Setup Your Own Free Personal Web Site

Oscar Sodani is a founder of Help2Go and owner of Help2Go Networks, an IT consulting firm in the Washington D.C. area. Oscar holds the CISSP certification as well as industry certifications from Microsoft, Cisco and Novell.

NOTE: This tutorial is out of date. Please see our new tutorial on creating a free web site. 

Have you ever wanted your own web site but don't know how to get started? In this tutorial, we investigate how to setup a free web site with one of the many services out there. If you're looking to post a resume or company brochure with a minimum of work, or if you're looking to get started with learning HTML, read on!

There are many free services out there that allow you to build your own web site and post it on their web server. There's one big catch, however: every page on your new web site will have advertisement banners on them, the revenue from which goes to the service. If you're looking to explore the world of web page design, but you don't want to shell out the $$$ for a web hosting service, then one of these free services is for you!

For this tutorial, we chose FreeServers.com. The ads they put on your site aren't nearly as annoying as the ones that Geocities uses, and FreeServers.com has a variety of ways you can edit your site.

The first thing to do is sign up, so head on over to www.FreeServers.com, and click on the images that says "Free". Next, choose the button that says "I want to use a FREE subdomain name", and enter the name (no spaces or weird characters) of your website. Also, choose one of the endings provided. For instance, I set up a site for myself, so I typed in "osc" in the first box, and I chose freehosting.net as my ending. Now, my new site's web address is http://osc.freehosting.net

The next screen can be confusing, because they're trying to sign you up for one of their pay services. Along the bottom of the screen is the Free service -- make sure you sign up for that one!

Next is the check-out page where you choose a username and password, and verify the package you chose. Make sure that the total listed is $0.00 Fill in the appropriate info, read over the terms of service and click the checkbox, and continue. Also make sure that you write down your username and password so you can remember it later!

Once that's processed, you'll see a button that says "Login to your site" -- now the fun begins!

After they try to sign you up for some mailing lists (uncheck all the boxes) and ask you to "upgrade" to a better service, you will finally reach your personal "Member Area". This is where you can actually build your web site.

If you have no knowledge of HTML, and have no desire to learn it, you can create a simple web site quickly and easily using pre-defined templates. These templates are simple designs with text you can update right in your web browser. If that's what you're interested in, click on "Build a Web Site".

If however, you know HTML and have already built yourself a web site on your own PC, you can copy it up to FreeServers.com by clicking on "Upload a Web Site".

In the coming days, Help2Go will publish some articles taking you through building a web page with HTML, step by step. In the meantime, play around with your new web site! If you have questions, post them to the Q&A Forum and we'll help you out. Have fun!

Have a question? Need help? Get free, friendly person-to-person help with your computer questions or spyware questions in our help forums!