Comic Genesis Forums

This isn't related to Keenspace, but does anyone know of a *****FREE****** server that has at least 20 megs of space, PHP and CGI?

I think Spaceports... http://www.spaceports.com

All the servers that have been offering free space are either killing their free accounts or have put horrible caps on them (500MB transfer per month, or 100MB/day, or a very small chunk of bandwidth (less than 50KB/sec))

Not what I wanted to hear, Kisai...

Well the ad-revenue model collapsed in on itself, just about all the free sites were either ad-based revenue models or were subsizied some other way.

Site that were at one time "good" (geocities, angelfire, tripod, xoom) have the worst case examples of ad-revenue model going belly up. The ads interfere with the operation of the page, ultimately making people go elsewhere.

spaceports was nice till they started forcing ads. Now it's absurd.

F2S was nice, but they have killed free service.

Brinkster looked promising, but they have a bandwidth cap.

One of the key isses with free sites is that they have disabled "direct linking" because of abuse by pirates circumventing the ad revenue model. So this also kills ligitimite use of direct linking (avatars and banners.) And legally direct linking can be a criminal act of stealing bandwidth (don't ask how, some other legal beeswax that only lawyers understand.)

Ultimately there is little that you can use for comics.

Keenspace has CGI-BIN, but technically you shouldn't need to use it (This is a comic community, what are you going to use a script for?)

"We don't allow php at all right now, but will offer it on KeenSpacePRIME (our soon to debut pay service) along with MySQL."
(verbatium quote from nate)

The main concern with Keenspace is bandwidth hijacking (much like all other free hosting providers) which is why there is a 6-8 week waiting period (makes potential bandwidth pirates go away.)

This is why mp3's, zip files, and whatever else is not allowed unless explicitly related to the comic material. If it's not linked somewhere, it's considered stealth storage abuse. We don't really care if you put of a photo of yourself or your pets, or have an entire photoalbum between comics, as long as that it's linked somewhere. We don't care if you put up an mp3/ogg file of you singing something original. But the straw-breaking-the-camels-back point is when people disproportionately use their space between comic and non-comic related material (which we can check BTW.)

Everyone has to understand that the reason keenspace remains free is because some of the non-automated functionality behind keenspace is what is keeping it free. The ads are required to generate some income to recoup the cost of bandwidth, and when you use your storage space for other means that doesn't show the ad (or simply large files) it deprives keenspace of the ad revenue.

ISP storage is pretty much free, under their conditions, however certain companies (like cable companies) don't offer any support service and no cgi-bin or php. They can afford to do this because YOU are paying for it. Some better ISP's (usually phone companies or ISP's that have pay hosting also available) do have cgi-bin. PHP is a rare find and usually only shows up on newer (within the last 2 years) Unix servers. Most ISP's having been operating longer than 2 years, so that's why it's rare to find.

ISP storage is generally immune to bandwidth highjacking because it's traced back to the customer. Free hosting providers don't have the means or the money to chase after bandwidth hijackers.