Most people use freewebs as a starting point for their websites. Freewebs offer a very simple service, one that only supports html. Their easy to use control panel is user friendly, and is ideal for newbies at the web.
But quite recently, freewebs have started displaying a banner across the top of its user's pages. Are freewebs digging their own grave? I mean, for the services the provide, 5mb of space, only 50 files per user space, and the biggest crime of all, a homepage that isn't compatible with Norton's adblocker, (with the adblocker enabled the page appears to be scrambled near the bottom, [caused by the page relying on the advert to extend the main content down], which, for a web hosting company, isn't all that encouraging for potential users) why would you choose them?
The good points are that freewbs are well known, easy to use, and offer a simple way of making websites for free. The bad points are that they only offer a limited amount of server space, a limited amount of files, they do not support php or sql databases, and they now display an unsightly banner across the user's website.
If you are looking for a free host that supports php and sql databases, you are going to have to look hard! 110mb.com provides good service, and so does awardspace.com. awardspace.com is the most customisable, and has most of the features that you would expect from a paid for web host, except your own .htaccess support. 110mb.com gives you 110mb of space, (in case you didn't guess) but can be upgraded to 750mb quite easily. This service fully supports php and sql databases, and has phpmyadmin ready for you to view and backup your databases.
But, if you want a good host, its best to pay for one. If you are really serious about your website, and that it is critical that your server does not have any downtime, you should start looking for a good one. Mediatemple is a good one, it may be slightly expensive, but it seems to be an excelent host.
If you have the time, you may want your own webserver. You will have to be an expert to use one of these, as they are not easy to use, and you will have to have a lot of time on your hands to maintain one. A lot of stress comes with your own server, and you will find out the hard way that a professional host is much better.
Freewebs.com - Who actually uses them? Well, the answer to that question is most people. Freewebs is well known for offering simple, free web hosting for people who are new to the web. I personnally used to use them, untill I learnt about php, and wordpress, and hopefully I will learn a lot more in the future.
