I need some advice. I had a look at fatcow.com for hosting and they seem to offer a lot. Has anybody used them before?

If that doesn't quite pan out, any other suggestions out there that offer what seems to be a reliable service at a reasonable cost?

Their offer seems pretty good, not undercharging, though I have never heard of them, but there are some comments:

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=13083&highlight=fatcow

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1307&highlight=fatcow

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=17061&highlight=fatcow

There are alot of providers listed at

www.hostsearch.com

And if that's not enough here is another list:

http://www.webhostmagazine.com/wf/whfinders.asp

Good luck

I will check into these. The only reliable source of info seems to be from people who actually have sites hosted somewhere.

It's a pity there is no company that has - for example - a site hosted at every host with all features running etc and then reports back into itself the uptime/downtime/problems etc.

Hell! I'm going off at a tangent here but hosts could host the test sites for free just to have independant reference checking as to the reliability of their service. Imagine all the stats that could be generated. Or is there already something like this out there and I just don't know about it?

Well, there are some problems with that. Hosting web sites is not a constant. Hosts may have multiple servers, even on different networks. You pick which one to test and judge the accuracy of the results.

Many people also want to know how well support handles the issues. This is impossible to judge if the host knows about the account (kinda like saying, "I'm the person who will be reviewing your restaurant for the newspaper.")

If solid results cannot be achieved, then I don't see the point of doing it at all. I know someone who tried to set this up, but they seemed to agree with the problems and I haven't seen the test mentioned again.

You could also choose to trust the reviews of one person (or a group of people), but just like movie critics, I've seen some recommendations of hosts I personally wouldn't touch with a 50 foot pole.

One of the host reviee sites here does the type of test you are talking about. I can't remember which and would the one who does please email/Pm me so I can list it here.

Off the top of my head, I think it is http://hostmag.com/wh/RE/ec_full.asp?ID=160 that I'm thinking of (sample review for OLM posted).