Awardspace is one of the best free web hosts out there, hey have no ads and offer MySQL and php support, you can also host your domains with them. They have been on the market for pretty long so you know they are not just going to vanish overnight.
I'm afraid the closest you'll probably come to "free" hosting without ads isn't exactly free. f2g.net, while free, isn't taking any new sigh ups. http://www.astahost.com/ will give you free hosting without ads but you have to post in their forums. ms11.net charges a one time $11 activation fee but, once that's paid, you get php enabled hosting with no ads for life. AFAIK, all the other "free" hosting sites require you to register your domain with them.
I just signed up myself. Thanks. Is the only way to upload files via ftp? In other words, is there an "upload" button? Not a huge problem but I'm used to manually uploading my web pages.
Awardspace is good for free hosting but with many limitations, there is a "secret" list of forbidden words that are not allowed on your site in any way. Also, you cannot have a main domain even though you point it there, your site only loads with a subdomain whether its an extension of your own or an extension of theirs...at least that's my experience. Other than that, yeah its great...and fast loading too!!
Yes, actually, I don't know how they manage to keep the service free. I guess they make some money with domain name registering... But anyway, I've been using it for some time and it was ok for testing some of my site (I wouldn't rely on it for production). The administrator reply quickly when there is problems (lot of 503 status during a couple of day, and it was fixed within 24 hours)
I could not access freewebdot just now...wanted to have a look. Anyway, its best to use Awardspace or any free host for personal sites only. You wouldnt want your site to disappear would you, and trust me they do on free hosts...I see this on Awardspace quite a bit...with people saying they cant access their site anymore or their database went missing....