Here’s a list of websites I’ve found incredibly useful. They may come in handy for you, too.
Free Web Hosting
WordPress.com - WordPress.com may only host blogs (though you can download the same software for your own hosting), but damn, do they give you some nice stuff. Not only do you benefit from the power of a WordPress blog, but you are also linked in to the greater WordPress community. Definitely worth it if you’re looking for a free blog that’s not Xanga or LiveJournal.
Lifelesspeople.com - L2P is the best free hosting provider I have ever come across, and I’m not just saying that because they hosted me for a while. Packages start at 250MB storage and 5GB of bandwidth. The only thing you need to do is post on their forums to gain points to use towards hosting. It’s not as hard as you would think. Five stars and a biscuit for L2P.
Picture Storage
Photobucket - I personally use Photobucket because it was the first free picture host I ever found. And it is a nice deal. You get your own album, with unlimited sub-albums, 1GB of storage, 10GB monthly bandwidth…all for free! There’s a one megabyte file size limit and a 1024×768 dimensions limit, both of which can be upgraded (to 2 MB and 2240×1680) for $25 a year.
Flickr - Yahoo’s venture into the photo-sharing world. Flickr uses state-of-the-art Ajax to put tags on pictures that appear when you mouse over them as well as all sorts of customizations. For the free account, you get a 20MB a month upload limit. And if you shell out $24.95 a year, you get a lot more (think unlimited storage and no ads). Definitely the one to pick if you like to share your pictures.
ImageShack - Definitely easier to use than the others, ImageShack lets you just upload your pictures and then hands you a link. If you register (it’s free, don’t worry), you can keep track of uploaded images. There’s a 1.5 megabyte limit on pictures, though. Anything larger will be resized.
FreeImageHosting.net - This service is a lot like ImageShack, but with a 2500 KB limit on uploads (that’s roughly 2.4 megabytes). 100% free just like the rest.
Webmail
Gmail - By far the best web-based email I have ever used. Just recently opened for everyone to join (though it’s still, inexplicably, in beta), they’ve got great spam protection, excellent features such as Google Talk integration and POP3 access, and best of all, over 2,800 megabytes of storage…and counting. Definitely the choice for the discriminating web emailer.
Live Hotmail - I’ve used Hotmail quite a bit, and it’s nothing to shake a stick at. 2 GB of storage with minimum ads and decent virus and spam protection. It has a nice drag-and-drop interface like Outlook, which can be taxing on slower Internet connections, but pretty to look at. Don’t worry, there’s a lo-fi, classic Hotmail version for you dial-up users.
Yahoo! Mail - If you’ve got a Yahoo ID, you’ve got their mail. It’s nothing special, but it does give you 1 gigabyte of storage. It’s starting to look a lot like Live Hotmail, if you ask me. It also links into Yahoo! Messenger, so you can chat with your contacts while checking your mail.
Mail.com - They claim to be “the best personalized free web-based email,” which is more or less true. I’ve yet to find another free webmail service that let’s you pick both sides of the @ sign. When you sign up, you get to choose from hundreds of addresses. So instead of you@mail.com, you could get you@hot-shot.com, or you@mad-scientist.com, or something like that. Annoying ads, though, and minimal storage.
