In light of recent experiences with both email and web server cutbacks, I figured now is a good time for this particular topic.
Every person who uses the internet may have noticed this recently in some way or another. Perhaps it is an increase in monthly fees to access the net, or email boxes cutting space or requiring montly fees for service, and even now, web site builders are feeling the wrath as well. Popular "once free" locations such as Yahoo/GeoCities and Tripod are now limiting the amount of space, bandwidth, and options available to their free sites. This is an epidemic that is going to only worsen.
Web site servers and email providers will give you the reason that it is cost. It takes money to give server space,etc. to websites and emails. The equipment, energy,etc. must be maintained and costs money too. All that is fully understandable. They used to say that they could offer free stuff since the advertisers paid for ad space on their sites,etc. Well, now, they realize that more people find the banner ads and popups more annoying than worthwhile and the advertisers have ended up wasting money. So, now what was once free is now becoming pay as providers try to find a way to still offer services, yet still remain in business with a profit. Everything's about money now. And yes, perhaps one can understand their perspective, but to take away what was already free isn't really the answer is it? Take Tripod for instance. It once offered 50MB of server space for free. Now, it's going to hack that to less than half, down to 20MB. If you had a site on their server and are over that new 20MB limit, then you must remove stuff or have it done for you. I can understand new accounts having to follow that limit, but sites that have been loyally there for years and were given 50MB's to use over those years?! C'mon, that isn't fair! Users are now getting punished for their loyal service to a company. Even those sites that are popular and get lots of hits suffer the wrath of bandwidth limits. Wouldn't a company want popular sites so its name, which is often in its subdomain, is broadcast to several viewers for free?! Servers who don't punish and rather reward popular sites and increase space rather than decrease space may perhaps get better publicity and word-of-mouth by its users too. Users may refer others to those places, praising good service and products. Even if it's free, the good publicity, that's often given for free, is a very smart business move. I often supported and referred visitors to companies such as Tripod. Not anymore. I now suggest visitors to stay away from such places as they have now become money mongers.
Internet service providers have also increased their prices. Dial-up, DSL, or cable, all seem to increase rates regularly. While there's little we can do about these, we can always voice our concerns about it to government or business bureaus. Sometimes these increases are called price gauging or fleecing and are illegal if a company can't give good reasons why it increased prices its to consumers. Energy companies like Enron are just such an example and even cable giant Time Warner has had to pay back customers due to it over-charging for services. So it's always good to be alert and speak up of you feel something is getting too costly too fast. With the failure of many dot-coms and the net's bubble being busted, there's a good chance that anything on the internet could become price gauged and fleece us supposedly ignorant consumers out of money we shouldn't need to be paying.
But, don't despair, FREE isn't totally gone from the net or limited to death. Here's a couple of links to places that list free web servers,etc. Based off the amount of space you may require or bandwidth, you can search these databases for the one best suited to your needs and even visit the prospective server choices through their direct links provided.
These are just a few of helpful places that I discovered as I searched for a new free home for this website.
Domain registering,etc. are also getting cheaper rather than pricier. Many servers offer discounts or free registering if you make them your home for your website. Granted, many charge monthly or one-time setup fees, but compared to what was out there just a year or so ago, these server hosts are getting cheaper rather than more expensive. That's a good thing.
If we don't support our "free" stuff on the net, then just about everything we do on the net will be pay. We could end up paying for every email we get, every web site we wish to visit, every upload or download we wish to attain. Companies are getting greedy and seeking out desperate money. Only the vigilance and defiance of consumers such as you or I and in mass numbers will keep these companies in check and honest.