Seeing as I am the queen of plastering the Internet with my senseless web pages, I thought I would do a little review of all of the free web page providers I have encountered. This does not mean, however, that I have web pages at all of these places. It just means I checked it out when I was making my selection. I have seen a lot of good homepage providers, like Xplosion (5 MB, although e-mail upload is annoying) and Earth Online (6 MB, FTP upload) that do not offer file managers, but I decided to just include the ones that do.

Tripod - ****1/2 out of a possible 5 stars
This is just my favorite. My main homepage is located here. You get 3 MB of free space and if you need any more than that you buy a premium membership (which also entitles you to your very own chat room). It used to be 2 MB of free space. Perhaps trying to keep up with the competition?

You have the option of using a basic editor, which lays out all of the sections of your page for you and gives you tasteful �colour palettes� to choose from, of an advanced HTML editor.

You can upload files using FTP or your browser. Files upload quicker than with a place like Geocities, presumably because Tripod is not overwhelmed with users.

My favorite thing about Tripod is that the technical support is great. I had a problem with my own homepage and one of the support guys e-mailed me back THE SAME DAY. I e-mailed him back saying �Wow, I can�t believe you got back to me so fast.� He e-mailed me back saying �Thank you.�

Everyone who works at Tripod seems to be cool. The advertising for their programs are hilarious and the newsletters are entertaining. If you�re a member you can be a part of a pod and during pod chats the pod leaders, who are Tripod staff members, chat with the members. It�s just neat, that�s all. You don�t get that feeling that no one is on the other end of the process.

One thing I don�t like about Tripod is that advertising appears in the form of a pop-up box. For people with slower computers, the pop-up box is a pain. The pop-up box features an entire, data-intensive page, rather than just a banner at a place like Geocities.

With your Tripod page you can have an answering machine, a counter and a guestbook, although their guestbooks have no space for you to include your URL when you�re signing them.

When you get a page at Tripod, your URL is members.tripod.com/~username. Fairly simple.

Geocities - ****
This is the most popular and it�s easy to see why because it�s neat to be able to pick your city and address. I don�t know about you, but I could sit around and do that all day. When you�re browsing through Geocities you can click on addresses in little blocks and see a homepage.

Geocities provides you with 3 MB of free space. For more, you have to get Geoplus, which allows you 10 MB, a custom URL (www.geocities.com/~username) and a bunch of other stuff.

Geocities also has counters, forms and guestbooks, and you can customize your guestbook to include up to nine fields of whatever you want the signer to answer. You also get a forwarding e-mail address of [email protected].

Upload is FTP and browser and the upload is pretty quick, although there are certain times when the server is so busy that it takes forever.

As mentioned above, there�s a nasty pop-up box. It shows up on the front page of your web site and inside is an ad banner.

Geocities has a lot of neat features, not only if you�re making a homepage but if you�re just cruising through it, and because of its popularity some of the best pages on the web are here. Because of the popularity, however, I do not recommend editing your homepage around, say, 8 p.m. in the middle of the week. The server will be so busy that you won�t get anything done.

WBS - ** 1/2
WBS is the best provider for beginners. The editor is very basic, with pull-down bars for colors and buttons to click for everything. Your URL will be a pain in the ass - members.wbs.net/homepages/u/s/e/username.html. Any more than one page and you�re going to have to build it yourself and upload.

It�s got browser upload that doesn�t always work that well and you get 100 kb of free space, which isn�t much if you want your homepage to be anything more than �my favorite links.�

There is no advertising, which is nice, although they do put a WBS banner at the bottom of your page.

Good things about WBS: it�s quick and easy, you get a web-based e-mail account and access to more chat rooms than you can shake a stick at.

Mainquad - **
Mainquad is a provider that tries hard to be cool. When you go to make your page, it says something like �why don�t you be funky and groove some code.� It�s sponsored by a student organization so it�s got tons of student advertising (none, however, on your page) and the Mainquad site is full of cartoons of globes and students carrying books, like in the free day planners you got in high school.

You can be alumni, or you can lie, so anyone can use it really. You get 200 kb of free space, browser upload and advanced or basic homepage editors.

Userworld - ***
Userworld gives you 2 MB of free space and browser upload. It�s not a bad place. It�s got step-by-step tutorials on how to build a page, although if you use them pretty soon you will have so many frames filling up your screen that you won�t know where to go.

You don�t get to pick your own user name. For example, if your name is Joe Brown, your URL would be www.userworld.com/user/jbrown. There would also be no advertising on your page.

Xoom - ***
Xoom has lots of resources for you when you�re making your page, like animated gifs and stuff like that. Advertising is in the form of a link, upload is FTP or browser and you get 5 MB of space. So that�s nice. It�s also got an advanced and basic editor.

Your URL would be members.xoom.com/username.

Angelfire - **
Angelfire is a fine service, I suppose, but they have just pissed me off one too many times. I was having a hairy experience with my homepage and I kept e-mailing for support and all they did was keep blitzing me the FAQ. (And no, my problem was not addressed in the FAQ.) I finally got a human being to e-mail me but the last time I heard from him was around December and my page expired.

You get 200 kb of space, no advertising on your page, basic editor (but you can do your own HTML if you so desire) and a counter. Your URL is www.angelfire.com/state initials/username. (If you don�t live in the US, you still have to pick a state. ETHNOCENTRISM!)

One thing that did not work so well, for me and at least one other person I know, is the upload. You can use FTP or browser and either way I found that the images only partly uploaded. Not only that, but it�s a bit of a complicated process. You send your file to the main Angelfire directory, where it sits with about 100 other files from other people uploading at the same time. It sits there for 15 minutes and during that time you have to activate your file to pull it out of the main directory. Activating it doesn�t always work on the first try and occasionally you can�t get it done in 15 minutes and your file disappears.

Razor Burn used to be there but we were running out of space and the file upload was a pain. But maybe it will work for you. I don�t know.

Fortunecity - ***
Ten MB, FTP and browser upload, advanced and basic editor. The pages you have to go through to edit your homepage take a long time to load. Counter, form, date, time, guestbook. Busy server, but it�s awfully nice to have 10 free MB. Your URL is www.fortunecity.com/neighbourhood/suburb/number. I refuse to say more on the grounds that they might read it and remove our e-zine. hahahaha. So I�ll say what I�m really thinking backwards: enolc seiticoeg.

All of this information may not be 100 per cent correct. It�s just based on my observations and my memory.

Samantha Craggs thinks she knows everything.