Where can I get some web space?

   All right, now that you know just how the hell you make a web page, you want to show all that you can do to the world. But first you have to get some web space. Well, maybe your ISP ( internet service provider; you know, the company that you enrich with about 15-20$ worth of your valuable money every month.) offers free web space. In this case you better use it, since they're nothing more awful looking than a big piece of s*** at the top of your page. Then there are the free web hosts. There are companies out there that give you space for free, but they always put publicity in your page and that sucks. So I'm giving you the lowdown of all the free web hosts that I am aware of ( you can e-mail me if you know of any others), and giving them ratings based on different categories. By the way, when you get the space, DON'T erase the cgi or cgi-bin folders if there are any. Trust me on this one.

Angelfire:

• Owner: The Lycos Network
• URL type: https://www.angelfire.com/folder/usename/
• publicity type: pop-up boxes or embedded ads
• Features: Arcade games, Chat Room
• Space: 5 MB for starters, but you can ask for more until you reach 30 MB
• Transfer file type: text box, FTP or upload button
• Loading time for their site: OK
• Loading time for your site: OK
• SSI support: Full, through html and shtml extensions
• CGI support: None
• Worth mentioning: Ultra annoying PR s**t that consists of telling you: "Yo, dude, like, Britney Spears/The Backstreet Boys/Some other existential crap rocks, like, woah, is like, huh, way cool." I'm not even kidding you. For what kind of stupid, goddamned, mother f***ing dumbs**ts do they f***ing think we are? Is it me, or do advertisers and PR guys think that we, as teenagers, as a generation, are nothing but a bunch of brainless consumers that buy whatever the hell they're throwing at us? What the f*** is wrong with this country?

Bottom line: This has gone too far. I now hate officially Angelfire and am willing to say in each and everyone of my pages that they suck. Unfortunately, Angelfire is owned by the Lycos Network, and they also own Tripod, and well, I don't need to draw you a diagram, now do I? Rating: 0 out of 5

Friendpages:

• Owner: Friend Finder network
• URL type: http://username.friendpages.com
• publicity type: Bottom of the page banners
• Features: Free GuestBook, Polls page, Chat Room and Counter
• Space: 5 MB
• Transfer file type: text box and button upload.
• Loading time for their site: Great
• Loading time for your site: Not bad
• CGI support: None
• SSI support: None. Even though their own site is done through SSI (as evidenced by the .shtml extensions), they don't allow you to use it (I know, it pisses me off too.)
• Worth Mentioning: No way to make folders; chat room seems to work half the time in MSIE; server often down, although never as bad as, oh, say, javascripts.com (?); Site flawed: textbox for making HTML too big to fit in the allotted frame; Amateur community

Bottom line: Friendpages is a new comer in the biz and they give quite a good first impression: great features, and especially good URL. But there are so many things that need fixing, I can't recommend it at all. Rating: 1.5 out of 5.

Geocities:

• Owner: Yahoo!
• URL type: http://www.geocities.com/username/
• publicity type: pop-up box ( really annoying ) or banners.
• Features: Guestbook, Counter.
• Space: 15 MB
• Transfer file type: text box, FTP or button upload.
• Loading time for their site: Good
• Loading time for your site: Real bad sometimes...
• CGI support: None
• SSI support: None
• Worth Mentioning: Their site is never down, and absolutely unflawed as for programming.

Bottom line: In the world of free web space, Geocities has always been a classic. The URL's not bad, and you get a lot of space, but it's nothing really special. Rating: 3 out of 5.

Tripod:

• Owner: The Lycos Network
• URL type: http://username.tripod.com
• Publicity type: pop-up box or embedded ads (big and bulky...)
• Features: Chat Room, Gif Works, Arcade games
• Space: 11 MB
• Transfer file type: Textbox, FTP or upload button
• Loading time for their site: Good
• Loading time for your site: Great
• SSI support: Full (through html extensions)
• CGI support: Partial (but enough for common applications, e.g.: Guestbook, counter, link exchange programs, etc.)
• Worth Mentioning: Their site uses a ton of JavaScript, and therefore the creation process is much faster than with other sites that mostly use server-side applications (don't worry if you don't know what the hell I'm talking about...). It tends to cause bugs though when you do something before a whole page loads, but it's generally without much consequence.

Bottom line: Don't judge a book by its cover they say. Once again, the old adage is proven to be true, as Tripod's homepage is truly godawful looking (The Tripod logo is the ugliest piece of graphical PR that I have ever set my eyes upon), but the features inside are worth a second look. Although for the beginner not of particular interest, definitely worthwhile for the experienced. Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Xoom

• Owner: NBCi Network
• URL type: http://members.xoom.com/username/
• publicity type: They automatically load your site inside their set of frames, so you get an horizontal frame of about 40 pixels high in the top of the page.
• Features: Chat Room, Counter
• Space: Unlimited!!! (Although the site was a bit confusing on that...)
• Transfer file type: FTP only
• Loading time for their site: OK
• Loading time for your site: Great
• CGI support: Unknown
• SSI support: Unknown
• Worth mentioning: They have a media storage thing that allows you to store 500 megs worth of mp3's and other streaming media so you can share your stuff with the world.

Bottom line: Xoom's great but the FTP only thing just kills it for me. I'd recommend it only to people that have lots of downloads to share (.exe, mp3's, etc.). Rating: 3.5 out of 5

That's it! If you know of any other sites that I should take a look at, please e-mail me.