Thanks for all the great input, it's going to take me a bit of time to research all mentioned, but i see a light at the end of the tunnel.
Thanks again everyone.
I've had the 1and1 developer package for a few years.
I really enjoy the developer package since it offers SSH access. I haven't had any problem configuring forums, image galleries, CMS and etc, but I did all the setup myself. It's great if you want control over everything and to set things up yourself, but it also requires a lot of Linux/Unix knowledge.
I don't suggest it for someone needing a basic webpage, or that doesn't know how to configure and install packages under a Unix environment. If it weren't for the fact that they gave shell access, I never would've went for them, and I do agree the control panel is quite bleh. The web based database (phpmyadmin) is cool, everything else on the CP is kinda shoddy. I give em an A+ for control, but a C for user friendliness.
I use Lunarpages for my personal blogs and I've had no trouble. They always seem to be up, their control panel is easy to use, and their prices are reasonable.
for making an ecommerce store you could look into hosts that have an all in one solution with hosting, e-store, shopping cart, etc. I used instantestore.com for a site that sold incense, it was more expensive than just a plain hosting account, but you got a store, shopping cart, all kinds of features that the "big boys" have on their sites, and if you could point and click a mouse you could do anything. volusion is a big competitor of theirs too, but I haven't used them.
I also recommend IX Webhosting. I've had them for over a year with no problems. When I had a question, they got back to me right away. Also oscommerce comes with the hosting.
I went with DailyRazor, as at the time, their prices were hard to beat. Although I've been happy with the service from them, I'll soon be moving to another hosting provider, that's offering even better deals.
I run multiple sites, but had problems with 1&1 when I was with them, as their system couldn't cope with me having one contact email address. That farce prevented me logging onto my other sites so next day I ditched them.
I just spent 27 hours in hosting hell!!! Got an email from a customer about some cross pricing buttons on my site. meaning 2 products had the same pricing. It was late so I thought I would fix in morning. I got up at 3 AM and I went to my site (I use front page and have for 9 years) corrected problem. Tried to send to my servers on GoDaddy... It said FP extensions not loaded? Confused I called to see how to correct that.. Guy told me to uninstall then reinstall FP extension. He also said I should be sending my site to my IP address this would correct the problem in future?? Now I have a master site and 5 aliases. when I did what he said it loaded my site and all my sites into my master site and it started deleting pages. I tried to stop it and I could not so I turned off my computer... Called them back I spent between 3 Am and 5:30 talking to with 2 people to fix the problem that was caused because an idiot told me to do something that the next 2 told me was the wrong info. Then they wanted to charge me $150 to restore my sites caused by their own advice.. I was tired.. and could no longer talk.. or scream! Yes I was upset. So after 2 hours more of sleep I got up and called back and talked to person 2, 3 and 4.. Finally they said they would correct the problem and restore at their cost. It would take a few hours. Mean time I had no web site up, none, zip.. I got a few emails from customers asking what happened? So at noon I called again.. 3 hours later.. Nope still working on the problem.. 3PM Give us another hour.. 6PM.. all fixed... wanna bet.. My sales site is now my info site. All the files not placed in the individual web site files. Person 5 and 6 Someone goofed.. gee We are sorry Mr. Robin.. we will have to restore it again. They had to go back 4 days. before I made updates. 9PM Sites are all up... except that my sales site is not the updated site that i did 4 days before. Tried to install.. guess what.. No FP extensions.. called person number 7 he said in the restore they removed the FP Extension.. restore and wait 30 minutes. Hey it is 10 PM and I can't keep my eyes open. Got up this morning at 5AM. Tried to upload files.. not taking.. called person number 8 who put me with his boss person number 9. While waiting I removed all files off my sales server and slid my new files into the empty server. It took ,loaded the files and all is working now... So the question is should i run from godaddy as fast as I can.. Thanks for all the info on other host.. I am looking.. Lou
Sorry to hear about your issues Lou. "I don't mean to go on a rant, but!" Talking to a wall provides similar results to talking with tech support for me, both of them will make you do crazy things:
Tech support, cause they can't solve a crossword, let alone a technical issue
The Wall, cause you've already talked with tech support enough times, that you yourself have become crazy and the wall starts answering.
I have lost all faith in employees actually caring about what they do, probably cause the company doesn't pay and also doesn't want them to care. Either you get the complete retard who just makes up answers, or you get the people whom should just be replaced by a computer already, since they only listen for a few key words "Website doesn't work", then they just respond by going down a worthless list beginning with "Restart your computer".
Re: Best webhost 
