Basics

I really shouldn't have to say this, but I'll include it for the benefit of those who don't know this already. DO NOT give your password to anyone! Even if they say that they are from ProHosting. If someone says they are from ProHosting and they need your password, they are full of crap. Employees of ProHosting that have a legitimate need to access your account can already do so. If they are asking you for it, it's not for something good. This goes the same for any service on the Internet.

Web hosting is a service where you can store web sites so people can view them on the Internet. ProHosting is a company that offers these web hosting accounts. They have two web hosting services, one is free, and one isn't. As you might expect, you get more for the paid accounts then you do for the free ones. This FAQ is for the free site, although some information here might help with paid accounts. If you want more info on the paid service or need help with those accounts, go to the official site at www.prohosting.com.

If you need help creating your site, see Where can I find out about creating web pages and graphics? below.

The short answer is: They'll tell you.

If you just registered for an account, then it shouldn't take more then 24 hours to be notified that your account is active.

Once your account is created, you will get an e-mail from ProHosting sent to the e-mail address you registered with. The e-mail includes your username and password, which you use to FTP files to your directory. The e-mail also includes the URL that you should use to access your pages from your web browser.

You can also go to the Account Administration page and enter the username and password that you registered with and it will tell you: your username, your name, the e-mail address that you registered with, your FTP hostname, your home directory, and your URL. Or it will tell you if you don't have an account.

Well, when you first registered for an account, it should have been in the e-mail message from ProHosting, and you should've kept that somewhere. If you threw it out or lost it, go to the Account Administration page and follow the instructions.

If you lost your username, you can simply sign up for a new account. Hopefully, you have your own copies of all your files on your own computer, because if not, you're out of luck. Don't worry about the old account. It will be removed eventually.

Go to the Account Administration page and follow the "(Forgot your password?)" link. Or send e-mail to webmaster@free.prohosting.com, which will probably get you an e-mail telling you to go to the Account Administration.

I DO NOT work for ProHosting, so I cannot create accounts, check/change passwords, or do any other administrative stuff for you, so please don't e-mail me asking me to.

Usernames and passwords are case sensitive. If you know your typing in your username and password exactly correctly, in the correct case, your account may not have been created yet (see "How do I know if / when my account is active?"). If you got the e-mail saying your account was ready, and you're typing the username and password correctly, then there could be a problem with the web server. Make sure that you are connecting to the correct machine: "thunder", "thor", etc. (see "What is my URL?").

The machine your account is on will be mentioned in the welcome e-mail sent by you. If you visit your URL and see a page that says "Congratulations! This is your new web site!", (or something to that effect), then your account is ready and you can FTP files to it. If it says "Not Found", or some similar message, your account is not yet active.

Also, you can log in to the Account Administration page, with the username and password that you registered with, and it will tell you: your username, your name, the e-mail address that you registered with, your FTP hostname, your home directory, and your URL. Or it will tell you if you don't have an account.

Your URL will be one of the following: (Notice a theme?)

"username" being the username you signed up with. Example: I used "sampieri" as my username and my account is on "thunder", so my URL is "http://thunder.prohosting.com/~sampieri/".

Why are there different URLs? There are that many different machines being used for the free web hosting service. Your account is only going to be on one of those machines.

There is also an alternate URL you can use to access your ProHosting account:

The only disadvantage to this is it will display a special ad page for a few seconds before redirecting to your actual site. As far as I know, you can use this URL regardless of which machine your account is on.

No. But the paid service offers that.

The "~" (tildé) in a URL is a shortcut for the default path on a server. In the case of ProHosting, the "~" represents the path "/usr/home/", so typing "/~username/" is equivalent to saying "/usr/home/username/html/". However, you can't actually browse your pages by using the "/usr/home/username/html/" path, because "/usr/home/" is not really a path that is under the root directory of the server. This is just how web servers are set up.

The tildé might not be needed on some machines, so test your URL to find out.

The default page is the page that is sent to the browser if you only specify a directory. When you browse a web site by going to "www.something.com", the web server sends the default page. The default page can be named any of the following:

1. index.html
2. index.htm
3. index.shtml

These are listed in order of use. If you have files with each of these names, the first one in this list would come first.

Unfortunately, "index.php" doesn't work as a default page (at least not on "thunder"). However, you should also be able to use an "index.cgi" file in the "cgi-bin" directory (used to work, at least).

This means that the server is down or you have a bad network connection. You'll have to try back later.

If it is a problem with ProHosting's server, I guarantee that they know about it long before you do, and are doing what needs to be done to fix it. If it's something wrong somewhere else, there's nothing you can do but wait it out. That is just the way of the Internet.

The official content guidelines are posted here: Acceptable Use Policy.

Basically, you can't have any x-rated materials (no porn, nudity, etc.) and no warez/appz/gamez/serialz (sites offering hacked or illegal copies of commercial software or serial numbers for free) or hacker sites are allowed. You're also not to put up content that is not copyrighted by you. Although, that's basically your own problem to deal with.

Personally, I don't think that the service provider should be responsible for policing copyrighted material, nor be legally responsible for people who post it. Let the user take the heat, I say. Actually, I think the courts have deemed this the case anyway. Read the official guidelines.

Technically, no. You're not supposed to use your account as a storage space and refer to the stuff in your account from another, non-ProHosting site. This is because they wouldn't be able to show their ads, even though you're using their resources. Generally, you actually can't access some content stored on ProHosting's server from other sites. The server will not serve the content.

2 MB appears to be the limit, however this could vary on different machines. According to the Acceptable Use Policy, it is against the rules to post content that consumes excessive resources. In other words, they mean the accounts are for web sites, not to be your own personal file server.

Not that I'm aware of. However, according to the Acceptable Use Policy, it is against the rules to post content that consumes excessive resources. In other words, they mean the accounts are for web sites, not to be your own personal file server.

There are lots of resources on the Internet about these topics. The best thing would be to look around on you favorite search engine.

If you need info on creating web pages and graphics, The Web Developer's Virtual Library seems to be a good site. Also, Netscape has a good HTML Tag Reference site that discusses frames, tables and many other features of HTML. I may create a separate HTML FAQ if there are enough people who request it and enough worthy questions to answer.

NOTE: Be aware that there are some differences between Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer and other browsers and the HTML tags that they support. There are a standard set of tags that should be supported by all browsers, but there is no guarantee. Both Navigator and Internet Explorer are free, so it's a good idea to get both and develop your pages so they look good on both.

Delete your files on the server and send e-mail to webmaster@free.prohosting.com with the subject "free.prohosting.com cancelation request". Include your username, e-mail address and URL in the e-mail.

If they don't respond, or you see the account's still active, don't worry about it. If you don't have anything in the account, there's nothing to see, is there?