Here is a question asked be some people. (even me still)
To start off with you need to know what you need for your site. The average beginning website will only need about 50mb of space and 500mb of transfer and that is without a forum.
Then you have to look for a big company with a nice website. Don't get fooled with big space and transfer because there is a good bet it will close quickly. If you have no idea how to make a site i suggest you either go with
Geocities or
Freewebs and use their sitebuilders but they are also good for ones that aren't visited often.
If you know what you need or want you can visit this site
http://www.free-webhosts.com and look for some hosts for yourself.
One tip from me is if you want your host to last a while let them have textlinks or banner ads and there is a chance it will last a while.
Hope this helps anyone! 8)