Not every web host out there has a multi-million dollar budget to spend on software, so I have come up with a few free alternatives for you to pass around your office next time your searching for the right tool for the job.

Foxit Reader (for PDF viewing) - Out of all the PDF reader programs out there, Foxit gets the job done and is not half as annoying as Adobe is.  If you want a PDF viewer that will not ask that you download updates for 20 other programs you do not have, Foxit is the best.

OpenOffice.org (for word processing, spreadsheets and more) - Microsoft Office is a program I have never really used.  Why?  I have always been a fan of the free alternative, OpenOffice.org.  This bundle of a word processor, spreadsheet, drawing and more might even be better than the expensive Microsoft bundle.

AutoHotkey (for helping with those quick responses) - In my bag of tricks, AutoHotkey is most likely to be the most used one of them all.  Thanks to a little simple script writing I can now type in a few characters instead of a two paragraphed e-mail each time I answer a customer’s question.

Thunderbird (for e-mail management) - I have tried a number of different e-mail clients and Mozilla’s Thunderbird wins out head over heels each and every time.  Manage multiple e-mail accounts and with the add-ons, you can build onto the functionality of the product.

Google Calendar (for dates and appointments) - Can’t tell you what I did for a calendar before Google’s came around because Google was the one who turned me onto using it.  Before Google Calendar I was stuck with ripped off sheets of paper with notes scribbled down.  After Google Calendar, I can quickly click a date, add a note and I’m done.

Now sure, those big web hosts might have the thousands of dollars to spend on programs but the budget web hosts out there have to count their pennies.  If you have any other suggestions feel free to leave a comment or drop me an e-mail.

Free photo or image web hosts come a dime a dozen these days.  EchoPic.com is another provider that gives you another choice to your image sharing.

They provide image and photo sharing services that make life easy when you need to upload and share files on your web site, blog or social network profile.

You can either upload or enter the image URL and “grab it” to host on EchoPic’s services.  All in all EchoPic isn’t doing anything really different but they are providing a quality free image hosting solution and when it comes down to it - what more could you ask for from your free hosting solution?

Just have a quick update for you for now.  Just finished up putting together the first (of hopefully many more) web hosting eBooks for you to enjoy.  The Best of the Web Hosting Show Guides is a collection of some of the most popular guides I have posted and talked about here on the podcast.

Unlike other eBook deals, you get an extra perk with this setup.  You can download both the digital eBook version, or head over the the official page for it and pick up all five chapters as audio downloads too.  I wanted to give to you the best of both worlds.  The topics covered in the eBook cover all aspects of the web hosting world:

• Moving from Web Host to Web Host
• Getting going with your own Ecommerce Store Online
• How to Find a Job in the Web Hosting Industry
• Best Methods and Tips for Setting up a New Blog
• The Ever Popular Handy Guide to Domain Names

Download the PDF and let me know what you think.  Also as far as distribution goes, please feel free to share the link to download it to anybody and everybody you know.  This is a project of mine I have been working on getting together for some time now and I want everybody to know it is free of charge. 

File Dropper makes it easy to share and host your own files Online without the need of your traditional web host. They are a totally free service that just kind of came out of nowhere with what they are offering. All you do is upload your file, and then share your personal link with those that want to download the file.

What is the upload limit? Right now it is 5GB. According to the about us page, the goal of File Dropper as to create a fresh alternative to sites like MegaUpload and RapidShare. They do not wish to reel in users and make them wait for annoying countdown times. (Insert Yippee Here!) They do not hide their download links and they will not aggressively place ads all over the place.

As long as the file is still being downloaded, they will never take your files down. Now if a file is uploaded once, downloaded once and then not touched again for six months then you might see them taking it down to make more room for other material. That is totally understandable. Also, it goes without saying that copyrighted or illegal material is not allowed and will be removed.

How are they going to make money? That might be the next question you were curious about. Well, you can do the free file hosting as much as you want and that is open to anybody. If you sign up though you get a few more perks.

• 99 Cents Plan - 5GB File Size, Direct Linking for Images, Share Files with Others
• Silver Plan - 10GB File Size, Direct Linking for Images, Share Files with Others
• Gold Plan - 25GB File Size, Direct Linking for Images, Share Files with Others

There is also a Free Trial plan that will let you test out the back end to see if you really want to pay to get a little more bang for your buck. All in all File Dropper seems to be doing everything right. Go give FileDropper.com a visit and let them know that the Web Hosting Show sent you there.

We all know about the big free file hosting services out there. It seems like Rapidshare and Megaupload rule the roost but there are many inching their way up the list. The question is, how can you search through all the files uploaded to services such as these and others? here are five of the best ways to search through the Rapidshares and Megauploads of the world.

1. FilesTube.com - This resource might be my favorite of all the file hosting search options out there. All you need to do is type in what you are looking for, select the file type from the drop down box, and you are taken to tons of results. The sort by size feature also helps a lot in sorting the bigger files from the smaller ones you may not be concerned with (or visa versa).

2. Rapidshare1.com - Not as pretty as FilesTube.com, but it does get the job done when it comes to searching for a file or document from Rapidshare.com. Just wish they had a bit more description per result. They do link you to both the page the link came from and the actual Rapidshare download link.

3. Shareminer.com - This site uses the long and customized Google search string to search though and try to find what you want. Not as successful as the other two options, because since this Google search string has been in the wild a while it looks as if people have found a way to spam it.

4. FilesBot.com - Promising to be a “file storage search engine” it does a good job at filtering out the bad stuff while still delivering pretty good results. Type what you are looking for in the search box, and then find the links. Simple user interface.

5. MegaDownload.net - The last one on our list today features a pretty interface, and does a better job than most at making the search for information readable.

Are there more? Yes, but many of them are using the Google search string trick - so not really worthy for the list. If you think you know of one better than the ones on the list though, be sure to leave a comment or drop me an e-mail to let me know.

BONUS! - 4 More Ways to Search Rapidshare, Megaupload and More!

No, that is not a typo with the name or the offer. The people at myy.name wish to host for the web entrepreneurs out there for free.

Here are the features of the free hosting plan:

100MB storage
1000MB/month bandwidth
1 hosted domain (or a myy.name subdomain)
10 FTP accounts
5 MySQL databases
100 e-mail accounts

Nothing to sneeze at when the price tag reads “Free!”. They also promise no ads, no hidden fees and instant activation. So if you are in the hunt for a new free hosting solution you might want to give myy.name a visit.

Back in October I shared with you my thoughts on AOL’s tucked away file hosting service, Xdrive. Here recently that have finally got around to meeting one of my demands - a handy desktop client that will make working with your free 5GB of space a lot easier.

With Xdrive Desktop Lite, you can easily upload files and folders right from your hard drive, desktop, USB device or removable storage drive directly into your Xdrive web storage space.

This new lightweight application is using Adobe’s new AIR technology to deliver a program that should work on either Windows or Apple machines.

In the future releases they are promising:

• Configuration and controls for the Xdrive AutoCopy feature
• Synchronize between local files and those stored in your Xdrive account: Made a change to a local file? Xdrive Desktop Lite will automatically upload the new version to your Xdrive account so you always have the latest version available from anywhere you have an internet connection.
• In addition to a wide range of enhancements to the Xdrive Desktop Lite client, the Adobe AIR platform will allow us to present virtually all of the desktop functionality in a robust web application.

If you pupued the idea before, give Xdrive.com another shot if for no other reason than to just test out this new Xdrive Desktop Lite product.