What could would you consider to have the most stable server (best uptime) and most cost effective?

A Good Administrator Who Knows What They Are Doing

thats all thats required as long as you have hardware adequately specced for the situation it is to be used in with drivers that have a proven stability record on the OS you plan on using.

A good connection to the 'net also helps.

(Dual 28.8's to both AOL and Compuserve just may not cut it as a "multihomed and redundant backbone connection").

(Dual 28.8's to both AOL and Compuserve just may not cut it as a "multihomed and redundant backbone connection"). Damn, back to the drawing board :)

Knew a guy once who managed to get a connection using a wet string for a lan cable....whopping 300 baud too. hmm....reminds me of a previous host I had....

Stability / cost effectivness varies based on your goals... there are perfectly stable servers out there that reboot weekly "to be safe"....others go for months without any downtime, but also may not be heavily loaded.

http://www.rackspace.com probably has the best uptime in my opinion. They hardly ever go down. Though, you will find you'll have to pay a little more for the quality uptime and service you get.