I have tried two free hosts: everyoneweb.net and webs.com
I found both quite good, everyoneweb.net also offers to make backups which is good because if the service would cease operations someday your site is back-upped and can be uploaded and continued elsewhere without having to start from scratch again. Everyoneweb is an exceptional case as most free hosts don't offer back-up options, which is one of the reasons why I prefer paid hosting.
Webs.com is a very well-managed company and won't go out of business anytime soon, be sure of that. Building a site there is very user friendly, to the extent I'd even host a site here using their paid plan if their paid plan would allow back-ups. Since it seems they don't offer backups even for paid users (I could be wrong but never saw this option in their FAQs) I would abstain from paying for a site there. I would consider it definitely if back-ups for paid users are done.
EveryoneWeb and Webs.com are both good IMO, but nonetheless I'd go for paid hosting if the site is a very serious one which I plan to maintain for a really long time. For temporary sites, small side projects or hobbyist sites, the above two free hosts both get my approval.
I've seen plenty of other free hosts but some went out of business or are very non-user friendly. Geocities used to be good but they ceased operations (which surprised me a lot given Yahoo's financial power to maintain a free hosting service without any problems)
---------- Post added at 10:57 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:52 PM ----------
PS : Freehostia.com looks decent, but is this company expected to survive long term? Never heard of them, have they got a good financial backing? And especially: do they offer back-up options? Free hosting is a turn-off for me per definition unless they allow to make backups of your site so that, if things go wrong with the host, you can get your site continued elsewhere without needing to start from zero again.