Frequently Asked Questions

The NearlyFreeSpeech.NET FAQ (*)

General (*)

What's the most important thing to know about your service?

What's the most common mistake people make while signing up for NearlyFreeSpeech.NET?

Why do I have to enter my real name when creating a membership?

Can I beat your pricing if I get my own VPS?

How much does the average site really cost?

Do you provide email hosting services?

Is your service easy to use?

Do you provide DNS hosting services?

How many web sites can I host with a NearlyFreeSpeech.NET membership?

Do you register domain names?

How will I know if my account is about to run out of funds?

Why do you only offer prepaid service?

My web designer says I should use somebody else instead of you. What do you say?

Do you price-match your competitors?

How can you make money at these prices?

What is the minimum deposit?

Will you design my web site for me?

Do you offer collocation, dedicated servers, or VPS services?

What happens if I get slashdotted/reddited?

Are you about to pop up a "chat now with sales!" ad on me?

What if I want to set up a web site but don't have a domain name / don't want to fool with DNS?

How come your service isn't free?

What's the difference between bandwidth and storage?

Why doesn't your website look like other hosting provider sites?

Are your domain registration services intended for general-purpose usage?

What if my web site gets attacked?

Is your service only for controversial or extreme websites?

Should I set up my new small business website at NearlyFreeSpeech.NET?

Will you pre-approve my web site content or proposed use of your service?

How much will my site cost to host with you?

What kind of uptime can I expect with NearlyFreeSpeech.NET?

Is this cloud computing?

Where are you located?

From a geographic and legal standpoint, our entire business operates from inside the United States of America. Almost all of our services are provided from our primary datacenter in the New York City metro area.

From an Internet standpoint, we are well-connected to multiple Tier 1 backbone providers. We do not use bandwidth from the "discount" carriers frequently associated with inexpensive web hosting providers.

Keep in mind that although our company is solely under the jurisdiction of United States law, our Terms & Conditions of Service do require you to follow the laws of whatever country you are in. (With certain limited free-speech-related exceptions available only with our prior written consent.)

Also, although much has been written lately about how imperfect the US government is when it comes to Internet issues, it remains the best choice for hosting. Most of the top countries one would consider as alternatives have already been caught doing the exact same stuff; at this point it's safer to assume that the rest just haven't been caught yet. But in the end, there aren't any other countries that have good Internet connectivity and infrastructure, fundamentally recognize the individual right to freedom of speech, and have a legal system that doesn't force web hosts to remove anything that generates complaints.

The US isn't the perfect choice, it's just the best one. So we'll keep working to make it better through our support of the EFF, the Freedom of the Press Foundation, and similar organizations.

The exception to this is that if your web site will greatly antagonize the US government or is illegal in the US, you should not use any US-based host, including us, to host it. That's just common sense.

Do you offer telephone support?

Someone else uses your service and wants my help with it. How do I help them?

Should I use NearlyFreeSpeech.NET or a VPS?