Free/Non-Profit Hosting Providers?

Caspian asks: "I run a non-profit Web/shell/e-mail/MU* hosting service called The Web Union, or TWU for short. I've run this service for two years now, and it's been non-profit for quite a large percentage of that time. We all know the occasional hacker/geek who'll give a few friends accounts on her/his machine, but I'm wondering how many people are doing what I'm doing, and actually attempting to run a full-scale, full-service, "professional"-quality hosting provider for The Masses on a non-profit basis?"

Comments

The NOSPIN Group

[HardCase]

We've been doing something like this at The NOSPIN Group for several years. The company is a non-profit corporation. Sometimes the service is free, sometimes it's not, based upon the needs and type of customer.

We also host mailing lists, provide CGI and other scripting access, as well as the usual gamut of services.

Probably the hardest part of doing something like this is maintaining the right kind of hardware on a shoestring budget. Fortunately, hardware prices are going the right direction and almost all of the software we use is GPL'd.

The work is a labor of love, more than anything else. Those of us involved in the company tend to donate more than just time...when a hard drive dies, or we need a new motherboard, we'll often fund the purchase from our own pockets. About the only thing that actually is covered is the Internet access, via a 1024Kbps DSL connection. And all of the hardware sits in my spare bedroom. But it all works and we're able to put every dollar we receive directly into the company, something that most non-profits have a hard time doing.

=h=

Rootsweb

[Glenn R-P]

Rootsweb provides free web hosting, subsidized by a banner that they insert at top and bottom of each page. It's for noncommercial/non"adult" use only. It started out being for genealogy but now allows material on most topics. See freepages.rootsweb.com

SDF

[yist]

SDF has been providing a similar kind of service since 1987