Our First Subject in the Search for Free Hosts

The very site that I tried in my search for a useful free web host was

ATSPACE,
http://www.atspace.com

They looked like they were worth a try, but several warning signs quickly appeared. On the very first page, you'll find google ads - for other hosting companies.

(I'm going to place google ads on this blog, but it's the only way that I might eventually earn a few dollars for the writing I'll do here - and it won't pay off unless I get many thousands of visits. This blog is not a the site of a hosting company, and doesn't pretend!)

If a company is serious provider of web hosting, do you think they would have randomly chosen google ads right at the top of their home page? You'll see this type of thing with "free website hosting offers", just as you will see it in most contexts of "free" offers on the web, and it will raise your eyebrows if you've tried any of them.

I decided to let them slide, and continued. Each step of the way I was presented with offers to buy related services at rates higher than market rates. You wouldn't realize this unless you had some experience as a "webmaster", and each of the products is described in glowing terms. They attempt to educate you on each them, but remember this is not an educational or non-profit site. Their point is to educate you to buy their products.

But the product is free, so I headed straight for the order form, which isn't too hard to find. It has VISA, Mastercard, and PayPal logos on it just like the forms for their non-free services. Some of these companies will ask you for a card number or PayPal ID even if your order is free. Some are honest, and others will blatantly abuse the information you give them. The crooked ones know that it will be at least many months before they are investigated, even if they blatantly defraud you. Do you know who these people are, or where they are located? I couldn't find an address, but I tried the order form for the sake of this review, and it didn't work in the Mozilla browser - although i tried 3 different versions.

Why the Mozilla browser? It's at least 10 times more likely to protect your computer from invasive programs on the web than Microsoft Internet Explorer. Most sites work perfectly in Mozilla. It is odd for a business to have an order form that does not work in Mozilla.

I then noticed "ZETTA Hosting Solutions" on the footer of the order form.
Here is a pattern common to so many free hosting offers - which are actually multi-level marketing schemes, thinly disguised. Rather than place this computer at risk by using a browser that would access the order form for "ATSPACE", I decided to try my luck with ZETTA Hosting. Perhaps this is the real source of the product advertised by ATSPACE. We'll find out soon ...