to link to the funstuff section. UG! Continued below --

(this is it I promise haha) Well that should keep you busy for a while...one thing to remember. Unless your site is going to be pulling some serious bandwidth you should really think about if you want to go with an unlimited space site. Because it's unlimited that would mean other sites could make your site slow to visitors because they might pull more traffic than yours. Something to consider. hope that helps... PAN~ Still searching for the perfect FREE site.

Hi Folks! DEL and Pan--thanx for the info, and please keep us informed. I've begun a search for a host so I can start posting my images on The Poser Forum, and I'd appreciate any more advice y'all can offer. Peter (Dr. Zik)

Okay so I found out that whatever the last graphic file to load on the page for uploading files to my website was crashing my system. so I turned all the multimedia off in my browser and wah-laa, sort-of I've got to use an FTP program to upload or edit and as of yet have not been able to get through.....

If you go to the main page of the forum, you see a list of sites that offer free space.

Yes Willow, I looked there before I posted this message. But to be honest the list is not much good without at least a little info to back up those sites. There are so many shortcomings in a free site and many of those aren't visible from the front end. I did get my site up tonight but for some reason my links won't work. I'm going to continue to pound away at this until i've got bloody fist or until the blasted thing does what I want it to do! I would like to thank everyone who took the time to reply, I appreciate the effort sincerely DEL

Crosswinds: correct me if i'm wrong, pan, but doesnt crosswinds have a policy that all your files must be on display for your site, and not just remotely linked? (um.. but i suppose, if you have a downloads page for them and remote links, that'd be okay?) you also need to inform them about the copyright ownerships of any/all images; they are VERY strict on copyright issues. and, as always, you can check www.thefreesite.com for a list (with quick descriptions and some comments) of free web hosts. (and free graphics programs, and free html editors, and everything else you can think of.)

No correction needed! You are right..they don't allow you to link to other places. That also sucks! UPDATE! Netscape REALLY stinks! For those of you considering a site there...(and sadly my most visited site is there) DON'T YOU DO IT! They do not allow the freedoms you get when using other hosts' templates. For example at tripod you can use their templates and what little html you know to customize your page. At Netscape it's either html or their template but not both. If you attempt to mix and match be prepared to have their server treat you like a rogue virus! It will boot you or worse make files appear and disappear right before your very eyes. TRULY a disgrace to the name Netscape. By the way..don't believe the hype about "join us and we shall send you a FREE netscape navigator cd" they already owe me TWO! WHERE is it people? WHERE IS IT!!? PAN~

This comes up almost every single month. If anyone would care to make a page of sites along with review of site - allows remote links, ftp access, etc. let me know and I'll make a place for it.

Here are some sites that provide lists of hosting services, both free and commercial: http://www.freewebspace.net/ http://www.thefreesite.com/freewebpages.htm http://webhostlist.internetlist.com/screens/toplists/main.asp http://www.hostinvestigator.com/go.asp