I have to say that I've used several free spots and all but one slipped away. One day the site was up, the next was gone. It seems most of the hosting companies that try the free hosting think the ads and being nice will get people to eventually come over to them.
The only one I've had up and running smoothly for a long time was one I got with PeopleSpace.com. They give free space for signing up with their social network site. It's been reliable, but of course you can only get one spot.
They've been reliable for this one site, but even so I really caution people to chose a paid host (like ez1web.com) if your site is at all important.