What's the catch??

[matauri]

You see them from time to time, free web hosting, or specials giving time periods of free hosting. Now I am pretty skeptical, I always think there is a catch if someone is offering something for free.

Now all of a sudden I am getting emails off friends telling me about this great web hosting.. FREE for 3 years, no commitment, Google adword vouchers, etc. They are all signing up for this 'freebie'.

I don't have time to do much research into it, so I am inviting anyone to find "the catch".

Am I being a pessimist in wanting to tell them that "no such thing is free" ? Or have they found one of those rare finds that is free? You be the judge.

http://www.1and1.com?ac=030061P




Cindy

[Sualdam]

The 'catch' is almost invariably 'support' - or rather, lack of it.

There's also the unanswerable question of longevity - how long will they be around once people realise there is bad support, and after a potentially bad business plan fails.

I usually find that you get what you pay for, so if you pay nothing... ;)

What I've found with cheap hosts is that they come across as huge businesses, advertising massive amounts of space and bandwidth, but you find out after one or two calls to support that they are staffed by a handful of people, most of whom are not technical support.

They try to help, but if one of them is on a sickie, or if there's a big server problem (that never happens, right?), any problems you might be having pale into insignificance.

It's a gamble. If it's free, what have you got to lose? Just make sure you have backup space if anything bad happens - and don't let them get hold of the domain tags.

[matauri]

So for private sites you would say its pretty harmless, but not such a good idea for Prof sites ?


Cindy

[Sualdam]

No recommendation one way or the other, since it depends on the actual company concerned.

It would be OK for a pro site as long as it didn't go down on you. If there is an enhanced risk of that, one could argue that it isn't a pro site. But as I say, what have you got to lose if it's free?

As an additional precaution, don't transfer your domain to them. If they fold you could have trouble getting it back!

[minstrel]

This ad came up in another thread (I forget which one) and as I said there - I first heard about this in a large PCWorld ad (this month's edition). The ads claim that they have been around for several years hosting for major players and are now trying to move into the individual/small business hosting realm. Hence, the offer...

I admit that I too am suspicious of anyone who tells me they're going to give me anything for free, but once in a while it turns out it really is free.

One thing in their favor: If they're shelling out the cash for a full page (or it might have been a two-page) full colour spread in PCWorld, this is not your typical email spammer...

Has anyone looked at the website? Do their claims seem legitimate?

[Markll]

I signed up for the offer and it seems pretty good.

http://mtheoryit.com

[minstrel]

I signed up for the offer and it seems pretty good.

http://mtheoryit.com
Interesting page... what is it? Is this your site/page? Is it hosted by those 1and1 guys?

[Markll]

The page is hosted by 1&1.

The page is basically a place holder for a website that will be used to promote a software package my company is working on for small to mediun sized business that will completely eliminate spam and virus threats.

Pardon the blatant plug.

[robsaari]

I did some digging, and while I too am suspicious of getting something for nothing, I think this is simply 1and1's attempt to break into the U.S. web-hosting market--they want you to be so pleased that you continue to host with them after three years. They're an established company in Europe, known for inexpensive web hosting. See the article at
http://www.microsoft.com/portugal/windowsserver2003/evaluation/casestudies/CaseStudy.aspx?CaseStudyID=13696

[godzilla]

Sfter a search on Google(we all love this engine, right???)

I found out that this company has a very strong presence in UK(http://oneandone.co.uk/xml/static/news;jsessionid=B417C3C2E1623FC05915739E1C800526.T C31a?__frame=_top) and in Germany.

Here is also another site(http://thewhir.com/marketwatch/1and1111003.cfm) showing that "according to the company" they are the largest int he world hosting enterprise and that they just became No1 in UK.
Finally, the visit to their page revealed nothing because any sceptic may say that what they say is not true. Though they simply state the offers and seem to be very strict onr egulations.

It seems, that in this case those guys are really trully offering free and good service.