Personal Websites

Personal websites are normally hosted through an ISP or web portal. In the case of an ISP, your monthly service fee may include free web space to host a personal website. The website is hosted on the ISP's server, so your web address would likely include the ISP's name, for example, www.ISPname/yourname.com. It should be noted the URL naming convention differs greatly among ISPs. The features of a personal website (web space, bandwidth, disk space) also vary, but are usually more than enough for private purposes. At the other end we have personal websites provided by web portals (and web hosting companies) such as Yahoo! (via Geocities) and Lycos (via Tripod). These personal websites are usually free. However there are restrictions - limited web space, disk space and bandwidth. And the web company can post advertisements on your website. However there are benefits, such as free design templates, file management applications and other tools. To many people the pros outweigh the cons; free is still free.