So let's begin with defining some of basic terms that are commonly thrown around when looking for a web host. You'll quickly realize that computer geeks like using big words for simple concepts. What do you expect from a group of people that decided to call half a Byte a Nibble?

Web Host: These are people that supply your website with somewhere to sit and be accessed from. They're often a wealth of information, so when you're trying to find your feet it will often be worthwhile to contact their tech support and get your questions answered. Because of this, it's important to contact them BEFORE you sign up for any packages to ensure that you'll receive a timely response. Just fire an email their way and see what happens.

Disk Space: This is same as space on your own PC's hard drive. Web Hosts will allocate a certain amount of space to your website, usually in Megabytes (MB) or gigabytes (GB). This determines how much you can store on your site.

Bandwidth: Bandwidth is amount of data that can be retrieved from your site within bandwidth period. The bandwidth period is length of time before your bandwidth gets reset once again, usually about a month. Bandwidth is measured in MB and GB, like disk space. Always find out consequences of exceeding your allocated bandwidth before you purchase a hosting package.

Domain Name: The domain name is your personal identifier on Internet. This is what gets typed into a web browser's address bar to reach your site. Some hosting companies will offer a domain for free, while others will have facilities to provide one for a minimal cost.

SQL (MySQL, SQL Server etc.): Structured Query Language. This is language used to interact with databases. Chances are that if you don't know about it when you start looking for web hosting, you're not going to need to know about it for at least a little while longer.

I must admit offer of free hosting does have major appeal however, rarely is something of value given away for nothing. At first glance, free hosting sounds like a good deal! Upon closer inspection, you'll find close to 100% of them not suitable for a business website at all.

Before getting one of free hosting packages, person needs to have a specific idea what website is going to be used for. Is it personal or for business?

If it's a personal website that's going to be used to post family newsletter, photographs and so on, it's a perfectly good use of one. On other hand, if it's a website built for commercial purposes, free hosting packages are of limited utility to a business operation.

Most of well documented opposition to free websites invariably mentions use of very long URL's as one of main examples but there are more fundamental reasons you shouldn't ever use a free website as your main business website.

Most business websites will need advanced mail handling and script hosting capabilities not offered by free web hosting accounts. As your business grows and you realize need for above, your step onto next business level is severely hampered.

These are services most Internet businesses need that are not provided by free hosting packages:

CGI Scripting PHP Scripting Autoresponders MySQL Databases