I'm such a Luddite! I have Earthlink hosting a StarterSite because it was simple to set up and well within my business' budget. It doesn't add anything to my web pages, or anything to my e-mail -- just the pages I post as-is. Has all the stuff I need, and more.
Chances are, for a toy site (less than 1000 hits a week, say), your ISP probably has a little 5-Meg space set up for you. Anyone with half a brain can put a pretty damn useful site in such a space. In your case, whatever Web Support is, there's probably plenty of room on your ISP's pet site to show that off. And, seein' as how you already pay for your ISP service, this is totally free, plus it's usually missing all the strapped-on crap that "free" hosting sites offer you.
I've always been leery of the offers to "get your own domain for only $3.95/year!" and that sort of thing. Near as my ancient creaky memory offers, domain registration was a fixed price from the source: $79 or so for two years. Whether you were IBM or Joe Danglepickles, it was the same price. So, my naturally suspicious nature tells me that if someone is offering you a "cheaper" registration,
but they still have to buy the domain at that same flat rate (everybody buys it from the same source), there has
got to be a big string attached somewhere. I eventually figured it was just gobs and gobs of ads they strap onto your pages, with all the respect and courtesy as any other sort of "rider".
But, things might be all different now. I see a lot of "cheapo" sites with server-produced overlay junk, though, so before you snap at the juicy worm, find out what hook lies in its flesh.
Good luck!
![[monkey] [monkey] [monkey]](/data/assets/smilies/monkey.gif)
Edward
"Cut a hole in the door. Hang a flap. Criminy, why didn't I think of this earlier?!" -- inventor of the cat door