Free webhosts that work with Dispatcher!

[Code6226]

Thanks to the file extension masking feature, most free web hosts should work with Dispatcher. Below you can find a list of the ones which have been reported to work, or not work.

Please reply here if you know any more. I know most people who use this forum pay for hosting, but if you use a free-webhost, let us know.

Requirements:
1) Direct Download Access (Allow the Updater to download files from the website)
2) FTP Upload Access (for Dispatcher to auto-upload to them), or any way to upload your own files


Fully Supported
http://www.free-space.net (Extension Mask: .zip)
http://www.drivehq.com


Partially Supported
http://www.fileave.com (Extension Mask: .zip) Their FTP server is broken and does not properly overwrite files being uploaded, so Update Data is corrupt when uploaded on top of old Update Data. Workaround: Use an FTP client to manually delete all old Update Data before uploading new Update Data.


Not Supported
http://thport.com Reported to corrupt update data. Can't confirm, since I don't speak the language the site is in.

Untested
http://byethost.com/index.php/free-hosting
Sitesled

Original Post:
I tried out about 6 sites now. Free webhosts seem a lot more troublesome then they used to be. Most didn't even let me register. I only managed to actually upload files to one of them (FileAve), but it turns out they have some file extensions blocked, despite claiming that they don't do this. Edit: No longer an issue

Anyone know any other free webhosts? Maybe in the future, I will add a feature for Dispatcher to optionally append .zip or .jpg to all files, so that the file extension is no longer an issue, if there is any interest in me doing this. haha Edit: Done!

[Arnax]

Uhh... When I searched Fileave on Yahoo!, the first 5 results had a "Dangerous Downloads" warning. Hopefully you didn't download anything there?

[Code6226]

Well, no. I mean, FileAve is a place where anybody can host any files to let people download (in theory), so of course there will be people who upload viruses and such. I didn't download files from random FileAve hosted users, I was just trying to see if they would host Dispatcher's Update Data without fuss, and uploading worked fine, but they don't let you download all file types, as they claim, so the Updater is prevented from download Update Data.

Do you know any other free web / file hosting sites?

[Arnax]

Oh, ok. I thought Byethost had all that, but I had a lot of problems trying to sign up, so I just gave up.

[Arnax]

www.free-space.net would work I think. I signed up, but they have to manually accept registrations which they said would take 12 hours. It has a lot of good stuff for free, and there is no file size limit, except the max storage of 200 mb. Hopefully it accepts all file types. I will check as soon as they accept my registration!

[Arnax]

Yes, www.free-space.net is very good for Dispatcher. It supports FTP and all file types. The FTP may not be able to upload the .p files, but it lets you upload those manually. You get 500mb of free space (the only drawback is ads on your site), or you can get 200mb with no ads.

[Code6226]

Good to hear!
Since I'm renaming patch file names again anyway, I might as well rename them to something conventional, like .dat, so that they won't be an issue in that way either.

[Arnax]

One possible problem I just noticed: I'm not sure what the download link is for the files, so I don't know what to put under the Mirror Site...

[Arnax]

Oh wait... I think I uploaded to a private folder! So I think as long as you don't do that you should be fine.

[Arnax]

Ok, so free-space.net works, but there's one problem. Subdirectories don't seem to work. This would be an easy fix I think though: move everything in the patch folder to the _UpdateData folder (remove subdirectory). That'd be great! That might have been the FTP problem as well.

Thanks!

[Code6226]

Ok, so free-space.net works, but there's one problem. Subdirectories don't seem to work. ... That might have been the FTP problem as well.

This is a problem that I encountered on FileAve too. The problem is their FTP server software. Most FTP software auto-creates folders when you try to upload a file to them. FileZilla Server does this, and so does my webhost's FTP software: ProFTPD. When Dispatcher uploads to an FTP it just says ~"upload /updates/patch/patch1_2.dat", without saying ~"makedir /updates/patch/" first. This is pretty standard.

But there's an easy work-around you can use: Just manually upload the UpdateData from your UpdateData folder one-time with Filezilla FTP Client. The folders you need will be created by Filezilla FTP Client, and next time Dispatcher uploads the files to your FTP, the folders will exist, and you won't have this issue.

I'm just applied for registration at free-space.net, so I'll try them out myself to confirm this is the same issue as that with FileAve's.

[Arnax]

Hehe... My mistake once again, not Dispatcher's. It accidentally uploaded to patches, not patch.

Thanks again for your nifty tool Code!

[Code6226]

Hehe... My mistake once again, not Dispatcher's. It accidentally uploaded to patches, not patch.

Hehe, well, glad you weren't experiencing the same bug that FileAve had.

But yes, I did just say had, because after hours of research: I fixed the issue with creating/switching-to directories when uploading via FTP. ^_^
The research took all the work; Implementing it took no time at all: Just replaced my FTP Upload library.

I've tested this against FileAve, and uploading to there works flawlessly now! Of course, I've also tested it against Filezilla FTP Server and my own webhost's. Works great everywhere.

This doesn't mean FileAve is supported yet. They still only allow a handful of file-types, but that shouldn't be a problem once I get around to adding the Mask File Extension feature.

[Arnax]

Very nice!

[Code6226]

The File Extension Masquerade feature is almost done! FileAve will be supported as of next version, along with virtually all Free Web Hosts that allow direct file downloading.
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