How to Host Your Own Website for Free

Free website hosting is a great option for a website with low traffic, such as a personal website, or for those of us who aren’t tech savvy and just want a free and easy way to put a website online

Steps

Free 3rd Party Hosting Services
Below is a list of legitimate services, offering free website building and hosting. Most services offer a variety of professional themes to choose from or the option to customize a theme by changing colors, fonts, and images. Each service has their specific pros and cons. Do a Google search for specific advantages and limitations before deciding on the best option for you.

• Pros of using the below services include:
  
  • Free hosting and support
  • Easy to set-up and manage
  • DIY tools
  • Professional looking templates/themes
  • Automatic backups
  • Built-in security features
• Cons of using the below services include:
  
  • Advertisements on your website
  • Limited customization of templates/themes
  • You will not have your own domain name
  • Limited space and bandwidth

1. Wordpress
   
   • Wordpress.com isn’t just a blog. You can build and host an entire website for free, and there are many professional looking templates to choose from.
   • Check out what features you get with a free Wordpress account: http://en.wordpress.com/features/
   • Sign up for a free blog: https://en.wordpress.com/signup/. All you need is an email address.
   • You will need to activate your email address to get started with building your website.
   • Visit the support page, which gives you directions on how to set up a website: http://en.support.wordpress.com/
2. Weebly
   
   • Named one of TIME’s 50 Best Websites of 2007, Weebly is a drag and drop website builder. If you’re a visual person, this is a great choice for you.
   • Do a Google search for 'Weebly' to find the website.
   • Check out the features to see if this service would be a good match for your needs.
   • Sign up and follow the directions to get started.
3. Google Sites
   
   • Google Sites is another easy-to-use, free website builder and host. All you need to set it up is a Google account.
   • Here is an overview of features: http://www.google.com/sites/help/intl/en/overview.html
   • Once you have a Google account, it’s easy to get started: http://sites.google.com
4. Web Hosting Services
   
   • Some hosting companies offer free hosting, in addition to their paid services. Do your research on the best service to use and keep in mind that your space and bandwidth will be limited.

Hosting on Your Own Computer (Windows)

1. Make sure that your plan with your ISP permits you to host a website. Many ISPs restrict users from doing so.
2. Open start-Click Run-type cmd-press OK- type ipconfig/all-press enter.
3. Write down the shown IP address,subnet mask,default gateway and DNS servers. You will need them for later.
4. Open up the network connections folder.
5. Right click the internet connection you use and select properties.
6. Scroll through that menu until you see Internet protocol. Highlight it and click properties. Keep the command prompt window open.
7. Click use the following IP address. If it is already checked, you do not need to continue until step 10.
8. Next enter the info you copied down, but the last digit of the IP address should be different than the one you copied down.
9. Click OK.
10. If you get a message saying IP address is already in the network, choose a different last number.
11. Go back to command prompt. Type in: ping www.yahoo.com If it came back as 'Reply from 67.195.160.76' or something similar, you're good to go. If it came back as 'Request timed out', contact your Internet Service Provider. Because this problem is the DNS servers. They will be able to tell you which DNS servers to use.
12. You have completed the first step which is to setup a static IP address. Please note: This usually requires a router to do. The reason being, you are just giving your router a static IP. If you do not have a router, you need to pay for a static IP from your ISP, or sign up for a free static DNS service. (This article doesn't really provide much help with hosting a site without a static IP address.)
13. Download Wampserver. Wampserver is good because it contains apache and automatically configures itself. Note: During installation it will ask for a server name. type "localhost" for the server name. You must type it exactly as shown here, but do not include the quotes. When asked for an email address, enter your email address.
14. To use Wampserver, create a folder in the www directory and save the files for your site in that folder.
15. The address for your site will be: yourstaticipaddress/yourfolderinthewwwdirectory/. Except if you signed up for a static DNS service.
16. Register a domain name and point it to the address to your site.

Warnings

• Note that if you host your website on your PC, the your site is likely to respond more slowly than traditionally-hosted sites.
• For self-hosted sites, your site will go down if you lose your internet connection, your computer loses power, or your system crashes.
• You usually get what you pay for. If a free hosting service or method seems too good to be true, it probably is.
• Not all advice on the Internet is legal or accurate. Unless you're a tech guru and know what to look for, stick to suggestions from reputable sources.

Things You'll Need

• A computer with an internet connection.
• A working email address.

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